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Weekly News Digest
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March 14, 2011 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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Organizations Support Free Online Access to CRS Reports
More than 30 organizations concerned with government openness and accountability, including ALA, ARL, and SLA, sent a letter to the U.S. Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, urging him to appoint a Director of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) who will work with Congress to provide online free public access to the unclassified, non-confidential, taxpayer-funded reports produced by CRS.The letter states: The public needs access to these non-confidential CRS reports in order to discharge their civic duties. American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the CRS, which generates detailed reports relevant to current political events for lawmakers. But while the reports are non-classified, and play a critical role in our legislative process, they have never been made available in a consistent and official way to members of the public. Predictably, to fill the public void left by the CRS, several private companies now sell copies of these reports at a price. This means that non-confidential CRS reports are readily available to lobbyists, executives and others who can afford to pay. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people lack the information necessary to even request reports from their Members of Congress. Here is a list of the organizations that signed: American Association of Law Libraries American Library Association American Society of News Editors Association of Research Libraries Bill of Rights Defense Committee CAUS Center for Democracy and Technology Center for Media and Democracy Center for Responsive Politics Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Defending Dissent Foundation DownsizeDC.org, Inc. Essential Information Federation of American Scientists Free Government Information Government Accountability Project (GAP) iSolon.org Knowledge Ecology International Liberty Coalition MapLight.org National Coalition Against Censorship National Freedom of Information Coalition National Security Counselors No More Guantanamos OMB Watch OpenTheGovernment.org Point of Order Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Public Citizen Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press RS&S INTERNATIONAL, LLC Society of Academic Law Library Directors Society of Professional Journalists Special Libraries Association Sunlight Foundation University of Missouri Freedom of Information Center Washington Coalition for Open Government Source: SLA
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Brandi Scardilli
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