From: Michele McGinnis (mm@kk.org)
Date: Tue Aug 24 2004 - 10:36:04 PDT
Message-Id: <a0611041ebd2dd975f413@[192.168.0.2]> Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:36:04 -0700 From: Michele McGinnis <mm@kk.org> Subject: Public Policy News August 24, 2004
Hey Ya'll,
I'm just back from an unexpected, 2 week trip to Holland for my
partner's mom's funeral. Some of these stories are a bit dated, but
newsworthy nonetheless. I haven't yet had the chance to craft a
newsletter the way I'd like, but I'm hoping to be able begin that
process with the next issue. I'm trying to settle on a way of
organizing the content (if it wants to be organized - i'm not sure
yet).
I hope this is useful.
Thanks, Michele
At Hearings, Senator Wants Reason For Archivist's Removal
Historian Allen Weinstein sailed through a July 22 hearing in the
Senate on his controversial nomination to be the ninth Archivist of
the United States. However, signaling a potential political battle
over what was designed to be a nonpolitical position, Sen. Carl Levin
(D-MI) revealed that a recent exchange of letters suggests that John
Carlin's announced resignation was not voluntary.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA441045?display=breakingNews
ALA welcomes Department of Justice decision to rescind destruction request
The American Library Association (ALA) welcomed the Department of
Justice's decision to rescind its request that the Government
Printing Office Superintendent of Documents instruct depository
libraries to destroy all copies of five Department of Justice
publications addressing forfeiture. The Justice Department claimed
that the documents are "training materials and other materials that
the Department of Justice staff did not feel were appropriate for
external use." ALA disagreed with this categorization of the public
documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, and with the
instruction to destroy them. ALA trusts that there will be no
repetition of such unjustified instructions to destroy government
information.
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=news&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=72299
Open access to US govt work urged
A US House of Representatives committee has recommended that the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide free access to all
research it funds and asked the NIH to submit a plan by December 1,
2004 for how to implement the new policy in fiscal year 2005.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040721/01
IMLS Seeks Comments on Impact of Museum and Library Services Analysis
The reauthorization of the Museum and Library Services Act creates
new authority for IMLS to carry out and publish analyses of the
impact of museum and library services. IMLS is developing a plan to
address the requirements of the statute. As a first step, IMLS is
requesting public comment to identify national needs for, trends in,
and impacts of museum and library service.
http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/current/071604.htm
Statement on the Renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act from the Society of
American Archivists
http://www.archivists.org/statements/patriotact.asp
Government using data aggregators - like Lexis Nexis - for surveillance work
The government is increasingly using corporations to do its
surveillance work, allowing it to get around restrictions that
protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, according to a
report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,64492,00.html
Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act
(From Lawrence Lessig's blog on August 10, 2004)
Out of concern that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
went too far in restricting fair use in the digital era, I have drafted
and introduced along with John Doolittle of California H.R. 107, the
Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act. Among other objectives, the bill
would confirm that a person would not be deemed to have illegally
"circumvented" technical protection measures guarding access to
copyrighted works under Section 1201 of the DMCA as long as he or she had
no intent to infringe the copyright in the work. Our bill also embodies
the Supreme Court's Betamax standard to insulate from liability hardware
and software that is capable of substantial noninfringing uses. We also
create a broad scientific research exemption to the DMCA to address the
"Felton" circumstance. (Posted by Rick Boucher)
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002084.shtml
US National Archives Aims to Create Permanent Digital Records
The U.S. National Archives this week awarded competitive contracts
worth $20 million to create a system for permanently storing digital
electronic records.
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=626F6587-D67C-48E7-A798FAA85B073BC9
The unexpected future of Open Access publishing
With the advent of the Internet and online publishing, the notion has
arisen that access to the worlds research publications could be made
available to one and all for free, presumably by shifting the costs to
other places in the value chain and disintermediating publishers, a
circumstance called Open Access (OA) publishing.
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_8/esposito/
September 11 Project
On Saturday, September 11th, 2004, people across the nation will go
to public spaces to participate collectively and think creatively
about our country, our government, and our media. With public
libraries as host, The September Project will help facilitate talks
and roundtables, public forums, and performances in towns and cities
across the US.
http://www.theseptemberproject.org/forlibraries.htm
Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society for Information Science &
Technology
What:
2004 LACASIS FALL WORKSHOP
Balancing Access, Privacy and Security in Your Organization
Friday, October 1, 2004
Kellogg West Conference Center
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, California
http://www.lacasis.org
-- Michele McGinnis, MSIS Research Librarian to Kevin Kelly149 Amapola Pacifica, CA 94044 650-355-7676 650-359-9701 fax
mm@kk.org www.kk.org
"They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man." --Michael Moore on librarians
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
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