In addition to formal commentary and reaching out to congress, are there other measures that would be possible such as requesting the archives and creating copies? Michelle Murphy and Patrick Keilty at University of Toronto in partnership with librarians at universities organized an archiving hackathon to download EPA data in anticipation of attempts to destroy the records. This is not an area of expertise for me but of course this is urgent. ________________________________ From: Air-L <air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess@media.uio.no> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2018 10:54:38 PM To: air-l Subject: [Air-L] Fwd: [liberationtech] URGENT: U.S. Dept of the Interior: Records Destruction Request. Public Comment Period. Dear AoIRists, I'm not sure this intersects much with internet research - though someone might want to document the effort, if nothing else, under the internet and social activism. AoIRists who are U.S. citizens - is this as Orwellian and disturbing as it looks? If so, please act and forward as appropriate. glumly, - charles ess -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [liberationtech] URGENT: U.S. Dept of the Interior: Records Destruction Request. Public Comment Period. Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2018 16:35:57 -0700 From: Yosem Companys <ycompanys@gmail.com> Reply-To: liberationtech <liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu> To: Liberation Technologies <liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu> CC: Mr. James R. Jacobs <jrjacobs@stanford.edu> From: Mr. James R. Jacobs <jrjacobs@stanford.edu <mailto:jrjacobs@stanford.edu>> I wanted to alert you to a very disturbing thing happening in the National Archives world that may severely impact research, especially historical and scientific research. The Dept of interior is asking for permission to destroy records about oil and gas leases, mining, dams, wells, timber sales, marine conservation, fishing, endangered species, non-endangered species, critical habitats, land acquisition, and lots more. Basically records from every agency within the Interior Department, including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and others. This is all content that would normally go to NARA for collection and preservation. This is disturbing because previous administrations would obfuscate records by classifying/reclassifying records. This admin is basically just destroying records so they’ll never be accessible. There’s an October 29 deadline for comment to NARA: request.schedule@nara.gov <mailto:request.schedule@nara.gov> /// fax: 301-837-3698 /// NARA (ACRA), 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park MD 20740-6001. (Be sure to say that you’re referring to DAA-0048-2015-0003.) Please forward to your networks and researchers who may be effected. More information: https://altgov2.org/doi-records-destruction/ NARA’s appraisal memo https://altgov2.org/wp-content/uploads/DAA-0048-2015-0003_Appraisal_Memo.pdf this is tragic and terrible. james -- James R. Jacobs US Government Information Librarian 123D Green Library Stanford University P: 650.862.9871 E: jrjacobs@stanford.edu <mailto:jrjacobs@stanford.edu> Gchat: freegovinfo T: @freegovinfo W: freegovinfo.info <http://freegovinfo.info> lockss-usdocs.stanford.edu <http://lockss-usdocs.stanford.edu> library.stanford.edu/people/jrjacobs <http://library.stanford.edu/people/jrjacobs> freegovinfo.info/about/jrjacobs <http://freegovinfo.info/about/jrjacobs> "The art of research is the ability to look at the details, and see the passion." -- Daryl Zero, "The Zero Effect" (1998) ---------------------------------- This message has been intercepted and read by U.S. government agencies including the FBI, CIA, and NSA without notice, warrant or knowledge of sender or recipient and without regard for the US Constitution. (\ {|||8- (/