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Government Information Quarterly

Volume 1, Number 4, 1984 (index)

CONTENTS

Discussion Forum:

End of Volume Assessment ....................................................... 347

Media Use of The Freedom of Information Act
Arthur E. Fajans ............................................................. 351

Fee or Free: Public Interests and The Freedom of Information Act
Nancyanne O'Hanlon ........................................................ 365

OCLC Records for Federal Depository Documents:
A Preliminary Investigation
Cynthia E. Bower ............................................................ 379

Information Needs and Gathering Patterns of Academic Social Scientists,
With Special Emphasis Given to Historians
and Their Use of U.S. Government Publications
Peter Hernon ................................................................. 401

Nineteen Eighty-Four and After
David H. Flaherty............................................................. 431

Contributors .......................... 443

Communications ......................... 445

Forthcoming ................................ 449

Reviews
David C. Heisser, Editor

EPA Index: A Key to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Reports
and Superintendent of Documents and NTIS Numbers
Edited by Cynthia E. Bower and Mary L. Rhoads
Reviewed by Judith E. Stokes .............................................. 451

Encyclopedia of Governmental Advisory Organizations:
A Reference Guide (Fourth Edition)
Edited by Denise Allard Adzigian
Reviewed by Katina Strauch ............................................. 452

To Free the Mind: Libraries, Technology, and Intellectual Freedom
By Eli Oboler
Reviewed by Robert A. Walter .............................................453

Government Agencies
Edited by Donald R. Whitnah
Reviewed by Philip Van De Voorde .................................................................454

Guide to the Identification and Acquisition of Canadian
Government Publications: Provinces and Territories (Second Edition)
By Catherine A. Pross
Reviewed by Olga B. Bishop ............................................ ....456

Information Economics and Policy in the United States
By Michael Rogers Rubin
Reviewed by Joe Morehead .............................................. ...457

The Presidency and the Political System
Edited by Michael Nelson
Reviewed by Thomas A. Karel ..................................................458

President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control. Report on
Management Office Selected Issues. Volume 1. Publishing,
Printing, Reproduction and Audiovisual Activities
Reviewed by Robert M. Hayes ............................................. 459

Public Access to Government Information:
Issues, Trends, and Strategies
By Peter Hernon and Charles M. McClure
Reviewed by Kathleen M. Heim ................................. 463

State Political Action Legislation and Regulations:
Index and Directory of Organizations
Prepared by Interstate Bureau of Regulations
Reviewed by Susan E. Parker .............................................. 465

World Armies (Second Edition)
Edited by John Keegan
Reviewed by Jacob W. Kipp ......................... 466

World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties
Edited by George E. Delury
Reviewed by Jeffrey M. Berry....................... 467

List of Titles Received ..................................... 468

Index for Volume I.............................................................. 469

Media Use of The Freedom of Information Act
ARTHUR E. FAJANS

"Be liberal, be liberal, be not too damn liberal." This Walt Whitman quote, once used on the Masthead of Newsday, suggests the difference between freedom and license and reflects the ethical duality of all human endeavor. The news media is a traditional institution in our society and is subject to all the pluses and minuses of the other of our democratic institutions. The fundamental issues and the controverted practices resulting from implementation of the Freedom of Information Act have been treated extensively in other places, by other writers, for other purposes. It is the aim of this article simply to convey a sense of how one institution, the news media, uses one law, the Freedom of Information Act. The article makes no attempt to be judgmental in the descriptions of how individual journalists use the Act and the extent to which they are supported by various organizations in such use. While it is clear that journalists are not the principal users of the F. 0. I. A., it is equally clear that they have obtained information through explicit and implicit F.O.I.A. use, and have used this information in news stories. It is also true that some F.O.I.A. obtained information is provided to the news media by third parties and that such information has appeared in news stories although mention of the F.O.I.A. has not been included. Joumalism practices regarding use of the F.O.I.A. run from the non-users, through periodic users, to extreme users. These practices continue to reflect differing,views on newsgathering methods, through people or documents, or both, and the debate over the sufficiency of the First and Fourteenth Amendments which, for some journalists, make necessary envoking Freedom of Information legislation, essentially moot.

This article examines Executive agency fee waiver guidelines for public interest requesters, including scholars, the media, and public interest groups, within the larger context of F.O.I.A.'s costs and benefits to the public. Information transmitted to the public by these requesters enhances citizen oversight of government activities and assists Congress in formulating public policy. However, arbitrary interpretation of the statute's fee waiver provision and the lack of standard and consistent fee waiver guidelines clearly inhibit use of the Act by public interest requesters. Continuing efforts by some Members of Congress and Executive agency personnel to further limit certain types of information available under the F.O.I.A. prompted renewed consideration of the economic aspects of Federal information policy in general and, in particular, the Freedom of Information Act.

A representative sample of 300 printed monographs and analyzed serials distr-ibuted to depository libraries was searched in the OCLC online system to determine when, how, and by whom depository documents are likely to be cataloged. Particular attention was paid to differences between dates of distribution and cataloging for sales publications, for all titles cataloged by the Government Printing Office, and for those cataloged by the Library of Congress. Patterns relating to document distribution as well as to cataloging practices were discernible from survey results and are presented here. Major findings may be summarized as follows: 1) not all depository monographs are cataloged by the Government Printing Office; 2) sales publications are cataloged quickly, often before distribution by GPO; 3) the quality of cataloging records for depository documents available on OCLC is generally high; 4) the Library of Congress catalogs relatively few depository documents and is comparatively slow to do so; and 5) many different types of OCLC member libraries catalog federal depository documents, often before GPO does. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future changes in documents cataloging policies among depository libraries, and argues for greater inclusion of documents records in the many online, public-access catalogs currently being planned or used.

This paper addresses the information needs and gathering behavior of historians and other members of the academic social science community. In addition, it looks at the competitive information environment and views libraries as one of many providers. The existing research is fragmentary and, by far, too incomplete to be useful to librarians in developing collections and services to meet the information needs of historians and to accommodate their preferences for information gathering. The paper suggests the need for further research, identifies factors to take into account in formulating appropriate research designs, and offers research models worthy of replication or further exploration. Without a more extensive research base, a number of library and information programs and services may well be based on a misunderstanding of the current and future information needs and gathering strategies of possible client groups.

This article represents the final report of the Bellagio Conference on Current and Future Problems of Data Protection. The conference was held at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center, Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy, April 9-13, 1984. David H. Flaherty served as conference chairman and organizer. He is also the author of the final report presented below.

Cynthia E. Bower has headed the regional federal depository collection at the University of Arizona Library since 1978. She was formerly documents librarian in Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico, also a regional depository. She received an A.B. from Stanford University and an M.L.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Arthur E. Fajans is Deputy Director, Security Policy, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He recently completed the Foreign Service Institute's Executive Seminar on National and International Affairs at the Department of State. Mr. Fajans joined the office of the Secretary of Defense in 1973 and has served as Acting Director, Information Security Acting Chairman, National Disclosure Policy Committee, U.S. Representative to the NATO Security Committee, and with Defense Public Affairs as the Freedom of Information Staff Specialist. Mr. Fajans also has been employed by the Navy Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

David H. Flaherty, Professor of History and Law at the University of Western Ontario, is the principal investigator of a three-year research project on Data Protection in Comparative Perspective. He has recently completed a report for the Ontario government on Privacy in Two-Way Cable TV Services. His books include Privacy and Government Data Banks: An International Perspective (London:Mansell, 1979).

Peter Hernon is Associate Professor, Graduate Library School, University of Arizona, where he teaches courses related to government publications/information, research methods, and planning and evaluation of library services. He has a M.A. degree in history from the University of Colorado, a M.A. (L.S.) degree from the University of Denver, and a Ph.D. degree in library and information science from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has authored, or co-authored, 13 books and over 40 articles; many of these writings have pertained to government publications.

Nancyanne O'Hanlon received a B.A. in English Literature from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, in 1968, and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1983. She was employed by the University of Illinois Library as a library assistant in the Art and Architecture Library, the Circulation Department, and the Reference Department between 1976 and 1982, and later as a graduate assistant in the Reference Department from 1982-1983. Ms. O'Hanlon is currently Reference Librarian at the Undergraduate Library of Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, Ohio.

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Revised June 24, 1996 jmg