English Corner
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050228auction.shtml
Excerpts:
AUGUSTA — The seller described the item as a "wonderful, original document dated 1819" complete with signatures of Pownal's selectmen. Bids on eBay started at $14.95 for the historic tax record from the southern Maine town. The seller, however, did not get a bite from Maine State Archivist Jim Henderson. Instead, the online auctioneer got an e-mail warning that the sale was illegal.
Henderson and others in the Maine Secretary of State's Office are trying to prevent the sale of original public documents, a problem they say has increased with the popularity and ease of Internet auction sites. They are contacting traditional auctioneers, working with a national group to push changes in online auctions and trying to educate the general public.
"Public documents belong to the public," Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said.
The sale of local, county and state documents is a criminal act under state law, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Besides its historical value, the material can help public officials as a reference point when working on current issues, Dunlap says.
The law applies to original records such as meeting minutes, town ordinances and tax records. Private documents like company records or family histories and copies of public records do not come under the law.
[...]
Henderson says public documents fell into private hands over time, often because many town officials in Maine used to work from their homes. Records from a century ago could end up in the attic of a relative instead of a public building. And once the documents are unearthed, people sometimes try to sell them.
[...]
The Council of State Historical Records Coordinators, a national group of state archivists, has been working on this issue in recent years as several states reported problems with the sale of government documents on-line. Its members are putting together a Web site that collects the laws for all states to push eBay into doing something. That site, however, has not come together yet.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, says the company is willing to work with states on this issue. One difficulty is that the laws are not uniform from state to state. [...]
See also on the Ebay problem
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/181382/
and http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=ebay (mostly in German)
Excerpts:
AUGUSTA — The seller described the item as a "wonderful, original document dated 1819" complete with signatures of Pownal's selectmen. Bids on eBay started at $14.95 for the historic tax record from the southern Maine town. The seller, however, did not get a bite from Maine State Archivist Jim Henderson. Instead, the online auctioneer got an e-mail warning that the sale was illegal.
Henderson and others in the Maine Secretary of State's Office are trying to prevent the sale of original public documents, a problem they say has increased with the popularity and ease of Internet auction sites. They are contacting traditional auctioneers, working with a national group to push changes in online auctions and trying to educate the general public.
"Public documents belong to the public," Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said.
The sale of local, county and state documents is a criminal act under state law, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Besides its historical value, the material can help public officials as a reference point when working on current issues, Dunlap says.
The law applies to original records such as meeting minutes, town ordinances and tax records. Private documents like company records or family histories and copies of public records do not come under the law.
[...]
Henderson says public documents fell into private hands over time, often because many town officials in Maine used to work from their homes. Records from a century ago could end up in the attic of a relative instead of a public building. And once the documents are unearthed, people sometimes try to sell them.
[...]
The Council of State Historical Records Coordinators, a national group of state archivists, has been working on this issue in recent years as several states reported problems with the sale of government documents on-line. Its members are putting together a Web site that collects the laws for all states to push eBay into doing something. That site, however, has not come together yet.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, says the company is willing to work with states on this issue. One difficulty is that the laws are not uniform from state to state. [...]
See also on the Ebay problem
http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/181382/
and http://archiv.twoday.net/search?q=ebay (mostly in German)
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 1. März 2005, 21:17 - Rubrik: English Corner
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A new weblog:
http://www.openaccesslaw.org/open_access_law_reviews/2005/02/hello_world.html#comments
BTW: The Social Science Research Network
http://www.ssrn.com/
contains some contributions on archival science e.g.
Dudziak, Mary L., "On Using U.S. Diplomatic Records for Research on African Constitutions: A Guide to the Archives" (2002). Newsletter of the Africa Section, 2002 http://ssrn.com/abstract=319700
http://www.openaccesslaw.org/open_access_law_reviews/2005/02/hello_world.html#comments
BTW: The Social Science Research Network
http://www.ssrn.com/
contains some contributions on archival science e.g.
Dudziak, Mary L., "On Using U.S. Diplomatic Records for Research on African Constitutions: A Guide to the Archives" (2002). Newsletter of the Africa Section, 2002 http://ssrn.com/abstract=319700
KlausGraf - am Mittwoch, 23. Februar 2005, 23:21 - Rubrik: English Corner
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Washington Post February 4, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com
Highlights of the collection can be viewed at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online.
An online finding aid at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/woodstein.hp.html provides a description of the papers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
Highlights of the collection can be viewed at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online.
An online finding aid at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/woodstein.hp.html provides a description of the papers.
Agnes E.M. Jonker - am Montag, 7. Februar 2005, 10:00 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://print.google.com/print?id=J9MaOeRUG-AC
Managing Records as Evidence and Information
by Richard J Cox
Synopsis
For the past three decades, policies regarding a variety of information issues have emanated from federal agencies, legislative chambers, and corporate boardrooms. Despite the focus on information policy, it is still a relatively new concept and one only now beginning to be studied. The subject area is wider than believed--archives and records policies, information resources management, information technology, telecommunications, international communications, privacy and confidentiality, computer regulation and crime, intellectual property, and information systems and dissemination. This is not a compendium of policies to be used, but rather an exploration in a more detailed fashion of the fundamental principles supporting the setting of records policies.
Use Google print (use the US Google) to find more books on records management.
On Google's DRM see
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=%22google+print%22+drm+break&btnG=Search
Managing Records as Evidence and Information
by Richard J Cox
Synopsis
For the past three decades, policies regarding a variety of information issues have emanated from federal agencies, legislative chambers, and corporate boardrooms. Despite the focus on information policy, it is still a relatively new concept and one only now beginning to be studied. The subject area is wider than believed--archives and records policies, information resources management, information technology, telecommunications, international communications, privacy and confidentiality, computer regulation and crime, intellectual property, and information systems and dissemination. This is not a compendium of policies to be used, but rather an exploration in a more detailed fashion of the fundamental principles supporting the setting of records policies.
Use Google print (use the US Google) to find more books on records management.
On Google's DRM see
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=%22google+print%22+drm+break&btnG=Search
KlausGraf - am Montag, 24. Januar 2005, 03:11 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://www.odessa3.org/
Odessa is a digital library dedicated to the cultural and family history of the millions of Germans who emigrated to Russia in the 1800s and their descendants, who are now scattered throughout the world.
The Odessa document collection consists primarily of digitized books and records plus indexes of microfilms and research aids that enable users to trace individual and family migrations since the early 1800s.
Odessa is made freely available by the author and by the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, on whose server the library resides.
Odessa is a digital library dedicated to the cultural and family history of the millions of Germans who emigrated to Russia in the 1800s and their descendants, who are now scattered throughout the world.
The Odessa document collection consists primarily of digitized books and records plus indexes of microfilms and research aids that enable users to trace individual and family migrations since the early 1800s.
Odessa is made freely available by the author and by the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, on whose server the library resides.
KlausGraf - am Sonntag, 23. Januar 2005, 21:53 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://thesocietyofqualifiedarchivists.blogspot.com/
A weblog: Taking British archives forward in the battle against political correctness
Author is Alethea Wailes-Hadden (Bloggsbridge, Loamshire, United Kingdom).
I would like to recommend to take the entries not too serious ...
A weblog: Taking British archives forward in the battle against political correctness
Author is Alethea Wailes-Hadden (Bloggsbridge, Loamshire, United Kingdom).
I would like to recommend to take the entries not too serious ...
KlausGraf - am Freitag, 14. Januar 2005, 14:18 - Rubrik: English Corner
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A GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN HERALDRY
by JAMES PARKER
FIRST PUBLISHED in 1894
http://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/
Via: http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/updates/update.shtml
by JAMES PARKER
FIRST PUBLISHED in 1894
http://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/
Via: http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/updates/update.shtml
KlausGraf - am Freitag, 7. Januar 2005, 13:28 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://nwda.wsulibs.wsu.edu/
Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) provides enhanced access to archival and manuscript materials in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington through a union database of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids.
Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) provides enhanced access to archival and manuscript materials in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington through a union database of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids.
KlausGraf - am Donnerstag, 6. Januar 2005, 03:49 - Rubrik: English Corner
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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,1379273,00.html
File destruction doubled ahead of new information act
Matthew Tempest and agencies
Thursday December 23 2004
The Guardian
Some Whitehall departments have doubled the number of files they shred in advance of the Freedom of Information Act coming into force, new figures uncovered by the Conservatives revealed today.
According to research by the shadow cabinet office minister, Julian Lewis, the biggest increases were at the ministry of defence, the department of trade and industry and the department of work and pensions.
The FoI act, which will give the public access to previously secret files, was passed into law four years ago. But it only becomes active on the first day of 2005, when it will be a criminal offence for a civil servant to destroy files with the intention of preventing their disclosure once a request to see them has been made under the act.
The Tories are now calling for an investigation of what they call "a bonfire of the historical records" after Mr Lewis discovered the increase in shredding from a series of parliamentary answers.
In 1999-2000, 52,605 DTI files were destroyed, but by 2003-04 the number of documents shredded had shot up to 97,020. The MoD had also nearly doubled the number of files destroyed in the same period. But the sharpest rise was at work and pensions where 36,885 files were deleted last year - up from 15,524 four years ago.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also stepped up the shredding of thousands of documents.
Mr Lewis has called for an investigation by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas.
Mr Lewis told the Independent: "The steep rise in shredding in some departments is hard to account for other than the awareness that information in these files will no longer be classified as confidential. In the past, the government could say nothing until 30 years had elapsed. It looks like there has been a bonfire of historical records."
[...]The act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. While trivial emails, such as lunch invitations, can be deleted as soon as they are no longer relevant, anything with a bearing on policy should be kept.
Mr Thomas said a code of practice drawn up by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, on the implementation of the act set out as a starting proposition that files should generally be kept for five years before being considered for destruction, and a record should be kept of the destruction of any files.
(Thanks to A.M.E. Jonker)
File destruction doubled ahead of new information act
Matthew Tempest and agencies
Thursday December 23 2004
The Guardian
Some Whitehall departments have doubled the number of files they shred in advance of the Freedom of Information Act coming into force, new figures uncovered by the Conservatives revealed today.
According to research by the shadow cabinet office minister, Julian Lewis, the biggest increases were at the ministry of defence, the department of trade and industry and the department of work and pensions.
The FoI act, which will give the public access to previously secret files, was passed into law four years ago. But it only becomes active on the first day of 2005, when it will be a criminal offence for a civil servant to destroy files with the intention of preventing their disclosure once a request to see them has been made under the act.
The Tories are now calling for an investigation of what they call "a bonfire of the historical records" after Mr Lewis discovered the increase in shredding from a series of parliamentary answers.
In 1999-2000, 52,605 DTI files were destroyed, but by 2003-04 the number of documents shredded had shot up to 97,020. The MoD had also nearly doubled the number of files destroyed in the same period. But the sharpest rise was at work and pensions where 36,885 files were deleted last year - up from 15,524 four years ago.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also stepped up the shredding of thousands of documents.
Mr Lewis has called for an investigation by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas.
Mr Lewis told the Independent: "The steep rise in shredding in some departments is hard to account for other than the awareness that information in these files will no longer be classified as confidential. In the past, the government could say nothing until 30 years had elapsed. It looks like there has been a bonfire of historical records."
[...]The act will cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland from next year. Similar measures are being brought in at the same time in Scotland. It provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100,000 public bodies, subject to various exemptions. While trivial emails, such as lunch invitations, can be deleted as soon as they are no longer relevant, anything with a bearing on policy should be kept.
Mr Thomas said a code of practice drawn up by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, on the implementation of the act set out as a starting proposition that files should generally be kept for five years before being considered for destruction, and a record should be kept of the destruction of any files.
(Thanks to A.M.E. Jonker)
KlausGraf - am Dienstag, 28. Dezember 2004, 19:06 - Rubrik: English Corner
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Researchers create tool to automatically search handwritten historical documents
http://www.umass.edu/umhome/news/articles/7683.php
http://ciir.cs.umass.edu/~trath/prj/hw_retr/demo_intro.html
http://www.umass.edu/umhome/news/articles/7683.php
http://ciir.cs.umass.edu/~trath/prj/hw_retr/demo_intro.html
KlausGraf - am Freitag, 17. Dezember 2004, 19:56 - Rubrik: English Corner
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