Access to Government Information

Proposals for CLA 2010 in Edmonton

agiig — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:08:53 +0000

Hi everyone,

Caron and I, your co-convenors, would like to know what you think our interest group should put forward as a program proposal for the CLA conference in Edmonton.

If you have any thoughts as to what topics would be good to have discussed or you have an idea for a program related to government documents or access to government information, please let us know. If you like, you can send it to the list or you can send it to Caron and myself by Wed., Sept. 16 so we can get the proposal together. Our contact information is below.

If you have ideas as to who could do the program including yourself, please include this information.

For your info, here’s the link to the Call for proposals so you have an idea as to what they are looking for.

http://cla.warnedesign.com/cla/1_proposal_guidlines.php

As well, if you are interested in convening our session, please let us know this as we need to put that in the proposal.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Doug and Caron

Doug Kariel dougk@athabascau.ca
Co-Convenor, AGIIG

Caron Rollins, Convenor, AGIIG crollins@uvic.ca

Dttp: Documents to the People, Summer 2009 (Vol. 37, No. 2)

agiig — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:25:35 +0000

“News from the North” by Mike McCaffrey discusses the Government of Canada’s Common Look and Feel for the Internet 2.0 policy, Government of Canada Publications and the Depository Services Program, and the Ontario Digitization Initiative.

Mike McCaffrey, “News from the North,” Dttp: Documents to the People 37, no. 2 (2009): 10

Fulltext online:

EBSCOhost Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with full text(LISTA)

Wilson Library Literature and Information Science Full Text

AGIIG at CLA 2009 Interest Group Business Meeting

agiig — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:08:22 +0000

The AGIIG meeing at the CLA Interest Groups Breakfast Meeting at the CLA 2009 was helf from 7:30-9:00 am on Sunday May 31, at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, Rooms 513 a – e.

The meeting was attended by current members of AGIIC as well as new CLA members interested in joining, about a dozen people. The business meeting was held in a large meeting room, as in past years, with tables set up for each interest group. The new CLA Executive Director, the Treasurer and the Councilors made the rounds, stopping at each IG table to meet members and hear concerns.

Discussion at the meeting also concerned CLA’s members on the DSP Advisory Committee, and how to set up liasion by AGIIC with the CLA representatives. We asked that the Executive provide us with CLA’s representatives on the DSP Advisory Committee, as we would like to contact these reps.

Kevin Manual asked for volunters for the positions of Convenor and Co-Convenor. Caron Rollins and Doug Kariel stepped forward, and those present had no objections.

Elizabeth Sanders and Barry Wood from Publishing & Depository Services attended to answer questions about the new DSP agreement. Thank-you for attending! Key points:

1. The new DSP agreement must be signed (two signed copies!) and returned by July1, 2009. Reminders will be sent out on INFODEP, by Graham Campbell of DSP. If the DSP does not receive the copies one warning will be sent. If no response by Sept.1, the library’s DSP status will be cancelled.

2. DSP service standards will be posted to the DSP website.

3. The annual report requirement was dropped from the agreement, instead section 4.1.i asks for libraries to “provide, PDS, once a year, with feedback: . AGIIG members are interested in sharing templates for this feedback.

4. Continue, please, to report fugitive epubs to DSP.

5. DSP has applied to the Treasury Board for an excemption from the CLF2 xhtml requirement for all epubs. Pdf formats are preferred. AGIIG members also forwarded their concerns on this requirment to the meeting. AGIIC will follow-up.

6. The DSP conducted a number of site visits about the new agreement, to selected despository libraries. Those present felt that more information about these visits could have been shared on INFODEP.

Communication with AGIIC members was another topic of our meeting dicussion. Currently there are over 70 CLA members who also AGIIC members. Some, but not all, subsribe to the AGIIC listserve (for instructions on joining this listserve, see our Committtee page on the CLA website ). Others are members of GOVINF-L and / or INFODEP (the DSP listserve) and APLIC (Legislative libraries). Volunteers stepped forward to post to GOVINFO-L notices from INFODEP and APLIC.

Later that morning, the CLA Treasurer held an “Interest Group Information Meeting” for convenors (Caron attended). Discussion focused on a new CLA Task Force set up to review the Interest Group guidelines (available on the CLA website). Volunters were asked for the Task Force.

Submitted by Caron Rollins, Convenor.

Digitization of Publications relating to the Parliament of Canada

agiig — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:42:48 +0000

Subject: Digitization of Publications relating to the Parliament of Canada/Numérisation des publications se rapportant au Parlement du Canada

A working paper on digitization of publications relating to the Parliament of Canada has been made available on the Parliamentary Internet. http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/Digitization/index-e.asp

This document reviews the state of digitization of papers relating to the Parliament of Canada as of April 2009 in order to determine:

which published papers relating to the operations of Parliament have been digitized
by which organization;
where the digitized works are housed;
who is permitted access &
plans for future digitization

The goal is to help inform the development of a coherent strategy amongst the various stakeholders to digitize, make available and preserve over the long term, the corpus of Canadian publications relating to the operations of Parliament since 1867.

Comments, updates and suggested revisions are welcomed.

Please forward comments to Michèle Robichaud, Canadian Government Information Specialist, Library of Parliament at robicm@parl.gc.ca, or Ian McDonald, Government and Law Specialist, Library and Archives Canada at Ian.mcdonald@lac-bac.gc.ca.

William R. Young
Parliamentary Librarian

(posted by C.Rollins, Source Govinfo-L)

LAC Puts Moriturium on Print Items

agiig — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:12:14 +0000

According to a CBC report, Library and Archives Canada has put a moritorium on print items. Although this is a temporary move, one may wonder what this may mean for the future.

AGIIG at CLA Interest Groups Breakfast Meeting

agiig — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:57:58 +0000

Please join members of AGIIG for the CLA Interest Groups Breakfast Meeting at the CLA National Conference in Montreal!

Elizabeth Sander from Publishing & Depository Services will be there to answer questions about the new DSP agreement.

A new convener and co-convener are still needed, so if you would like to know more about either of these positions please attend or contact Kevin Manuel at kmanuel@brocku.ca

Date: 7:30 – 9:00am, May 31, 2009

Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, Rooms 513 a – e

NRC Research Press Goes Fee

agiig — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:23:50 +0000

Canada’s National Research Council’s Research Press has decided to privatize their journals. A sad thing to see in this economic situation. Thanks to The Distant Librarian, who also points to the list of journals the NRC produces.

Government Transparency and the Internet

agiig — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:09:51 +0000

Canadians are finally getting passionate about government as our own government drama unfolds. While it’s great to see, one can’t help but compare ourselves to our neighbours once again. While Obama has moved towards transparency in government with things like change.gov, youtube addresses and soliciting feedback, Canadian government seems to be doing little for transparency. Many meetings are still closed door and the copyright bill seems like it will be created without feedback again once the government returns. CBC’s Spark program recently did a great podcast on the government and the Internet. How do you think the government is doing with transparency?

Government Twitters

agiig — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:00:40 +0000

Looks like there is now a directory being created for US government agencies who are twittering (also includes blogs). Anyone know of Canadian agencies who have entered the twitterverse?

Common Look and Feel

agiig — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:52:20 +0000

The Government of Canada is rolling out Common Look and Feel version 2. Websites are starting to change. StatCan has already started altering their site. I’m not sure I’m a fan yet and I’m afraid their maybe issues arising from the changes. Take a look and share how you feel about the new CLF2.