Federal Employees' Civil Liberties at Risk

Most readers of this blog probably remember Wikileaks' release of classified diplomatic cables. As part of the response, the Federal Times reported in a recent article that Federal Agencies are being encouraged to monitor their employees' activities including those that happen after they leave. Click on the link for the full article.

Rare Manuscripts on Display in Dallas

A set of rare Vatican manuscripts is now on display in Dallas. An article posted to RAINbyte tells of how the manuscripts were saved from Napolean's armies, but later forgotten. Click on the above link for the full article.

SCSAA on Facebook

We here at SCSAA are proud to announce that there is now a Facebook page devoted to this group. Feel free to look us up or click here.

Announcements

There are two announcements today. The first is that orientation for the spring semester will be this Thursday, January 20th from 12-1:30. I will be representing SCSAA at this event. The second is that the first meeting of the semester will be on February 1st from 3:30 to 4:15.

JFK Library Going Digital

As some of you may have heard, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is undertaking a project to digitize its holdings. According to an article posted to the Archives and Archivists listserv, 200,000 pages, 1200 recordings, and 300 museum artifacts is now online at www.jfklibrary.org. This action is not without some controversey as there has been accusations that the Kennedy family has restricted access to these documents in the past. Visit the listserv for more information on this.

On a different note, everyone here at SCSAA wishes everyone good luck in the upcoming spring semester.

Happy New Year

Everyone here at the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists would like to wish everyone a happy new year. January 1st was also Public Domain Day, which is a celebration of all the works that enter the public domain every year due to copyrights expiring. To that end an interesting article on the subject was posted to the archives and archivists listserv. Titled "Public Domain Day 2011: Will the tide be turned?" it is an exploration of the progress that is being made towards less restrictive copyright laws. Click on the link in the previous sentence for the article, as well as the one above that for more information on Public Domain Day.