Here is another article on current thinking on the utility of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS).

• OMB mulls evolving beyond GILS, By Jason Miller, Government Computer News 11/07/05.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently issued an RFI (Efficient and Effective Information Retrieval and Sharing) asking vendors for ideas for more "efficient and effective information retrieval and sharing."

The article notes that agencies have been using GILS sparingly over the last decade and that "OMB is asking whether technology has surpassed GILS, which officials said relies on metadata tagging, and whether there is something that is less costly and more effective for searching the mounds of government data."

This article quotes Eliot Christian, a data and information systems manager at the Geological Survey, as saying that tagging is one aspect of metadata, but is not what GILS is focused on: "GILS says we ought to have interoperable search, but it never required metadata tagging." The article also quotes Kurt Sanford, president and chief executive officer for Lexis Nexis U.S. Corporate and Federal Markets, as saying that the RFI "could quite possibly be the most important e-government initiative envisioned to date."

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One of the key issues we track here at FGI is privacy, particularly as it relates to the ability of citizens to read government reports and information without having their activities tracked and monitored. We are concerned that, if the only "authentic" copy of a government publication is one that is available on a government-controlled web server, the government has the potential for tracking reading habits of individuals and tracking who is reading particular documents.

We like to assume this would never happen, and GPO has assured us that "GPO follows Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recommendations and other suggestions regarding Internet privacy policy." Nevertheless, we are always intrigued by stories of the government skirting existing privacy laws and policies.

It is in that context that we call your attention to this story:

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The Fall 2005 meeting of the Depository Library Council closed three weeks ago today. While we commend GPO for posting many of the educational sessions from the meeting, they are being sluggish in posting Council Visioning materials and other Council related content. As of this writing, the following material was missing in action on their official proceedings page: Council Discussion, Questions and Answers Coming Soon! Sunday: Council Session: In the Age of Massive Digitization: Libraries, Government Information and the Public - Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information Monday: Council and FDLP Visioning Session GODORT Meeting Arlene Weible, GODORT Chair, University of North Texas Libraries Tuesday: Council and FDLP Visioning Session: Report from Breakouts GPO Access Open Forum / New Databases Council and FDLP Visioning Session, Wrap-up Continue reading →

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Based on some user comments and our search logs, we at Free Government Information have realized that a number of people come here to look for information FROM the government, while our emphasis is on information ABOUT government information policy. Don't despair, we listen! We have established a bare-bones Where to Find Government Information page that we hope will allow accidental visitors to find a place to start. You can also get to the page by clicking on "Find govt information" at the top of each FGI page. We probably WON'T add links unless they are really outstanding, since we don't want to replicate the outstanding work so many docs librarians have already done. Still, if you have a major suggestions for the page, please let us know. Continue reading →

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