CAP Launches “Yes We Scan” Campaign to Push for Digitizing Government Records

Posted Thursday, January 5, 2012 by Naima Ramos-Chapman

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  • CAP Launches “Yes We Scan” Campaign to Push for Digitizing Government Records
Yes We Scan

SOURCE: Campus Progress Illustration

The “Yes We Scan” initiative would bring the Library of Congress to our computer screens.

The Center for American Progress is helping to lead a campaign to “launch our Library of Congress into Cyberspace” by pushing for the digitalization of public government records, making a range of information more available to Americans.

John Podesta, chair of the Center for American Progress, our parent organization, and Carl Malamud, president of Public Resource, launched the ambitious “Yes We Scan” initiative that would promote a more open-government and bring the Library of Congress to our computer screens in late December.

In a joint letter to President Obama, the groups call on the White House to make “access to knowledge a right for all Americans and a defining contribution for our future.” The lengthy project, if enacted, would likely create jobs, spur innovation, encourage civic engagement, and provide better access to justice, according to the campaign.

The movement is only asking, initially, for the administration to create a commission that would assess the costs, logistics, and overall benefits of such a project. The groups are promoting a petition on the White House’s “We the People” page, asking for 25,000 signatures, after which the administration would respond.

In the letter to the president, Podesta and Malamud note that digitizing federal public documents would only be a continuation of the legacy of the nation’s founding fathers, echoing when they donated their own personal libraries to contribute to the public’s collective one. The letter reads:

When Thomas Jefferson donated his books to create the cornerstone of the Library of Congress, his library contained a wealth of useful information, from an extensive collection on the law to books on agriculture, chemistry, surgery, and medicine. With this contribution, Jefferson saw to it that the government of the United States would play a central role in the increase and diffusion of knowledge. It is time now for us to lay the cornerstone for our own era, to anchor our digital age with the vast holdings of our government so that we may promote the useful arts and the progress of science.

Sign the petition today, and help encourage a comprehensive, digital Library of Congress.

Naima Ramos-Chapman is an associate editor at Campus Progress.

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