This paper begins with a discussion of society and information, as well as the right to information. A 1996 UNESCO (United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) document entitled "UNESCO and an Information Society for All" is highlighted. Information and informatics policies are then considered. Efforts related to…

Sometimes people want to see data that the government thinks should be kept under wraps. How does the Department of Defense balance the scales of justice while still ensuring information security? In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) found itself in the spotlight as journalists, academics, and…

This white paper proposes bringing the federal government, state governments, and the private sector together as part of a new approach to making high-speed Internet services available across the country. It proposes the creation of a new federal Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) that, together with matching funds from the states and the private…

From 2005 to 2007, the University of Connecticut Libraries Copyright Project Team engaged in a wide range of activities to fulfill its charge and to raise awareness of copyright issues in the library and across the university. This article highlights some of the primary activities and tools used by the team to involve stakeholders, to provide…

During his life and career as a muckraking journalist in Washington, Jack Anderson cultivated secret sources throughout the halls of government--sources who passed on information that allowed Anderson to investigate and write about Watergate, CIA assassination schemes, and countless scandals. His syndicated column, Washington Merry-Go-Round,…

This selected bibliography contains 63 publications and 21 Web sites that can help librarians learn more about how they can use the metaphor of the information commons to advocate for the public's information assets. (MES)

In order to ensure that the United States maintains an advanced information infrastructure, the Council on Competitiveness has started a project on the 21st century infrastructure. Participating in this project are the many different parties who are providing and using the infrastructure, including cable companies, regional Bell companies, long…

Reviews recent legal developments in information policy related to digital information, particularly on the Internet. Focuses on trends in which information ownership is encroaching on public uses of information or on public information space, that is, control and ownership of information versus public access to and use of information. (Contains…

Discussion of interoperability among computer networks focuses on the need for information policy and information standards to ensure information access. Highlights include library standards; challenges of networked environment standards; and interoperability as a technical goal for information access. (Contains 9 references.) (LRW)

This paper on Southeast Asian government information and official publications (GIOPs) begins with a general overview of new ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members (Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, and Vietnam) as well as founding members (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore). Information technology (IT)…

Describes several projects aimed at building the Information Commons, including: Knowledge Conservancy plans to create a database of all freely available digitized content; the Universal Library, a project with the long-term goal of providing free, online access to all books; and several projects of the Creative Commons intended to build a robust…

In this article, the authors cite four reasons why parents and schools should reconsider the use of Internet filters. First, and most simply, filters don't work as advertised. One of the most controversial and contentious issues surrounding the use of new information and communication technologies, especially in schools and libraries, is whether…

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) sponsored the symposium "Scholarship and Libraries in Transition: A Dialogue about the Impacts of Mass Digitization Projects" in March 2006 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The symposium was organized with a keynote and several other individual presentations, as well…

Technology-savvy instructors often require students to create Web pages or videos, tasks that require finding materials such as images, music, or text on the Web, reusing them, and then republishing them in a technique that author Howard Pitler calls "remixing." However, this requires both the student and the instructor to deal with often thorny…

The right to privacy is a firmly entrenched democratic principle that has been inferred in the U.S. Constitution and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment as a liberty of personal autonomy. It is the statutory right to privacy that has been most closely aligned with data protection as a form of self-protection. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission…