Open Government Partnership – IRM Canada Report 2012-2013

“In January and February of 2014, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) will produce 35 Progress Reports for public comment.  These 35 countries joined OGP in April 2012, and the IRM progress reports cover the first full year of action plan implementation.”

The IRM Canada Progress Report 2012-2013 provides valuable and interesting insight into the commitments and progress made as part of Canada’s Open Government Partnership action plan. Some highlights include the proposal for a Virtual Library, the Open Government Directive and Open Government License, GCWeb commitments for a consolidated online presence, the opening of GoC records, the state of the data.gc.ca portal, and a lot more.

Please take the time to review this important document, available here: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/country/canada/comment-report/irm-comments-canada-report

CLA Statement regarding Federal Government Library Consolidation and Closure

Read the full statement here.

… Canadians across the country have expressed their concern to CLA regarding these Government of Canada library closures. They are worried that these important knowledge centres are being dismantled with very little thought being given to the future generations of Canadians who might benefit from the wealth of accumulated information built up over generations.

CLA recognizes that every sector of the library community is facing financial pressure; however, in addressing fiscal challenges, the core mandate of libraries must not be sacrificed. The current approach to federal library closures risk doing just that.

CLA remains gravely concerned about the lack of transparency and potential loss of valuable materials. It is vital that the government involve library professionals in any process relating to collection management. Librarians have specialized training in evaluating and consolidating information for preservation. Their expertise can provide important insight into this process, both streamlining approaches and ensuring that the
best information is retained.

CLA is calling on the Government of Canada to provide a more thorough description of the processes taken when reviewing collections. CLA is also calling on the Government of Canada to actively engage with CLA, the archival and research communities, and other stakeholders to work on a more transparent process for the management of the valuable publicly-owned collections held by Departmental libraries and LAC.

Given CLA’s long history of partnership with LAC and our broad representation, it would be pleased to facilitate this discussion.

@CLA__GIN on Twitter + New Co-Moderator

Interested in keeping more up to date with government information? You can now follow the CLA-GIN network on Twitter!

Follow the handle @CLA__GIN – tag us in posts so we can share more information with the community.

We’d also like to announce our new CLA-GIN Co-Moderator, Catherine McGoveran. Catherine is currently the Government Information Librarian at the University of Ottawa.

Catherine McGoveran
mcgoveran@gmail.com

Caron Rollins
crollins@uvic.ca