Finding federal information?
January 2, 2008 by Anastasia Tarmann Lynch
Lately, there has been a train of comments and reports on how we are locating or not locating federal information on the Internet. This post points to three sources (which point in turn to further sources ) worth looking at for recent news on the topic of finding government information.
Surprise? Our younger “Gens,” the Gen Y’s are most likely to seek answers through the library. A recent Pew survey on information seeking behavior, “Information Searches That Solve Problems - How People use the Internet, libraries and government agencies when they need help” Thanks to Greta E. Marlatt for pointing out the survey in her entry: Pew Survey on use of libraries on GOVDOC-L Digest - 31 Dec 2007 to 1 Jan 2008 (#2008-2).
Morsels of the report from the PEW site:
…The survey results challenge the assumption that libraries are losing relevance in the internet age. Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, not just the problems mentioned in this survey. And it was the young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) who led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose…The focus of the survey was how Americans address common problems that might be linked to government. The problems covered in the survey: 1) dealing with a serious illness or health concern; 2) making a decision about school enrollment, financing school, or upgrading work skills; 3) dealing with a tax matter; 4) changing a job or starting a business; 5) getting information about Medicare, Medicaid, or food stamps; 6) getting information about Social Security or military benefits; 7) getting information about voter registration or a government policy;seeking helping on a local government matter such as a traffic problem or schools; 9) becoming involved in a legal matter; and 10) becoming a citizen or helping another person with an immigration matter…Click here for a PDF of the entire report.
Government information hide-and seek seems to be a theme in government information sources such as Free Government Information and Federal Computer Week (see the links on http://freegovinfo.info for bibliographic info ). Recent posts and articles such as the following keep us thinking about the challenges of depositories to make government information accessible and the pros and cons of the E-Government Act:
On the brighter side, FGI puts the spotlight on available sources such as:
- House Oversight Committee Hearings: Get Hearings Fast!
- A project that will make 1.8 million pages of federal case law… freely available.”
- By the way, did you know about the PACER pilot that allows access to case law as well? The State Court Law Library is one of the participants.
At some point, I’m going to compile a bibliography of writings about the ease or disease of locating E-government documents and agency information.
Kudos to agencies providing Access (yes, with a capital A):
12/18/2007 5:02 AM|danielsc@osti.gov|Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Department of Energy
OSTI continues to ensure ready access to the results of research and development from DOE, federal government science agencies, and international scientific databases. OSTI was recently cited as one of five federal government Web sites “on the right track” by OMB Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog organization located in Washington, DC. The report, titled Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines, states: “OSTI makes available the research of the Department of Energy and cites sharing this information with the American people as central to its mission. When OSTI implemented the Sitemap protocol several years ago, the increase in traffic directed to the site was immediate.” Because most science information is “hidden” in databases where commercial search engines cannot go, OSTI has pioneered methods of making government science information publicly available. One method is to write Web site code that supports use of the Sitemap Protocol. OSTI implemented this in April 2006. Since then, the traffic referred to OSTI’s site by commercial search engines has greatly increased. OSTI Director Walter Warnick is quoted in the OMB Watch report: “The first day that Yahoo offered up our material for search, our traffic increased so much that we could not keep up with it.” In October 2007 alone, a full 60 percent of traffic to Information Bridge, the primary Web source for DOE R&D full-text reports, was from Google referrals.
