access to australian commonwealth publications

Library Acqu&i!ions: Practice & Theory, Vol. 10, pp. 335-350, 1986 0364~6408/86 f3.00 + .oO Printed in the USA. Ail rights reserved. Copyright % 1986 Pergamon Journals Ltd.

ACCESS TO AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH PUBLICATIONS

MICHAEL HARRINGTON

Supervising Editor, Service Publications

Australian Government Publishing Service

GPO Box 84, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

Abstract-Access to government publications involves a number of problems: identification and acquisition, and finding relevunt information within a particular work. This paper warnines these problems for Australian Common wealth Cov- ernment publications. It shows the distribution of pub~~hing responsibifi%ies among ~ommon~a~th Gover~meni agencies and discusses the role of the Australian Cov- ernment ~b~ishing Service. In particular, it examines the catalogs that the Ser- vice &sues to advertise and record the tides it publkhes, and it discusses their value as selection and acquisition tools. It also considers means of obtaining AGPS and other publications. The paper then examines some of the bibliographic tools that may be used to identify and gain access to publications and concludes with a dis- cussion of access difficlties that may be met in using these.

Government publishing is big business and the range of publications produced covers many facets of our lives. In size, these publications can range from multivolume works to single sheets of paper. In price, they can range from expensive de(ux editions to free throwaways. They may deal with law, economics, the arts and the sciences; they may also deal with garden- ing, cooking and other leisure activities. Some are of a scholarly nature and are intended for a limited market; others would prove a pleasant surprise in anyone’s Christmas stocking.

Most commercial publishers aim to sell their books to the widest possible market and make a profit. These would not appear to be the aims of Australian government publishers, many of whom do not appear even to consider the importance of product marketing or availability. Few government publications, for example, are available in commercial bookshops. There are only a few government bookshops; those which do exist are all located in capital cities and none stocks a complete range of available titles. Little effort is made to advertise government publications and the media treat only a small number of them as newsworthy. Print runs may be small, determined by the size of an agency’s mailing list. This means that there may not be enough copies to supply casual inquirers or the National Library (for recording in the national bibliography), or even the agency’s own library. Even if a casual inquirer were

335

336 iMICHAEL HARRINGTON

able to obtain a copy of the work in question, he or she may find it difficult to locate relevant information in it because of the style of writing (many government writers, it seems, do not understand readability levels), the poor quality of production and layout (an increasing number of government publications, particularly annual reports and reports of commissions of inquiry, are produced in camera-ready form, which does not allow editors and designers employed by the Australian Government Publishin8 Service [AGPS], for example, any oppor- tunity for amendments), or the lack of an index.

GO~RNME~ IN AUSTRALIA

Anyone wishing to acquire an Australian government publication should be aware of the three levels of gover~ent -commonwealth, state and local-in the country. The Common- wealth of Australia was formed in 1901 by the federation of the six independent colonies, which are now the six Australian states. The Constitution, formally part of the United King- dom Parliament’s Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, sets out the distribution of power between the Commonwealth and state governments. It gives powers such as customs and excise exclusively to the Commonwealth; it shares many other powers between the Com- monwealth and the states; residual powers, those not mentioned in the Constitution, remain with the states.

Each state has its own constitution that sets up its institutions of government and defines their powers. These powers are wide-ranging and include the provision of health, education, social welfare, housing and transport services, environment and consumer protection, police services and the regulation of corporate affairs. It is the state government which is responsible for setting up and overseeing the operations of local authorities.

Local governments provide services such as local road building and maintenance, street lighting, water and sewerage, health and sanitation, public libraries, the supervision of building, and regulation of matters such as slaughte~ng of animals and weights and measures. They are set up by state acts although have not, until recently, been recognized in any state constitution: Victoria was the first state so to do in 1979. Until recently, local authorities also were dependent upon their state governments for financing-this changed only with the Whit- lam years, 1972-1975, when Co~onwe~th funding became available to them. They are not prolific publishers and, despite the lack of investigation into this area of government publishing by Australian writers, will not further be considered here.

Australia also includes a number of internal and external territories. Of these, only the Northern Territory is self-governing, although it is likely that the Australian Capital Terri- tory will be granted some aspects of self-government soon. The Northern Territory became self-governing on July 1, 1978 and for most purposes, including those relating to the production, distribution, availability and access to government publications, it can be considered as a state.

GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING IN AUSTRALIA

States’ rights and the independence of the states are important concepts in the Australian political scene. They are also important when one considers the acquisition of government publications. A person seeking to acquire a Co~onwe~th Government publication from a state authority (except if the “state” authority is the Northern Territory Government Infor-

Access to Australian Commonwealth Publications 337

mation Service, which acts as an agent for the Australian Government Publishing Service) is unlikely to receive any assistance. Yet that person would have to approach a Commonwealth authority for publications relating to Australian territories (except if the work in question is a Northern Territory government publication, because the Northern Territory became independent of the Commonwealth in publishing matters after self-government).

Publishing activities of state governments tend to be decentralized. State government printing offices produce many government publications and most people would approach them first when seeking a state publication. If the work is a parliamentary publication, they will probably be successful. This is because the main function of government printing offices is to publish for parliaments and they sell these publications from outlets in the capital cities. But if they are seeking a publication of a department or other executive agency, they will probably be disappointed because the range of executive branch titles that printing offices publish and sell is very small. To acquire these works, the person would have to apply direct to the responsible agency.

With the setting up of the Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS), federal government publishing became more centralized. As with the states, most parliamentary publishing is done by the Commonwealth Government Printing Office, which was set up in 1927. (Before that, printing for the Commonwealth was done by the Victorian Government Printer.) Unlike its state counterparts, however, the Printing Office operates as a section within AGPS.

But despite the establishment of a central publishing organization in the form of AGPS, a great deal of independent departmental and statutory authority publishing continues. AGPS, moreover, although it may arrange for the production of titles, may not be the agency responsible for their distribution. Thus, although many more Commonwealth Government publications are available from a central source than occurs in the states, centralization is by no means complete.

THE CHARTER OF PRINTING AND PUBLISHING RESPONSIBILITIES

AGPS was set up in October 1968 and became fully operational in July 1970 when it assumed responsibility for its own publishing program through its publishing branch. Its functions are to provide design, printing, publishing and distribution services and advice for the Commonwealth Parliament, departments and statutory authorities. The specifics of these broad functions are set out in the Commonwealth of Australia Charter of Printing and Pub- lishing Responsibilities [l].

The Charter is an important document, not only because it defines AGPS’s responsibilities in the publishing field, but also because it defines the responsibilities of the Common- wealth Parliament, and federal government departments and statutory authorities in the same field. It says, for example, that parliamentary departments must use AGPS resources to print, publish and distribute publications unless they are exempted by the Presiding Officers (the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives). It requires departments and all statutory authorities that are staffed under the provision of the Public Service Act to use AGPS for the same purposes [2]. Even agencies not required to use AGPS for the supply and distribution of their publications are still required to notify the Service of the release of publications not processed through it.

The Charter’s main weakness is that it does not impose sanctions on agencies that do not abide by its requirements. If the minister responsible for an agency has been persuaded that

338 MICHAEL HARRINGTON

material can be produced more to the agency’s requirements or for any other reason from another source, or if a statutory authority is known not to be notifying AGPS of the titles it publishes - independence of central government control is a (jealously guarded) character- istic of a statutory body-there is no avenue of redress given in the Charter for AGPS to follow.

It is known that the resulting list of titles notified to AGPS is incomplete. The requirement for agencies to notify the Service predates the Charter. It began as the result of a recommendation of the Commonwealth Parliament’s Joint Committee on Publications (JCP) in its sixth special report on The Australian Government Publishing Service and Its Role in Common- wealth Printing and Publishing that “each publication produced by departments and statutory authorities be notified to AGPS upon its release, together with details as to the status of the document, whether it is for sale or free, and from where it can be obtained” [3]. The project was inaugurated at ministerial level by AGPS Circular No. 41, dated September 1982, and actual work began one year later.

Circular 41 was circulated to all government agencies that AGPS could identify, but this does not mean that all areas responsible for publishing within agencies received a copy. Even if they did, as personnel changes occur the Circular’s (and the Charter’s) requirements tend to be forgotten. Some agencies, moreover, consider that the term “publication” applies only to major works and do not notify the Service about other material that they produce and make publicly available. Yet other agencies have simply ignored both the Charter and the AGPS Circular-as mentioned above, the concept of independence among statutory authorities is strong-and since neither contains sanctions that can be applied, AGPS is left without any recourse.

AGPS CATALOGS

Content .I\GPS issues four catalogs in an attempt to record Commonwealth Government publica-

tions. The Service lists all titles that it publishes (any publication of any Commonwealth agency that approaches it for this purpose) in its Commonwealth Publication Official List [4], issued four times a month, and in that catalog’s cumulation, the Annual Catalogue of Common- wealth Publications [5]. It records all titles that it sells - AGPS stocks and sells only a selection of titles that it publishes, and also stocks and sells other titles, government and nongovernment, that it considers are saleable-in its Monthly Catalogue [6]. It attempts to record all other Commonwealth Government publications, that is, those it has been notified about that it has not published and does not sell, in Commonwealth Publications Officiai List and its annual cumulation.

Because AGPS publishes many titles that it does not sell and sells a number of titles that it does not publish, and because also it does not sell any of the titles that the Charter and its Circular No. 41 require agencies to notify it about, the Monthly Catafogue does not fully cumulate the contents of the weekly list, nor, in turn, are its contents fully cumulated in the Annual Catalogue of Commonwealth Publications. The AGPS Catalogue on Microfiche, on the other hand, is a partial cumulation of the weekly, monthly and annual lists. The microfiche does not include entries appearing in the weekly and annual lists for notified titles. It also excludes entries for bills, customs tariff and excise tariff proposals, and acts and other forms of legislation appearing in the other catalogs. With these exceptions, it lists all titles published or sold by AGPS since July 1976. It is published fortnightly, although arrangements


can be made with AGPS to receive the microfiche at less frequent intervals. Each issue of the catalog fully supersedes the previous one. Table 1 summarizes the contents and cumulating relationship between these catalogs.

Arrangement The arrangement of the four catalogs is similar. Commonwealth Publications Official List

and the Annual Catalogue of Commonwealth Publications are divided into four sections. The first three list AGPS publications -parliamentary titles, legislation and departmental titles. The fourth- statutory authority titles-is a listing of departmental and statutory authority publications notified to AGPS as the result of the JCP’s recommendation. Each section is subdivided by type of publication. The departmental titles section, for example, is divided into books [7] (which also includes annual reports, leaflets, maps, posters and monographs in series), periodicals [S] and different subsections for the various series comprising the Com- monwealth of Australia Gazette. Despite its name, the departmental titles subsection includes plain cover (that is, non-parliamentary paper) editions of reports of parliamentary committees and any other parliamentary publications not issued as part of the major series listed as subheadings in the parliamentary titles section. In the 1984 annual catalog, moreover, for some unexplained reason, the separate listing of departmental periodicals was incorporated into the listing of departmental books, and parliamentary papers, which should have appeared in the parliamentary titles section, were also incorrectly listed in this section.

Arrangement within subsections varies. Issues of Hansard, Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, Journals of the Senate, and issues of customs and excise tariff proposals are arranged in number order in the parliamentary titles section, but bills are arranged alphabetically by short title. Parliamentary papers were arranged in number order until issue No. 16, 15-21 April 1985, of the weekly catalog, after which an alphabetical arrangement by title or corporate author, similar to that in the departmental titles section, was adopted. As mentioned above, the separate subsection for parliamentary papers disappeared in the 1984 annual catalog: the listing of these in the departmental books section under the heading “Parliamentary papers” is arranged by paper number.

Arrangement within the departmental titles and statutory authorities titles sections is generally alphabetical by title, but there are exceptions. Treaties, for example, are listed under the heading “Treaty series” and are then arranged by treaty number. Annual reports and reports of royal commissions and committees of inquiry appear under the author body rather than under title, even if the title is distinctive. Joint parliamentary committee reports appear under the heading “Parliament” and then under the committee’s name. Other parliamentary committees’ reports appear under “House of Representatives” or “Senate” (which are main headings, not subordinate to the heading “Parliament” and not connected to it by cross references) and then under the committee’s name.

Details given in each entry include, as appropriate, personal or corporate author, editor, chairperson, place and date of publication, publisher, series, pagination, size, ISBN, price, weight and the AGPS catalog number. If a publication is not sold by AGPS, the letters “N.S.” are used in place of price and weight. These indicate that it is not available (“non-stock”) from the Publishing Service and that the responsible agency should be approached directly.

The monthly and microfiche catalogs do not include the statutory authority titles section of the weekly and annual lists and the microfiche does not include the legislation section. Both, however, include two sections not found in the others. The first of these, other Common- wealth Government publications, contains entries for departmental and statutory authority

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titIes that the AGPS sells but has not published. The second, other Australian titles, contains entries for the non-government and occasional state government publications that the Ser- vice selIs.

Value for Selection and Acquisition The weekly and monthly catalogs are timely selection and acquisition guides. Without them,

access to Commonwealth Government publications, and particularly to AGPS publications, would be more difficult. They have a number of weaknesses, however. Neither is indexed: locating a particular title is a matter of skimming through available issues. The monthly catalog is comprehensive and lists all titles placed on sale during the month. The weekly list, on the other hand, may not list al AGPS-published titles, and in particular may not include entries for some p~liament~y publications bearing the Government Printer’s imprint and not sold by the Service. A recent example was the non-listing of the Seventh General Index to the Papers Presented to Parliament, compiled by the Department of the House of Represen- tatives and published by the Government Printer, probably in 1983 -the work bears no date of publication; 1983 was the year of its receipt in the National Library. The reason for omissions like this is, in the words of the cataloger responsible, “poor internal communications in the AGPS-Government Printer complex” [9]. In other words, the Printing Section did not tell the Cataloguing Unit about the work.

Although both catalogs are valuable as selection and acquisition guides to publications sold by AGPS, the omission of prices and the lack of a list of addresses from which material may be obtained make Commonwealth Publications Official List less useful for acquisition of “N.S.” (nonstock) publications, those the Service does not sell. The annual and microfiche catalogs are more usefui for retrospective purposes, however, because, although neither is indexed, both now include multiple entries in the most important subsection, the listing of departmental books. Thus, entries appear under personal or corporate author, chairperson, editors, series, other titles and subjects as well as, with the exceptions noted above, under title. Entries also refer to the parliamentary paper edition of any work when that publication is also listed in the issue in hand. Subject headings, however, are broad. Works about small business, for example, appear under the heading “business.” A “see” reference from the narrower term was provided in the 1981 issue of the annual catalog but not in earlier or later editions, or in the microfiche catalog. In the annual catalog’s 1982 issue, for the first time, subject entries were placed after the title/author/series sequence and this arrangement was adopted in the microfiche catalog at the same time.

Pricing details in the annual catalog are not necessarily accurate and this is another of its weaknesses for acquisition purposes. The catalog’s compilers do not check whether the price changes have occurred or whether publications listed are still in print. The microfiche catalog is more reliable. Changes of price and out-of-print information are recorded in AGPS’s stock database when these occur and therefore appear in the next issue of the microfiche produced.

ACQUISlTION OF PUBLlCATlONS

Publications Sold by AGPS When ordering a publication from AGPS it is advisable to quote the work’s catalog num-

ber. All publications listed in the catalogs are assigned a seven-digit number which is used to arrange stock and as the means of access into AGPS’s pubiications databases. The address


of the AGPS Mail Order Service, from which all publications sold by the Service can be obtained, is GPO Box 84, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Unless a credit account has been established, orders from overseas clients should be accompanied by a bank draft in Australian currency at current exchange rates. The bank draft should be made payable to “Collector of Public Moneys- AGPS” and it should cover the cost of the publications ordered and post- age. Orders unaccompanied by payment will not be filled (unless they are placed against a credit account). Instead, a quotation advising costs involved will be supplied. Dispatch to clients is by surface mail unless otherwise requested.

Subscription and standing order facilities are also available for periodicals and titles published on a continuing basis. All orders received for publications that are temporarily out of stock or that are, at the time of the order’s receipt, not available for some reason, are auto- matically recorded unless instruction to the contrary is given. The publication will then be forwarded to credit account holders and prepaying clients when available. Other clients will only be advised of the publication’s availability.

Publications Not Sold by AGPS AGPS does not stock publications marked as N.S. in its weekly, annual and microfiche

catalogs or any other titles of Commonwealth Government agencies not listed in its monthly catalog. The government agency shown as responsible should be approached to obtain a copy. Even though the entries for these publications in AGPS catalogs also include a catalog number, there is no need to quote this when applying direct to agencies for publications not sold by the Service. The number is for internal AGPS use only.

The situation can be confusing when AGPS publishes and sells some publications of an agency and not others. This happens, for example, with publications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). AGPS publishes (although for reasons of tradition the ABS imprint appears on the title page) and sells the Bureau’s priced publications, which comprise approx- imately 10% of the Bureau’s titles. It lists these in its catalogs and they may be ordered or a subscription placed, quoting the AGPS catalog number, from the Service’s Mail Order Sales. All other ABS publications are gratis and can only be obtained by writing to the Australian Statistician, PO Box 10, Belconnen, ACT 2616, Australia or to one of the Bureau’s state offices. In requesting a publication, or in requesting to be placed on the Bureau’s mailing lists for regular supply of a publication, you should always quote the ABS (not the AGPS) catalog number, reference to which is included in the Bureau’s own annual Caralogue of Publications.

Volume 1 (Offices and Personnel) of the Commonwealth Government Directory should be used to find addresses, and telephone, telex or facsimile numbers of other government agencies whose publications AGPS does not sell. (The Directory is available on a standing order basis from AGPS Mail Order Sales.) This volume of the Directory lists, portfolio by portfolio, all Commonwealth departments, most statutory authorities, but only a small number of nonstatutory bodies (although most of these, if they issue any publications, do so under the parent department’s umbrella). It is indexed by agency names and is issued regularly; plans are currently being drawn up to make its contents available for computer searching, although how and when have still to be decided.

Free Distribution Free distribution of AGPS publications is restricted. The National Library of Australia is

entitled to one copy of every Australian publication under the provisions of Section 201 of the Copyright Act 1968. AGPS lodges a copy of every publication with the Library in accor-

4ccess to Australian Commonwealth Publications 343

dance with those provisions. It also lodges copies of its pub~cations with Australian state and university libraries under its depository and free issue schemes. The sole provision for overseas libraries to receive free distribution of the Service’s publications is through exchange arrangements established with the National Library of Australia.

The AGPS deposit scheme to the six state libraries began in 1970 and was extended to the Northern Territory Library Service in 1980. Its free issue scheme to university libraries started in 1974, although not all libraries entitled to join the scheme did so at that time. Libraries receive the same material under both schemes-all titles published by AGPS. In other words, both categories of libraries should receive all works listed in the Commonwealth Publications Official List and its cumulation, the Annual Cutalogue of Commonwealth Publications, except for those notified to AGPS by departments and statutory authorities. Deposit libraries’ obli- gations to maintain and allow access to deposit and free issue material are set out in the guidelines and objectives of the AGPS deposit scheme, approved by the Service on August 3, 1983 and effective from that date [lo]. Essentially, these are the same for both types of libraries except on the matter of discarding. Free issue libraries may exercise discretion in discarding AGPS material, although the guidelines require them to report every three years to the Direc- tor Publishing about material that has been discarded. Depository libraries, however, may discard only certain categories of material, unless prior permission of the Director Publish- ing has been given.

These schemes affect only a small number of libraries and attempts to extend them to other libraries have not been successful. AGPS does not issue its publications free of charge except to its deposit libraries. Other agencies establish their own free distribution lists, although they may use AGPS distribution area to do this, using mailing lists that they have compiled and supplied to the Service. For example, Iibraries of colleges of advanced education and other tertiary institutions, secondary school and public libraries, as well as state and university Iibrar- ies receive free copies of Commonwealth parliamentary publications in this way. This is because the Commonwealth Parliament, acting on a recommendation of the Joint Commit- tee on Publications, has made this category of material available on free distribution to them. The JCP made this recommendation in its first special report [ 1 l] and then repeated and expanded it to include Commonwealth departmental libraries in its fourth special report [12]. Although the government of the day said that the Parliament would have to realize that adopt- ing this recommendation would cause additional production, distribution and administrative costs (the period was one of spending restraints in the Commonwealth Government), it nevertheless affirmed the Parliament’s right to determine categories eligible for free distribution f13]. Some libraries failing into the recommended categories have applied to the Parliament and succeeded in obt~ning parliamentary material in this way. The recommendation, however, did not include any categories of overseas Iibraries.

Two other Commonwealth agencies have aIso lodged their publications in selected Aus- tralian libraries for a number of years. They are the Commonwealth Scientific and Indus- trial Research Organization and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, both major publishers and both doing so, to a large extent, independent of AGPS. The latter, in a 1981 decision, formalized this arrangement into a deposit scheme. As a result, Australian state and university libraries now receive on deposit all ABS Central Office publications and the publications of their local state office. In addition, it is now becoming common for relevant environment authorities to nominate state libraries as places where copies of Commonwealth environmental impact statements may be viewed for public comment. Thus, these libraries more easily acquire copies of this often hard-to-obtain material.

There are no other formal arrangements for the free distribution of Commonwealth Gov- ernment publications but most government agencies distribute publications to selected groups,

344 MKHAEL HARRINGTON

distribution in these cases often being determined by already existing mailing lists. Although the physical distribution of publications may be done for the agency by AGPS, the agency itself should be approached regarding additions and amendments to these lists. Agencies’ addresses can be found in the Co~~on~ea~th Government Direcrory.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL

B~b~iog~aph~es of the National Library of Austkiia The direct beneficiaries of most of the formal deposit and free issue schemes for Common-

wealth Government publications are the National Library of Australia, and Australian state and university libraries, but general access to Commonwealth Government publications is also improved as a result. This is because publications received by these libraries are subsequently listed in the national bibliographic record, and in particular in the National Library’s Aus- tralian National Bibliogruphy (ANB) and Australian Government Pubficat~ons (AGP). Although less speedy in their listing of new titles than the AGPS catalogs, the two printed bibliographies are better-indexed selection and acquisition guides and, in ANB’s case, provide computer access to contents from 1972.

Both bibliographies have weaknesses apart from their slowness in listing publications. Pric- ing details, for example, are sketchy: often appearing as “price unknown” in ANB; often no indication at all being given in AGP. (The number of entries which do not include prices, moreover, will probably increase as a result of AGPS’s 1985 policy to stop printing the recommended retail price on any of its publications, adopted to allow AGPS to charge a higher price than the recommended retail price formerly appearing on each publication as costs rise without as readily invoking the ire of clients -this is, in other words, a policy of what the client cannot see will not be complained about.) The details given about sources for obtaining publications are also often unreliable, In both bibliographies the source is assumed to be the publisher but, as I have shown above, AGPS publishes many titles that it does not sell.

The bibliographies have a further weakness, and one that they share with the AGPS catalogs. Although they list many government publications, they are not complete records of Com- monwealth Government publishing. There are deliberate omissions in each bibliography, which are listed in their introductions. There are also unintended omissions in both, which may occur because publications were not sent to the National Library, despite the deposit provisions of Section 201 of the Copyright Act. There would, however, appear to be con- flicting views on whether these provisions apply to government publications. Jan Fullerton of the National Library, for example, has said that “Section 201 of the Act requires that publishers deposit one copy of all published library material (print media only) in the National Library. Section 7 states that the Copyright Act ‘binds the Crown but nothing in the Act renders the Crown liable to be prosecuted for an offence’. So that while Section 201 is taken to apply to government printers and to government departments and authorities as publishers, these bodies are under no threat of legal action if they fail to comply” [14]. Yet in response to the Unesco survey of bibliographic recording of government publications, the National Library said: “Legal deposit does not apply to publications of government departments” and “Legal deposit does not apply to government publications so the Library must reIy on the goodwill of the publishers” [15].

But unintended omissions may also occur in ANB and AGP because publications have somehow slipped through the National Library’s recording system, either because they were not noticed or because they were not recognized. The Seventh General Index to the Papers


Presented to Parliament, noted above as not being listed in AGPS’s catalogs because of a breakdown in that organization’s procedures, was also missed by the compilers of AGP- presumably for the same reason, because at least one copy is held by the National Library.

Parliamentary Papers A person who had not read this article or visited the National Library and seen a copy of

the work would probably not know that the Seventh General Index had been published. Yet it is an important work for all students of Australian history and public administration. It is one of a line of indexes cumulating the sessional Index to the Papers Presented to Parlia- ment. Earlier general indexes and the First Consolidated Index to the Papers Presented to Parliament, which cumulated the first to fifth general indexes and covered the period 1901-1949, were tabled in the Commonwealth Parliament. They were subsequently ordered to be printed and published in the parliamentary paper series. Because they were tabled, they were themselves indexed in the Index to the Papers Presented to Parliament covering the session when this happened. Because they were published as parliamentary papers, the entry in that index includes a reference to where they may be found in the parliamentary paper volumes. The Seventh General Index, however, was not tabled. It could not, therefore, be ordered to be printed or published as a parliamentary paper; nor was its release recorded in the Index to Papers Presented to Parliament. It is, therefore, an important government publication which has completely escaped being recorded in any major index or bibliography.

The Index to the Papers Presented to Parliament, which is issued in proof form at the end of each parliamentary period and cumulates to the end of the session (and which is not available for sale from AGPS: those wishing to be placed on the mailing list for its distribution should write to the Clerk of the Parliament, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600, Aus- tralia), and its general and consolidated cumulations are important sources for identifying a range of parliamentary publications. The most important of these are the works forming the parliamentary paper series. This series comprises all documents tabled in the Parliament and ordered by the Senate or the House of Representatives to be printed so as “to preserve in a permanent, convenient and accessible form those papers presented to the Parliament which have particular importance as part of the National Record (and so that) any Member of Parliament or any ordinary citizen (can) refer to these documents without any undue dif- ficulty despite any lapse of time since publication” [ 161. Included in the series are the annual reports of government departments and authorities, reports of royal commissions and parliamentary committees, reports of many committees and commissions of inquiry, and green and white papers (when these are in fashion: green papers are those issued to promote dis- cussion of proposed government policy; white papers are those issued to announce new government policy).

Other Documents Tabled in Parliament These indexes also contain entries for material which, although tabled in Parliament, is not

ordered to be printed and consequently not issued as parliamentary papers. This material includes statutory rules, territorial legislation, treaties, minutes of evidence and reports of some parliamentary and departmental committees of inquiry, ministerial statements, petitions, etc. For parliamentary papers, the proof index gives the paper number; in the final index, which only appears in the bound sessional volumes of the Journals of the Senate and the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, the entry also includes the location of the paper


in the bound volumes. For other documents, however, the index merely refers to the page of the Journals of the Senate or the Votes and Proceedings on which the tabling of the document is recorded. It does not refer the user to where he or she would find the text of the document or even indicate whether the document was issued in published form.

Yet many of these documents are published and can be identified through the AGPS catalogs and through AGP and ANB. Statutory rules and other forms of subordinate legislation, for example, are published by AGPS, first as separate pamphlets and are then cumulated and indexed each year into bound volumes. They are listed in all of the AGPS catalogs except the microfiche. AGP and all four AGPS catalogs include entries for treaties published by AGPS as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Treaty Series. Reports and minutes of evidence of parliamentary and other committees of inquiry not published as part of the parliamentary paper series may be published by AGPS or by the responsible agency. If this is the case, these reports should be listed:

(a) In AGP and ANB, if a copy were deposited with the National Library; (b) In the weekly and annual AGPS catalogs, if AGPS did not publish them but was noti-

fied of their release; (c) In the weekly, annual and microfiche catalogs, if AGPS were the publisher (although

if the work is a parliamentary committee report and was handled by the Service’s Print- ing rather than Publishing Section- that is, bears the Government Printer imprint - communication breakdown may have occurred and the report in question not sent to AGPS’s cataloging area for listing);

(d) In the monthly and microfiche catalogs, if AGPS were the seller; and (e) In all four AGPS catalogs if the Service were both the publisher and sales agent.

Other documents may have been published but not in a separate form. The text of ministerial statements made in Parliament and petitions presented to it, for example, are published in Hansard. The AGPS catalogs cannot be used to identify these because, although the catalogs list each weekly issue of Hansard when published, no attempt is made to ana- lyze contents. ANB does not include entries for Hansard: it does not list any but the first and (sometimes) the last issue of any serial. AGP lists Hansard only in its annual edition as a serial entry. Nor can one use the National Library’s Australian Public Affairs Information Service (APAIS) because Hansard is not a serial that this service indexes. To locate ministerial statements and the text of petitions, therefore, one must refer to Hansard’s own indexes.

It is necessary to use the subject index to find the text of a petition. In this index, petitions are listed alphabetically under the subject heading “Parliament (General).” There is no reference made under the subject of the petition, nor a cross reference from the subject to the “Parliament (General)” heading.

Either the speeches index or subject index must be consulted for the text of a ministerial statement. The former uses the speaker’s name as a main heading; the latter refers to statements under their subjects. The use of cross references in this second index makes for easier access. Cross references, however, are not used consistently and, in particular, are not used to lead to items indexed under class headings like “Parliament (General).”

Press Releases Ministers probably make more statements outside Parliament than in and these are issued

in the form of press releases. None of the National Library or AGPS bibliographies lists these individually, although the annual cumulation of AGP includes series entries for press releases

.Access to Australian Commonwealth Publications 347

of different agencies or ministers. Commonwealth press releases, however, are collected and published weekly in the ~u~~o~weff~r~ Record. Although, like Hansurd, separate issues of this journal are listed in the AGPS catalogs, they are not analyzed; nor are they indexed in APAIS. To identify individual ministerial statements, therefore, one must refer to the Com- monwealth Record’s index, which should appear at the end of each month, should be cumulated each quarter and should also be cumulated at the end of the year (but, because of work pressures in the AGPS which compiled the Record, these schedules have not been met since the end of 1984).

Agency Lists of Publications Finding out about other publications that are not listed in the National Library’s bibliog-

raphies or in AGPS’s catalogs can be time-consuming. It requires constant searching of lists of publications issued by agencies. Not all government agencies prepare such fists (and not all lists that are issued are listed in AGP or the other bibliographies - a Catch 22 situation). Moreover, there is stil1 no guarantee that every agency will list every publication in such a list. Breakdowns in communication between separate areas of government agencies seem to occur in the same way that they appear to within the National Library and AGPS.

The agency publication lists that are prepared vary considerably in coverage, format and quality. Some are comprehensive, listing all of the responsible agency’s publications, and in the case, for example, of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ annual Cafalogue of Pubiica- tions should be used in preference to any other source for identifying publications of the agency. Some list all those in print-the National Library’s ~b~icQti0~ in Print is an example; and some just list recently released or selected works, as, for example, do many of the lists of publications appearing in various agencies’ annual reports. The lists may be a single sheet of paper like the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Publications Advice, or, like its annual catalog, a sizeable reference tool. They can range in format from separately published works to lists incorporated in agencies’ annual reports or other publications. The attempt to identify and record these lists of publications by the Sub-Committee on Government Publications of the Victorian Regional Committee of the Australian Advisory Council on Bibliographical Ser- vices in Government Publications of Australia: A List of Lists, the second edition of which was published by the Library Council of Victoria in 1979, is now considerably out of date.

ACCESS DIFFICULTIES

In quality as well as in format, these agency-prepared lists of publications can vary considerably. They may range from the Iogically prepared and accurate to the meaningless and unreliable. Merely because an agency issues lists of its publications, moreover, does not mean that it will distribute a list to all those to whom it wil1 be of value or that the potential users of the list will be able to do so easily and efficiently.

An illustration will highlight these final points. Section 9 of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982 requires all prescribed agencies-all agencies bound by its requirements- to publish a statement, every three months “if practicable” but at least once a year, about the manuals and other documents that contain their “hidden law”: in other words, the precedents, guidelines, etc. used in making decisions that affect the pubIic. These statements are not, strictly speaking, lists of pub~cations* The act requires a listing of unpublished documents; it assumes that, once a work is published, the precedents, etc. it contains will be available to all. (In practice, however, a nuinber of agencies include entries for pub-


lished works consulted in making decisions as well as those for manuals, files and other internal documents.) Even so, FOI listings are bibliographies and, considered as such, give examples of possible difficulties in identifying publications from a list prepared by a government agency.

Many statements, and particularly those of relatively small, unifunctional statutory authorities, are simple lists of documents arranged alphabetically by title. Locating a particular document is a matter of skimming the contents of the relatively short list. But this is not always the case. The sections of the statements of the Departments of Community Services [17] and Social Security [IS] dealing with manuals are examples. (The other section of these statements is a computer-produced subject index to other documents updating or elucidating the contents of these manuals.) This section is arranged in both statements first by jurisdiction (Cen- tral Office followed by manuals of each state office) and then in what the departments consider is the order of greatest demand-manuals considered to be in the greatest demand are listed before those considered of lesser interest, The arrangement may be helpful to the cognoscente but not for the layperson, for whom, after all, these statements were prepared.

In none of the above statements is an attempt made to bring together documents dealing with the same subject, except if those responsible for compiling the lists have brought key- words to the front; many prefer, instead, to give an indication of the form of the document (leaflet, opinion, report, ministerial statement, etc.) as the first words of the title. The same is true in statements in which the major arrangement is by document series. It is generally no problem to locate a particular document if the statement is a relatively short one, but if the statement is long and the chosen subarrangement under the series title is by series number, the arrangement serves to hinder rather than help access.

Many FOI statements are arranged by subject. Again, it is fairly easy to locate a particular document when the index is short or it has been enriched by use of cross references or double indexing. It is harder to locate a particular item, however, when the subject headings are broad and cross references are not used. In the statement of the Department of Primary Industry [ 191, for example, one would have to look under “animal health”, “export inspection”, “field crops”, “ forestry and horticultural crops”, “ meat and wool” and “management” to identify all documents dealing with exports of primary produce. No cross references are provided from “wool” to “meat and wool”, from “horticultural crops” to “forestry and horticultural crops”, or from the term “exports” to any of these main headings.

Although they are given the form of subject headings, main headings in the Department of Primary Industry’s statement are derived from the administrative units of which the Depart- ment is composed: the Bureau of Animal Health; the Export Inspection Service; and the Field Crops, Forestry and Horticultural, Meat and Wool, and Management Divisions. In choos- ing this arrangement, and in not providing cross references from broader, narrower and other related terms, the statement’s compilers have assumed that users have prior knowledge of the Department’s structure and functions. It is a particularly ironic assumption to make when one considers that the work in question was prepared as a result of an act intended to make access to the government and its information easier.

Other Access Difficulties Nevertheless, the assumption that their readers are familiar with the workings, terminol-

ogy, structure and functions of government is one commonly made by both the writers and indexers of government publications. Many government publications contain long words and sentences, which make their readability level high. Many also use unexplained abbreviations and acronyms, organization charts not corresponding to textual descriptions, references to

Access to Australian Commonweaith Publications 349

state legislation which are not shown as such, and references to programs and projects which are not further explained. To make access even more difficult, government publications are often not indexed. Annual reports and statements prepared by agencies under Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act about their establishment, organization, functions, powers affecting members of the public, categories of documents maintained [20], arrangements for participation in their decision-making processes, and facilities and procedures for access to information under the Act, exemplify some or all of these faults.

Even publications which are indexed may be difficult to use because these same assump- tions are made. Until they changed its style in 1982, for example, the compilers of the Com- monwealth of Australia Gazette assumed that index users were familiar not only with governmental structure but also with Commonwealth law. From 1901 to 1913, the index was based on personal and agency name, but some subject headings were also used, and double indexing was a feature. The style of indexing was changed in 1914 to one based on subject and, like the indexes of most state gazettes, derived the subject used from the short titles of acts. In 1968, however, the index style was again changed; this time it was based on responsible authority, Thus, if someone wanted to find when the chairman of a statutory authority was appointed, he or she would have to look under the name of the department in whose minister’s portfolio the authority was administratively placed, and then under the short title of the act under which the appointment was made. No cross references are used, there is no detailed subject index available to Commonwealth acts and the administrative arrangements orders, which show ministerial responsibilities, are published in the Gazerte and must, themselves, be traced through the index.

CONCLUSION

Access to Australian Commonwealth Government publications, therefore, is not always easy. It requires a knowledge of the bibliographic tools available, and their coverage, exclu- sions and possible omissions. It requires an understanding of Commonwealth publishing responsibilities: which agencies are likely to use AGPS for their publishing requirements and which are not. It requires a knowledge of the Commonwealth’s distribution arrangements: why pay if there is a way to get a publication free of charge? And it may require time: if AGPS does not sell a particular publication, many telephone calls may have to be made or many letters written.

Access to Commonwealth Government publications also requires a knowIedge of publishing patterns: what information is likely to be published as a separate publication and what wiI1 be incorporated in another work. In particular, it requires an understanding of the contents of important works like Humard and the Commonweffft~ of Australia Gazette and the information that is published in them. It requires a knowledge of the structure and workings of parliament and government: many indexes assume their users will possess this knowledge. But perhaps most of all it requires patience, practice and someone to consult: patience to keep on searching; practice to help remember; and someone to consult when all else fails.

REFERENCES

1. The Charter and a statement by the Minister for Administrative Services, the then Minister responsible for AGPS, were tabled in the House of Representatives on 5 March 1984 and in the Senate on 6 March 1984. It was for- mulated as the result of a recommendation made by the Joint Committee on Publications in its Sixth Special Report entitled The Australian Go~ernmenr ~~b~jshiffg Service and Iis Role in ~ommonweuith Frinfing Qmf ~b~~~j~g 1964-1978. Canberra: AGPS, 1978. A copy of the Charter was included in the AGPS-AACOE% Liti- son Committee’s Review of Activities, 1980-84 as Appendix II.


2. This requirement of the Charter was further clarified in the Minister’s accompanying statement, in which he said: “The Government has decided that the current printing and publishing arrangements will be extended so as to have all statutory authorities which are staffed under the Public Service Act 1922 arrange their publishing and printing through ACPS. unless they have been granted exemption for a special reason” [my emphasis]. Government employees in Australia are divided between those who are “public servants” (employed under the provisions of a single act, the Public Service Act or in the states its equivalent) and those employed by statutory authorities (in simple terms, government agencies set up by an act of the Parliament) which have been granted the power to employ staff and determine their conditions of employment. Traditionally, statutory authorities are seen as independent of the central policy-making area of government-they administer established government policies, they operate rail, shipping and air services, they operate banks and insurance companies, give out government grants or undertake research, and they include universities and other institutions of higher education, libraries, museums, art galleries, and postal, telecommunications and broadcasting organizations-and some of these are granted the further independence from central government of the ability to hire and fire staff. (This applies particularly to those operating a public enterprise, many of those with an income-generating function, and to institutions of higher learning.) That they should also be exempt from publishing through AGPS, then, is another example of the independence given to these agencies.

3. Canberra: AGPS, 1978 (also published as Parliamentary Paper No. 335, 1978), p. 94. The recommendation had earlier been made by the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary and Government Publications (the Erwin Committee) in its 1964 report, Parliamentary and Government Publications: Report. Canberra: Government Printer, 1964 (also published as Parliamentary Paper No. 32, 1964), p. 23.

4. April 1976- . Title varies: April 1976-December 1979 as Week/y List of Government Publications. 5. July-December 1976- . Title varies: 1976-1979 as Cumulative List of Government Publications. 6. 1965- . Title varies: 1965-? as Commonwerrlrh Publications; Monthly List: ?-April 1976 as Australian Gov-

ernment Publications: Monthly List: April 1976-December 1979 as Monthly List of Publications Placed on Sale: January 1980-March 1985 as Monthly Catalogue of Publications Placed on Sate.

7. “Monographs” was the heading used in No. 27, l-7 July 1985 and earlier issues of Commonwealth Publica- tions Official List, the June 1985 and earlier issues of the Monthly Catalogue. and the 1983 and earlier issues of the Annual Catalogue.

8. Formerly “Serials,” the change in heading taking place in the same issues as the change from “Monographs” to “Books.” Note, however, the separate section for periodicals does not appear in the 1984 Annual Catalogue when, unannounced and unindicated in the issue itself, they appear under the “Books” headings.

9. Unpublished paper delivered to a meeting of government publications librarians and others in a seminar orga- nized by the AACOB’S Victorian State Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Publications during the LAA 20th Biennial Conference, Canberra, August 1979.

10. The guidelines and objectives were included in the AGPS-AACOBS Liaison Committee’s Review of Activities, 1980-84 as Appendix III.

Il. Australia. Parliament. Joint Committee on Publications. Report Relating to the Distribution and Printing of Parliamentary Publications, Together with Appendices and Extracts from the Minutes of Proceedings. Can- berra: AGPS. 1971 (Parliamentary Paper No. 153/1977), pp. iii, 9.

12. Australia. Parliament. Joint Committee on Publications. Inquiry into the Purpose, Scope and Dirtribution of the Parliamentary Paper Series. Canberra: AGPS, 1977 (Parliamentary Paper No. 216/1977), pp. 6-7, 18-19.

13. Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives. Hansard, 24 November 1978. p. 3459. 14. Jan Fullerton. “Bibliographic control of Australian government publications,” in Seminar on Government Pub-

lications, Hobart, 1978. Government Publications; Papers Presented to a Seminar Held at the School of Librari- anship, Tasmanian College of Advanced Education, 9-10 September, 1978, and Arranged Jointly by the Tasmanian Branch of the Library Association of Australia and the School of Librarianship, T.C.A.E. Hobart: School of Librarianship, T.C.A.E., 1978, p. 30.

15. Franqoise Sinnassamy. Survey on the Present State of Bibliographic Recording in Freely Available Printed Form of Government Publications and Those of Intergovernmental Organizations. Paris: Unesco, 1977. pp. 14, 17.

16. House of Representatives Practice, ed. J.A. Pettifer. Canberra: AGPS, 1981, p. 546. 17. See, for example, the statement published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, No. 46 (November, 1985),

4-8. 18. Ibid., No. 47 (November, 1985). 4-15. 19. The categories of documents section of these statements may also be another source to use for identifying pub-

lications of an agency, because some agencies provide a detailed bibliography of works published as part of their statement. Most, however, do not. They take the wording of the section literally and provide a listing of categories only without specifying individual titles.