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U.S. to Digitize All Tangible Gov't. Publications
CETS writes "The U.S. Government Printing Office is working with the library community on a national digitization plan, with the goal of digitizing a complete legacy collection of tangible U.S. Government publications. The objective is to ensure that the digital collection is available, in the public domain, for no-fee permanent public access through the FDLP. See specific article for more detail."
When will they completely digitize the Library of Congress?
No doubt this is also seen by certain parties as an opportunity to blank out certain unpleasant incidents in our history.
You mean it would be more ecological to replace paper, which is relatively clean to produce and which also decomposeses naturally, with products of the semiconductor industry (hideously poisonous processes and materials which are not biodegradeable) ?
Then there's also the problem of reading large amounts of text on a screen. At least I have to do all my proofreading using a hardcopy and reading a large volume of text on the screen is real pain.
The owls are not what they seem
I think the problem is they say "Public Domain"
without identifying that recently the status "Public Domain" has changed (I think it was in 2003???) and no longer means freely available to the public domain rather you must go through an accredited public domain reseller to buy a copy.
This stinks.
Like to see the electrical code, fire code, building codes digitized and made available to the public instead of forcing citizens to purchase the law or take a ride to the library or county clerk to find out what the law is.
Note to any county/state workers out there. Stop adopting the above codes by reference. Print the codes into your public documents so they can't be copyrighted and withheld/sold to the public.
Being forced to spend $70+ per code may work for electricians making $100+ per hour, but it doesn't work for the rest of the citizens. Ignorance of the law is no excuse? How about lack of listing the law on your county/state websites in a printable format is no excuse either?
ASME or whatever the mechanic's organization was doing this also. Thankfully the company hired to put together the standards GPL'd them. The ruckus this created when the mechanic's organization found out (court case) they couldn't force their own mechanics to buy standards instead of copying them, someone should find this and post the link here. Its a very enlightening read. The mechanics organization forcing their own membership to buy standards. They represent the mechanics. They speak for them. And the organization turns around and hits them in the head so they can generate a slush fund for their headquarters.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
You must be the only person on /. who doesn't use google.
But seriously, any large scale document search, particularly done over a large geographical area, has to be electronic.
Electronic documents are more accessible, which can only be good for people who want information about their Government.
Actually, I do use google, among several search engines.
Yeah, it's out there, if you want to know what Brad Pitt eats for breakfast or Paris Hilton's panties color and size, or the lyrics to the hottest rap song. But, try to find obscure, OLD, non-mainstream information. Good luck to ya..
First off you have to wade through hundreds of bullshit commercial links. I often try to locate service information, articles, reviews, schematics, photos, etc. for antiquated things, electronics and mechanical. Things 10, 20, 30, 50 years old.. Eh eh..
90% of the information that I seek is NOT online. It USED to be in books but it's now too old and we all now that OLD is BAD and NEW is GOOD.
Out with the old and in with the new!
No, really, for example, I have an antique classic Mercedes. I have SOME of the factory service manuals for it. When I got the car some years back I went to the dealship and ordered a set of printed manuals. They cost me a pretty penny. Well, the kid at the service window informed me that there were about 12 manuals in all and that I didn't really need them all.
Already reeling from the shock of the first batch I ordered I trimmed the order down, so that I ended up with only the most critical manuals, engine, chassis, and wiring. Stupid me. At the time, it got me by. Now, I want the HVAC, body and drivetrain/transmission manuals plus some others on the power accessories. Eh eh....
Mercedes no longer prints manuals on paper.
Yeah, I prowl ebay trying to
I can order the manuals on CDROM but I do not want them on CDROM. I can't take a laptop out into my driveway when I'm all greasy, trying to find stuff and can't read it in the sun, worrying about dropping and breaking it, spilling something in it, etc.. That's stupid.
With the book I can drop it, get it dirty, etc. Big deal. And I can hold that book in my hand and flip the pages and find something in a fraction of the time I would spend trying to find it on a computer.
I'm sorry but I don't embrace this new digital revolution with all the enthusiasm as everyone else.
And one last thing. When those books are mine, in my house, on my shelf, no one is going to virus them up and knock them offline. I can read them anytime I like, under MY terms and conditions, not some draconian bullshit DRM communist copyright shit.
to digitize their documents, when they are so busy removing, reclassifying, and denying access to current government information.
Unless providing information to the public could be construed.as competing with the private sector, since private sector entities sell information. How soon will we see a bill like this, that turns the government into a subsidized wholesaler of information for well connected companies?
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