LIS 517:
Government Publications

Electronic publishing and its impact on Canadian government publications has many facets. The most prominent issue is the cost of electronic dissemination to those who are interested in accessing the material that government publications often entail. Another issue is that of access limited by the technology that is currently available to most individuals. Topics such as standards, telecommunication infrastructure, and age of equipment slow down the progress of greater accessibility. A final issue is the one of policy and its currency to technological trends pertaining to information and communication. Governmental policies and legislation influence electronic dissemination of government publications. Evaluation and visibility also influences the appropriateness and success of electronic government publications. The timeliness of these publications is only achieved if the public has access to them and is made aware of their existence. Electronic publishing has many commendable characteristics but the costs and legislative obstacles of the medium make it a communication tool that is not as successful as it could be.

Access is the predominant, recurring theme of all the issues presented above. Costs deny access, both direct and indirect. Technological requirements deny access. Policies deny access. With such a formidable collection of negative obstacles why would anyone bother ensuring that electronic publishing of government publications were made available?

Access to government information in electronic format is essential to the realization of a civil society, democratization, and a rule of law. Freedom of information issues are centrally important in countries around the world, the Internet's World Wide Web offers the potential to provide freedom of information at a low cost. Achieving a sound information policy to promote open government requires constant vigilance by those who care about the goal (Perritt, Jr., 1997, 397).

If a person accepts the importance of electronic publishing as the means to better communication between government and its citizens then the answer is a resounding yes to the dissemination of government publications electronically. Chartrand (1997) stated that

If Canada's presence on the Net is to be significant and its citizens are to have ready access to information about their country then federal information user charges represent a potentially significant barrier to "Canadian information sovereignty" (Chartrand, 1997, 10).

Costs can be incurred through the expenses of the technological infrastructure. The National Librarian, Marianne Scott, (Rennick, 1998) feels that electronic access will lead to problems of ensuring "universal, equitable, and affordable access" because not all Canadians can afford the necessary equipment to facilitate access, nor are people always within close proximity to a public library to retrieve such formatted information.

It is important that the temptation to generate revenue at the expense of access through public institutions be resisted. Ms. Scott pointed out that, while connectivity and access to equipment are not issues for government employees, they are for many Canadians (Rennick, 1998, GovInfo Listserv).

Stratford and Stratford (1996) in their examination of computerized and networked government information in the United States concluded that while there were many advantages to electronic dissemination of government information, including more timely and broader public access,

Electronic dissemination and access will shift the cost of information delivery to the public and will increase costs to the depository libraries, at least in the short term. Libraries will also have to provide specialized training, public access workstations, and the related services necessary to conduct the public to remote government information (Stratford & Stratford, 1996, 751).

Ford (1997) emphasizes this argument by stating

A large burden is being placed on regional depository libraries as they try to provide effective and efficient access to these products. The capacity of depository libraries to accommodate the influx of information in electronic format depends directly upon their capacity to provide funding, equipment, technological expertise, and staff training (Ford, 1997, 51).

Besides the costs for the technological infrastructure there is the cost of purchasing electronic government publications from the various departments of the federal government. As Monty (1996) pointed out the 1996 Federal Budget was available on several diskettes for $500 to those who wanted immediate use of it. "The DSP (Depository Services Program) had no funds to purchase the diskettes on behalf of depository libraries and the average library did not purchase the budget diskettes on its own" (Monty, 1996, 493). In addition to this Monty (1996) points out the increase in cost for printed material versus the inexpensive production costs of the electronic products and the issue of licensing fees as hurdles towards access. It seemed that the printed material was considered value-added because of its hard-bound textual nature.

What precipitated this desire to pass along the costs to the depository libraries was the market mentality of the government's thinking. As Patterson (1998) so prudently pointed out with reference to the Treasury Board's declaration in its Management of Government Information Holdings,

The objective of the policy is to ensure the cost-effectiveness and coordinated management of government information holdings and that the government should manage all information holdings as a corporate resource (Patterson, 1998, 14).

To Patterson (1998) the existing Treasury Board policies are more concerned with fiscal responsibility than freedom of information. The whole idea of public accountability is absent in this unbalanced approach towards what is the job description of the Canadian government. Various examples of the costs forced upon depository libraries include, the Canada Corporations Bulletin (Industry Canada), which is no longer available in print form and is only accessible over the Internet for a subscription fee of $225/yr., and the National Population Health Survey (Statistics Canada), which is only available on CD-ROM at a cost of $1600. The print version was previously available to depository libraries for free (Patterson, 1998, 15). The prohibitive nature of the government's desire to develop cost recovery policies has resulted in many demands for free access, regardless of format, to government publications. Professor Foot at the University of Toronto feels that the implementation of cost recovery at Statistics Canada has hindered the free flow of information, thus resulting in a less informed population of users (McMahon, 1996). Peter Calamai, a member of the Open Government Campaign, proposed that governments should provide free online access to data collected at public expense. He also decried what he considered to be predatory pricing policies and the use of exclusive licensing arrangements for information gathered with money provided by the Canadian taxpayer (McMahon, 1996). Many individuals and associations would argue that the government has abdicated its responsibility to provide information to the public by making government information a saleable commodity rather than a public good freely accessible to all (Patterson, 1998).

Access is also limited by the technology available to the majority. Macaulay (1997) spoke of the lowest common denominator as being the gauge by which electronic sources of government publications should be catered to.

The ability to deal effectively with electronic information is retreating, not advancing, to a basic level of comprehension - a lowest common denominator of information format. Recognition and accommodation of the lowest common denominator of sophistication will be artificial in the process of ensuring public access to government information (Macauley, 1997, 5).

Macauley goes on to state,

The object should be to ensure that access to information is not restricted by placing an unnecessarily advanced technology obligation on the client to be able to read or handle the information (Macauley, 1997, 5).

The age of the equipment, the protocols by which the electronic bits are managed, and the maintenance of the telecommunication infrastructure are all limiting factors in the accessibility of government publications. If the government publications are insensitive to the technological performance capabilities and desires of its users than access becomes a contentious issue.

Policy revisions are probably the most important aspect to successful electronic publishing of Canadian government publications. Hodgins and Potvin, employees of the Treasury Board Secretariat, spoke of developments in the Government of Canada Communications Policy (Rennick, 1998) citing the need to revise policy to accommodate the government's restructuring of its public services for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness. Another reason cited was the development of new information and communication technologies making policy changes necessary. Evaluation and visibility of electronic government publications influences the public's perception of access with Potvin commenting on

The process which is currently underway to evaluate Federal websites for universal accessibility, technical performance of sites, and their design. Criteria against which each site can be evaluated are being developed which will eventually be made available to various departments for their use (Rennick, 1998, GovInfo Listserv).

What is neglected here is the policies concerning content. Neither Hodgins nor Potvin commented on the content currently available through electronic access. Is it free? Is it comprehensive? This is simply a symptom of the broader problem of freedom of information and access to it. Governmental policies and legislation have made access a more difficult proposition through its mantra of restructuring and cost effectiveness.

A historical examination of recent government policy begins with the Blueprint released by the Treasury Board Secretariat in 1994. As Yerxa and Moll stated at the time,

The Blueprint, expressing concepts built around a corporate/consumer model, puts forth a multi-tiered system of information dissemination which will see only the simplest and most mundane information provided free while the value added materials are preserved for corporate consumption in "cost recovery" programs (Yerxa & Moll, 1995, 4).

This train of thought is continued when examining the notion of government information as a public good.

Government publications are made available without charge to public libraries designated as depository libraries, where they can be freely consulted by citizens. How will services so vital to a democracy be duplicated in the electronic delivery mode when the routes are controlled by private ownership, geared to competition, and in effect, have a significant user fee in place? (Yerxa & Moll, 1995, 5)

The answer to this question is difficult. Obviously the cost of providing electronic access has already been discussed. What needs to happen now in response to these direct taxes on those who seek to be informed is advocacy by those who desire government accountability. Roberts (1998a) stated that,

There's one final requirement for healthy FOI laws: a well organized constituency of FOI requesters that is ready to fight for the principle of government openness (Roberts, 1998a, 2).

Effective FOI laws are one of the hallmarks of a strong democracy. Governments shouldn't be allowed to use public sector restructuring as a pretense for restricting the right to information (Roberts, 1998b, 2).

"Vigilance by those who care about the goal" (Perritt, Jr., 1997) seems to be the key to ensuring free electronic access to government publications. The impact of the technology has been substantial, but the costs can be too great for some. The notion that governments are there for the citizens is unfortunately, hard to accept given the examples of disregard demonstrated by these authors. Changes are needed and it's the citizens who must make the demands of its elected officials. The need for a comprehensive information policy that is concerned with public good and not profit is what open government means.

Ultimately, we as individuals need to be involved in the decision making process and we have to be well informed to do so. We need to insist that our elected representatives reassume their responsibility to inform and to be accountable to the Canadian people (Patterson, 1998, 15).

The best way to achieve this would be to take advantage of the Internet by applying it to the free access of electronic government publications for all citizens of Canada.

Chartrand, H. 1997. Rusty nail on the information highway: User charges and Canadian federal government information. Government Information in Canada, 3, 4. [Online] Available: http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v3n4/chartrand/chartrand.html [1998, July 2]

McMahon, R. 1997. Cost recovery and Statistics Canada. Government Information in Canada, 2, 4. [Online] Available: http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v2n4/mcmahon/mcmahon.html [1997, July 1]

Rennick, M. 1998. Notes on the transition to electronic publishing: A question of balance. Ottawa. [Online] Available: GovInfo Listserv, govinfo@sask.usask.ca [1998, June 11]

Roberts, A. 1998a. Access denied. Media, Spring. [Online] Available: http://www.eagle.ca/caj/media98-1.html [1998, July 24]

Roberts, A. 1998b. Losing accountability. Ottawa Citizen, April 24. [Online] Available: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~roberta/documents/citizen.html [1998, July 24]

Yerxa, S. & Moll, M. 1995. Commodification, communication, and culture: Democracy's dead on the infobahn. Government Information in Canada, 1, 3. [Online] Available: http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v1n3/moll/moll.html [1998, July 23]

Ford, S. 1997. Public access to electronic federal depository information in regional depository libraries. Government Information Quarterly, 14, 1, 51-63.

Macauley, T. 1997. Cutting off access to government information: Loopholes in the access to information act generated by the information highway. Journal of Government Information, 24, 1, 1-8.

Monty, V. 1996. Due north: Issues in access to government information, a view from Canada. Journal of Government Information, 23, 4, 491-497.

Patterson, B. 1998. Access to government information: At what cost? BCLA Reporter, 42, March, 14-15.

Perritt Jr, H. 1997. Open government. Government Information Quarterly, 14, 4, 397-406.

Stratford, J.S. & Stratford, J. 1996. Computerized and networked government information. Journal of Government Information, 23, 5/6, 749-754.