Scott A. Hodes notes the Obama administration’s immediate focus on FOIA, but reminds us that changing the ship of government requires numerous steps and constant vigilance to ensure change remains consistent and constant.
E-gov expert Peggy Garvin provides an overview of the significant developments in the world of online government information this past year. According to Peggy, overall the year saw a push by individuals and nongovernment organizations for increased access to digital government information. Specifically, new official government and non-government websites came online, and existing sites developed more sophisticated features.
Paul Jenks’ commentary addresses the background of the scramble for thousands of presidentially appointed offices within the government that accompanies a new administration. The selection process has evolved over the past couple of hundred years and every position outside of the new president’s personal staff requires Senate approval.
Paul Jenks examines how the appropriations process this year has provided a multitude of interesting examples of the wide variety of tools available to Congress and the federal government for appropriating money, beyond just the ordinary appropriations bills in Congress.
Peggy Garvin’s well-timed article identifies and evaluates key websites that monitor the accuracy of statements and representations made by political candidates and their respective campaigns.
Medical journals, dictionaries, textbooks, indexes, rankings, images – all can be found on the Net, and much of it is available free. Sources include publishers, government agencies, professional organizations, health libraries and commercial entities. Gloria Miccioli’s completely updated and revised topical guide expertly focuses on what she identifies as the best, content-rich databases and services for researchers.
Scott A. Hodes highlights the recent introduction of legislation that would eliminate the FOIA shield for the Smithsonian Institute, and the continued lack of transparency when dealing with other federal agencies.
Beth Wellington’s commentary tracks the legislative path of retroactive immunity for telecom eavesdropping.
Peggy Garvin’s article focuses on key speakers and significant issues, services and websites that hightlighted issues, initiatives and services significant to the government documents arena.
Following up on the passage earlier this year of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes make two proposals absent from the law, but which would help FOIA requesters.