75 days to Government Information Liberation
Submitted by shuler on Fri, 2008-11-07 16:41.
As I thought about this week's remarkable series of electoral and civic revolutions, it got me thinking that between now and Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009 offers us a unique opportunity.
Each day I am going to post one specific reason, observation, analysis about how the new political powers in Congress and the White House should think about government information. In particular I want to push back against the nearly ten years of rhetorical tide that swamped the way we talk about the distribution and preservation of information produced by our government.
In particular, I hope we can recapture the conceptual high ground of the whys and hows of the civic conversation about government information. Technology is important. Market forces are compelling. Political partisanship demands committment. But I remember a time when the phrase "documents to the people" actually spoke to a civic form of rhetorical community organizing. Our collections and public services were our store front headquarters in this struggle.
So, here is my first thought of the day: any depository library program's purpose transcends both format or its distribution mechanism. The programs long-standing purpose is to sustain the free and permanent access to government information. This can and must happen regardless of how the depository libraries, or their host institutions, arrange their services or materials.
Let the conversation begin and see you tomorrow.
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Conceptual high ground
Hi John. Thanks so much for starting these conversations. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts over the next 75 days(!).
Your mentioning of a conceptual high ground piqued my interest. While I've only been a govt documents librarian for 6+ years, I wonder what you mean by recapturing that high ground? In my short time within this field, I have been most heartened by the almost genetic predisposition of govt information librarians toward this conceptual high ground. Even in the face of heavy odds (see FGI issues for more) from both within and without our community, govt information librarians have tirelessly advocated for govt information collections and services within their libraries and to the public. I don't think this has changed since Geneva Finn, Clare Beck, Bill Smith, Mina Pease, Deanne Holzberlein, Marian Carroll, Bernadine Hoduski, and Lois Mills met In April 1972 at the Public Library in St. Louis, Missouri to hammer out the bylaws for the formulation of the ALA Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) (for more, see A History of the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association (PDF)). I feel honored to be carrying on this tradition of free and permanent access to government information.
I guess I didn't really respond to your main point. So let me say that I agree that purpose transcends format. And perhaps that's what you meant by the high ground. It's nice to be reminded that libraries and librarians are working toward a higher goal of free and permanent access to government information. We've never left that conceptual high ground, but have to continually remind those that do not work with govt information on a daily basis of its inherent worth in the democratic process. Perhaps we can get the Girl Scouts to distribute govt information along with their tasty cookies. That way we'd have a small army of advocates in grocery stores, banks, schools, libraries, parks etc. reminding library administrators and the public of its importance at least once a year :-)
Thanks again for starting this conversation. I hope others will chime in with thoughts, ideas, arguments, brainstorms etc.
Kudos, John!
I love reading your thoughts and I am so glad you are doing this. Esp. this quote: "any depository library program's purpose transcends both format or its distribution mechanism". YES! And "Documents to the People" will always be our philosophy. Government Information to the People, regardless of what the format is.
In regards to recapturing...perhaps you meant pushing for more civic engagement rather than just talking the talk and not walking the walk? I know I have been guilty of it. I need to be more of an advocate and participate in civic engagement rather than just spouting out what I believe in. I have become more brave in speaking out...contacting government officials, spreading the word about this "higher ground". FGI has certainly inspired me to do this.
And dare I say...maybe you meant GPO needs to recapture this higher ground? It seems they are attempting this with their "Value of the FDLP" initiatives, the FDLP video, etc.
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