the dissemination and accessibility of canadian government information

Government Publications Review, Vol. 19, pp. 385-396, 1992 0277-9390192 $5.00 + .OO Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright 0 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd.

THE DISSEMINATION AND ACCESSIBILITY OF CANADIAN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION*

BRUCE MORTON Assistant Dean for Public Services, Montana State University Libraries, Bozeman, MT 597 17-0332, U.S.A.

STEVEN D. ZINK Assistant University Librarian for Public Services, University of Nevada Libraries, Reno, NV 89557-0044. U.S.A.

Abstract - Recently promulgated policies indicate that the federal government views government information as a corporate resource. While the policies acknowledge that revenues need to be generated to offset the considerable cost of gathering and disseminating government information, there is an explicit recognition of an obligation on the part of the government to keep the citizenry informed. This paper surveys the present status of major government information players and selected information issues in the context of possible policy impacts on Canadian libraries.

INTRODUCTION

A recently promulgated communications policy has as its undergirding tenet that federal government information should be managed as a corporate resource [ 11. As such, it is rec- ognized that information, per se, is not free and, in fact, costs a great deal to create, produce, and disseminate. The policy deems it reasonable that the government should derive some revenues from the information products it produces.

At the same time, the policy recognizes a duty of the government to communicate, to be functional, and to keep the citizenry informed by facilitating access to information through informal channels rather than through the more formal, time-consuming, and expensive routes presently provided by the Privacy and Access to Information Acts. There is explicit recognition that the government needs to be accountable to its citizens.

While the policy is still evolving, it, along with the proliferation of machine-readable government information, presents clear potential for profound changes in the traditional relationships that Canadian libraries have had with the Depository Services Program points of distribution for government information. In the atmosphere of change, and perhaps even

*Research for this study was funded by a 1989 faculty research grant from the Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC, U.S.A. The authors would like to express special gratitude to numerous Canadian government officials, only some of whom are cited in this paper, who took time from busy schedules to speak openly and at length with us about information policy issues. Our thanks also to Canadians Ken Rubin, Robert Gibson, and Gordon Grahame. The authors also wish to acknowledge critical readings of the manuscript by Vivien Monty of York University, Andrew Hubbertz of the University of Saskatchewan, and Robert Lopresti of Western Washinaton Universitv. This article is one part of a larger study on “Contemporary Canadian Federal Information Polic<” A portion of that report, which deals with public information policy, was published as: Bruce Morton and Steven D. Zink, “Contemporary Canadian Federal Information Policy,” Canadian Public Administration 34 (Summer 1991):3 12-38.

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paradox, reflected in this policy, this paper surveys the current status of major government information players and selected issues driving the debate.

THE CANADA COMMUNICATION GROUP

Print on paper is the traditional medium for disseminating official information to the Canadian citizenry. The locus for this medium resides in the Canada Communication Group-Publishing Division (CCG-P) [until recently referred to as the Canadian Govem- ment Publishing Centre (CGPC)], which operates under the general administration of the Department of Supply and Services. The CCG-P is charged with carrying out the following functions: procurement of printing and control of stock; fulfillment of mail orders; ware- housing and distribution of publications; advertising, promotion, and marketing; coordination of copublishing government issuances with the private sector; and production of the checklist of government publications and administration of the nation’s network of depository libraries through the Depository Services Program (DSP).

Historically, all departments within the Canadian federal government have arranged for the publication of their traditional print materials through the Publishing Centre. This practice is currently being modified. In an effort to encourage greater service orientation and to promote cost-effectiveness, the CCG-P in April 1990, was granted the status of a special oper- ating agency. This status is eventually to make the Division’s services totally optional for most federal departments and place it on the same footing as the private sector. The precedent of similar actions in 1983 by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office in the United Kingdom, leads one to anticipate further changes in the relationship of the Division with government departments [2].

While until recently the CCG-P was obligated to accept all manuscripts submitted by authoring agencies, the Division, in an effort to meet a mandate to become self-supporting, was not obliged to sell an agency’s publication at an agency-specified price. As a result, departments’ arrangements with the Publishing Division vary greatly. The Division will take the risks and absorb all costs associated with publishing and printing in cases where a department will let CCG-P retain any profits, set the print run, market, and sell a publication at a price established by the Group. Otherwise, departments must pay in full CCG-P’s costs in publishing the materials, or the department must pay the difference between the cost of producing the publication and the price it wishes to have the Publishing Division charge. There is concern that such full-cost recovery charges by CCG-P, combined with the general financial exi- gency that has been prevalent in the Canadian federal government, may well be having a chilling effect on departmental publishing activities, although the number of titles published by the Division has increased significantly in recent years [ 31.

Government departments also have an additional option in that they can arrange through the Publishing Division to have a manuscript copublished with a private sector publisher. Originally established to serve as a subsidy to encourage the growth of the domestic Canadian publishing industry and to protect it from being overrun by United States firms, copublishing provides the private sector publisher with an opportunity to do business with the government. In all arrangements with the private sector, the Division attempts to determine if value to the government will be forthcoming. Value can be evident in such ways as making additional copies of resulting publications available to depository libraries, more success in marketing books and getting them on to bookstore shelves, payment of royalties to the government, cost avoidance to the government, or perhaps even the transfer of some of the government’s research and development costs to the private sector.

Critics of the program maintain that the lure of private-sector publishing and distribution channels diverts the most profitable governmental works to private publishers. Expense and

Canadian government information 387

problems of timeliness on the part of the CCG-P may also be a factor for departments to turn to the private sector. The case of Cunadiuna, the national bibliography produced in microform, is instructive. The author of Canadiana, the National Library, turned to the private sector after encountering two unsatisfactory experiences with the Publishing Division in the production and distribution of Cunudiunu. In the estimation of the National Library, the Publishing Division’s pricing formula placed the price of Canadiana out of the reach of many small libraries. Also CCG-P could not guarantee timely delivery.

Copublishing is only one example of the current government initiative to turn more printing, publishing, and information dissemination activities over to the private sector. Another long-standing practice of government information dissemination by the private sector is the distribution of government print materials through private sector bookstores. While CCG-P operates a mail-order sales program for its approximately 2 1,000 in-print inventory of titles, the Division discontinued its government-run bookstores in 1977. CCG-P currently has signed agreements with commercial bookstores across the country that offer booksellers up to 46 percent discounts on government publications. This policy is currently under review with the intention of devising a tiered-discount program to encourage booksellers to place advance orders rather than wait to request publications only after there is a public demand. In addition, the new policy may require a store to maintain a core number of books in exchange for more aggressive promotion of government materials by the Publishing Divi- sion. By most accounts, however, the present rather passive program of the Publishing Divi- sion to encourage private-sector booksellers to sell its publications has had only limited success. A more aggressive marketing campaign and encouragement of advance orders may result in more widespread dissemination of materials published by government.

DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES AND THE DISSEMINATION OF GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Dating back to 1927, Canada’s Depository Services Program (DSP) remains an important formal method of disseminating published government information [4]. As now operated by the Canada Communication Group-Publishing Division under the Department of Supply and Services, the DSP lacks statutory authority and operates entirely based on administrative regulations [ 51. Unlike CCG-P as a whole, which operates under a supply revolving fund in which the Division must recoup its revenues, the DSP receives a voted appropriation. For the past several years, the amount appropriated for the operation of the DSP was C$3.3 mil- lion. This funding freeze was the result of a Treasury Board directive that continued increases in funding for the DSP would not be possible and that a reconfiguration of the program was required.

Currently, two types of depository exist. There are approximately 50 full depositories, receiving all publications listed on the DSP’s weekly checklist of publications, and approximately 1,300 selective depositories that may choose any publications that they wish to receive from the checklist. If the titles are chosen within 10 weeks of receipt of the checklist, the selective depository library receives the materials without charge. Unevenness in depositories’ selection practices has long been felt to be a fault of the depository program. A recent report, Partners in Access, has sought to ameliorate this problem as well as many others. Specifically, this report recommended that a certain prepackaged core collection of depository materials must be taken by every depository library [6].

Despite the concept that the DSP is an information safety net where Canadian citizens can obtain access to published government information, there is considerable concern about the future of the DSP. In an era of downsizing government there has been increasing pressure on the program and its sponsors to prove its usefulness. Up to the present, the DSP has played


a minor and, with notable exceptions, mostly inconspicuous role in the dissemination of government information in Canada. Most of the depositories have traditionally used the system as little more than an entitlement to receive books and other publications on standing order from the government. Many of the depositories appear to be passive in their acquisition of government information; at least 50 selective depositories had not requested a depository publication from the DSP’s checklist for over five years. However, the fact that, to date, depositories have not been able to withdraw materials legally unless they have been super- seded [7] remains a deterrent to depositories viewing government information as a dynamic resource that can be developed in ways other than accretion. It is unlikely that depositories, particularly smaller depositories, will change government information acquisition patterns until they are allowed to exercise more judgment and flexibility in developing their depository collections. The DSP, as a result of recommendations from the report, Partners in Access, is currently considering guidelines for selective retention of materials in selective depositories. It is expected that these forthcoming guidelines will allow large research libraries to serve as the permanent holders of backfiles of Canadian federal government materials [ 81.

As a part of a general review of the DSP, CCG-P is in the process of examining the service role of the depository libraries more closely. There is some indication that the depository libraries may, sometime in the future, be required to agree contractually to engage in higher service levels, expanded training, and more effective promotion in order to maintain depository status. By the same token the DSP will need to recognize its responsibilities in promot- ing and assisting depositories by more aggressively laying out what depositories should do.

More widespread scrutiny of the DSP and the regulations that govern it (Chapter 335 of the Treasury Board Administrative Policy Manual) has been particularly acute since the Treasury Boards funding freeze and call for reexamination of the program. An examination of the DSP, its first since 1978, was conducted in 1989. The DSP was assisted in this analysis by a subcommittee of the DEW’s Library Advisory Committee. The subcommittee consisted of representatives from the depository library community, the National Library, the Cana- dian Library Association, the Treasury Board, Statistics Canada, and the Library of Parlia- ment. In addition to service levels and support, possible reduction in the number of depositories or reorganization of the administrative structure of the DSP, one of the chief issues reviewed was the relationship of depository libraries to government-produced machine-readable information.

Many depository librarians are concerned that they are handicapped in providing current government information since such information is increasingly distributed in machine-readable form. At the present time, depository libraries do not receive much of this rapidly pro- liferating body of information because the DSP has not been officially mandated to acquire such materials. Librarians point to the private-sector dissemination of Statistics Canada and other agency machine-readable data as an example of expensive private sector distribution of government information. They express a pervasive concern that private-sector corporations will become the sole supplier of some machine-readable data, that this data will be priced beyond the means of depository libraries, and that what is marketed through private- sector vendors will not necessarily be what is needed. In other words, there is widespread fear that information without market value will be neglected. These concerns are beginning to garner greater attention from groups such as the Canadian Library Association and the Cana- dian Legal Information Centre (CLIC).

In examining whether machine-readable materials should be distributed to depository libraries, the DSP’s Library Advisory Group assessed not only the demand by depository library users for machine-readable products, but also the ability of the depository libraries to provide access to these types of products. It is not yet clear that more than a handful of the


depositories can provide assistance for an individual seeking information that is stored on a diskette or CD-ROM. There is even a question as to whether some depositories wish to receive electronic materials. In any case, it appears clear that the considerable majority of depository libraries currently do not have the technical expertise or hardware to utilize machine-readable information fully without considerable assistance from outside sources. In the same vein, it is an open question whether CCG-P and the DSP are in a position to offer detailed and extensive consultation to individual depositories on such matters.

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

The relationship of the National Library to federal depository libraries is indirect. Despite having been established only in 1953 and having only administrative rather than statutory assurance of receiving every federal publication, the National Library’s collection of federal government materials is the nation’s most complete. Historical materials were received from the Library of Parliament shortly after the National Library’s establishment and numerous retrospective materials have been acquired. On a current basis, the National Library receives all materials that pass through the Publishing Division and has extensive arrangements with individual departments in an attempt to obtain other materials. During a recent fiscal year, the National Library received approximately 4,700 monographs, 625 pamphlets, 2,085 annuals, and 2,700 periodicals from governmental agencies [9]. The National Library’s collection of government materials are housed separately and loan services are provided to libraries.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

Several problems confound the user of government information concerning the existence of given publications. There is no single point of access to government produced information. The lack of bibliographic control of government information is striking. Central bibliographic listing is not the direct responsibility of any agency. This lack of bibliographic control not only frustrates users of government information but impedes even the sophisticated searcher. The Publishing Division, alone, claims to spend annually about two and one-half person years responding to inquiries about government publications of which CCG-P is not the publisher. The Division is currently exploring means to establish a detailed bibliographic database of its publications. While this would provide the agency with definitive information about those publications that pass through the CCG-P, it would not serve to alleviate the overall paucity of bibliographic control over governmental material.

The most detailed bibliographic effort by the government for government information is provided by the National Library of Canada through its Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program and as a result of its bibliographic duties involving the national bibliography, Cunadi- ma. As an initial component of the CIP program, the National Library encouraged individual agencies to contribute CIP information in an effort to identify government publications. Over the years this system has broken down. In a recent initiative the National Library established a pilot project within the Publishing Division to have the Division provide CIP for its government publications on a contract basis to the National Library. At present, there is no relationship between the Division’s CIP project and the production of the Division’s weekly checklist that is distributed to depository libraries. The detailed cataloging is conducted par- allel to the weekly checklist. If the pilot project is successful, it promises to enhance bibliographic control of federal government publications by bringing more of them into the bibliographic mainstream. In all likelihood, however, the University of Toronto Library Automation System (UTLAS) database is actually the most comprehensive source of biblio-

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graphic data for Canadian federal information, since libraries from throughout Canada contribute to it cooperatively.

All departments, except Statistics Canada, are being incorporated into the CIP project at CCG-P [lo]. Since Statistics Canada has a separate arrangement with the Treasury Board to publish its own materials outside the jurisdiction of the Publishing Division, [ 1 I] and Statis- tics Canada wished to produce a catalog of its in-print publications in electronic form, it

began cataloging its publications in 1987 on the DOBIS system, the same cataloging system that is used by the National Library as well as many other federal libraries. As a result, Sta- tistics Canada records have been directly entered into the national bibliography, and the National Library has delegated the responsibility for cataloging those publications to the agency. Based on its performance, Statistics Canada, which, as of mid- 1989, is just now com- ing into the CIP program, would remain outside CCG-P’s centralized bibliographic control activities. It should be noted, however, that Statistics Canada’s cataloging records are available on CAN/OLE.

All federal publications, including grey literature, that escape the CIP program at the Pub- lishing Division and do not receive cataloging at Statistics Canada, but nevertheless find their way to the National Library, go through the Library’s national cataloging channels. During a recent year, the National Library provided cataloging for just over 3,000 federal government serials and monographs. The resources available for cataloging these materials are insufficient. Many of the government titles receive only low-level cataloging, which minimally involves attaching the national library’s holdings to a record contributed by one of 20 federal libraries that have entered the record into the DOBIS database. Most of these abbreviated records provide only one or two access points.

CANADA INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION (CISTI)

The chief means of managing scientific and technical literature produced at government expense is provided by the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), which is part of the National Research Council. This agency plays a major role in actively collecting scientific and technical literature as well as conference literature. CISTI maintains a union catalog of its holdings and produces a union list of scientific and technical serials. CISTI also contributes monolingual, low-level cataloging of its materials to the National Library via DOBIS. CISTI, which owns and operates CAN/OLE (Canada Online Enquiry), has contributed several science databases to the over 40 databases that comprise the CAN/OLE system, as well as its own catalog of materials and the National Library’s MARC tapes. Among those databases comprising CAN/OLE are those of Statistics Canada. In contrast, however, to the more widely distributed national bibliography, bibliographic records of federal publications on CAN/OLE are frequently preliminary and are not later included for distribution in Canada’s MARC tapes. CAN/OLE became available to Cana- dians in 1974 and is now estimated to have some 2,600 users, half of whom are from the business community while the other half is comprised of academic, government, and medical libraries [ 121. CISTI provides customized information search profiles for users in other coun- tries as well as distributing its software through UNESCO [ 131.

STATISTICS CANADA

Statistics Canada is unique in that it is the only governmental entity other than Crown Corporations (e.g., the National Gallery, the Museum of Civilization, and the National


Research Council) to be an independent publisher outside the purview of CCG-P. This relationship exists as a result ofa 1986 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Treasury Board, which was an outgrowth of the Statistics Act [ 141. Originally designed to generate par- tial funding for the nation’s 1986 census [ 151, the MOU authorizes Statistics Canada, in contrast to other agencies, to retain the revenues generated by its publishing program and information activities. As a result, Statistics Canada has been motivated to develop an information dissemination and marketing prowess uncharacteristic of other agencies within the Canadian government. Consequently, Statistics Canada, in many respects, is operated like a private enterprise and has more experience in dealing with the private sector than any other dissem- inator of government information. The agency even derives a small part of its revenue through customized tabulations and surveys performed on contract for private-sector firms.

Statistics Canada distributes information it has collected in many ways. The agency functions as both a wholesaler and retailer of government information. Traditional print publications are marketed, sold, and distributed through Statistics Canada’s distribution center, which is part of the agency’s Publications Division. Agency microform materials are produced and sold by the private-sector firm, Micromedia Ltd., of Toronto. Most of Statistics Canada’s print publications are sold directly to the citizenry and businesses. Even though the agency attempts to recover only printing and manuscript handling costs for agency publications, a great deal of discontent has been expressed, particularly from the academic sector, about Statistics Canada’s sharp increase in product prices since the Treasury Board MOU in 1986.

Increasingly, Statistics Canada produces the bulk of its information in a more economical machine-readable form, which has resulted in a 50 percent workforce reduction in its Pub- lications Division over the past several years. Most of Statistics Canada’s electronic data is sold to private-sector vendors to be distributed in return for royalties and licensing fees. When data is collected for private-sector clients, Statistics Canada attempts to recoup the entire cost of producing electronic information including survey taking, human resources, and the costs of machines. As a part of its ongoing machine-readable data distribution, Statistics Canada posts a daily electronic statistical release on a bulletin board that appears on CANSIM (Cana- dian Socio-Economic Information Management System), the agency’s widely available statistical database. The arrangement concerning electronic data products and CANSIM has so far been a successful cooperative effort between the public and private sectors. Nevertheless, a more detailed analysis of what future directions the agency should take in the distribution of electronic data is currently under way. Certainly, one area that needs to be given attention is that of standardization in the various machine-readable media.

Even though outside the jurisdiction of the Publishing Division, Statistics Canada distributes its publications to Canadian depository libraries. Provincial and territorial statistical agencies also receive copies of all Statistics Canada publications. In addition, Statistics Can- ada staffs advisory service offices at numerous locations throughout the country that provide a largely free information dissemination function to citizens. During the fiscal year 19881 1989, the offices fielded more than 400,000 inquiries. A daily release provides the public, generally via the media, with information in aggregate form concerning recent Statistics Can- ada survey results.

REFERENCE CANADA

One legacy of the abortive Information Canada of the early 1970s is Reference Canada. Reference Canada is a telephone-only referral program that directs citizens to appropriate departments within the government to answer specific questions, such as the whereabouts of


a pension check. The centers, which are located in each province, receive approximately 800,000 telephone calls per year. Many of the centers are operated through federal/provincial agreements; some are even operated by the private sector under contract to the CCG-P. At present there is no formal relationship between Reference Canada and the DSP. However, due to large staff cuts by Reference Canada, depository libraries have reported an increasing number of referrals from the agency.

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Under provisions of the Public Archives Act of 1984 [ 161, the National Archives is charged with the care and custody of “all public records, documents and other historical material of every kind, nature and description . . .“, which may be transferred to or acquired by the Archives. This legislation has provided statutory force to the appropriate role of the Archives in scheduling records of government departments for retention and preservation. This legislation has been bolstered by the recent promulgation of the Treasury Board’s policy on information management, which defines the accountability of agencies for managing their information holdings and clarifies departmental relationships to the Archives. Under the new policy, agencies must identify and conserve information that would assist in reconstructing the evolution of policy and program decisions to ensure management continuity as well as an historical record [ 171. Such developments should contribute to the amelioration of the policy and scheduling problems previously encountered by the National Archives but may have generated new ones.

The problems now encountered by the Archives revolve around insufficient resources to provide scheduling for all the departmental records that are available. Two- to three-year backlogs of records to be scheduled exist although efforts are underway to explore streamlin- ing the process. In any case, the Archives will need additional funding to enable it to respond adequately to the certain increase in records-flow if the new policy guidelines are followed by government agencies. If such increased support is not forthcoming, it can be anticipated that backlogs will grow worse rather than improve.

Despite recent events some agencies, particularly those with sensitive materials dealing with national security or policy investigations, still mistakenly equate scheduling and transfer of records to the Archives with public access. For example, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) have scheduled records but have refused to transfer the custody of the records to the Archives for 100 years. More puzzling, and potentially more disturbing, is that Statistics Canada has balked at the notion of transferring old census manuscript data (any censuses taken in the 20th century) to the Archives.

The Archives has been handling machine-readable records for more than a decade. Until recently, these materials required transfer to the Archives as largely self-contained units of material dealing with particular studies; they were not scheduled. In 1988, the Archives began to incorporate machine-readable files into the scheduling process by focussing on an overview of record content regardless of format. A persistent problem remains, however, in that the Archives receives far fewer machine-readable records in comparison to the number of such files being generated. The chief reason for this discrepancy appears to be that the traditional records managers in departments lack control over machine-readable records, which still reside with computer operators. The Treasury Board’s recent information policy regard- ing information holdings addresses this problem by issuing a directive that a senior official should provide oversight and coordination of all types of informational records, regardless of format.


The wide variety of different machine-readable formats being forwarded to the Archives presents equally vexing problems in eventually providing use ofthese materials. The Archives will either have to acquire the necessary hardware to allow retrieval of these materials or will have to find ways to transfer the information to other, common media. Occasionally, machine-readable information has been offered for transfer to the Archives, but lacked the accompanying software required to gain access to the information. In these instances, the Archives has refused acceptance of the material. In the area of preservation of tapes, the Archives has completed a pilot project to transfer selected holdings from its tape library to digital discs. The more distant future may see planning for and implementation of direct electronic transfer of files to the Archives from the offices that created them.

MACHINE-READABLE INFORMATION

Through copublishing initiatives, the Communication Group has established some precedent for jurisdiction over the departmental licensing of databases to be sold to the private sector [ 181. Chapter 480 of the Treasury Board’s Administrative Policy Manual, however, allows departments, with approval from the Treasury Board, to deal with the private sector directly in licensing the use of government machine-readable files.

The government generally prefers to issue nonexclusive licensing to private vendors. The first distributor of information, as in the case of the trademark database, will probably be the company that provides the needed service to the government agency that originally generated the data. The department can extend sublicensing to other vendors as long as the department approves and the vendor meets all the department’s stipulations on the use, and perhaps even pricing, of the database. Statistics Canada makes a substantial volume of data available to the public through licensing arrangements with the private-sector firm for a fee and then allows that company to resell the information to other companies.

The Canadian Patent and Development Corporation, for instance, licenses government software to private vendors. Several departments, among them Statistics Canada and the National Library, have active CD-ROM programs in cooperation with private sector firms. In other instances, the question of private sector dissemination is less readily achievable, since the data may need more processing or in some other way may require value to be added to be useful to the public. In these instances, the government cannot require free or inexpensive distribution to the public and expect the private sector information industry to be interested in providing a dissemination function. On the other hand, while bracing for the realization that the private sector will play a role in the dissemination of machine-readable government information, depository librarians note that the DSP has always been the principal dissemi- nator ofgovernment information. As a minimum, they advocate a dissemination vehicle that is mixed between public and private dissemination vehicles. Depository librarians are quick to claim that nothing would prevent a product of government-produced information from being distributed through a private retailer and at the same time be included in some fashion in the DSP.

While the demand from the library market may not have fully crystallized yet, given the relatively small market in Canada for government information, it can be expected that information vendors will actively oppose widespread free distribution of machine-readable data to depository libraries, since libraries (particularly government depositories) would logically constitute one of the largest portions of the commercial markets for such database use. The information industry already views any expansion of commercially viable databases through CISTI as unfair competition with the private sector.

Precedents for involvement of the private sector in the dissemination of information of the

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federal government of Canada are numerous and are in many respects merely an extension of the long-standing government-wide concept of copublishing. In addition, there is a realization by all parties involved that the private sector will play a role, particularly in the dissemination of machine-readable data. What remains unclear is the degree of private sector involvement and how a mutually beneficial relationship can be formalized across the breadth of Canada’s government information activities. The recent information policy, promulgated by the Treasury Board, addresses some possible avenues in formalizing industry/government information dissemination relationships. For the private sector to seize a prominent role in government information dissemination, some maintain that at least two interrelated purposes must be fulfilled: make government information more widely available to the citizenry at a lesser cost to government departments and at the same time encourage the development of the information industry in Canada.

THE FUTURE

The present government recognizes information as a corporate resource that is costly and valuable. The private sector views government information as a commodity to be offered in the market place. The two parties work together in so much as it is to their advantage to do so. However, one does not get the sense that there is an understanding or vision of government information as a national resource of enduring value.

The paradox of low-cost, readily accessible information versus a healthy Canadian information industry needs to be resolved by government planners. The private-sector information industry has traditionally relied on some government subsidy for support. Canadians therefore will need to continue to wrestle with the question of whether the cost to the Cana- dian citizen of allowing the private sector to have all government information and to charge for it whatever the market will bear is worth it. The other extreme, of course, is a retreat to the Information Canada model wherein the government would disseminate information in all its formats and support the operation from the tax base. This latter scenario would fly in the face of current government philosophy and initiatives as well as the world information- based marketplace.

CONCLUSION

Any time one considers the issues inherent in the management of government information, it is necessary to address contending dichotomies. Is it possible to balance the natural inclination of governments to be secretive with the citizen’s right and need to know about the government’s activities? How can one reconcile the right to know and the need to know? Are management and control synonymous? Are the citizens better served if government information is left unmanaged; is unmanaged information truly less accessible? The point has been made that neither the government nor the people can afford to have government information go unmanaged.

In any case, the Canadian citizen is, and has been, generally apathetic about freedom of information issues [ 191. Indeed, the question has been seriously raised whether the average citizen can understand much of the information that is produced by the government [20]. The record also shows cycles of interest and disinterest by the Canadian Library Association in government information issues; the current phase seems to be one of interest. For the most part, proponents of information issues are professional and organized interest groups, and government administrators who have come to view information as a corporate resource.


A common complaint is that the government of Canada publishes only what the departments need for internal purposes or what presents the case of the government on a particular issue in the best possible light. Products of government publishing appear to be less directed to making available information that might have a broader general interest to the citizenry. A prominent member of the Canadian book trade maintains that a common problem is that the scope of the government’s publishing is very limited in areas such as health where the departments clearly must have information that would be valuable if published and dissem- inated [2 11. The Canada Communication Group-Publishing Division maintains that there needs to be more focus on subjects about which “the government has failed to publish in the past,” because there is an “incredible amount of material that is sitting in filing cabinets” [22]. Many government officials believe that recent demands for more accountability on the part of government will also sensitize government departments to the information needs of citizens. At present, Canadian government departments are simply not oriented to thinking about disseminating information. However, increasingly, there is a recognition that the government has a responsibility to provide citizens with information about public programs. This is clearly one problem that some officials in the federal government recognize and are earnestly working hard to correct. In the end, libraries must face the perplexing dilemma that the citizenry will likewise face. This is- will the information that the public needs be dis- cerned by the government as that information that will sell?

NOTES

1. Canada, Treasury Board, Government Communications Policy (Hull: Government Publishing Centre, June 1988) or Chapter 480 of the Treasury Board Administrative Policy Manual.

2. See Geoffrev Hamilton. Bruce Morton. and Steven D. Zink. “An Interview with John A. Dole. Controller and Chief Executive, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,” Government Publications Review I6 (January/February 1989):1-14.

3. Data provided by CCC-P show that 965 titles were published by the Division in 1987; 1,558 titles in 1988; and 1,811 titlesin 1989.

4. J. J. Cherns. Ojicial Publishing: An Overview, An International Survey and Review’ ofthe Role, Organisation and Principles of Oficial Publications (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979) 108.

5. The overall mandate and rote ofthe Division is to “assist the federal government in keeping the public informed of the policies, programs, and services of government through the provision of a coordinated and effective publishing system. This system ensures that timely and efficiently marketed printed material of good and consistent quality, containing information of value to economic, social or cultural welfare of Canadians, is made available to the public either through sale or free distribution.” Treasury Board, Administrative Policy Manual, Chapter

6.

7.

8. 9.

10.

II.

12. 13.

14. 15.

335.1.4. Canada, Canada Communication Group-Publishing, Parmers in Access: Report of the Task Group on Depos- itory Program Review (Hull: Publishing Division, July 1990) 23-24. In regard to deposit materials received from CCC-P; telephone interview by Patrick Ragains with Mary Jane Maffini (Chief of the Canadian Government Publishing Centre’s Depository Program), I7 November 1989. However, there are retention guidelines issued by Statistics Canada for its materials. CCC-P, Partners in Access, 24. Statistics were obtained from: Morton and Zink interview with Thomas Delsey, Director, Acquisitions and Bib- liographic Services Branch, National Library of Canada, April 30, 1989, Ottawa, Canada. It should be noted that Crown Corporations and other agencies that do not fall under Schedule C ofthe Financial Administration Act may not be eligible for the CIP project and also would not be subject to Treasury Board promulgated information management guidelines. Statistics Canada is unusual in having a statutory mandate to publish. See: “Statistics Act,” R.S.C. 1985, c. S- 19. Jacqueline Halupka, “Online in Canada,” Online 13 (November 1989) 124. Halupka, 125; in 1988 CAN/OLE began the transfer of all of its databases from an old awkward software to a new system. ‘Statistics Act,” R.S.C. 1985, c. S- I9 The 1986 census was originally canceled in keeping with the federal government’s commitment to reduce expen- ditures. Reinstated, it was carried out within very specific fiscal guidelines that drastically forced changes in product pricing. The number of machine-readable products decreased by 52 percent overall compared to the 198 1


census, while the cost of census products increased between 1,567 and 9,000 percent in three years, and other data products increased between 100 and 500 percent. See “Report Slams Policies of Statistics Canada,” Fe/i- titer 33 (October 1987) 1-2; and Douglas Newson, “Statistics Canada Responds to Criticism,” Feliciter 33 (October 1987) I, 8. Realizing that the library market is a sizeable one, Statistics Canada is currently surveying depository libraries concerning their needs and desires for reference products to be produced from the census.

16. “Public Archives Act,” R.S.C. 1985, c. P-27. 17. Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat, Management qfGovernment Information Holdings (Hull: Government

PublishingCentre. 1 August 1989) 16,20. 18. Hubbertz has argued that jurisdiction on such matters is determined above all by Crown Copyright. See Andrew

Hubbertz, “Crown Copyright and Privatization of Government Information in Canada, with Comparisons to the United States Experience,” Government Publications Review 17 (March/April 1990): 159-65.

19. See Mitchell Sharp, “Freedom of Information: Have We Gone Too Far?’ Canadian Public Adminsifration 4 (Winter 1986):571.

20. See Peter Calamai, “Government Publications Baffle Many Canadians,” The Gazette [Montreal], 18 September 1987, Al, A5.

2 1. Morton and Zink interview with Gordon Grahame, President of Renouf, 4 May 1989, Ottawa, Canada. 22. Morton and Zink interview with Pat Horner, Director General of the Government Publishing Centre, 3 May

1989, Hull, Canada.

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