Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994 10:27:57 -0500 (EST) From: James McDonough Subject: EPIN Summary ********************************************************** SUMMARY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLIC INFORMATION NEWSLETTER VOL. 4, NO. 22; November 18, 1994 ********************************************************** INDEX: 1. OMB DRAFT OF GILS BULLETIN CALLED LIMITED IN VISION 2. CHRISTIAN REJECTS NOTION TO DIGITIZE ALL FEDERAL HOLDINGS 3. MEAD DATA CENTRAL FAVORS GAO COST STUDY OF JURIS 1. OMB DRAFT OF GILS BULLETIN CALLED LIMITED IN VISION: A group of 24 public interest institutions held that the vision of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) as outlined in a draft bulletin by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is too limited. In a letter (11/10) to OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the organizations stated, "One of the major disappointments with the draft Bulletin is its limited scope. It offers no plan for any future expansion and lays out no timetable for further stages of implementation. While the bulletin's framework is a helpful first step, the real possibility exists that agencies will comply with the limited vision of the GILS Core but go no further." OMB is set to sign the Bulletin in Washington on Dec. 7. 2. CHRISTIAN REJECTS NOTION TO DIGITIZE ALL FEDERAL HOLDINGS: Eliot Christian, Chief of the Information Systems Division, U.S. Geological Survey and the prime mover in the implementation of a Government Information Locator Services (GILS), rejected the notion the OMB should require the federal agencies to make all of its information available electronically. In an interview last week, Christian said in reaction to a letter from 24 organizations criticizing the draft of the OMB's GILS bulletin that it is would cost billions of dollars to digitize all of federal information holdings. In the end, he said, such a move may not be in the public interest. "It is like adding more dough to your raisin bread, the raisins get further and further apart. It is harder to find what you really want, if you just load it up (GILS) with lots and lots of things," Christian said. 3. MEAD DATA CENTRAL FAVORS GAO COST STUDY OF JURIS: Jerry Yung, Vice President for Government Affairs for the Mead Data Central Co. of Dayton, Ohio, indicated this week he strongly favors the General Accounting Office carry out a cost comparison study between JURIS and Department of Justice (DOJ) use of private online legal information services. He indicated that a year ago the DOJ dropped the use of JURIS, which was then substituted by Lexis, Mead Data Central's online legal information system, and WestLaw, West Publishing Co.'s comparable system. He said he has a good idea of what West has charged the government and has concluded that use of the two private systems is cheaper than what it cost DOJ to run JURIS, an automated, online legal research system operated by the DOJ from the mid-1970's until Dec. 31, 1993. ***************************************************************** 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