Who Needs To Know The State Of Public Access To Federal Government Information

Despite intense media scrutiny, only a small percentage of the American government's most essential information reaches the average person. This withholding of information is dangerous in a democratic society, where openness is a cherished value. Here are some samples of the topics included in Who Needs to Know?: The history, use, and abuse of national security classification; The state of the Freedom of Information Act in the Bush Administration; Examination of the concept of sensitive but unclassified and the proliferation of such markings to shut off access to information; The administration s suppression of government science and scientists and its impact on policy and on government employees; The manipulation of the media for both political and ideological reasons; Suggestions on how to connect and communicate with organizations and your elected officials to effect a positive change in the state of public access to federal government information. We the people need to understand how to interact with our government, engage in public policy decision-making, and hold the government (and those who act on its behalf or under its regulations) accountable for sharing information. Dr. McDermott provides historical context on this issue, along with expert insights and useful recommendations from her years at the forefront of the battle to protect the public s right to know.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

Use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act to obtain records from the federal government.

This volume is issue-oriented. By showing that issues relating to topics such as access to government information resources, collection development, and administration are not unique to documents librarianship, it places selected topics in a wider context. The book's objectives are to identify and discuss critically important issues related to increasing access to government information resources, to offer solutions and recommendations by which government information resources and services can be made more effective, to encourage more assessments that examine issues across levels of government, to emphasize the importance and need for a research base related to government information resources and services, and to encourage a critical assessment of current practices and traditional assumptions.

Modern geographic information systems technology has transformed spatial data handling capabilities and made it necessary for governments to rethink their roles with respect to the supply and availability of geographic information.; The nature of the relationship between governments and geographic information is explored in this book from a number of different conceptual positions with reference to the experiences of Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and the United States and particularly with respect to the development of national geographic information strategies.; The book examines the role that can be played both directly through a variety of policy initiatives and also indirectly because of the extent to which they create the broader institutional context within which these are developed and implemented. The discussion is divided into three main parts. The first of these considers what is Special About Geographic Information And Evaluates The Notion Of geographic information from four different standpoints - as a resource, a commodity, an asset and an infrastructure.; The second part presents the findings from four case studies of national geographic information strategies, while the final section evaluates these experiences with a view to identifying what general lessons can be learnt from them.