Denton Public Library program:
Censorship of Government Information
Starr Hoffman, Librarian for Digital Collections, UNT Libraries
10.03.2007
Maintaining Access to E-Government Information
I. The CyberCemetery
· primary website: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/
· browse by thumbnail images: http://tinyurl.com/2cfg5f
Disappearing Information
Government agencies create websites, but once their Congressional funding runs out or they complete their final reports, their websites usually disappear. Now, we identify these websites and archive copies of them in the CyberCemetery.
The CyberCemetery was created in 1997 to prevent the disappearance of online government information. It is maintained by a partnership between the University of North Texas Libraries, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), as part of the Federal Depository Library Program. This collection provides permanent public access to the websites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions.
Archived Websites
· first archived in 1997:
o Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
· currently 45 websites available online
· a number of others have been archived and should be available soon:
o Iraq Study Group Report
o Antitrust Modernization Commission
o Technology Administration (under Dept. of Commerce)
Daily/Monthly Access
· 175,000+ visits/month
· 1,000,000+ hits/month
· 460.8GB downloaded/month
· 5,741 visits/day
· peak of 8,501 visits on 11.28.06
Most Popular Sites
· National Partnership for Reinventing Government (formerly the National Performance Review)
o http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/
· National Gambling Impact Study Commission
o http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/
Browse Options
· by agency name (alphabetical)
· by date of expiration
· by branch of government
· by thumbnail image of homepage
II. Congressional Research Service Report Archives
· http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/
What is a CRS Report?
· published by the Congressional Research Service
o public policy arm of the Library of Congress
· created for members of Congress
o provides timely, objective research on legislative issues
· center around topics relevant to current legislation
Current Public Access
· none through CRS
· must request reports from their member of Congress
· can purchase from several third-party vendors
· use one of the freely-provided CRS archives online (see below)
Efforts toward Public Access
· started effort to put reports online in 1991
· legislation requesting public access; introduced into Congress eight times
o most recently introduced May 24th, 2007 (H.R. 2545)
· several libraries, including UNT, are freely posting these reports online
CRS Reports Archive at UNT
· http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/
· over 10,000 reports available
· wide variety of subjects
· features:
o browse by topic
o full-text searching ability
Additional Sources for CRS Reports:
· OpenCRS
o http://opencrs.com/
· CRS Reports at Thurgood Marshall Law Library
o http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/index.asp
· CRS Reports from the Federation of American Scientists
o http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRS/index.cfm?&CFID=10842369&CFTOKEN=53883781
o Intelligence, Military and National Security
· CRS Reports from the National Library for the Environment
o http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/
o Environmental Law & Policy
· CRS Reports from the U.S. State Department
o http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/c18185.htm
o Foreign Policy and Relations
· IP Mall at Franklin Pierce Law School
o http://www.ipmall.info/hosted_resources/crs_reports.asp
o Intellectual Property, Cyberlaw, and Electronic Commerce
sample CRS reports
III. Web-at-Risk
· http://web3.unt.edu/webatrisk/
One of eight digital preservation projects funded by the Library of Congress in 2004, known as the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP).
Partnership between:
· University of California's California Digital Library
· New York University
· The University of North Texas
Goal:
· develop a Web Archiving Service (website-archiving software)
· collect content from:
o federal and state government agencies
o political policy documents
o campaign literature
o other information surrounding political movements (such as blogs)
IV. LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe)
LOCKSS was launched as a pilot program with the Government Printing Office (GPO) to test archiving government-published e-journals. A LOCKSS computer runs open-source software that archives content as it crawls the internet. In the pilot program, the GPO tested a LOCKSS cache and opened the content to select depository libraries. GPO is now determining whether or not to use LOCKSS to distribute government e-journals, but some librarians are already using it to archive select government information.
· About LOCKSS: http://www.lockss.org/lockss/About_LOCKSS
· LOCKSS GPO Pilot
o http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/lockss/index.html
o http://www.lockss.org/lockss/News_Archive
o Executive Summary: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/lockss/exec-summary.pdf
Contact Us!
University of North Texas Libraries
Government Documents Department
Willis Library, 1506 Highland Street
Denton, TX 76203
phone: 940.565.2870
fax: 940.565.2599
http://www.library.unt.edu/govinfo
Starr Hoffman
Librarian for Digital Collections
phone: 940.565.4150
email: