scholarly journals Cutting through the Fog: Government Information, Librarians, and the Forty-Fifth Presidency

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kian A. Flynn ◽  
Cassandra J. Hartnett

The presidential election of 2016 and the ensuing forty-fifth presidential administration have been marked by an increasingly polarized electorate, concerns about “fake news,” and a greater use of social media. President Trump and his administration have utilized the increased disintermediation of information consumption by communicating directly to the public and going around the “experts.” These phenomena raise issues for government information librarians concerned with the production, distribution, consumption, and preservation of government information, and impact the public’s understanding of—and trust in—government information. The government information issues we see today are not entirely new, as past governmental obfuscation has been well documented, but confronting these issues in the twenty-first century poses unique challenges. Fortunately, individuals, institutions, and libraries across the country are responding to this unique moment with a host of innovative solutions that promise to keep Americans informed in these turbulent times. Current engagement around these issues is reflected in educational programming at universities and public libraries, citizen actions such as the Data Rescue movement, and hybrid projects such as the End of Term Archive. The Government Publishing Office (GPO) is due for modernization, and statutory reform of 44 U.S.C., chapter 19, is being debated by the Committee on House Administration, library associations, and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) community. To meet the long-term needs of our users, librarians should advocate for the strengthening of existing structures for federal information such as the FDLP, LOCKSS-USDOCS, and the Hathi Trust Digital Library. Future initiatives must ensure that official legal processes remain in place to protect government information, while leaving room for creative nongovernmental collaborations as well.

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
David Durant

The rise of the Internet has had an enormous impact on library collections and services, and nowhere has this impact been more apparent than to the 1,250 libraries that participate in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The FDLP has provided the public with free access to government information since the nineteenth century, playing a vital role in helping to maintain the informed citizenry that is essential to our democracy. The underlying principle behind the FDLP is relatively simple:  documents are distributed by the Government Printing Office (GPO) to participating libraries, on the condition that the public is allowed free access to those materials. Just 10 years ago, the FDLP distributed 100% of its items in tangible format (print, microfiche, and CD-ROMs).


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Rahmi Ayunda ◽  
Nertivia Nertivia ◽  
Laode Agung Prastio ◽  
Octa Vila

Based on the history before the reform era, there have been many cases of government committing corruption, collusion and nepotism, this is the background of the movement to create a government to run good governance. As time has progressed, the time has come for a time that is all full of digitalization, both in the economy, education and politics. This research uses normative legal research methods. This study shows that the government in running its government will also be based on the development of sophisticated information technology which can be called E-Government. Therefore, there is now a time when the Indonesian government has used and allowed the Online Single Submission (OSS) system to make it easier for people who want to take care of business licensing. The implementation of good governance during the Industry 4.0 Revolution can take advantage of science, technology and information to provide good facilities and services to the Indonesian people, and the public can easily access government information.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1411-1434
Author(s):  
Barbara Costello

The implementation of the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-40) brought the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) fully into the digital age. The transition has created expected and unexpected changes to the way the Government Publishing Office (GPO) administers the FDLP and, in particular, to the relationships between the GPO and academic depository libraries. Innovative partnerships, use of emerging technologies to manage and share collections, and greater flexibility on the part of the GPO have given academic depository libraries a prominent and proactive role within the depository program. Newly announced initiatives from the GPO, the National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information and the Federal Information Preservation Network (FIPNet) potentially could either increase academic depository libraries' collaboration with the FDLP and the likelihood that they will remain in the program, or accelerate the rate at which academic depositories are dropping depository status.


Author(s):  
James Robert Masterson

Widespread use of social media in China is a double edged sword: social media offers opportunities for the government to connect with society, gauge the opinion of citizens in the public domain, and allow citizens to voice their anger when necessary by blowing off steam online rather than in the streets. However, social media also allows citizens to access information outside of China much more rapidly and efficiently and to link up and communicate with other citizens much more quickly. Social media allows users to share texts, photos, and files, making it much more difficult for the government to control information and to thwart organizing for political purposes. In some instances, the use of social media has forced the Chinese government to take actions that it otherwise would not have done or to reverse actions or policies already set in place. The goal of this chapter is to illustrate the double-edged sword that social media poses to government officials in China, particularly high-level party officials in Beijing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (8/9) ◽  
pp. 645-665
Author(s):  
Susan A Henricks ◽  
Genevieve M. Henricks-Lepp

Purpose – Public libraries can benefit from understanding the perspectives of various stakeholders leading to the development of measures for decision making and competing for funding as well as demonstrating accountability. The purpose of this paper is to examine library effectiveness from the perspective of multiple stakeholders from a list of indicators pertinent to today and to determine which are most important to a constituency of a single library and any differences among the various constituencies. Design/methodology/approach – A survey that listed indicators of effectiveness for a public library was given to four stakeholder groups of a city library: employees, library board, library foundation members, and the public. Findings – Of the 51 indicators, 39 comprised eight dimensions of effectiveness under the labels of: user experience, facility, digital collection, social media and board, community use, employees, administration, and collection management. The number of statistically significant differences was greatest between the library board and the public as well as the employees and the public. Originality/value – Indicators of public library effectiveness have not been updated for the twenty-first century.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
yanchun zhu ◽  
wei zhang ◽  
mei zhang ◽  
chunlei qin ◽  
jianbo wen

Abstract Background: Emergencies and their associated negative emotions have a great effect on public health. As a key part of the emergency management, government information release (GIR) not only meets the public's health information seeking, but also helps to eliminate the breeding and spreading of negative social emotions. Method: From the two aspects of content features and lingual forms, a regression model was built to explore the mechanism of GIR on the regulation of netizens' negative emotions by adopting the theoretical methods of content analysis, emotion calculation, and case analysis. Results: During the emergency outbreak, if the government can timely release information on the incident and respond to the public using rational language, netizens' negative emotions can be alleviated. During the emergency peak, the government should release the event progress, resolution and disposal information to improve the recognition of netizens and eliminate negative emotions. Conclusions: According to different stages of emergencies, the government should timely and reasonably utilize the attitude tendency, content type and lingual form of GIR to effectively regulate the negative emotions of netizens.


2018 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Namjoo Choi ◽  
Soohyung Joo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges and motivators to social media adoption for marketing purposes in public libraries and to investigate how these libraries perceive the importance of social media marketing. Design/methodology/approach A nation-wide online survey on public libraries in the USA was conducted to carry out this study, and a total number of 470 responses were used for data analysis. Findings This study determined a range of challenges and motivators to implementing social media for marketing in public libraries. The results also showed that public libraries perceive social media as an important tool for their library marketing and intend to increase their use. Practical implications The findings from this study can serve as a guideline for public libraries when employing social media for marketing purposes in their libraries. Originality/value This study assessed the current state of social media use for marketing in the public library context, a context that has been under-researched in the literature, from three perspectives: challenges, motivators, and perceptions.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rafi ◽  
Khurshid Ahmad ◽  
Zheng Jian Ming

PurposeAs the human race moved from the Paleolithic to the current phases of the Neolithic period, the learning process developed from inscriptions on stones to clay tablets, from papyrus to papers and, ultimately, to digital technology. From ancient times to the present, public libraries have become open universities that are more democratic in the provision of educational and information services and the preservation of cultural heritage, regardless of gender and belief. This study attempts to understand reading trends and the use of citizens’ resources in public libraries in the age of technology as an open university.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study on regular visitors, permanent library members, and information on the library inventory was collected from each public library administration through personal visits and interviews. In addition, data on regional population and literacy rates were collected from the Government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Bureau of Statistics. The authors used descriptive statistics to analyze data for comparative studies.FindingsThe results show that daily visitors, regular library members and their use of library resources are decreasing compared to the literacy rate in each district. It was also concluded that, due to a lack of education and training in the area of information and digital literacy, the accessed database resources are not used properly. Moreover, each densely populated district relies on a single public library to meet general education and information needs.Practical implicationsThe results of this study will help the government expand the network of public libraries at the union council level with competent working staff to increase general motivation to improve reading and resource usage trends. Given the current literacy and population growth in each district, the law on the public library can also be amended and implemented to support the existing library system better and create more libraries in the public interest.Originality/valueThis study was conducted for the first time to determine the current state of public libraries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and to help public library authorities improve their existing public library service status based on the results.


2013 ◽  
Vol 303-306 ◽  
pp. 2433-2436
Author(s):  
Tian Yong Wang ◽  
Ge Gao ◽  
Qian Qian Wang ◽  
Yu Lei Wang

Focusing on the "information island", "information black hole" phenomenon of the government information resources sharing, it can't meet the demand of information to the public. The work analyzes the interests between the same level governments departments, superior and subordinate departments, and between the government and the public based on the game theory. Find out the obstacle of the sharing information. Then the work give some advices on solving the questions .It can contribute to the government information resources sharing.


Author(s):  
Vincent Kazmierski

Parliament recognized the fundamental importance of protecting access to government information when it enacted the federal Access to Information Act. When the Act came into force on Canada Day 1983, Canada was just one of a handful of countries to have legislative protection of access to government information. Now, 27 years later, over 80 countries across the globe have enacted some form of access to information legislation.Although the world has followed Canada's lead in recognizing the importance of protecting access to government information, Canada has “fallen behind” (to borrow the descriptor used by journalist and author Stanley Tromp) and may even be “backsliding” (in the words of Laura Neuman of the Carter Center). What has gone wrong with the federal access regime? Why should legal studies scholars care? I address these questions in this article. I start by outlining the symbiotic role between academics and access to government information. I then identify three key factors that have contributed to the decline of the federal access regime: administrative resistance, legislative degeneration, and political indifference. Finally, I close by briefly discussing three ways in which scholars can continue to work to protect and promote access to information in Canada.Academics and AccessAcademics took the lead in advocating for access to government information in the 1960s and 1970s in Canada. One of the earliest advocates was Donald C. Rowat, a professor of Political Science at Carleton University. In a 1965 article entitled “How Much Administrative Secrecy?”, he summarized the key arguments in favour of protecting access to government information, writing Parliament and the public cannot hope to call the government to account without an adequate knowledge of what is going on; nor can they hope to participate in the decision-making process and contribute their talents to the formation of policy and legislation if that process is hidden from view.


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