What’s been up this week is that my godchildren are in town, two twelve-year old twins, and my parents arrived on Wednesday. So, between the end of the summer projects for both work and school, I just haven’t put much thought into blogging.

I’m writing up three papers right now. Two of which probably aren’t of interest to anyone, but my Gov Docs class project is touching on some very interesting stuff.

I’m looking at how the privatization of government services alters the way we have access to government information via FOIA requests, etc. I’m also interested in looking into the privacy implications of allowing corporate access to what was once considered government information.

Why? Paranoid much? Tin-foil hat on too tight? Perhaps too many Philip K. Dick novels? Doctorow’s “Little Brother” got me down?

Well, yes. Always. But in this case, I just needed to find a good topic to write about for class, and since people have done the secrecy of the Bush Administration to death I thought I’d try to find something different.

Likewise, there has been much Hullabaloo (I just wanted an excuse to use that word other than talking about the old punk band) about privatization in the armed forces ala Halliburton; Kellogg, Brown & Root, Blackwater, etc.

So, I thought, privatization, eh? Where else is this happening? It’s no secret that it’s happening elsewhere.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for me to find that Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest Defense Contractor, has also become one of the top data storage and mining contractors of the federal government.

Why does this matter?

Well, first of all. How much do we know about them? Like all corporations, much of LM’s activities are protected from FOIA requests as “trade secrets”. Whereas a government agency’s internal communication may be requested via a Freedom of Information Act request– this is not true of a corporate entity. Sure, government contractors are supposed to be accountable to information requests when they are doing business with the federal government– but that so far applies to things like finding out the details of a contract, etc. It doesn’t apply to the good stuff, the internal memos, etc. And like most corporations, LM has already taken pro-active steps to broaden the definition of what is allowed to be exempted from FOIA under the guise of “Homeland Security”.

Second, where is the oversight? Federal agencies are supposed to be watched by various other watchdog offices, including the OMB, Congressional Committees, etc. However, again– it’s pretty clear that this is not the case with LM. Sure they can be subpeoned, but the process and quality of information is different for a contractor who can still fight revealing information based on claiming “trade secret”.

Third, do we want our nation’s data in private hands? This is an extension of the question most often asked about Google and their library digitization project. People worry, what if they go under? What if it’s stolen? What might they do with it that we haven’t thought of yet? And basically, why do they want to do it?

Now, I personally don’t see any problem with Google digitizing books, because I see it as supplementary access– you can search through a book, you can know you want/or need it. You can reference a title that may take you weeks to get your hands on through Interlibrary loan, etc. And in that case– there are still hard copies of the books themselves in other hands.

This isn’t the case with some of LM’s data storage projects. In that case, data is being actually stored by, or at the very least stored in systems built by, Lockheed Martin. For example, the EPA is outsourcing their storage to LM. Who guarantees its integrity?

Fourth, what happens when someone puts all this data together?

The FBI is using a “Next Generation Identification” system built (and maintained) by LM that contains immense amounts of biometric (as in more than fingerprints) data on millions of American citizens.

The TSA used LM for its passenger list.

The DOD’s health care system is integrated through software applications purchased from LM.

The IRS has used LM’s data mining capabilities.

Okay, so the details are light right now, but I think you get my point.

While we are worried about what Google might do, there’s a whole world of data mining happening that isn’t discussed as much as perhaps it should be. Think about Credit Bureaus and the information they have on you. Think about marketing data and how it follows you through your web surfing. Seems innocent enough at first (it’s just a *cookie*), but how much have we really pondered this unless we’re members of EFF or EPIC?

I’ll update this post later with links to each of the sources. But for now– I need to write my paper to turn it in but I’d challenge you to think about this.

Then what are we going to do?

EDIT: The rudimentary results of my Lockheed research are here: http://theotherbrother.tumblr.com/

For anyone wanting to look into the Lockheed world, the Tumblelog may be a good starting point for finding federal documents related to what I wrote about. I plan to clean it up a bit more, add more detail and then continue to develop it over time.

So, although I’ve posted one day, in the spirit of participating in everyone else’s timeline I thought I’d post my day today as well…

I got up this morning and did my usual routine: I make a yummy mocha latte and I sit down to survey any email I’ve gotten since the night before to see if anything is urgent. Then I checked FriendFeed and my Google Reader, I have breakfast and help get my daughter ready for her summer camp. Then I either head directly off to work, or sometimes– like this morning, I do some work from home for a while.

This morning I updated the playlist on the fancy new LCD signs that we’ve just gotten at our library, and created a couple of new slides for it. I answered the email in my box, and asked the ARL webmaster to update our Libraries’ link– which was seriously out of date.

Then I headed off to work and did a walkthrough of the renovation progress. I took some notes on what had been done, took a few photos of what was in progress, and then went back to update the LCD signs, our Flickr account, and Twitter.

I got an odd call about a patron looking for one of our art exhibits that didn’t come to pass. Somehow it was still listed in the paper. I went down and showed him the DVD of the art that Community Relations had supplied in lieu of the actual art and called the paper to get the listing updated.

Then I briefly chatted with my supervisor about the new guidelines for posting content to the LCDs, there had been some controversy over the control and content– but it’s been worked out. I have to admit, it’s quite a fun new toy to play with!

I wrote a campus “Buff Bulletin” (an email announcement system on campus) for some of our Trial Databases. I’d just discussed highlighting electronic resources more with our Collection Development librarian and this is one of the strategies I’m taking. Before we used to list ALL “New and Trial” databases, but the word limit left us posting nothing more than a list without descriptions. Now we’re using the campus internal faculty/staff newsletter to highlight one or two new databases with descriptions, and sending Buff Bulletins with one or two trials and some description. Let’s hope it helps!

I continued a project we’d been doing surveying ARL library web sites. We’re considering a redesign. I also followed up on a Student Advisory Committee proposal we’re trying to float as a joint Reference and Outreach project.

Then I did something I rarely do– I took an actual lunch break. Not a working lunch, not a quick lunch at my desk, but I went a walked over to the UMC and had a nice sandwich. I ran into a colleague from our Cataloging department there and we had a good talk. But it wasn’t a working lunch! Really! =)

I headed back to the library and updated the LCDs again (keeping that content fresh!) and headed downstairs to take my weekly shift on the Reference Desk. (I volunteer there for an hour a week to get some experience while working on my MLS).

Then I chatted with a couple of colleagues about creating a YouTube clip for instruction sessions and the internal reactions to the LCDs and the renovation project in general.

I updated our department’s web site and added a new form for requesting LCD content. I updated our Google calendar for exhibits since I noticed that I’d forgotten to update it in far too long!

At this point, my supervisor and I met for an extended debrief on the our Web Advisory Committee’s latest meeting with the university’s Web Communications department. I’m starting to get quite hopeful that a redesign will happen… and will follow best practices. Hooray!

We also sat down and combined a tutorial session on PowerPoint (for her) and a rough draft of brochure for incoming students highlighting the new upcoming Learning Commons and our 5 branch libraries. I showed her how easy it was to do a mock-up in PP, and then familiarized her with our Facebook library page and how I use it promote events and news.

When I got back to my office, I was so inspired by our brief conversation that I went ahead and finished a full draft of the brochure.

Then I finished the day by updating the LCD playlist once more, and created a few slides to be ready for tomorrow morning’s updates.

It was a great bike ride home, I gotta say I’m really lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

Normally, after dinner and some play time with my daughter, I’d be doing homework, but I needed a night off. Instead we went for a walk, took the kids to the park (my twin godchildren are visiting us right now as well) and did a few chores around the house and yard. Tucked my girl into bed with a kiss. All in all, not a bad day!

I wrote this while checking my FriendFeed and watching last night’s Daily Show and Colbert Report. Now it’s time to get some rest, maybe continue that new Verner Vinge novel I just picked up….