I'm forwarding this compilation of comments from the GovDocs list about government information that once was online and then wasn't. Among the items mentioned are reservoir maps and NGA nautical charts. Angie AGS Library UW Milwaukee ________________________________________ From: Discussion of Government Document Issues <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Mary-Jane Walsh <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2015 4:15 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: removal of government information Folks, As promised, here is a compilation of responses that I got to my question: what's your "favorite" example of online government information being removed. I received responses about both tangible and online, and included both. Several people mentioned the ERIC and NASA Technical reports “temporary” removal, and the government shutdown in 2013. Reservoir maps removed after being in public for years and on Google Maps, etc. (after anthrax scare? I forget when) The Census Bureau has dropped the 1990 census information from the American FactFinder database. They have substituted static files, but this is not the same as being able to search and manipulate the data as in the past. This seem a huge step backward in the move to put data in online in usable digital format. The largest removal I know of was the shutdown of most of the Department of the Interior by the DC District Court in response to a lawsuit by Native American peoples of the Southwest. The documents were unavailable until the websites containing information that was to be confidential were isolated and the remainder of the websites were brought back up. (Cobell v. Salazar (previously Cobell v. Kempthorne and Cobell v. Norton and Cobell v. Babbitt) ) ALA published "Less Access to Less Information By and About the U.S. Government” for nearly 20 years. We’ve had it digitized with the permission of ALA and posted to FGI at http://freegovinfo.info/less_access (it’s also in the top level navigation). Besides the access to digitized “Less Access”, we’re also documenting ongoing efforts at restricting, altering, removing, and privatizing government information. AHIP Survey links in OCLC not linked: E 1.111: M94/v.1--Joint DoD/DOE Munitions Technology Development Program I 19.16: 99-248--Source-Area Characteristics of Large Public Surface Water Supplies in the Conterminous US...(MJW framed her library's copy after slicing it in half - very pretty and a good reminder!) http://www.fdlp.gov/requirements-guidance/guidance/25-recall-and-return-of-depository-material includes archive of recall notices Just after George W. Bush took office in 2001 his administration had GPO issue a recall of a volume of Foreign Relations of the United States that had already been distributed and my recollection is that part of the declassified information revealed activities from 30+ years earlier of individuals serving in G.W. Bush's administration. Couldn't quickly locate details but my recollection is that GPO recalled a pamphlet around 15-17 years ago that had the information translated into various languages and the Cajun version was embarrassing because they hadn't verified it and it was more like Saturday Night Live's Cajun Man. Whenever there is a change in the chief executive (President of U.S. or a state governor) there is a high likelihood that material from the previous administration disappears online (not just those from the office of the chief executive but also from executive branch agencies). Even if it doesn't totally disappear, it often gets hidden so well that it might as well not exist. My "favorite" example is the NGA nautical charts of the world that were once entirely accessible online and that are now entirely not. Some charts are, I think, also no longer available to the public at all--meaning it's not just free online access that went away, but public access (i.e., they can no longer be purchased). In Bamford's the Puzzle Palace, he mentions government documents released and on the shelves for a couple of years before the Reagan administration had them removed and reclassified in the 1980s. Recommended reading: McDermott, Patrice. Who Needs to Know: the state of public access to government information. Lanham, MD: Bernan, 2007 And some of MJW's favorites: scientific studies on CDC & NIH websites that were not in keeping with executive branch ideology (I believe it was abortion) and a paper recall: "Cultural Landscape Report, Bremner Historic District, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska and Appendices". Anyone ever figure out the "why" on that one? Thanks all MJW -- Mary Jane Walsh Government Documents, Maps, Microforms Colgate University Libraries 13 Oak Dr, Hamilton, NY 13346 [log in to unmask] 315-228-6194 (voice) 315-228-6227 (fax) I do not keep my email open. If you need to contact me ASAP, please call me at 315-228-6194