Accessing public health information: a preliminary comparison of CABI's global health database and medline

Background: Access to a comprehensive public health index or database has been identified as problematic for health professionals. Public health literature contains many varied sources including reports, journal articles, and grey literature. Traditional biomedical databases such as medline often do not meet the needs of public health workers and researchers. Aim/Methods: The aim of the study was to examine the unique content of the global health database, by comparing it to the medline database. Pre‐determined terms were used as baseline comparators where controlled vocabulary definitions in each database were sufficiently matched. Retrieved results were stored and compared using EndNote libraries. Results: Results obtained from the terms used in the comparison study protocol suggest that the global health database holds a high proportion of unique records in comparison to medline . The largest overlap of duplicates from the global health database perspective came from the coccidiomycosis results set which contained 70.5% of references retrieved from both databases. Analyzing the results from a medline perspective, the subject with the largest overlap was dengue, with a 43% overlap. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the global health database is complimentary to medline in the subject areas of public health and global health.     

Technopolicing,surveillance, and citizen oversight: A neorepublican theory of liberty and information control

In modern society, we see the struggle to balance the proper functioning of government with the interests and rights of the people to access government information playing out all around us. This paper explores the relationship between liberty and security implicated by government surveillance and citizen-initiated efforts to cast the gaze back at the government (so-called “reciprocal surveillance”). In particular, this paper explores how a neorepublican conception of political liberty, defined as the absence of the possibility of domination, can inform future information policy research in this area. The paper concludes that, to be fully non-dominating, government must respect and provide effective institutional and legal mechanisms for their citizenry to effectuate self-government and command noninterference. Establishing liberal access rights to information about government conduct and mechanisms that ensure that citizens can effectively command noninterference are justified on the grounds that they reduce the possibility of arbitrary, and actual, interference with the right of the people govern themselves.     

Freedom of information legislation and its impact on press freedom: A cross-national study

This empirical study examines the effect of the Freedom of Information legislation on press freedom by analyzing cross-sectional data at the national level of aggregate indicators across 191 countries in 2010. The prediction by two-stage least square regression found that the impact of the legislation on press freedom is determined by control of corruption, the type of political regime (democratic or authoritarian regime), and the level of national economy. For recent adopters of the legislation, it could be no more than a legislative luxury. As the legislative effect on press freedom is mostly limited to less corrupt, advanced industrial democracies, the workings of the legislation require political and economic prerequisites.     

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.     

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.     

从立法角度论我国电子出版物呈缴制度

数字信息总体上可以分为两大类型：一类是实体电子出版物,另一类是网络信息。文章从国内电子出版物呈缴制度觋状分析,国外电子出版物呈缴制度研究和借鉴上,对我同电子出版物呈缴制度重要问题进行阐述。网络信息由于载体的虚拟性,其呈缴问题要复杂得多,文章粗浅地分析国内外有关网络信息呈缴的立法实践以及建立网络信息呈缴制度需要解决的难题。     

Internet access in libraries: A comparison of press coverage between Canada and Singapore

This article compares the newspaper coverage of Internet access in public libraries across two countries, Canada and Singapore. The aim is to discover some of the main concerns and themes that the press identifies with libraries, noting the differences between the two countries in this regard, and then to provisionally link these differences to certain structural characteristics of their respective societies and states. To achieve these aims I compare press coverage produced in terms of dates of publication, discourse producers, and discourse content. Implications of the findings for libraries and librarians are discussed.     

Government information policy in Canada

Two disparate trends have influenced Canada's long history of examining and developing government information policy. First, various publishing policies of the 1960s and 1970s recognized the public's right to government information. This trend culminated in freedom of information legislation in 1983. Following a transitional period in the mid-1980s, the advent of a corporate resource approach to government information resulted in information policies that emphasized information resources management, cost recovery, and commoditization. Recent attempts to merge the inherent contradictions between the concepts of the public's right to government information and information as a commodity have resulted in policy that leaves much to individual interpretation.     

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.     

Assessing citizen adoption of e-Government initiatives in Gambia: A validation of the technology acceptance model in information systems success

The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been used extensively to explain and predict users' acceptance of corporate information technology (IT). With the advancement in IT and the expanding popularity of internet applications in Gambia, e-Government has been a priority factor in rendering government services and in making information more accessible to citizens. This study shows how the TAM and e-Government initiatives would positively impact the Gambian government, despite the cultural differences within the country. This study developed a successful model of the Gambian e-Government system to assist Gambians with more efficient and cost-effective government operations. The study results reveal that the core constructs of the TAM have strong influences on user-intention towards e-Government products. This implies that the Gambian government can potentially utilize this study's TAM findings in other contextual settings to design and promote further implementation of e-Government systems.     

The power of information: health information and UK agendas

The Department of Health published a new health information strategy in May 2012. The document provides a framework for health information in England over the next 10 years. Health information developments in England, however, do not mirror developments in other parts of the United Kingdom. This article is a personal reflection on the new health information strategy in England, including comparison with developments in the other UK nations.     

Trips协议与我国信息立法完善策略

我国加入WTO需履行Trips协议规定的权利和义务。然而 ,由于我国的信息立法 ,特别是知识产权立法领域同Trips协议的规定尚有一定的差距 ,因而有必要尽早研究和修订我国相关的立法 ,为我国在加入WTO之后更好的享有权力和承担义务 ,减少由此带来的摩擦和冲突 ,创造良好的立法环境     

加拿大图书馆个人信息保护政策研究

加拿大图书馆大部分都有个人信息保护政策,涉及个人信息的采集、使用、保存、披露等各个方面,并提供了便于读者咨询、投诉的联系方式.这些个人信息保护政策以加拿大个人信息保护法律为主要依据.     

人事档案和公共人事信息体系

目前,在社会上起实际作用的人事信息有两个体系,一是人事档案体系,二是公共人事信息体系.要改革现有的人事档案,不能不对这两个体系进行分析探讨.     

Compliance with freedom of information legislation by public bodies in South Africa

In South Africa, freedom of information (FOI) is entrenched in section 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right of access to any information held by the state or by any other person that is to be used for the protection or exercise of any right. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) is the law that gives effect to section 32 of the Constitution. Regardless of a remarkable trend towards the adoption of FOI laws, international trends have shown this does not automatically translate into fulfilment of people's right to information. This study utilised mixed method research through the explanatory sequential design to assess compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa, with a view to develop a model for implementation of FOI. The study first conducted a quantitative study by analysing the reports of the South African Human Rights Commission from the reporting years 2006/07 to 2016/07 to assess compliance with sections 14, 15, 16, 17 and 32 of the PAIA. Thereafter, a qualitative study through interviews with purposively chosen participants was conducted to substantiate the findings of a quantitative study. Key results suggest that over the years, there were problems in the implementation of the FOI legislation in South Africa and its use was limited. Where implementation has taken place, it has been partial and inconsistent. The responsibility for the implementation of FOI legislation in most public bodies is assigned to legal departments that do not have knowledge of what records are created, and where and how they are kept. With regard to compliance, in terms of the degree of comparison, the situation was better in national departments, worse in provincial departments and worst in municipalities. The study recommends the establishment of an information governance unit to implement FOI in public bodies. Failure to assign responsibility to a relevant unit would perpetuate the non-compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa. A model for the implementation of PAIA within a public body is suggested.