Re: An interesting call about Proxy links involving government agencies

[Lee McCarley <mccarley_lr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, all--
Actually, it is not just ezProxy that creates this type of URL, any
URL-rewriting proxy system does this--and there are several, including
Innovative's WAM. This technology has been around for many years; it appears
that Ms. Moore is simply not familiar with it.

Certainly there are companies who try to take credit for content they did
not create, such as USHealthnet, a company that placed the National Library
of Medicine's MEDLINEplus consumer health resource in a frame on their own
web site (see http://www.nnlm.gov/scr/scnn/mar-apr02/mframing.htm ). I can
understand any federal (or any other institution) agency's concern about
such unethical practices--however, what is at issue is *intent.* Libraries
use rewriting proxies to make information available, not for commercial
gain. In fact, I can say with no modesty whatsover that we librarians do a
pretty good job of letting our clients know the source(s) of information we
provide.

I'd be curious to know if Ms. Moore is a govt employee, or a subcontractor;
if her claim to be working for FDA, EPA and others can be verified by those
agencies; if she is employed by a law firm or other business ir a
subcontractor; to whom exactly she is providing her info; when the report
will be finished; and whether this report will be made public, and where,
and when.

If she's a subcontractor, she's got plenty of $$ to pay you for any info you
provide--might was well get some of your tax dollars back <grin>.

<opinion--please ignore if libranarchist opinions offend>So long as the
manner in which we provide information to our clients is legal and ethical,
I would strongly resist "changing unnecessary links"--the only links that
are unnecessary on library web pages are those that collection development
studies (or budget...sigh) have shown to be so. I would rather stick to our
philosophy of making information available than kowtow to some government
wonk who doesn't understand proxy servers--or to any vendor or publisher who
believes that the word "litigate" will turn me into a quivering mass of
unthinking compliance. On the other hand, perhaps this is a "teachable
moment" that we as information professionals can take advantage of. If not
... well, I didn't vote for him, anyway.</opinion>

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lee McCarley, Systems Librarian
Mercer University School of Medicine
478-301-2151
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jill Ellern" <ellern@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <INNOPAC@xxxxxxxxxx>; <anc@xxxxxxxxxx>;
<kolenbran@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 4:20 PM
Subject: An interesting call about Proxy links involving government agencies


> I just got an interesting call from a Maureen Moore from the FDA
> researching proxied links on library system web pages.   She says that
> many government offices (FDA, EPA, and several others) are quite
> concerned that ezproxy links seem to "blend" a government agency
> databases with other agencies and libraries.  They are concerned with
> this because they are seeing it as an endorsement or something of
> incorrect combining of resources between the libraries and these
> government agencies. (It seems that when you mouse over the ezproxy
> link, when it says 0-www.fda.gov.www.library.edu - this is being
> misinterpreted by the several government agencies as a combined database
> of the fda and that library.)  She was looking into the reason why
> libraries were making such proxy links to government sites. I spent some
> time informing her of the reason why we might want to do it, why we
> might not want to make a proxy link, and how it might be done by
> accident or to limit use.  I also let her know that I didn't think there
> was anything these government agencies could do to prevent the
> appearance of this "blending" and that these links were a great thing
> for library access.  She is continuing to research this topic for these
> government agencies.
>
> I'm not sure what will be the outcome of this research that she's doing,
> but just wanted you all to know (and might want to think about changing
> unnecessary links)  I was also thinking you might have some additional
> information I would forward on to her....gde
>
>
> --
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