The sad fate of government documents (no, really)

[lapillus]

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

Comments

[duanemoody]

As one who's been working in an academic library for the last five years and close to one since 1990, this has been happening long before Bush. The GPO is uninterested in serving the public. When Zappa told us after the PMRC hearings to demand transcripts of the hearings, we received letters from the GPO telling us they weren't in the business of providing that kind of thing to the public for free. If Adobe hadn't come up with Acrobat we'd be screwed, blued and tattooed as far as any kind of guarantee of future readability is concerned, and I'm only talking about text documents. Digital maps are another animal altogether.

Strictly speaking their first duty is as Congress' print shop. Everything else is an afterthought or an inconvenience to them.