13 Questions With: Amanda Wakaruk

Four Government Information Precepts for Non-Government Information Librarians

1. Access to government information is the foundation of a functioning democracy and underpins informed citizen engagement.

Government information allows us to assess our governing bodies — a necessary requirement for a properly functioning democracy. Government records accessed through Freedom of Information legislation, Public Accounts, the Debates of the House of Commons and Senate, and court records, are just a few examples of government information, also called ‘government documents.’

Government agencies collect data during the provision of programs and services and produce publications providing citizens with an authoritative source of information about the society they live in. These are often referred to as ‘government publications.’

2. Government information has enduring value. Don’t waste precious time re-questioning this fact and do your librarianly duties.

Don’t confuse low present-value price tags with low value overall. This is a commerce-based construct of value that you should have learned to identify and interrogate in library school. It’s true that many government publications cost less than other containers of knowledge. This is, in part, because your tax dollars have funded, or at least subsidized, their production. It is not a reflection of their current or enduring value.

Consider the following:

• the work of countless academics and other experts is disseminated via government information
• government publications and documents are used by most academics and social commentators in all areas of intellectual output, resulting in the production of  books, reports, speeches, etc., which have shaped our society and understanding of the world
  • scientists use government information to make assertions about nearly every subject  (environment, energy, meteorology, etc., e.g., Silent Spring was full of references to government information)
  • social scientists use government information to make informed observations and help shape policy discussions (including statistics compiled using methodology standardized by international governmental organizations like the United Nations)
  • legal scholars, lawyers, and judges need access to legislative and court documents to interpret and apply the law
  • journalists use government documents to inform the electorate about their governing bodies (insert most political scandals here)
• government employees need long-term access to government information to develop, implement, and monitor policies, programs, and services (and it is not uncommon for them to contact academic libraries to obtain copies that are no longer available to them via other channels)

3. Government information is precarious and requires stewardship.

Two separate but related issues are at work here.

The first is that governments do not necessarily make collecting and preserving access to their own work a priority. The strongest system of stewardship for government information is one that operates in partnership with, and at arms-length of, author agencies. This kind of structure is equally important in both print and online environments. For generations, this task was the responsibility of depository libraries.

Secondly, please don’t be fooled by the call of the “it’s all online” brigade. Most government publishing moved online earlier than other types of publishing and has suffered from not having an a priori comprehensive digital preservation plan. “Born digital” content is also at a high risk for (intentional and unintentional) removal from open access environments. There are groups in both Canada (CGI DPN) and the United States (GODORT) that are starting to document these losses.

Not only is everything NOT available online, not everything born digital is made accessible and/or indexed by search engines like Google. Policies and procedures developed by the government in power determine what is distributed in an online environment and how it is preserved (or removed) for public access.

4. Government publications and documents are different than most books, journals, and content born on the Internet.

Get over any illusions of control that served you while working with other types of content. Government publications and documents are more challenging to acquire, organize, and provide access to.

The biggest differences between government information and other types of information products can be explained by why and how they were published. The agencies that produce government information are motivated by different factors than traditional publishers like Elsevier, HarcourtBrace, and the American Chemical Society. While many politicians appear to be obsessed with finances, they do not rely on publishing revenue to fund our military, repair our roads, or support re-election campaigns. Not only do few politicians or bureaucrats care if government documents or publications are read or cited, we often learn that efforts are made to obfuscate their purpose, delay their release, and even prevent their dissemination. This makes it more challenging to find, obtain, catalogue, and care for government documents and publications.

Government information is a lot like librarianship. It doesn’t fit into neat and tidy dissemination channels improved and simplified by years of customer feedback and the pursuit of higher profits. The very act of acquisition can feel like activism and inspire pugnacious outbursts from your government information librarians and implicated support staff. Government agencies and their priorities can change with the political winds and it is common for serial titles to start and stop, disappearing only to reappear under ever so slightly different titles or agency names.