LISNews: Librarian News

Fang-Face writes "There is a piece reprinted at AlterNet.org, originally published at TruthOut.org, titled
A Step Shy of Book-Burning
. It is about the closure of the EPA library, and the author, Kelpie Wilson, basically accuses the Bush administration of attempting to implement a new Dark Age. Given that:

The EPA's precipitous move to close the libraries was based on a $2 million cut in Bush's proposed $8 billion EPA budget for 2007. EPA bureaucrats did not wait to see if Congress might restore the funds or shift budget priorities in order to save the libraries; it acted immediately to box up documents for deep storage, and shut the doors.

. . . I can certainly see her point; although I do think the title is a touch over the top myself."

After a week break, New Discussions at Free Government Information is back. The past two weeks found our volunteers, plus BOTMs Lori Smith and Tim Skeers posting the following discussions we hope you will join: Lori's Posts

• Missing Some Money?
• Memory Lane

Tim's Posts

• New information access initiatives in New Mexico

Volunteer postings:

• Web3.0! - James R.
• Privacy and the "Terrorist Surveillance Act" - James A.
• Copyright and Government Information - James A.
• Fully functional digital documents? - James R.
• Selective-deposit and the technical requirements of a digital-deposit FDLP - Jim and All
• Tag Clouds applied to GPO/FDLP - Daniel
• Kudos to GPO: Fall 2006 DLC Proceedings Now Available - Daniel
• Roll your own tag clouds - James R.
• remix: US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud - James A.
• Please comment on Digital Distribution by 11/15! - Daniel
• Fall 2006 Depository Library Council audio and notes on the way - James Staub
• Welcome Lori Smith, BOTM for November, 2006 - James R.

In addition, volunteer James Staub was busy putting audio and notes from several librarians from the recently closed Fall 2006 Depository Library Council meeting. You can see the coverage he put together at (http://freegovinfo.info/node/714). GPO has made great strides in being more current with their official proceedings, and you can now find a mostly complete set of proceedings at (http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/proce edings/06fall/index.html).Way to go GPO! If you use Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) or some other RSS reader,consider subscribing to the FGI Feed at http://freegovinfo.info/blog/feed to get FGI stories as they are posted.

Search-Engines writes "The office of U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte announced Intellipedia, which allows intelligence analysts and other officials to collaboratively add and edit content on the government's classified Intelink Web much like its more famous namesake on the World Wide Web. A "top secret" Intellipedia system, currently available to the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, has grown to more than 28,000 pages and 3,600 registered users since its introduction on April 17. Less restrictive versions exist for "secret" and "sensitive but unclassified" material. [ed.]I thought this comment was of interest -- "We're taking a risk," acknowledged Michael Wertheimer, the intelligence community's chief technical officer. "There's a risk it's going to show up in the media, that it'll be leaked."

http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup .aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-31T23394 7Z_01_N01237389_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-INTELLIGENCE .xml"

This week found BOTM Tim Skeers and the volunteers at Free Government Information (http://freegovinfo.info)(FGI) starting the following discussions we hope you will join: Tim's Posts

• The NMSL OCLC Digital Archive project, part 1

Volunteer postings:

• Not Just Blogs: Government Information in the Digital Era: Free Culture or Controlled Substance? - James A.
• Judge orders Cheney's records released - James A.
• Find out how depositories are doing with 2005 biennial survey - Daniel
• Moyers: the net at risk - James R.
• Part 20: Nonlawyer's journey through Title 44: Docs for the White House - Daniel
• Read this week! GPO discussing digital deposit at Fall 2006 DLC! - Daniel
• Act today to ask Bruce and Mike! - Daniel
• Three new items on Digital Rights Management and Government Information - James A.
• Not Just Blogs: Depository Library Council Vision - James A.
• New Feature! News Aggregator brings docs and tech news to FGI - Daniel

If you use Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) or some other RSS reader, consider subscribing to the FGI Feed at http://freegovinfo.info/blog/feed to get FGI stories as they are posted.