Government information policy principles

This article analyzes the utility of policy principles advanced by professional associations.     

Social science research in Canada and government information policy: The statistics Canada example

This research on government information policy's effects on use and users of government information considered social scientists' use of information from Canada's central statistical agency, Statistics Canada. Using a triangulated methodology, the investigation focused on Canadian mid-1980s federal cost-recovery and restraint initiatives which applied to government information. The case study revealed Statistics Canada's response to the initiatives. Bibliometric research objectively documented policy effects on use of statistics sources, examining Canadian social science journal articles in five disciplines. Textual examination revealed use of Canadian and foreign governmental and nongovernmental statistics sources over the years surrounding policy implementation. An author survey supplemented bibliometric findings. Higher prices and increased electronic data dissemination by Statistics Canada were confirmed, however bibliometric analysis indicated no significant change over time in use of statistics sources. Survey respondents expressed unhappiness with the price increases, but did not change sources used. Many (in 1995) still used paper products rather than electronic ones, a finding which provides baseline data but which does not reflect the more recent explosion in Internet use.     

Government information policy research: Importance, approaches, and realities

Information policy research is a critical tool in the arsenal of library and information science researchers. As developments occur in information access, use, technology, and management, information policies require more attention and research. The article describes the nature of government information policy and policy research, characteristics of policy research, and examples of research methods and approaches that can be used. The differences between textbook-based policy research and how policy research might be implemented in action are also discussed, as are the inter-connectedness of information policies and ways to describe impacts of information policies. The article recommends that researchers and professionals give greater education, training, and professional association attention to using policy research on a day-to-day basis.     

Freedom of information in Atlantic Canada

Freedom of information legislation was enacted in three of Canada's four Atlantic Provinces between 1977–1982 in response to public demand for more open and participatory government. The New Brunswick and Newfoundland statutes have conferred broad public information access with a right of appeal to the Ombudsman or a judge. This legislative structure has effectively sustained the remedial objectives of the legislation—an assessment qualified by low rates of recorded information requests and appeals, deficient public information systems, legislative exceptions, and the absence of privacy protection legislation. The Nova Scotia legislation provides broad information access rights, but lacks any independent review mechanism and is arguably a statement of principles of little more import than Prince Edward Island's absent legislation.     

Government information in Pakistan: a note

The government publications are an unexplored facet of Pakistan librarianship. Ineffective bibliographical control affects their sales and distribution. The publications are sold either directly by the Manager of Publications or through agents. Most libraries catalogue and shelve them as they do books. Some maintain a separate catalogue and a few institutions have a combination of the two approaches. AACR is used. Documents are arranged in alphabetical order by issuing agency, followed by individual titles arranged by year of publication. Special libraries devoted to finance and banking make the most use of government publications. A “Public Documents” course is mandated to be in the curriculum of six library schools in the country, but only the University of Karachi offers this course.     

Government secrecy: policy depths and dimensions

Government secrecy has a long history in the American federal experience. Several kinds of government secrecy policy are reviewed here, beginning with their origins, or “policy depths,” and extending to their most recent expressions or “dimensions.” It is a rich history which, in this brief overview, is explored only in terms of its highlights, but offers, nonetheless, a roadmap for pursuing research in this area. It concludes with the observation that, in a democracy, representatives of the citizenry, whether elected or appointed, may momentarily cloak their decisionmaking and their policies in secrecy for the good of the nation—to protect it from enemies and to assure its survival. Those representatives must remember that the secrecy they impose is only momentary and that the shrouded decisions and policies they make, once made known to the citizenry, must be acceptable to them. The citizenry, in turn, accept such secrecy only in limited instances and on a momentary basis in order to have the confidence that their representatives are making decisions and policies acceptable to them. A government failing to honor these arrangements may well be regarded as one “not worth the cost of preservation.”     

Spatial data standards and information policy

Federal information policies, in general, have recognized the importance of open access to the digital data holdings of the government. Such policies have been supported by the Clinton administration's investment in a National Information Infrastructure. Recently, reports by the National Academy of Sciences and by the Vice President's National Performance Review have endorsed the creation of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure that will provide the spatial framework for the geographic data on the information superhighway. The success of such an enterprise will require the development of a suite of spatial data standards and policy tools. Existing standards, development activities, and mechanisms are described. Some of the policy challenges are unique to spatial data.     

俄罗斯图书馆信息化政策的三个阶段

论文全面分析了俄罗斯图书馆信息化政策的产生和发展过程,并将政策的发展变化划分为三个阶段,论述了三个阶段的政策特征,指出了目前阻碍政策发展的问题.     

Federal information policy: Protecting the free flow of information

Federal information policy is a tangled web, woven over many decades and one which tends to trap information, rather than making it easily available. Although some of the difficulty has been caused by a lack of coherence and by some confusion among members of the Congress, the principal difficulty recently has been the lack of trust exhibited by the Reagan administration. If the United States is to regain its economic and technological health, a well-thought-out and administered Federal information policy will be the cornerstone to those ends. An informed electorate can help by assisting Congress with ideas regarding needs, both present and future. Together with an informed administration, we can, and must, create the Federal information policy that meets all our needs without jeopardizing our national security.     

我国信息环境管理的政策调控与信息立法问题

国家信息化建设离不开一个能够使信息资源得以充分开发和有效利用的信息环境.本文讨论了制定我国信息环境管理政策的原则,对信息政策指导下的信息立法问题进行了初步探索.     

The strategic importance of information policy for the contemporary neoliberal state: The case of Open Government Data in the United Kingdom

The article analyses the role of Open Government Data policy as part of the broader public policy agenda of the UK government. A thematic analysis of interview, observational and policy documentation is presented which suggests that since 2010 the Open Government Data agenda has been used strategically by the UK's centre-right coalition government to progress a range of controversial policies, which are aimed at the continuation of the neoliberal form of state through its current crisis. Specifically, the relationship between Open Government Data policy and the neoliberal objectives of the marketisation of public services and privatisation of public assets, the leveraging of financial markets and the pharmaceutical industry, and the embedding of OGD into a broader agenda aimed at rebuilding trust in political elites are analysed. These findings are examined in relation to Braman's (2006, 2011) arguments regarding the strategic implementation of information policy by Governments in the exercising of state power, and the development of the ‘informational state’.     

信息时代"数字政府"信息如何公开

工业时代 ,拥有 80 %以上社会信息资源的政府 ,用户对其信息利用率仅为 1 0 %。信息时代的“数字政府”运行刚性的程序化与模式化是政府运行科学与高效的技术保障 ,但从总体上讲 ,“数字政府”仍然改变不了最终由人操作的结局 ,因为数字信息平台是否运转 ,为什么运转 ,数字信息的收集、公开等仍需要人的能动作为。那么 ,“数字政府”信息如何公开呢 ?本文从法律角度作了分析