UHLC Nota Bene

Bernan Press has recently published the fourth edition of the Clean Water Act Handbook by Duke K. McCall, III . Designed for the practitioner, this source cover the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, which regulates discharges to waters within the United States. The chapter on effluent limitations discusses standards that regulate discharges to waters based on what is economically and technologically achievable in one's industry. Another chapter provides an overview of Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) standards, which are designed to test the impact of pollution on aquatic life. The author also covers non-point sources such as agricultural runoff, the regulation of dredged or fill materials, storm water discharges, and regulation of sanitation systems, among other topics. Finally, the reader will learn about topics related to enforcement of the Clean Water Act, such as criminal and civil enforcement, defenses, and citizen suits. The full text of the C...

Earlier this week, the Library of Congress announced that it was making over 25 million of its catalog records available for free bulk download. These records will be available at data.gov and on the Library of Congress website at http://www.loc.gov/cds/products/marcDist.php . Previously these records were only available individually or by subscription. This new free service of the LOC will be an invaluable resource for anyone doing bibliographic research. The records are in the MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging Records) format, the international standard for bibliographic data. To learn more about MARC records, see this tutorial on the LOC website.      

A March New York Times article sounded warning bells for researchers: the scourge of dark data. Dark data doesn’t refer to anything secret or illegal, but rather data developed by the government and other organizations subject to loss. A more complete definition, often used in the corporate context, is " the information assets organizations collect, process and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes.” Concern over the loss of data that could lead to new discoveries has been especially equated with the loss of scientific data stored by agencies and other organizations. Much of this data is stored on government servers, with no legal obligation to remain available. The Trump administration’s proposed cuts to scientific research and agency funding has only increased the alarm felt by scientists and other researchers. An additional problem is that dark data, by definition, is unknown. It can’t be verified if it can’t be found, even...