Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 10:21:07 -0400 (EDT) From: James McDonough Subject: EPIN Summary ********************************************************** SUMMARY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLIC INFORMATION NEWSLETTER VOL. 4, NO. 19; October 7, 1994 ********************************************************** INDEX: 1. GPO MOVES TO PROVIDE FREE ACCESS TO ONLINE INFORMATION 2. KELLEY SOUNDS THE ALARM OVER NPR PRINTING PROPOSAL 3. OMB ISSUES DRAFT OF BULLETIN TO IMPLEMENT GILS 4. GPO LOCATOR SEEN AS MORE VERSATILE THAN GILS 1. GPO MOVES TO PROVIDE FREE ACCESS TO ONLINE INFORMATION: Wayne P. Kelley, Superintendent of Documents, announced last week that the Government Printing Office (GPO) plans to extend free online public access to the GPO Access System, including the Congressional Record and the Federal Register via remote access through the nation's 1400 depository libraries or their partners in state and local computer networks. The free access would be available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, said Kelley at the monthly (10/4) luncheon meeting of the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable (TPR) in Washington, D.C. The next day the GPO announced the first site for the new service - the Columbia Online Information Network (COIN) located at the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia, MO. Users may reach COIN by dialing (314) 884-7000, or by telnet to 128.206.1.3. Jaime Love, Director of the Taxpayers Asset Project and a critic of GPO's policy to charge for access to the GPO Access System, hailed the new policy. "I want to congratulate GPO for opening the system to the whole country," said Love, who was present at the TPR luncheon. Love noted that he had been pushing for free night time access which he called "Free-after-Six." He noted that others were looking for a completely free system, which they called "Free-at-Last." Kelley said he preferred to call his new policy, "Free-for-All." Anne Heanue of the Washington Office of the American Library Association, another luncheon participant, said, "It sounds exciting, but I want to get more information about the details." She added, however, that Kelley's move "was the kind of initiative we were hoping for when the legislation (GPO Access bill) was passed." 2. KELLEY SOUNDS THE ALARM OVER NPR PRINTING PROPOSAL: Superintendent of Documents, Wayne P. Kelley, last week (10/4) raised the specter of a radical change in the dissemination of government information that could undermine the nation's democratic traditions. In a speech before the Telecommunications Roundtable in Washington, D.C., Kelley waved a red flag concerning Clinton administration plans under the National Performance Review (NPR) to break the Government Printing Office (GPO) near monopoly over executive branch printing, by allowing agencies to do and/or subcontract out their own printing. Kelley cautioned that the NPR plan will undermine the principle of universal access to federal information as a government responsibility by gutting the Depository Library Program, which distributes government publications free of charge to the nation's 1400 depository libraries. 3. OMB ISSUES DRAFT OF BULLETIN TO IMPLEMENT GILS: The Office of Management and Budget early this month released the draft verison of a bulletin to implement the Government Information Locators Service (GILS). Sources at OMB indicated the final version will be issued sometime in mid-November. The draft would instruct agencies to compile an inventory of its automated information sytems, Privacy Act systems records and locators that cover all of its information dissemination products. Each such automated information system, Privacy Act system of records, and locator of information dissemination products shall be described by a GILS Core locator record that includes the mandatory GILS Core locator Elements, and appropriate optional GILS Core Elements. Exempt from the GILS inventory are (1) electronic mail and word processing systems, (2) systems the existence of which are specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy, and (3) systems the knowledge of the existence of which would interfere with enforcement proceedings or otherwise be exempt from disclosure under current law. Sources indicate that "word process systems," a term not defined by the bulletin, would include a process files that are shared on a office network or local area network. 4. GPO LOCATOR SEEN AS MORE VERSATILE THAN GILS: The big difference been the government information locator system (GILS) being developed by the Office of Management and Budget and the Prototype Locator being developed by the Government Printing Office (GPO) seems to be its versatility. While the Prototype Locator is being developed to be 100% GILS compatible, it will also accommodate locator systems other than GILS. In regard to the difference between the two systems, GPO Official Mark Scully said in a telephone interview this week, "One key approach is that our Prototype Locator is able to connect a user with an existing resource (database)." He said Prototype Locator users will be able to conduct a subject search and then have the choice of connecting directly to that source. ***************************************************************** EPIN: For more information on the complete ELECTRONIC PUBLIC INFORMATION NEWSLETTER and subscription rates contact: James McDonough Electronic Public Information Newsletter epin@access.digex.net Tel:/Fax: (301) 365-3621