Government Information Quarterly
Volume 13, Number 2, 1996
Analysis of Media Provisions in Beijing Platform for Action
Jane E. Kirtley
................................................... 109
ARTICLES
The National Archives at College Park
Michele F. Pacifico
............................................... 117
Citizen Access to Local Government Financial
Reports
Ken W. Brown and R. Steve McDuffie ...............................
133
The Information Highway: On Ramps, Checkpoints, and
Tollbooths
Henry H. Perritt, Jr.
................................................ 143
SPECIAL FEATURES
Creating a Smart Nation: Strategy, Policy, Intelligence,
and Information
Robert David Steele-Vivas
......................................... 159
Ways to Think about User Fees for Federal Information
Products
J. Timothy Sprehe
................................................ 175
Culture and Conflict: Defining the National
Archives
Don W. Wilson
.................................................. 187
Reflections on the Record
Trudy Huskamp Peterson
.......................................... 195
About the Authors .................................................... 201
REVIEWS
Edited by John Shuler
Government Documents Catalog Service (GDCS) (CD-ROM), July 1976-
By Auto-Graphics, Inc.
GPO CAT/PAC Plus (CD-ROM), July 1976-
By MARCIVE, Inc.
GPO on SILVERPLATTER (CD-ROM), July 1976-
By Silverplatter Information, Inc.
Reviewed by Joan F. Cheverie ...................................... 205
Beyond National Sovereignty. International Communication in the 1990s
Edited by Kaarle Nordenstreng and Herbert I. Schiller
Reviewed by Steve McKenzie ....................................... 208
Bridging the Gap: Examining Polarity in America
Edited by Nancy I. Herron and Diane Zabel
Reviewed by Fenghua Wang-Schaefer ............................... 209
The Internet Business Book
By Jill H. Ellsworth and Matthew V. Ellsworth
Reviewed by Laura M. Quilter ...................................... 209
Legislating Privacy: Technology, Social Values, and Public Policy
By Priscilla M. Regan
Reviewed by Robert Gellman ....................................... 210
The Right to Privacy
By Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy
Reviewed by Marc Rotenberg ...................................... 211
Tapping the Government Grapevine. The User-Friendly Guide
to U.S. Government Information Sources, 2nd edition
By Judith Schiek Robinson
Reviewed by Susan M. Ryan ........................................ 212
Washington Online: How to Access the Federal Government on the Internet
By Bruce Maxwell
Reviewed by Diane Bradley ........................................ 213
Analysis of Media Provisions
in Beijing Platform for Action
Jane E. Kirtley
Jane E. Kirtley attended the official United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, on September 4-15, 1995, as an accredited nongovernmental organization observer representing the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC). This Discussion Forum is adapted from her report prepared for WPFC and its affiliates.
Michele F. Pacifico
The National Achives and Records Administration completed construction of a new national achives facility, the National Archives at College Park, in 1993. Informally known as Archives II, the 1.8 million square foot facility was designed as a joint venture of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) and Ellerbe Becket and constructed by the George Hyman Costruction Company. The largest archives facility in the world, Archives II includes almost 700,000 square feet of records storage space, a five-level research room center, cooperation and special media laboratories, processing and administrative offices, an auditorium, conference and training rooms, a cafeteria, a daycare center, and an exercise facility.
Ken W. Brown
R. Steve McDuffie
Citizens' rights to local government information is based on laws regarding open records within the state of the local government entity. Generally, these laws acknowledge a citizen's right to know any desired information within a reasonable time period and without a need to justify the request. Based on anecdotal evidence that small local governments may not comply with such laws, a field study was conducted whereby individuals requested annual financial reports from 87 local government organizatios in Missouri. With few exceptions, the individuals were successful in obtaining the requested financial reports in compliance with the Missouri Open Records Law. The results of this study suggest that anecdotes about individuals' inability to obtain financial information from local governments may not be a correct indicator of the information dissemination practices of local governments.
Henry H. Perritt, Jr.
We are in the middle of a new era in public information management. Open computer networks already are making possible the dissemination of public information through systems of public and private efforts much more diverse than formerly was feasible. Information technology is beginning to be deployed to improve the methods of public paticipation in governmental proceedings. The article offers a comprehensive snapshot of the current policy and practices regarding the dissemination of government information in electronic form and a vision of a releasable "electronic government" for the future.
Creating a Smart Nation:
Strategy, Policy, Intelligence, and Information
Robert David Steele-Vivas
In an age characterized by distributed information, where the majority of the expertise is in the private sector, the concept of "central intelligence" is an oxymoron. The greatest threat to both national secuity and national economic competitiveness is ignorance--uninformed decision making. Intelligence communities are slowly discovering that they should not send a spy where a schoolchild can go, and that spies are not harnessing the vast distributed intelligence of the private sector. Unfortunately, the culture of intelligence in most countries believes that its uniqueness rests on secrets rather than thinking--on producing secrets rather than informing policy. To survive in the 21 st century, every nation must become a "smart nation" and engage all of its citizens--every citizen must be a collector, producer, and consumer of intelligence--and, thus, create the Vitual Intelligence Community. To integrate and make the best use of both open-source intelligence and traditional classified intelligence, each nation must establish a National Information Strategy which addresses connectivity, content, coordination, and computational security.
J. Timothy Sprehe
With budget cuts looming, Federal agencies are revisiting user fees for information products. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 provides for user fees no higher than the cost of information dissemination. Federal agencies are enjoined from making a profit on their information poducts and permitted only to recover costs. The real question is how much value agencies should add to their information strictly for the public's use. Practical considerations such as the administrative costs of fees and legal authority to receive revenues condition an agency's decision to begin user fees. Various factors such as allowable costs and differential pricing must be considered in computing users' fees. The author suggests an action stategy for agencies contemplating information user fees and concludes that coming budget cuts will lead to increased employment of user fees by Federal agencies.
Don W. Wilson
This article is a revised version of an address given at the Symposium on Presidential Libraries and Historical Scholarship at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1993. While the article focuses on presidentia1 papers, it does so in the context of broader access and information issues still facing the National Archives.
Trudy Huskamp Peterson
This article, based upon a presentation delivered at Simmons College in March 1995, offers the perspective of the former Acting Archivist of the United States on the internationalization of archival management, change, achival education, and preparation for the future.
Ken W. Brown, who currently teaches government and nonprofit accounting, has 18 years of prior experience as a public-college administrator, state legislative lobbyist, and financial information specialist. He is a CPA and a Certified Government Financial Manager. He is active in government professional organizations and makes presentations on government financial reporting.
Jane E. Kirtley is Executive Director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a voluntary association of reporters and editors dedicated to protecting the First Amendment interests of the news media. A lawyer and former newspaper reporter, Ms. Kirtley writes and speaks frequently on press freedom issues. She edits The Reporters Committee's quarterly magazine, The News Media & The Law. She holds a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law and bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
Michele F. Pacifico, with the National Archives at College Park, received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and her M.A. from The George Washington University. She joined the National Archives in 1980 while a graduate student to work on the records of the U.S. Geological Survey. She left the National Archives in 1982 to serve first as the assistant archivist at the University of Notre Dame Archives and then as archivist for The Brookings Institution. In late 1984, she retumed to the National Archives' Records Appraisal and Disposition Division while continuing her work at The Brookings Institution on a part-time basis. In 1985, she joined the staff of the Policy and Program Analysis Division. In 1987, she joined the Office of Management and Administration's Archives II Project Team, where she continues to oversee the final details of the Archives II building project.
R. Steve McDuffie, who teaches auditing and accounting systems, has prior experience as an auditor with the Big Six accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick. He is a CPA and holds a doctorate in Business Administration. Together with Dr. Brown, he conducts research on government financial information issues.
Henry H. Perritt, Jr., is Professor of Law at Villanova University School of Law and a member of the bars of Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and the United States Supreme Court. He is chairman of a committee of the American Bar Association concerned with agency use of information technology, and is past chairman of the Computers and Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He has advised federal and state governments and the European Commission on public information policy for the computer age and has authored several books and several dozen articles on computers and law. He directs the Villanova WorldWide Web server, which among other things makes information from 650 Federal agencies and from Federal courts of appeals available on the Internet.
Trudy Huskamp Peterson is currently Executive Director of the Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary. She is a leader in the American archival profession and in the international archival community. She served as Deputy Archivist of the United States from 1993-1995 and, for six years, as Assistant Archivist for the National Archives. During her tenure as Deputy Archivist, the Archives opened its major new public facility, "Archives II," which is the world's most advanced archival complex. An agricultural historian by training, Dr. Peterson began her career of over 25 years with the National Archives at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library after receiving her baccalaureate degree from Iowa State University. She completed her graduate work at the University of Iowa.
J. Timothy Sprehe is President of Sprehe Information Management Associates, Inc. Now retired from the Office of Management and Budget, he was the principal author of the 1985 government-wide information policy directive, OMB Circular No. A-130, "The Management of Federal Information Resources." He writes frequently in the field of Federal information policy, including a regular column for Federal Computer Week.
Robert D. Steele-Vivas, Chairman and CEO of OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS Group, is a veteran of 20 years in national and defense intelligence. He served three overseas tours as a clandestine service case officer, supported covert operations, managed offensive counterintelligence operations for a denied area, participated in strategic signal intelligence acquisition operations, helped program overhead imagery satellite resources, served as a military intelligence officer, and was the senior civilian responsible for establishing a new national intelligence production facility, the Marine Corps Intelligence Center. He holds advanced degrees in international relations and public administration, completed the Harvard Executive Program (Intelligence Policy), and is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College. He continues to lecture on intelligence policy and operations at the National Defense University, Joint Military Intelligence College, and other schools.
Don W. Wilson is the Executive Director of the George Bush Presidential Library Center, Texas A&M University. Before assuming this position in April 1993, he served as Archivist of the United States for more than five years. President Reagan nominated him to be the 7th Archivist of the United States and he was sworn in on December 4, 1987. Dr. Wilson has held a variety of administrative positions in both state and Federal historical institutions. He previously served as deputy director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and was named the first director of the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in 1981. Former positions include associate director at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and archivist at the Kansas State Historical Society. He has also served on the history faculties at the University of Michigan and Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. At Texas A&M University, he is associated with the Center for Presidential Studies as a research professor. He received his undergraduate degree from Washburn University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, where he was a National Defense Fellow from 1964 to 1967. He also received a honorary doctorate from the University of Cincinnati in 1988.
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