Urban Planning student David Hayward tries out GPO
Access in Government Publications.
Urban Planning
student David Hayward tries out GPO
Access in Government
Publications.
Karen J. Sy, Government Publications
More than one public administrator has quipped, "Government is information management." This astute summation of the bulk of government activity is still apt, but the way governments are managing information is changing rapidly and dramatically. Recent trends in the dissemination of government information include shifts from:
From your home computer, you can now retrieve the tax form you forgot to pick up at the library, compare sources of campaign contributions for city council candidates, or download court forms for initiating divorce proceedings.
Information technology companies offering goods and services may register for placement on the Washington Department of Information Services vendor list. In addition, communities can announce their local festivals in the state Tourism Division's calendar of events.
Computer networks make it possible for government agencies to disseminate information in a more timely manner and make it readily accessible to more people. Dramatic evidence of increased timeliness can be found in the state and federal systems for tracking legislative activity. Print copies of new bills arrive in the Libraries from Olympia about one to two weeks after they are introduced; microfiche copies of Congressional bills arrive three to four months after introduction. Now, in both cases, the text of proposed legislation is available electronically within 24-48 hours from the State Legislature at LegInfo or US Congress at Thomas or GPO Access.
The shift to electronic media for communicating government information has raised innumerable policy questions about costs and fees, priorities for providing access to selected texts and databases, and personal privacy. Information policies developed for a print era do not yet adequately address all of these concerns. In Washington state, a task force on Public Information Access Policy has recently submitted a report to the Legislature highlighting the issues needing attention and recommending policies to guide agency actions. At the federal level, a host of position papers and issue analyses have been prepared on the National Information Infrastructure.
Advances paralleling those in the United States can also be observed at the international level. Most major international intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have a presence on the Internet. You can find current news releases, official position papers, full text reports, conference papers, final acts of conferences, and sometimes statistical data through Web home pages or gopher sites. Many times these documents are available within days of their release, a vast improvement over waiting three months for a title to arrive via bulk sea mail.
Some IGOs are starting to place ordering information on the Internet for standard publications, or provide the full text of formerly little known publications and publications not readily available through normal channels. The World Bank offers environmental information and project summaries. The NATO home page and gopher sites provide extensive access to full-text reports, periodical issues and news releases. A popular United Nations site displays documents from the World Conference on Women held in Beijing last fall.
Government Publication's home page is your campus gateway to these Internet resources and many others designed to bring government closer to the people.