Government Information Quarterly Contents

Government Information Quarterly

Volume 11, Number 2, 1994

CONTENTS
Discussion Forum:
A Time of Change
Peter Hernon ........................................................................................... 137

Information Life Cycle: Its Place in the Management
of U.S. Government Information Resources
Peter Hernon ........................................................................................... 143

Prodasen: The Congressional Information System of the Federal Senate of Brazil
Abdo I. Baaklini ......................................................................................... 171

Government Information Policy in Canada
Kirsti Nilsen ............................................................................................... 191

SPECIAL FEATURES

Imputation in a Monthly Survey of Sales
Paula E. Weir ........................................................................................ 211

Petroleum Electronic Data Reporting Option (PEDRO)
Charles C. Heath and Alice A. Lippert ............................................................. 225

Contributors .................................................................................................. 233

Reviews

Educating Government Officials: SLA's Government Relations Handbook
By Lauren M. Emmolo and Sandy I. Morton-Schwab
Reviewed by Dan Barkley ........................................................................ 235

The Growth of Federal User Charges
By Pearl W. Richardson et al.
Reviewed by Maurie C. Kelly ..................................................................... 236

Management of Government Information Resources in Libraries
Edited by Diane H. Smith
Reviewed by Peter Hernon ......................................................................... 23

The National Technical Information Service: Business Plan
By the National Technical Information Service, and
The National Technical Information Service: Modernization Plan
By the National Technical Information Service
Reviewed by Mallory Stark .......................................................................... 238

Statistics for the 21 st Century: Proposals for Improving
Statistics for Better Decision Making
By Joseph W. Duncan and Andrew C. Gross
Reviewed by Mary E. Beall ............................................................................. 240

Information Life Cycle: Its Place in the Management
of U.S. Government Information Resources

Peter Hernon

This article, which provides the first in-depth analysis of the information life cycle, traces that concept in policy instruments and the primary and secondary literature. Although these contain a number of references to the information life cycle, that concept is never fully developed. Furthemore, there are different explanations of the concept. The information life cycle, however, could contribute to the management of information resources as well as to the study of government information policy. The article outlines the stages of the information life cycle and encourages further discussion, analysis, and standardization of a concept that should be evolving, not static.

Prodasen:
The Congressional Information System
of the Federal Senate of Brazil

Abdo I. Baaklini

The centerpiece of the efforts of the National Congress to build its staff and information capabilities was the establishment of the Centro de Informatica e Processamento de Dados do Senado Federal (Prodasen) or Center for Data Processing of the Federal Senate. The establishment of Prodasen was to spearhead the reform movement of the Senate administration and operation, and to provide the Congress with up-to-date, timely, and relevant information to enable the members to exercise their constitutional function. Because of the centrality of Prodasen, both as an information provider and as an example of a modern congressional staff unit, examining its creation, goals, and operations can illustrate the promises and dilemmas of congressional staff in Brazil, their present role in the legislative process, and the challenges they face under the new democratic regime.

Government Information Policy in Canada

Kirsti Nilsen

Two disparate trends have influenced Canada's long history of examining and developing government information policy. First, various publishing policies of the 1960s and 1970s recognized the public's right to government information. This trend culminated in freedom of information legislation in 1983. Following a transitional period in the mid-1980s, the advent of a corporate resource approach to government information resulted in information policies that emphasized information resources management, cost recovery, and commoditization. Recent attempts to merge the inherent contradictions between the concepts of the public's right to government information and information as a commodity have resulted in policy that leaves much to individual interpretation.

Imputation in a Monthly Survey of Sales

Paula E. Weir

With the consolidation of a number of survey forms in 1983, the Energy Information Administration researched, analyzed, developed, and tested various imputation methodologies for the monthly petroleum product surveys. The combination method selected multiplies the ratio of respondents' actual values to the respondents' predicted values by the non-respondent's predicted values. The predecated values are forecasts based on the companies' values in previous periods. This imputation methodology has become a valuable tool used to account for the growing population that does not report on the surveys but can affect the survey results.

Petroleum Electronic Data Reporting Option (PEDRO)

Charles C. Heath
Alice A. Lippert

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is the major collector of reliable and comprehensive data on energy supply and demand in this country. During its 16-year history, EIA has tried steadily to reduce the data-collection burden placed on business, industry, and the general public. Four years ago, EIA embarked on the creation of a flexible, user-friendly, portable, state-of-the-art tool that would allow those petroleum compaies that submit data to EIA to save time and money in the preparation and submission of their forms. This effort was undertaken in cooperation with the petroleum industry and resulted in the development of the Petroleum Electronic Data Repoting Option (PEDRO). Today, more than 20 forms are available for electronic filing. Futher, the technology embodied in PEDRO has been adopted by other government agencies in various forms for their individual data collection systems.

Contributors
Adbo I. Baaklini is Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration of the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York. He is also Director of the Center for Legislative Development, founded over 20 years ago to help build and strengthen legislative institutions worldwide. His fields of expertise include legislative administration and policy, development and international administration, comparative politics and administration, public management, and organizational theory. He has published extensively in the areas of legislatures, their roles, and their administrative and research needs. Dr. Baaklini has consulted with U.S. Federal agencies as well as with the governments of Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, South Korea, Senegal, Mali, the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Yemen, and Egypt regarding legislative development issues. He is currently focusing on legislative institution-building activities in Hungary and Latin America.

Charles C. Heath is the Director of the Petroleum Supply Division in the Energy Information Administration. He has been with the agency since its formation in 1977 and has directed the development of PEDRO. In recognition of his contribution, he received the President's Council of Management Improvement Award in June 1990.

Peter Hernon, GIQ's founding editor, is the author of more than 100 publications, 29 of which are monographs. He has received various awards, including, for example, the 1993 award for the best article appearing in College & Research Libraries and for outstanding alumni at the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Alice A. Lippert is an economist in the Energy Information Administration. She has been with the agency since 1985 and has served as the Petroleum Marketing Division's PEDRO Project Manager for the past four years.

Kirsti Nilsen, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Toronto, is currently examining the effects of government information policy on social science research in Canada. In addition to teaching and lecturing on government publications, she has taught reference courses, and is the editor of the 8th edition of the Guide to Reference Materials for Canadian Libraries (University of Toronto Press, 1992).

Paula Weir is a Supervisory Mathematical Statistician in the Petroleum Marketing Division, Energy Information Administration. She received her B.S. from the University of Maryland in 1972.

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