How outsourcing affects the e-disclosure of performance information by local governments

Performance information disclosure, especially e-disclosure practices, is widely considered to increase public sector accountability. This paper aims to examine the impact that public service delivery through outsourcing has on voluntary performance information disclosure with respect to direct delivery. The study draws on agency theory and organisational information processing theory to suggest that a greater degree of outsourcing in public service delivery might increase the likelihood that public administrations would disclose performance information through their websites. An empirical analysis conducted on a sample of 262 Italian municipalities supported this hypothesis. The study also showed that no unique set of factors could explain the differences in the electronic disclosure of performance information by Italian municipalities, but disclosure was observed to depend—at least in part—on how municipalities deliver public services.     

The impact of functional decentralization and externalization on local government transparency

Local governments are increasingly establishing functional decentralized agencies, such as autonomous organizations, public companies, foundations and public business entities to provide public services. Furthermore, they are also introducing the private sector, contracting out public services to a private company and creating mixed companies. Our aim is to analyze the effect of functional decentralization and externalization (outsourcing or contracting out) processes on public transparency levels, since theoretically, they are aimed toward good governance and accountability. To do so, we use a sample composed of the 110 largest Spanish cities for the period 2008–2010. The results show that decentralized agencies, especially public companies and foundations, impact positively on levels of public transparency. However, there is no evidence that suggests that the introduction of the private sector, using outsourcing and mixed companies, affects the transparency of local governments.     

Broadband for public libraries: Importance,issues, and research needs

U.S. public libraries provide free public internet services to the communities that they serve, but require robust, high-speed broadband internet connections to continue meeting public demands. The 2008–2009 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS) illustrates challenges that public libraries encounter in achieving broadband connectivity and equipment upgrades, and maintaining acceptable levels of services as they meet continually increasing internet-enabled service demands. This article: 1) analyzes the ability of public libraries to serve as a community-based public internet access point in the context of limited funding and access to telecommunications services and equipment; 2) discusses key policy issues that affect the provision of public library internet-enabled services through broadband; 3) provides recommendations for policy makers to include libraries as part of a larger national-level telecommunications policy; and 4) identifies a number of topics and issues that need further investigation and research in this shifting policy environment.     

Close encounters of the digital kind: A research agenda for the digitalization of public services

This paper contributes to e-government research by presenting a review and discussion on how digitalization of public services has affected the interaction between citizens and government. We argue for a conceptualization and critical reflection on the nature of the underlying interaction between citizens and public officials - the public encounter - that digital public services are developed to support. We apply a qualitative and hermeneutic approach and illustrate that digital public services change public encounters concerning when, where, and how interactions occur, what each actor does, and the skills required of them. By relating these changes to emerging digital technologies (e.g. data mining, machine learning, sensor technology, and service automation), we illustrate that while these new technologies carry the potential to further digitalize service provision and fulfill the democratic goals of digital government, authorities can apply the same technology to restrict, control, and surveil citizens. Based on a critical discussion on what digitalization might entail for society, we identify problem areas arising from this development and propose a research agenda for understanding this phenomenon further. We raise questions and ethical concerns regarding accountability and reskilling of citizens and public officials as public service provision becomes citizen self-service.     

公共图书馆服务变革机制研究--英国启示

论文从对英国公共图书馆服务现象的观察入手，探索现象背后的社会、法律等影响因素以及图书馆服务变革的趋势，以此为参照探讨中国公共图书馆服务的机制和变化，并进一步建构新的中国公共图书馆服务体系。     

Information governance,records management,and freedom of information: A study of local government authorities in England

In many democratic states political rhetoric gives weight to increasing public participation in and understanding of the political process; (re)-establishing public trust in government decision making; increasing transparency, openness, and accountability of public authorities; and, ultimately, improving government decision-making on behalf of citizens. Access to the public record and freedom of information (FOI) are mechanisms which help to facilitate the accountability of public authorities. Many jurisdictions have introduced legislation related to these mechanisms, and the UK government is no exception with its enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2000. University College London (UCL) ran a research project over 12 months in 2008–2009, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research project examined what the impact of the UK FOIA had been on records management services in public authorities, especially local government. This article reports on some of the findings of the study. It considers how FOI compliance and records management functions are organized in local government and the role of information governance which is emerging as an umbrella for such functions. It draws some conclusions about the contributions that records management services make to the ability of local authorities to comply with the FOIA and identifies some ways in which user experience may be affected by the management of records.     

Using government websites to enhance democratic E-governance: A conceptual model for evaluation

The last few decades have witnessed unprecedented transformations in every sector of society, resulting from the explosive advancement of information and communication technologies. This drastic development has raised the hopes of citizens for better lives, in both developing and advanced countries, urging innovation in government to make it more competent. Due to e-business revolutions, governments around the world have applied similar principles and technologies to government by opening their websites for more efficient publication of information and more effective delivery of public services. While a government website is an important venue for citizens to participate in public affairs and decision-making processes, early e-government practices tended to overlook democratic purposes by focusing on the features of e-business and information systems. There have been increasing criticisms that e-government system design has focused mainly on the provider's perspectives. Reflecting on the theoretical implications of this, we argue that a government website should facilitate democratic processes involving not only information sharing and delivery of better public services, but also deliberation and coproduction. The purpose of this study is to probe into multidimensional features that enable government websites to fulfill their promises. Developing an integrative model for evaluating a government website, namely the Democratic E-governance Website Evaluation Model, we conducted a qualitative meta-analysis of four strands of literature: information systems, business, public administration, and democratic theory. Our study contributes to the literature by extending the purview of e-government website analysis beyond the question of citizens' acceptance and towards the issue of their engagement, bringing a stimulating view of citizens as active agents in governance, and it provides a holistic model for public authorities to improve their websites to facilitate democratic e-governance that helps to create more effective public outcomes.     

Defining digital transformation: Results from expert interviews

Digital transformation approaches outside the public sector are changing citizens' expectations of governments' ability to deliver high-value, real-time digital services. In response to the changing expectations and triggered by supranational agreements, governments are changing their mode of operation to improve public service delivery, be more efficient and effective in their designs, and achieve objectives such as increased transparency, interoperability, or citizen satisfaction. However, beyond the availability of consultancy reports, there is little systematic insight into the way that public administrators themselves are currently defining digital transformation in their own day-to-day practices, how they are approaching digital transformation projects, and what their expected outcomes are. We provide an empirically-based definition of digital transformation derived from expert interviews and develop a conceptual framework with reasons for, processes to, and expected outcomes of digital transformation in the public sector.     

Enhancing the adoption of digital public services: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment

Governments increasingly digitalize the provision of their public services, but these efforts fail to generate expected social benefits if the services remain underutilized. We use a large-scale field experiment to provide causal evidence on how a concrete policy instrument, nudging, can be used to address such underutilization by a group of slow adopters. Our experiment is conducted in a real-world setting with actual citizens and makes use of informative and social influence nudges. We find that such behavioral interventions enhance the adoption of an online government service among the slow adopters. The effects are statistically highly significant and quantitatively large. The most effective experimental treatment doubles the adoption rate.     

Unpacking the digitalisation of public services: Configuring work during automation in local government

The digitalisation of public services involves not only the transformation of the relationship between public service providers and clients, but also the transformation of public administration work. While most studies of digitalisation of the public sector have focused on the practical outcomes for the quality of public services and the quality of public administration work, none have unpacked , or theorised, how these changes actually come about in practice. This paper fills this gap by drawing on a study of the in-house adaptation of a digital automation tool (an RPA) by a Swedish local authority. In the article, we pay attention to what we, inspired by Donna Haraway and Lucy Suchman, call ‘configuring work’, i.e. the weaving together of the affordances of the technology, materials, discourses, roles and power structures. The contribution of the paper is two-fold. First, the paper demonstrates empirically how the digitalisation of a public service took place through an emergent, relational process that involved both the social and the material. Second, by adopting the the idea of ‘configuring work’ and paying attention to the effects of this, we show that the digitalisation process was successively shaped by the particular vested interests, ethics, discourses and the algorithmic materialities that comprised it. This helps us discuss the reason for why, in extant literature, digitalisation threatens the professional autonomy of the public administrators as well as why it may reduce service quality. Finally, we suggest how some of these issues may be addressed in future research.     

Predictors of on-line services and e-participation: A cross-national comparison

Effective e-government creates an environment for citizens to have greater access to their government and, in theory, makes citizen-to-government contact more inclusive. Our research examines two distinct but related measures of e-government effectiveness, namely the online service index and the e-participation index, both reported in the 2010 e-government survey conducted by the United Nations. We analyze the impact of political structure, public sector performance and policy initiatives on both indices in more than 150 countries. Our multiple regression analysis shows that there is greater e-government capability in countries that have more effective public sector governance and administration, and policies that advance the development and diffusion of information and communication technologies. More democratic institutions and processes, however, appear to have a negative impact on e-government. In addition, countries that practice effective governance and promote competition in the telecommunications sector demonstrate more extensive provision of e-participation. These results suggest that the path to e-government leverages different strategies depending on a nation's political structure, and that authoritarian countries may be utilizing e-government to maintain the status quo.     

The public sector's roles in the sharing economy and the implications for public values

Motivated by the growing significance of the sharing economy, we discuss the roles the public sector may play within the sharing economy and the corresponding implications for public values. The sharing economy represents a transformative agent for the public sector within the current landscape of digital transformation. While the public sector has so far acted mainly as a regulatory body in the sharing economy, we here discuss implications for other roles the public sector may take on, including the roles of customer, service provider, and platform provider. Framed within the context of the public value ideals (professional, efficiency, service, and engagement), we examine the opportunities and challenges of each role for the four public values. Finally, we identify areas for future research, focusing on the implications of public values for the public sector in the sharing economy.     

图书馆编目外包未来走向探析

科学、合理的编目业务外包能够节省图书馆的人力、物力、财力,提高工作效率和服务质量。目前我国图书馆纷纷实施编目业务外包,但走入了过份追求免费外包服务的误区,导致编目数据质量下降。为此,图书馆应结合本馆实际情况,主动放弃低水平的免费编目外包,积极培育专业编目外包商,同时慎重实施编目外包项目。     

Minding the gap: Applying a service marketing model into government policy communications

In order to bolster the emerging but still underdeveloped conceptualization of public communication over potential policies, we apply a framework primarily used in business service marketing to improve service quality (“gap analysis”). We argue that this model has strong heuristic qualities that can alert practitioners who are interested in improving communication regarding potential policies. While we recognize problems implementing the model, we suggest some ways that both practitioners and the public ameliorate the identified issues. Seeing communication about potential policies as a crucial part of the political process, we argue that such efforts have democratic merit.     

政府信息服务外包的理论依据与模式选择

政府信息服务外包理论源于推动政府改革的公共选择理论、新公共管理理论、治理理论、委托代理理论等,根据政府信息服务在竞争性、排他性和外部性等方面的经济特性,提出政府信息服务的外包可采用合同外包、特许经营、公私合作等模式。     

A final flowering of the developmental state: The IT policy experiment of the Korean Information Infrastructure, 1995–2005

In contrast to the private-led initiative typified by the U.S. Information Superhighway project in the early 90s, the Korean government was in the forefront of directing the Korean Information Infrastructure (KII) project (1995–2005), which was aimed at building a nationwide broadband backbone network. This study first looks at how the developmental mechanism of Korea during the KII project signifies the weaker status of the civilian government of the 90s. This study then shows how in the KII project, the government served primarily as a moderator mediating conflicts between the private sector and the relevant public agencies. To describe the close state–capital linkages in the KII project, this study focuses on the government's financial investment system for enticing the private sector to install the IT infrastructure, the neatly coordinated policy networks between the public and private entities, and the policy discourses by which the government achieved a national consensus on IT-driven economic development.     

Proactivity in digital public services: A conceptual analysis

Public organizations are looking for new ways to use digital technologies to increase the efficiency of their internal processes and improve their interactions with clients, whether citizens or businesses. In response, scholars suggest that public organizations be proactive in digital public services such that the organizations approach their clients, rather than the other way around. In the most extreme form of proactivity, clients do not have to do anything to receive a public service. Although various examples of proactive public services are in use, how proactivity changes the conceptual understanding of digital public services remains unclear. Therefore, we derive the changes that proactivity causes in a conceptualization of digital public service by means of a conceptual analysis through the lens of a seminal theoretical work on proactivity. The results indicate that proactivity can ensure equal accessibility to a subset of public services, rely on more comprehensive integration of IT systems on the back end, and change how value is co-created in the service process. We formulate the changes as propositions that future work can investigate empirically and discuss proactive digital public services as a way to reduce clients' administrative burden. We contribute to theory by clarifying the conceptual changes in digital public services that proactivity invokes and call for joint research by scholars of public administration, information systems, and service management to relate the research streams of administrative burden and proactive digital public service.     

定位于弱势群体的公共图书馆延伸服务

公共图书馆具有消除社会排斥、促进公民参与民主社会的重要作用,但是免费、开放的图书馆服务未必能保障弱势人群的基本文化权益。公共图书馆需要将被社会排斥的弱势阶层作为图书馆延伸服务的对象,需要找出并克服现有服务中的排斥性因素,将公共图书馆的资源和服务有重点地向弱势群体倾斜,真正实现普遍均等的公共图书馆服务体系建设目标。     

政府购买公共图书馆服务之网络化治理研究

政府购买公共图书馆服务旨在更好地实现图书馆服务均等化和提升图书馆服务质量,满足社会公众日益增长的文化需求。其网络化治理是保障服务供给、形成制度规范、优化运作程序、实现技术应用的迫切要求,必须明确政府机构、企业单位、第三部门与社会公众等多元主体各自的功能定位,建立集信任、协调、互动、整合于一体的实现机制,遵循确定目标一致的战略方案、打造信息共享的管理平台、提升政府部门的治理能力、完善高效运转的监管体系等治理途径。     

Rewards for Good Marketing

Special Libraries, Special Challenges is a column dedicated to exploring the unique public services challenges that arise in libraries that specialize in a particular subject, such as law, medicine, business, and so forth. In each column, the author will discuss public service dilemmas and solutions that arise specifically in given subject libraries, while drawing links to how such issues affect librarianship in general. Special or subject-matter librarians interested in authoring a piece for this column are invited to contact Melissa K. Aho at ahox0017@umn.edu.

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