The sad fate of government documents (no, really)
epeeblade has disturbing news about the distribution, or lack there of, of government documents to libraries. As she says:
Why does this affect YOU? Well, right now, you can walk into any Depository, which is mandated by law to give you access to these Gov Docs. You can go to your Regional and see 100 year old documents, watch the history of democracy unfold. You can flip through Congressional Hearings, vast amount of Health and Scientific information, including Geological and Nautical maps. And no power hungry government can decide that "oops" they didn't want that information to get out there, so let's easily erase it from the digital copy and archive. It's much more difficult to recall hundreds of paper copies across the country, then to modify one html file. Or simply erase it.
Why does this affect YOU? Well, right now, you can walk into any Depository, which is mandated by law to give you access to these Gov Docs. You can go to your Regional and see 100 year old documents, watch the history of democracy unfold. You can flip through Congressional Hearings, vast amount of Health and Scientific information, including Geological and Nautical maps. And no power hungry government can decide that "oops" they didn't want that information to get out there, so let's easily erase it from the digital copy and archive. It's much more difficult to recall hundreds of paper copies across the country, then to modify one html file. Or simply erase it.