Providing access to local government information: The nature of public library activity

This article focuses on the problems associated with providing access to local government information. The research on which it is based is from a 1986 survey conducted by the author of 265 public libraries in six library systems in northern Illinois, the largest comparative study of public library providers of local government information conducted to date. Fifty-five active providers of local government information (those that received requests for this information at least every two weeks) were identified: the findings are based on telephone and group interviews with key staff of those libraries. The article examines a variety of methods that might be used to increase access to local government information. It analyzes the nature of requests received and the types of responses given by these libraries. It examines the major problems associated with providing access to local government information and discusses the reasons given by librarians for providing access to local government information sources. The article concludes that a serious local government information gap exists and that librarians who seek to over-come it must articulate a role that addresses the serious barriers that must be overcome before a library can provide meaningful access to local government information.     

Partners on the net: FDLP partnering to coordinate remote access to internet-based government information

In June 1996, the Government Printing Office (GPO) published a plan for its transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). This plan assumes that federal information policy requires that the FDLP provide permanent public access to remotely-accessible electronic government information products and indicates that such access will be provided through a network of partnerships comprised of the GPO, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), federal agencies, and FDLP libraries. GPO has established its first library partnership in this FDLP network with the University of Chicago at Illinois' Richard J. Daley Library and the Department of State (DOS) to ensure that DOS materials will be available for permanent public access through the FDLP. To extend the partnership network to publishing agencies, a partnership has been arranged with the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure direct FDLP access to technical reports maintained on a DOE World Wide Web site.     

The impact of electronic access to government information: what users and documents specialists think

This article discusses the results of a survey designed to assess the current state of electronic access to government information from both the specialist and the user viewpoint. The first survey, designed to determine the government documents staffs' level of commitment to and opinions of electronic access to government information, was distributed in electronic format to subscribers of GOVDOC-L, a listserv for specialists dealing with government documents. The second survey, designed to provide insight into the user's point of view, was conducted at the University of Illinois Documents Library. This article synthesizes earlier studies and articles on the topic to show that while the consensus is that electronic access represents a positive, beneficial move toward providing access to government information to a wider audience, there is also an acknowledgment that there are many inherent problems that have not been addressed adequately.     

Improving access to Japanese scientific and technical literature in the United States: The role of the Federal government

Currently, the United States lacks a clear and consistent information policy defining and regulating the Federal role in collection and dissemination of Japanese scientific and technical information (STI) to users in the public and private sectors. One long-term consequence of this situation involves negative impacts on American scientific and technological innovation and on competitiveness in the global economy.After a discussion of the existing legislative and regulatory environment shaping the Federal government's approach to Japanese STI activities, the article presents five policy options, each of which describes a different role for the Federal government. Finally, the article recommends a combination of two options that will create the basis for a Federal information policy designed to support a self-sustaining STI infrastructure in the United States. That infrastructure will efficiently access and disseminate Japanese STI to public and private sector users.     

Transparency and technological change: Ensuring equal and sustained public access to government information

The Obama administration campaigned on the platform of increased transparency and access to government information after the limitations of the Bush years. As part of this focus on transparency, the Obama administration is emphasizing the use of e-government and new social media services to open up access to government. This paper explores the considerations and challenges of this approach, such as the inclusion of members of the public with limited access to the internet, the use of non-governmental channels to disseminate government information, the permanence of digital-born government information, and the design of e-government.     

Old solutions in a new age: Cataloging and the future of access to government information

The availability of U.S. Government Printing Office bibliographic tapes for copy cataloging or for loading directly into online catalogs may have lulled documents librarians into believing that the problem of bibliographic control for documents collections has been solved. Others may believe that with the move to an electronic distribution system for United States government information, creating and loading bibliographic records for government publications into local library catalogs is becoming an anachronism. This article discusses the functions of cataloging in light of continuing needs and current developments in access to government information. Recommendations are made for ways that the library community, providers of government information, and automation specialists can work together to reexamine bibliographic standards, expand tape loading to non-U.S. depository documents collections, link useful bibliographic databases with library catalogs, and use cataloging of Internet resources to show relationships between physical collections and remotely accessible government information.     

Electronic dissemination of government information in canada: Implications for equitable access

Increasingly, federal government departments in Canada are publishing and disseminating official information in electronic form. A survey of all full and selective depository libraries in the Canadian Depository Services Program was undertaken to determine the extent to which those libraries are prepared for the shift to electronic formats. Findings reported in the article show that academic and government libraries are better positioned than public libraries to provide service. Academic and government libraries have access to greater numbers of more powerful personal computers, better printers, and higher speed connections to the Internet. The imposition of fees for service is seen to be an important issue. Public libraries comprise the largest single sector of libraries among depositories, and yet, their users are significantly disadvantaged in accessing government information by means of the new technologies.     

The federal government and information technology standards: Building the national information infrastructure

For many years, standards have been important considerations in the Federal government's policies for the use of information technology. The Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology develops and issues technical standards that are used by the Federal government in its information technology systems. The new Federal initiative for the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the National Performance Review (NPR) make information technology an agent for change and emphasize standards as a means for achieving connectivity of computer and telecommunications technologies and for easy access to information. The Federal government will be challenged to address the technical, organizational, and policy issues that affect the development of the standards needed for future information systems.     

Democracy through access to legal information for newly democratizing nations: The Kenyan perspective and lessons from the American experience

The rule of law is essential for a country's development process, providing one of the ingredients for stability in newly democratizing countries that eventually promotes strong judicial systems. Likely factors contributing to weaknesses in the judicial systems include the absence of functional legal information systems, especially the availability of judicial decisions, as well as the inability of the populace generally to access legal material and legal information. Taking Kenya as an example and using the US judicial process as a foil, this paper examines the proposition that the availability of judicial decisions in case reporters enhances democracy by increasing judicial transparency and contributing to some predictability in the law, thus enhancing the rule of law. The paper also emphasizes the crucial role that information technology and the Internet could have in advancing access to legal information.     

The right to know: Public access to federal information in the 1980s

This article is based on a symposium held at the University of California, Berkeley, and sponsored by the Library, University of California, Berkeley; the Librarians Association of the University of California (Berkeley Division); and the School of Library and Information Studies, University of California, Berkeley. The author examines government information controls in the context of the constitutional and statutory tradition of open access to government information in the United States. He discusses the restrictive climate in which the Reagan administration views public access and warns that restrictive national security policies may actually curtail economic growth, retard defense programs, and undermine the Constitution.     

定题情报服务的原则和方法

在选择项目时谨记超前性、抓西瓜和量力而行，采取太公钓鱼、全面撒网、有的放矢和筑巢引凤四种形式。在优质服务上，注意情报服务与科研工作相结合，阶段提供与随时提供相结合，显性需求满足与隐性需求满足相结合；贯彻团队服务原则，持业精业、持之以恒原则，熟悉项目和促进科研原则。     

The hospital library: access to information for rural health professionals

This article examines some recent literature about the low physician-population ratios in rural areas. In an attempt to discover those factors which seem to preclude successful health care delivery in rural areas, it discusses a definition of the city as the place where the maximum lines of communication converge. A new concept, the "invisible city," is proposed, and the health care community in the United States is seen as an example. The library of the rural hospital, then, is defined as the location of the rural health professional's primary entrance into his own invisible city by means of professional communication through the biomedical literature.     

Rhetoric versus reality: a reexamination of access to U.S. government information during the presidency of Ronald Reagan

This article examines information policies implemented during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. Of special interest is an analysis of OMB Circular A-130 and the assumptions that underlay its mandates. In addition, a rhetorical analysis of articles from the period is undertaken to examine the assumptions authors used in their defense of or arguments against U.S. federal information policy of the time. Finally, an analysis of the budget of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the number of items distributed to depository libraries, and the sales of the Government Printing Office (GPO) is made to determine changes as a result of the implemented policies.