LISNews: Librarian News

Anonymous Patron writes "LJWorld.com Reports on Bob Dole. Slowly but surely, Jean Bischoff and her crew of workers and volunteers are making sense of the 4,000 boxes housed in the basement of the Dole Institute of Politics."

Cortez writes "Mean-while out west, the denizens of good - but oh, so very secret - government battle to restrict the public right-to-know anything: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 02206225_publicrecords13m.html "The government groups want to solidify their victory in a state Supreme Court ruling last year that lets them keep records secret by invoking "attorney-client privilege," the traditional right of lawyers not to testify about conversations with the people they represent.""

Anonymous Patron writes "News From New Zealand where Civil Service chiefs will get the power to keep many government files secret forever under a new bill covering Archives New Zealand.

Critics say the bill leaves ample scope for department bosses to bar public access to classes of records and archives they can look at at present.

Former chief archivist Kathryn Patterson says she found heads of departments sought restrictions as the rule, not the exception, in her time and wants the bill tightened."

In light of the Government Printing Office's reported proposal to stop tangible distribution of all but 50 government titles, readers may be interested in this thoughtful background and proposal by three UC San Diego documents librarians:

Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo

[Article to appear in Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2005, http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jacalib]

ABSTRACT:
Rapid technological change has caused some to question the need for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). We argue that the traditional roles of FDLP libraries in selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, and providing access to and services for government information are more important than ever in the digital age.