Next FIRM summit looks great!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Federal Information and Records Managers Council : One Thread

FIRM COUNCIL SUMMIT "RECORDS MANAGEMENT - LEGAL ISSUES"

TO: ALL FEDERAL RECORDS OFFICERS, IT STAFF AND CIO STAFF

DATE: NOVEMBER 16, 1999

TIME: 9:00 - 12 NOON

LOCATION: OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION, 700 G STREET NW, AMPHITHEATER WASHINGTON, DC TOPIC: "MAKING THE LEGAL GRADE -AAA- AGENCY APPRAISAL, ACCESS AND ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS"

SPEAKERS: MIKE TANKERSLY, PUBLIC CITIZEN PATRICE MCDERMOTT, OMB WATCH KENNETH WITHERS, FEDERAL JUDICIAL CENTER

RSVP BY 11/12/99: MARY RAWLINGS-MILTON 202-906-6028 ALICE GANNON 202-414-3791 PLEASE PASS THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TO AN INTERESTED COLLEAGUE Speakers bios:

Kenneth J. Withers is a Research Associate at the Federal Judicial Center, concentrating on the effects computer-mediated communication have (and will continue to have) on the rules of discovery, evidence, and procedure in federal litigation. He has just completed a series of five seminars on "Discovery and Management of Electronic Evidence" for federal district court judges and magistrates held across the country. Mr. Withers received his JD from Northwestern University. He was Supervising Attorney at the Boston litigation support firm of Conley & Hodge for ten years before retiring from the practice of law to obtain his Masters in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. After obtaining his MLS, he became Internet Services Coordinator and later Director of Education at the Social Law Library in Boston, the oldest and largest subscriber-supported research law library in New England. In addition to his recent appointment to the Federal Judicial Center, he is currently working on a research Ph.D. in Legal Informatics at the University of Wales Aberystwyth (UK). Mr. Withers is a well-known speaker on the New England law and technology circuit, having presented programs on the discovery of electronic records in litigation and the integration of computer and traditional records in records management for the Boston chapters of ARMA International and NAGARA. His presentation will be titled: "Eulogy and Cautionary Sermon Upon the Death of Records Management"

Patrice McDermott joined OMB Watch as the information policy analyst in 1993. She has lead responsibilities for promoting public access initiatives, monitoring information policy and National Information Infrastructure issues. Additionally, Dr. McDermott is Editor of the Government Information Insider, a quarterly OMB Watch publication. She chairs the Public Access Working Group, and maintains a listserv, "gov-info-access." Dr. McDermott is also an active participant in the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable (TPR), in Americans Communicating Electronically (ACE), and in a workgroup (OIW/SIG-LA GILS Subgroup) that was organized to help fully realize the potential of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) concept and to create and sustain a community of GILS implementors and users. Dr. McDermott was awarded her doctorate from the University of Arizona in political science and received a M.L.S. in library and information management from Emory University. She served as the Assistant Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association from 1986-88, taught information politics at Clark Atlanta University from 1988-90, and, from 1990-1993, worked at the National Archives and Records Administration. At NARA, she worked on electronic public access to and exchange of information from the online information resources and services under development in NARA. Dr. McDermott's remarks will center on legal access issues relating to electronic records.

Michael Tankersley works with the litigation team at Public Citizen which has endeavored to force the federal government to recognize the historic value of electronic records. In cases like Public Citizen v. Carlin, he has been an advocate on behalf on the American public to compel the National Archives and Records Administration to recognize its statutory authority in dealing with electronic versions of word processing and electronic mail records in a responsible manner. He has also had significant success in securing agency compliance with the 1996 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, popularly know as the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA). He has been active in litigation to requires agencies to compile inventories of their major information systems and make these inventories available to the public. Public Citizen sued seven agencies and testified before Congress about the government's failure to implement the 1996 Act. Three agencies -- the Departments of Justice, State and Education -- have conceded their non-compliance and have agreed to have judgments entered against them; they are awaiting a ruling on our claims against the four other agencies. Mr. Tankersley will speak on agency responsibility for records management and will review some of the important procedural rulings won by Public Citizen in recent years.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


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