The 25th Annual FLICC Forum on Federal Information Policies, “Tinker, Scholar, Librarian, Spy: Maximizing Government Information Access and Protection,” brought together renowned scholars and information professionals to discuss access to government information in a post 9/11 world. Held at the Library of Congress on Sept. 12, the forum drew an audience of nearly 150 federal librarians and information professionals from as far away as Germany and Egypt.
Speakers included Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who discussed the ways in which the Library of Congress is using technology to improve access to its collections. He spoke about his concept of a World Digital Library, a collaborative effort to digitize significant primary materials from institutions across the globe. He also discussed the new Library of Congress Experience, which gives an increasing number of visitors the opportunity to experience the Library’s exhibition and resources on site and online at myLOC.gov. He noted that the Library embraced the collaborative world of Web 2.0 with the launch of a Flickr pilot, which made more than 3,000 photos from its collection available online, and by being one of the first federal agencies to start a blog (www.loc.gov/blog/).
The keynote address was delivered by Molly O’Neill, assistant administrator and chief information officer in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Information. She discussed interagency technology opportunities and trends. Aneesh Chopra, secretary of technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, discussed Virginia’s public Web site and how public-private partnerships drive Web 2.0 adoption in the public sector.
Other speakers included Bonnie Klein from the Defense Technical Information Center; Michael Carlson from the National Archives and Records Administration; Stefan Geens of the Swedish Institute; and representatives from Outsell, Inc., the Washington College of Law at the American University and the National Defense University.
FLICC Awards for Fiscal Year 2007
The forum also featured the FLICC Awards ceremony to recognize the many innovative ways that federal libraries, librarians and library technicians fulfill the information demands of government, business and scholarly communities and the American public.
Large Federal Library of the Year (with a staff of 11+ federal and/or contract employees): Combined Arms Research Library, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Small Federal Library of the Year (with a staff of 10 or fewer federal and/or contract employees): Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) Library, Landstuhl, Germany.
Federal Librarian of the Year: Thomas F. Lahr, deputy associate biologist for information, U.S. Geological Survey.
Federal Library Technician of the Year: Jill Golden, federal library technician, Marshall Center Research Library, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
About FLICC
The Federal Library and Information Center Committee fosters excellence in federal library and information services through interagency cooperation, and provides guidance and direction for the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK). Created in 1965 and headquartered at the Library of Congress, FLICC also makes recommendations on federal library and information policies, programs and procedures to federal agencies and to others concerned with libraries and information centers. For more information, go to www.loc.gov/flicc/.
