LISNews: Librarian News

The Washington Post Looks at how things are going over at NARA. Ff people couldn't come to the Archives, then the Archives decided it had to come to the people. It set up a tent in front of the visitor entrance and filled it with staff and items from the gift shop.

Which is why McNatt was on the Mall yesterday, oozing that positive aura, even though, honestly, she and her colleagues weren't exactly being overrun with foot traffic.

Activity was heavy at Free Government Information (http://freegovinfo.info) (FGI) this week as guest blogger Jessamyn West and the regular FGI volunteers started the following discussions: Jessamyn's postings:

• Government Info Actions taken at ALA 2006 in New Orleans

Volunteer postings:

• Please participate in our new FGI poll - James R.
• Happy 40th anniversary FOIA!! - Shingjoung
• Why the World is ready for the Semantic Web - James A.
• Political Controversy Over Alteration of the Congressional Record - James A.
• Pt. 10: Nonlawyer's journey through Title 44: Implementation of depository library program by Public Printer - Daniel
• Library cancels NYT subscription to protest NYT "treason" - James R.
• Govdocs: To boldly go where few have gone before - Daniel
• 50-State "Blue Book" list has been updated - Daniel
• Paper edition of The Public Papers of the Presidents endangered - James A.

As noted above, we are running a new poll. This time we are seeking your input on what kind of stories to post to Free Government Information. Please stop by and tell us what you want to hear! No FDSys related activity has been observed at the main FDSys site in the past week. This week the FDSys blog offered a clarification on their Unique Identifier UID. The UID and speculation on its role were covered in an earlier FGI posting. 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.

Anonymous Patron writes "NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE: In a surprise move on the floor of the House of Representatives, on 14 June2006, the lower chamber cut the proposed budget for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) by $8 million. A higher level budget had been approved by the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, and the District of Columbia. If the Senate agrees with the House the netresult would signal (to quote a "dismayed" Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein) "a very austere year" in FY 2007 for NARA one that would mean a reduction of hours of operations, partial closings of researcher reading rooms on nights and weekends, and even possible furloughing ofemployees."

Activity was heavy at Free Government Information (http://freegovinfo.info) (FGI) this week as guest blogger Jessamyn West and the regular FGI volunteers started the following discussions: Jessamyn's postings:

• reduce, reuse, and recycle... food
• Do you have some ID?

Volunteer postings:

• Pt. 8: Nonlawyer's journey through Title 44: Regional depositories - Daniel
• CIA Claims the Right to Decide What is News - James A.
• Feds sue states to protect NSA spying - James A.
• Google and the Government - James A.
• Vice President Refuses to Disclose Classification Data - James A.
• Government Increasingly Turning to Data Mining - James A.
• Google to Launch Government Search Site - James A.
• Captured documents made available - James A.
• The CIA now has its own bloggers - James R.
• iPRES 2006 October 8-10, 2006 at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY - James R.
• No tolls on the 'net: more on net neutrality - James R.

No FDSys related activity has been observed at the main FDSys site in the past week. However, exciting things are happening at the FDSys Blog. On June 16th, the FDSys staff posted a "FDSys Update" for 6/2/2006 and included the following note: "NOTE: GPO intends to post brief FDsys Program Management Office updates to the blog on a bi-weekly basis." The current update features news on GPO automated web harvesting and efforts to integrate their newly acquired Aleph ILS with the Future Digital System. I think I speak for the whole FGI group when I say we are very pleased to see this level of commitment to regular communication and look foward to future updates. 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.