http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5216470.stm

Germany has signed an agreement to open for research purposes vast Nazi archives containing millions of files on Holocaust victims.

So far, only survivors and their relatives have been able to get personal information from the archives.

For many years, Germany had argued that giving wider access would violate its privacy laws.

In May, the 11-nation commission in charge of the Nazi records decided that they would be opened to the public.

The agreement was signed at a ceremony in Berlin on Wednesday.

It has to be ratified by all the 11 members of the commission. This is not expected to happen before the end of the year. [...]

http://www.palaeographia.org/glm/glm.htm

The GAZETTE DU LIVRE MEDIEVAL is pleased to announce that its full
bibliography (from no. 1, 1982, up to the forthcoming issue) may now be
searched from its website:
http://www.palaeographia.org/glm/glm.htm.
It is also possible to download the corresponding data as a text-file.
(Please forward to any interested person.)

Via Diskus List

http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00006671/

A survey by Peter Suber. Recommended reading!

Ingeborg Verheul, Networking for Digital Preservation. Current Practice in 15 National Libraries. This publication can be ordered at Saur Verlag: http://www.saur.de/index.cfm?lang=EN&id=0000011991

The PDF-version is now available at the ICABS website: http://www.ifla.org/V/pr/saur119.htm

Background information:

In 2004-2005, Koninklijke Bibliotheek conducted for ICABS a survey on the use and development of standards in digital archiving within the international library world. This resulted in an overview of the state of the art on digital preservation in the national libraries of Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22265&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

UNESCO has now launched a public consultation on the objectives, practicalities, costs and expected results of a “World Day for Audiovisual Heritage” to be celebrated annually on 27 October to build global awareness of the various issues at stake in preserving the audiovisual heritage.

Interesting posting to the Book People Mailing List

I thought it would be a nice change of pace to
emphasize the prevalency of the "great Anglo-Saxon"
parliementary tradition accross the world. (Though
some of these areas would probably have done with out
the historical experience of being in contact with it.
Others take a more positive view of the Imperial
inheritence, but that is neither here nor there)

First up, it may surprise some Civil War enthusiasts
to find that the complete set of the Confederate
Congress papers is online in the LOCs edition of the
US Serial Set. The papers are rarely linked to, and
include authoritative texts of the reasons for session
of each confederate state.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcc.html

A more recent addition, and far less controversial,
are the archives of te recently created National
Assemblies of Scotland and Wales:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/chamber/journalMinutes/journalContents.htm
Link

Those are barely infants compared to the Tynwald - the
oldest parleiment in existence.
http://www.tynwald.org.im/papers/hansards/1997-1998/main.shtml

(That is an integrated index, containing the hansards
of the House of Keys, the Legislative Council, and
joint seesions)

The troubled area of northern Ireland has admirably
performed, in the last few years, the process of
reconcilliation and rebuilding with the aid an elected
parliement
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/record/hansard.htm

Then there are the often overlooked States of Jersey
(original recipe) and Guernsey, some of which go back
to the 1980s
http://www.gov.gg/ccm/navigation/government/billets-detat/
http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/minutes.asp

Then there is Australia. A large slection of
Parlementary materials from "the federation debate" of
the 1890s - somewhat analogous to our "Founding"
period- can be accessed at SETIS
http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/oztexts/feddebates.html

Trinadad and Tobago have a very comprehensive record
of their hansard, from 1990 to the present:
http://www.ttparliament.org/hansard/1990.htm

One final entry, though this could be inexhaustive,
I'll include for its uniqueness - the Constitutional
Convention and Tribal Council of the Cherokee nation:
http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=council&ID=XTue4pUywPs=
http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=councilminutes

http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=commissions&commission=CCC&ID=LhUC0BiJBpk=

Will there you have it, from Scotland to Austalia to
Oklahoma - the Anglo-Saxon parliementary inheritance.
Though the historical reasons for its presence in
certain areas is certainly regretably, Albion has a
right to be proud of that its democratic traditions
have allowed so many to peaceable express and govern
themselves in so many disparate parts of the world.

Jonathan L. Wright

Copyrighted Building Plans and Property Surveys

Requests from the public for copies of property surveys, building plans, structural/engineering/architectural drawings, reference plans, etc. are received in several City departments on a regular basis. All of these documents are protected by copyright and can not be copied without the consent of the owner of the copyright.

However, there is an exception to this rule. Copyright is not infringed upon if the copies are requested through the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Property surveys, building plans, structural/engineering/architectural drawings, etc. shall only be released/accessed with the registered property owner's written permission.

Any member of the public who requests to view or receive a copy of a property survey, building plan, structural/engineering/architectural drawing, etc. shall be notified that:

* Property surveys, building plans, structural/engineering/architectural drawings, etc. held by the City of Barrie are protected by copyright;
* To obtain a copy, the requester should first contact the original surveyor or architect;
* In order to view a copyrighted record held by the City of Barrie, a requester must present a written permission letter from the registered property owner;
* In order to receive a copy of a copyrighted record, a requester must provide a written permission letter from the registered property owner and submit a written request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act;
* The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act access request will follow the normal procedure.

http://www.city.barrie.on.ca/Content.cfm?C=2623&SC=1&SCM=0&MI=917&L1M=37

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1781888,00.html

Ten weeks after Guardian Technology launched the "Free Our Data" campaign on March 9, government advisers are starting to consider its message. [...]

Our proposal is that the government gets out of the market and leaves data pricing to the market. Data collected by the public sector (apart from necessary exceptions to protect privacy and national security) should be available to all for free, to exploit as they wish. This would require higher taxes to fund the national collection of, for example, meteorological data. But this cost would be outweighed by the economic benefits of creating taxpaying companies and jobs....[W]e stand by the arguments at the centre of our campaign:

* The public sector is best positioned to collect data, and the private sector best placed for commercial exploitation
* Taxpayers should not have to pay twice, or three times, for data they already own
* At the very least, the government needs to produce better evidence to justify the overall cost of the status quo.