This message was sent to the list by Larry Cruse.----------Johnnie
 
 
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---------------------------------- Forwarded ----------------------------------
>From: [log in to unmask] at @UCSD
>Date: 12/9/96 11:55AM
>*To: [log in to unmask] at @UCSD
>Subject: LA Times on federal computers (fwd)
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To piggyback on Paul's message, I'm forwarding a message that Patricia
Cruse, a govt. information librarian at UCSD, sent to the uc documents
librarians' list this morning, which mentions yesterday's story and the
rest of this series of articles.  - Cynthia Jahns, UC Santa Cruz
 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 08:21:12 -0800 (PST)
>From: Patricia Cruse <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: LA Times on federal computers
 
The LA Times is doing a three part series that I thought might be of
interest to people.  The series is "examining the long history of failure
in the federal government's information technology programs."  The first
article was yesterday on:
 
"The $300 billion investment in information technology that has flopped,
jeopardizing the nation's welfare, eroding public safety and squandering
untold billions of dollars. The problems extend to virtually every
agency, court and the Congress."
 
Today's article is:
 
"The internal Revenue Service's troubled attempts to modernize its
computer systems, which have led to the expenditure of $4billion with
marginal results so far in the agency's ability to track down tax
cheats.  Another organization, the Defense Mapping Agency, spent a decade
to develop a $2.6 billion computer system that was obsolete by the time
it was completed."
 
Tomorrow's article I think will be really interesting:
 
"The intensive effort to reform the system, which includes four major
pieces of legislation enacted to streamline cumbersome federal regulation
and raise the priority of information technology in the government."
 
This series should be available on the LA Times WWW site: www.latimes.com
 
 
All for now,
 
Trisha Cruse
Government Information Librarian
University of California, San Diego