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Government Information Quarterly

Volume 11, Number 3, 1994

DISCUSSION FORUM:

Privacy Protection and the Increasing Vulnerability of the Public
Peter Hernon .................................................................................................... 241

Responses:

An American Privacy Protection Commission:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come ... Again
Robert M. Gellman .................................................................................................... 245

Privacy Protection and Data Dissemination at the Census Bureau
Harry A. Scarr ................................................................................................................. 249

Privacy Protection
Marc Rotenberg ......................................................................................................... 253

Balancing Information Privacy With Efficiency and Open Access:
A Concern of Government and Industry
Xavier R. Lopez ..................................................................................................... 255

ARTICLES

Costing Out a Depository Library: What Free Government Information?
Robert E. Dugan and Ellen M. Dodsworth ..................................................................... 261

The Administration and Operation of the Freedom of Information Act:
A Retrospective
Harold C. Relyea ....................................................................................................... 285

Federal Information Resources Management: New Challenges for the Nineties
Joe Ryan, Charles R. McClure, and Rolf T. Wigand .......................................... 301

FEATURES

A New Order of Things: The Political Future of Documents Librarians
and a National System of Federal Depository Libraries
John A. Shuler ................................................................................................................. 315

New Generations
Jack Sulzer ........................................................................................................... 323

Contributors ................................................................................................................... 329

REVIEWS

LC MARVEL and FedWorld: A Tour
Reviewed by Kathleen Keating and Sever Bordeianu .................................................... 331

Accessing U.S. Department of Energy Scientific and Technical Information:
Electronic Publications in the Federal Depository Library Program
Pilot Project Report
Issued by the Superintendent of Documents, GPO
Reviewed by Robert E. Dugan .................................................................................... 338

For Their Eyes Only: How Presidential Appointees Treat
Public Documents as Personal Property
By Steve Weinberg
Reviewed by Steven Aftergood ................................................................................. 339

Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh
By Adam C. Engst
The Mac Internet Tour Guide: Cruising the Internet the Easy Way
By Michael Fraase
Reviewed by Paul Frisch ................................................................................................ 340

Justice vs. Law: Courts and Politics in American Society
By Gary L. McDowell and Eugene W. Hickok
Reviewed by Steve McKinzie .......................................................................................... 341

Making Government Work: Electronic Delivery of Federal Services
By U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment
GPO Moving Forward in the Electronic Age: A Strategic Outlook
By the Office of the Public Printer
Reviewed by John A. Shuler ............................................................................................. 343

Security Classification of Information, Volume 2:
Principles for Classification of Information
By Arvin S. Quist
Reviewed by Harold C. Relyea ....................................................................................... 345

Robert E. Dugan
Ellen M. Dodsworth

Lauinger Library at Georegtown University developed a model to compile fiscal year 1993 annual operating costs supporting its depository library program. For the same time period, the costs for the Government Printing Office (GPO) to support distribution of Federal information to Lauinger were calcuIated. This study demonstrated that Lauinger expended over four dollars for every one dollar expended by the GPO. The cost of information compiled and studied raised questions concerning administrative decisions and the broader issue of cost sharing, especially cost shifting, between the GPO and the depository libraries. Construction of a political strategy that identifies the key players in Federal information policymaking, prioritizes library information needs, documents costs, and articulates this information to the stakeholders, especially Congress' Joint Committee on Printing (JCP), should reverse the perception that Federal lnformation is "free" to depository libraries.

Harold C. Relyea

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been administered by Federal departments and agencies for almost 30 years. Aspects of that administrative experience are discussed here. Never held in high regard or enthusiastically implemented by the Executive Branch, the FOIA and its effective operation owe much to Congress, which, after creating the statute, nurtured it through diligent oversight and legislative amendment. However, the FOIA has not received comprehensive congressional examination and evaluation for a decade. Not only might its existing procedures benefit from reassessment and upgrading, but also its capacity to contend with electronic formats is in question. Furthermore, the propect of the statute being extended to cover Congress or possibly the entire Legislative Branch grows stronger, suggesting a need to begin discussions concerning the scope of the FOIA's application to congressional or Legislative Branch records and such new arrangements as may be necessary to facilitate effective operation of the law should this application be approved.

Joe Ryan
Charles R. McClure
Rolf T. Wigand

Information resources management (IRM), introduced two decades ago in 1974, emerged in the 1980s as a key organizing framework for U.S. Federal information policy and management practices. IRM in the 1990s must deal with a fundamental shift in focus from efficient internal management of paper-based information delivery systems to effective management of an externally targeted, digitally networked, interactive, exchange of information and services with citizens. This changed context will bring both new opportunities and challenges. This article identifies critical success factors that IRM must address and offers recommendations for how best to meet these challenges and opportunities based on discussions with senior IRM leaders.

John A. Shuler

This article places the efforts of documenta librarians to reform the Federal Depository Library Program (DLP) in an historical and political perspective. As with many other earlier efforts of reform, the recent "Reinventing Access to Federal Government Information," held in October 1993, would raise doubts, once again, about the public institutions and national information policy arrangements that support the Government Printing Office and its DLP. The specific reforms calling for centralized information should be abandoned. The depository library system's political power and public convictions were never fully expressed through the program's various national administrative incarnations. Its true community purpose flows from the local conditions and information needs of each depository library community. Democratic distibution of public information must begin and end within these local areas and regions.

Jack Sulzer

It is time for a new generation of librayians to take over the work of restructuring the Federal Depository Library Program and to build new networks of partnerships in order to develop a program for the dissemination of government information in the next century. A new association of government information professionals will help to provide the framework needed for individual librarians to develop professional networks within, and outside of, librarianship and to establish direct partnerships with information-producing agencies. The Chicago Conference on the Federal Depository Library Program has taken the first steps in that direction.

Robert E. Dugan is Associate University Librarian of Lauinger Library at Georgetown University. He has been State Librarian of Delaware, Research Associate at the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Head of Library Development in Massachusetts, a public library director, and a reference librarian. He was formerly a member of the Government Printing Office's Depository Library Council to the Public Printer.

Robert M. Gellman is Chief Counsel, Subcommittee on Information, Justice, Transportation, and Agriculture, House Committee on Government Operations. He received his B.A. in 1970, from the University of Pennsylvania, and his J.D. in 1973 from Yale Law School.

Xavier Rojo Lopez is a Ph.D. candidate, University of Maine, Orono. He has completed postgraduate research as a Fulbright Scholar at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has continued interest in exploring how government policies affect both the public's access and the GIS industry's competitiveness in the global market. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Davis, and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Charles R. McClure is Professor at the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University. He served as Distinguished Researcher for the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) during fall, 1993. Dr. McClure is Associate Editor of GIQ.

Harold C. Relyea, a founding member of the GIQ editorial board, is a Specialist in American National Government with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. For over two decades, he has written extensively on a variety of aspects of government information policy and practice, as well as related issues of presidential power, congressional oversight, and government secrecy. He is also the author of the recently published book, Silencing Science: National Security and Scientific Controls (Ablex, 1994).

Joe Ryan is Research Associate, Adjunct Professor, and Ph.D. Candidate at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. His current research focuses on identifying performance measures which assist information managers in the development of digital information infrastructures.

John A. Shuler is Reviews Editor and member of the GIQ Editorial Board. He is a documents librarian and Head of the Department at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Main Library. He has been actively involved in library associations in Oregon, New York, and Illinois. He has written and taught on a variety of issues affecting the management of depository libraries. He is a member of the DuPont Circle Group.

Jack Sulzer has been head of the General Reference Section of the Pennsylvania State University Libraries since 1990. Previously, he served for 15 years in the Government Documents Section as a paraprofessional and as a documents librarian. He has been active in documents organizations at the state and Federal levels. He served as Chair of ALA/ GODORT 1990-1991 and was recently elected Assistant Chair/Chair-Elect of the Depository Library Council to the U.S. Public Printer. He was a member of the planning group for the Chicago Conference on the Future of Federal Government Information and acted as a discussion facilitator at the conference.

Rolf T. Wigand is Professor, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University. He coordinates the school's graduate Information Resources Management program. His current research interests include the social impacts of the national and international telecommunications developments.

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