[SLA-SF] Intersect Alert, November 6, 2006

[Anne Barker]

Freedom of Information

 

U.S. yanks Web site with reported nuclear secrets

"The top U.S. intelligence official took down a government Web site with captured Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi documents after questions were raised whether it provided too much information about making atomic bombs. In a statement Thursday night, a spokesman for National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said his office has suspended public access to the Web site "pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing." The action came after The New York Times raised questions about the contents of the government site, called the "Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal." The Times' Web site reported Thursday night that weapons experts say documents posted on the government site in recent weeks provide dangerous detail about Iraq's covert nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/03/iraq.documents.ap/index.html

 

On Their Own Terms: A Lexicon with an Emphasis on Information-Related Terms Produced by the U.S. Federal Government by Susan Maret, Ph.D.

"On Their Own Terms is a lexicon of information-rich terms created by the U.S. legislative, regulatory, and policy process, and routinized by various branches of the U.S. government. These terms represent a virtual seed catalog to federal informationally-driven procedures, policies, and practices involving among other matters, the information life cycle, record keeping, ownership over information, collection and analysis of intelligence information, security classification categories and markings, censorship, citizen right-to-know, deception, propaganda, secrecy, technology, surveillance, threat, and warfare."

http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/maret.pdf

 

Intellectual Freedom

 

Open Access publishing in physics gains momentum

"Geneva, 3 November 2006. The first meeting of European particle physics funding agencies took place today at CERN[1] to establish a consortium for Open Access publishing in particle physics, SCOAP3[2]. This is the first time an entire scientific field is exploring the conversion of its reader-paid journals into an author-paid Open Access format."

http://interactions.org/cms/?pid=1024673

 

Intellectual Property Issues

 

Copying own CDs 'should be legal' 

"A [UK] think-tank has called for outdated copyright laws to be rewritten to take account of new ways people listen to music, watch films and read books. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is calling for a "private right to copy"."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6095612.stm

 

Report Suggests U.K. Consider Regulating Licensed Content 

"The British Academy, a national body for the advancement of humanities and social sciences, has released a report, sponsored by the European Commission, suggesting the application of copyright law in the United Kingdom may be inhibiting the work of scholars and offering ten "recommendations" for redress, including possible government regulation of licensing deals. The report, Copyright and Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A British Academy Review (http://www.britac.ac.uk/reports/copyright/report.pdf) was composed by a working group of eight members, appointed by the British Academy and drawn from a range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences along with help from the Centre for the Study of Intellectual and Technology."

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6387002.html

 

French Publishers Join Google Book Search Suit

"An association representing 400 French book publishers has joined La Martiniere Groupe in its lawsuit to stop Google from digitizing books for its Google Book Search service."

http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=26215

 

The Value of the Public Domain

"This paper calls for a re-orientation of innovation and information policy. In our current paradigm, monopoly rights, in the form of intellectual property, displace all else from our thinking on this subject making access a peripheral issue. According to Pollock, it is high time we restored the balance, in particular by taking proper account of the public domain and open approaches to knowledge production."

http://www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=482

 

Public Policy

 

ACLU Withdraws Lawsuit Challenging Patriot Act

"The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped a three-year-old lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the USA Patriot Act, months after Congress rewrote parts of the law. The ACLU said Friday it is withdrawing the lawsuit because of "improvements to the law.""

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/28/AR2006102801001.html

 

Analysis: Secrecy board called 'toothless'

"A special panel set up last year to reduce excessive secrecy in government is being labeled toothless after its chairman told lawmakers he could not act except at the request of the president. "The statute under which we operate provides that the president must request the board undertake such a review before it can proceed," wrote L. Britt Snider, chairman of the Public Interest Declassification Board to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore."

http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20061029-063654-4651r

 

A new map of NARA's future

"As you know, NARA is operating under a new strategic plan that will take the agency through 2016. The new plan-with its focused objectives and clear priorities-sets forth goals and explains the strategies developed for achieving them. It also gives all of us at the National Archives, as well as customers, stakeholders, the White House, and Congress, a yardstick by which to measure progress and success-or failure. Most important, the new strategic plan, Preserving the Past to Protect the Future, offers some major changes to previous plans that will make NARA an even more efficient, customer-oriented Federal agency than it is today. You can read the plan on our web site, at www.archives.gov/about/plans-reports/strategicplan/."

http://www.archives.gov/about/speeches/staff-bulletin/2006-bulletin/nara-staff-bulletin-archivist-column-october06.pdf

 

Posted to SRRTAC-L:  Another Fed Library bites the dust 

"The U.S. Army command in Hawaii closed Tripler Army Medical Center's Hospital (patients') Library on 31 August.  Now neither patients or staff have any library service of any kind.  It ended a tradition that went back to the first Tripler located at Fort Shafter after WWI.  The present Tripler was built during the 1940s and a top-rate library was set up then on the first floor looking toward the ocean.  There were doors that led out onto lanais or porches where patients/staff/visitors could go and relax and read or rest or enjoy the view.  Many years the Kodak Hawaiian Show would come up to the lanais and entertain everyone as patients could watch the hulas and other parts of the show from the wards as well as the library. 

The library facility had beautiful koa wood walls and shelving to match.  I had the honor of being the third librarian there.  The first was a young woman who served into the 1950s and then tragically died of leukemia.  Elva Ludwig was the second and served until she had to retire for health reasons in 1974.  I came next and was there for 5 years from 1974 to 1979.  NEVER should have left.  A succession of librarians followed. 

In the 1980s, the administration of the hospital decided that the area of the library was just too nice to be a library and took it for the commanding general's offices.  Everything was destroyed pretty much.  In the end, the library was relegated to a small room or rooms, but it was still very active.   

Administrative control of the library had been with Tripler through Health Services Command until the 1980s when it was tranferred to the command that controls Shafter and Schofield Barracks.  That's when the changes began, unfortunately. 

The closure was made despite the fact that many members of the hospital staff did not want to see the library go and still feel badly about it and miss it.  I wish there was some way we could revive interest in a library there--perhaps under Tripler's control again.  I would happily come out of retirement and go there to set  it up!!!!!!!!  The library was more than a tradition; it was the  ONLY recreational activity available at the hospital. 

Elizabeth R. Snoke, U.S. Army civilian librarian retired; past president (3 times) of AFLS/AFLRT"

 

Stealth Closure of Principal EPA Chemical Library

Unannounced Move Hampers Agency Scientists' Review of New Chemicals

"Without any word to the public, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has closed its specialized library for research on the effects and properties of chemicals, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The library's unique technical collection is being offered for dispersal, with the remainder kept in storage. The Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA's Washington D.C. Headquarters, had provided research services to EPA scientists who review industry requests for the introduction of new chemicals into the market. Among other holdings, the library contained:

·         Unique toxicological studies on the potential effects of pesticides on children;

·         Up-to-date research on genetically engineered chemicals and other biotech products; and

·         Extensive literature on emergency planning and chemical risk assessments."

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_44784.shtml

 

GAO Probes EPA Library Shutdown (Publication date: Nov. 3, 2006)

"The Government Accountability Office is now investigating why EPA is closing its libraries, after Congress members, EPA employees, open government groups, and the Society of Environmental Journalists raised concerns. EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock is now publicly promising that EPA library material will be available digitally in the very near future - even as branch after branch of the EPA library system is being closed."

http://www.sej.org/search/index.htm (I can't locate a permalink to this story, so just put the title in the search engine to pull up the whole story.)

 

Orwellian

 

Documents Shed New Light on Pentagon Surveillance of Peace Activists

"Documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union reveal new details of Pentagon surveillance of Americans opposed to the Iraq war, including Quakers and student groups. The documents show that the Pentagon was keeping tabs on non-violent protesters by collecting information and storing it in a military anti-terrorism database."

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/27050prs20061012.html

 

Internet Access

 

U.N. summit revives concerns about Net control

"A long-simmering dispute over whether the U.S. government has too much control over the Internet's underpinnings will heat up again next week at a United Nations summit in Greece. Starting this weekend, about 1,200 diplomats and technology ministers will gather at a hotel in the outskirts of Athens to resume a debate that has often pitted the Bush administration and a handful of its Western allies against Brazil, India, China and African countries."

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6130087.html

 

U.N. blasts Cisco, others on China cooperation

"Delegates to a United Nations summit on Tuesday assailed Google, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Yahoo for cooperating too closely with China, suggesting that new global regulations of free expression might be necessary. The three-hour session on the second day of the summit returned to long-standing questions that have drawn the attention of human rights workers and the U.S. Congress: Are companies responsible for what customers do with their products? And is it wise to have some international organization adopting regulations governing Internet speech?"

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6131010.html

 

Take Action!

 

VOTE Tuesday, November 7th!

Remember, if you don't vote, you can't complain!

 

 

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