Federal records management faces many challenges today. Too few records, both in the traditional formats and the newer electronic ones, are being appraised or transferred to the National Archives when required. Although the National Archives and Records Administration has several major initiatives underway to remedy the problem, additional actions…

The purpose of this paper is to suggest realistic guidelines that balance public access to government information and the need to protect sensitive data. Emphasis is on lessons learned from a 1979 case where the government attempted to prohibit the Progressive Magazine from publishing an article about making a hydrogen bomb and government…

During the first half of the 19th century, the United States grew from a nation confined to the Atlantic seaboard to a country on the verge of becoming a global power. One factor prompting this growth was the United States' growing intellectual, economic, and strategic interests in the Pacific Ocean. These growing interests were fueled by the…

For the first time ever, Executive Order 12958 signed in 1995 established a process to greatly reduce the huge number of classified federal records accumulated since World War II. Although some progress was made under it, subsequent orders and legislation significantly decreased its effectiveness. The U.S. government must take certain actions now…

This paper addresses several misunderstandings about the nature of the FBI's Central Records System. Although depicted in popular culture and much of FBI historiography as a tool for the Cold War suppression of American radicals, the FBI's records system grew out of Department of Justice systems already in place before J. Edgar Hoover became…

In January 1882, John H. Hickcox, a central government documents figure in his time, and the creator of "United States Government Publications: A Monthly Catalogue" or "Hickcox's Monthly Catalogue" was arrested in Washington, DC, for taking letters addressed to the Librarian of Congress. Although the charges were eventually dismissed, 1882 is the…

In 1885, John H. Hickcox published a catalog that alerted the public to the availability of recent federal government publications; this catalog immediately preceded establishment of a government-published catalog, of which he was appointed the first compiler. Hickcox's work history included writing, editing, and cataloging positions. (AEF)

The Regulations.gov Online Rulemaking Project is 1 of the 24 e-Government Initiatives on the President's Management Agenda (PMA), which was announced by the White House in 2001. The Regulations.gov Web site is the central electronic rulemaking portal for the federal government. Through a single Web site, citizens can search, view, and comment on…

The U.S. Serial Set has changed since its beginning in 1817. The early Serial Set is a large and comprehensive record of government activity, but the 20th-century Serial Set has been reduced in scope and contains almost no executive branch documents and only a select portion of congressional publications. Four tables outline the contents of the…

Starting with a U.S. presidential proclamation regarding Japanese enemy aliens on December 7, 1941, through legislative and educational information in 2002, the federal government of the United States has published, in varied media, numerous documents concerning its 1942-1945 internment of persons of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast.…

Describes a study of federal depository libraries that was conducted to determine how and if depository CD-ROMs were being used. A 23-page appendix includes the questionnaire and responses, which indicate that many GPO distributed CD-ROMs are not being used due to a variety of reasons. (Author/LRW)

The efforts of the U.S. federal government to develop E-Government services have been the subject of many recent news stories. In February 2002, Arthur Andersen's Office of Government Services released a usability analysis of federal government Web sites. In addition, in February, Vice-President Cheney announced the release of a report detailing…

The Sheppard-Towner Act, popularly known as the Maternity and Infancy Act of 1921, was one of the first pieces of federal legislation designed to address the concerns of nationally enfranchised women voters. The Act also represented one of the earliest instances of U.S. women acting as producers and consumers of government information. In response…

Presents an annotated bibliography of approximately 630 sources of government information on: United States, foreign, international, and intergovernmental information policy; publications, information sources, and archives; technology and automated processes; intellectual property; educational curricula; and general information. (AEF)

In the United States, a number of federal laws establish requirements that electronic government (e-government) information and services be accessible to individuals with disabilities. These laws affect e-government Web sites at the federal, state, and local levels. To this point, research about the accessibility of e-government Web sites has…