Open government sites to go dark

Several of President Obama’s open government initiative data websites are scheduled to go dark in May due to lack of funding. Funding will run out on April 20 for IT Dashboard; Data.gov, which provides enhanced access to publicly available federal datasets; and Paymentaccuracy.gov, which tracks improper payments from government programs. Other open government public data sites scheduled to go dark after July 30 are USASpending.gov, which provides detailed information on federal contracts, and Apps.gov, a site that tracks how federal agencies use free web applications. More information about the proposed cuts is available here.

Books rule

Earlier this month, I saw the story Ebook DRM provider goes dark, the books you paid for disappear. As one librarian noted on a listserv, It used to be that you worried about fire, water damage, mold and theft. Now your collections can "expire"!

Another wrote: "This situation has been worrisome for many years, not only with
respect to e-books, but with regard to any purchased datafiles."

Electronic resources becoming unavailable isn't really new. I still have some 5.25" floppy discs SOMEWHERE. My library used to have microfiche. And Census has electronic files from the 1960s that are not easily transferable.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

From Resource Shelf: Regarding the public availability of Congressional Research Service reports: maybe the situation will be different in the new administration. Maybe these valuable, taxpayer-funded documents will finally be posted online BY the Congressional Research Service AS THEY ARE ISSUED. In our opinion, there is no logical reason for the hoop-jumping necessary to pry these things loose from the CRS...

The sheer volume of government information now available online is amazing, and has made life infinitely easier not only for researchers, but for the average citizen. We have not yet heard a compelling reason why the Congressional Research Service — a division of the Library of Congress — remains a black hole. This Washington Post story, from February 2007, blames “a wall erected by lawmakers” who regard the agency “as an extension of” their own staff.

We’re not buying that excuse. Equivalent agencies in other countries routinely place their reports online...

Federal data goes unpreserved

An appaling story for librarians and data users.

In Digital Age, Federal Files Blip Into Oblivion
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: September 12, 2008


WASHINGTON Countless federal records are being lost to posterity because federal employees, grappling with a staggering growth in electronic records, do not regularly preserve the documents they create on government computers, send by e-mail and post on the Web.

Federal agencies have rushed to embrace the Internet and new information technology, but their record-keeping efforts lag far behind. Moreover, federal investigators have found widespread violations of federal record-keeping requirements.

Many federal officials admit to a haphazard approach to preserving e-mail and other electronic records of their work. Indeed, many say they are unsure what materials they are supposed to preserve.

This confusion is causing alarm among historians, archivists, librarians, Congressional investigators and watchdog groups that want to trace the decision-making process and hold federal officials accountable. With the imminent change in administrations, the concern about lost records has become more acute.

We expect to see the wholesale disappearance of materials on federal agency Web sites, said Mary Alice Baish, the Washington representative of the American Association of Law Libraries, whose members are heavy users of government records. When new officials take office, they have new programs and policies, and they want to make a fresh start.

More here.