A Basis for Increasing Public Access to Federal Electronic Information

The Joint Committee on Printing requested that $800,000 be allocated in FY 1988 for 16 pilot projects involving the electronic dissemination of government information to depository libraries. That request was deferred by legislative appropriations subcommittees in both Houses of Congress pending completion of OTA’s report on electronic dissemination options. Originally expected in the fall of 1987, the report, titled Informing the Nation: Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age, was finally released in October 1988. Was the wait worthwhile? Clearly, precious time and some important opportunities have been lost. However, the Federal government and the public at large should benefit significantly from the report ifit is used as a heuristic device for developing new policies in a fast-changing area of government responsibility. It is also valuable for scholars as a state-of-the-art description of new information technologies and as a case study of organizational adaptation to electronic technologies. Much has changed already in the short period since the subcommittees decided to delay “without prejudice” the provision of $800,000 for pilot projects. First, the Glenerin Declaration, signed by the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in December 1987, has established a general framework for information policy development in those countries, should its guidelines be followed. Second, a legislative-executive budget “summit agreement,” also in December 1987, has imposed some voluntary constraints upon funding for new programs. Third, the Reagan administration’s efforts to privatize the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) have probably been sidetracked permanently by legislative provisions in the trade bill and the National Bureau of Standards authorization act. Fourth, the Department of Commerce has issued its own draft proposal