A little more a year ago, the Fort Collins Coloradoan began a project on the salary increases at Colorado State University. So, a reporter requested a digital copy of the information, which the university kept. Rather than turn over the easily searchable version of the database, the university directed the newspaper to a 143-page document kept at the school’s library.

Legal? Yes.

Useful for students and the public in general to know how their tax dollars and fees were being spent at a time of increasing tuition and concern over a tight budget for higher education? Not at all.

That is why a year ago, state Sen. John Kefalas of Fort Collins introduced a bill that would require the custodians of public records to provide them in digital format where possible.

Read more at The Longmont Times-Call.