Month: July 2014

Government Information Day | Journée d’information gouvernementale

Save the date!

The University of Ottawa Library, with sponsorship from the Carleton University Library, is organizing a one-day conference, Government Information Day, scheduled to take place on Thursday, October 16th, 2014 at the University of Ottawa’s downtown campus.

Last year, Government Information Day was held at the University of Toronto and we would like to continue last year’s valuable discussion. We are currently in the process of developing the program. The broad theme will be focused around collaboration, with presentations and panels organized around two proposed subthemes: (i) preservation and access and (ii) open government.

Government Information Day is designed as a forum for keeping current on ongoing changes, but also for exploring how we can collaborate and respond to emerging and ongoing challenges and opportunities in the field of government information in Canada.

Stay tuned for more details and registration information.

If you have any questions, please, feel free to get in touch with us at gsg@uottawa.ca.

CDNGOVINFO

Marquez votre calendrier!

Organisée par la Bibliothèque de l’Université d’Ottawa, sous le patronage de la Bibliothèque de l’Université Carleton, la Journée d’information gouvernementale est une conférence d’une journée qui aura lieu le jeudi 16 octobre 2014 au campus principal de l’Université d’Ottawa.

L’an dernier, la Journée d’information gouvernementale a eu lieu à l’Université de Toronto et nous aimerions poursuivre la discussion entamée. Nous sommes à présent en voie d’élaborer le programme de la Journée. Le thème général sera axée sur la collaboration, et comprendra des présentations et des tables rondes structurées autour des deux sous-thèmes proposés: (i) la préservation et l’accès et (ii) la transparence gouvernementale.

La Journée d’information gouvernementale, est non seulement conçue comme une instance ouverte pour permettre de rester à l’affût des changements en cours, mais aussi pour examiner les façons de collaborer et de répondre aux défis et aux occasions qui se posent dans le domaine de l’information gouvernementale au Canada.

Des détails supplémentaires et de l’information relative à l’inscription seront bientôt disponibles.

Si vous avez des questions, n’hésitez pas à nous les faire parvenir à gsg@uottawa.ca.

Notes from Business Meeting at CLA 2014

CLA Government Information Network Business Meeting
May 29, 2014
CLA Victoria 2014

NOTES FINAL (June 17,2014 – Corrected July 2014)

Attendance: 14 members in person, 3 members by conference call. Sign-up sheet circulated. REMINDER: to join GIN send an email to membership@cla.ca You do not have to be a member of CLA.

  1. Introductions of those attending in person and those calling in by conference call and introduction of our liaison to the CLA Executive, Jane Schmidt.
  2. Report from CLA Moderators Network conference call – Calls held in September and April. Purpose of the Moderators Network, chaired by Geraldine Hyland (CLA office), is to provide exposure for the work of each network, to promote activities, to encourage networks to host online webinars, and to provide information on network responsibilities / administration within CLA.
  3. Introduction (via teleconference) of our new Co-moderator, Catherine McGoveran. Catherine asked for a Co-moderator as Caron will be stepping down at the end of December. Michelle Lake (Concordia) has expressed interest. Catherine is responsible for the following:
  4. Open Government Action Plan Consultation (OGAP2) at CLA 2014 (see below). Update from the Session:
    • Canada joined the Open Government Partnership in 2012. There are requirements to have action plans and consultations and reviews. Canada’s Open Government Action Plan 1 had a 3 yr cycle, we are at the end of yr 2. TBS is already starting work on Action plan 2.0, which was the basis for the consultation session at CLA (OGAP2).
    • See: http://data.gc.ca/eng/content/open-government-consultation-plan#btn1
    • The plan for OGAP2 hasn’t been released yet but “idea dialogue” is underway, again the focus of the CLA consultation session. The idea dialogue will feed into the “Activities” discussion, between now and October. This is all to feed into “commitments” (actions), which will be approved by cabinet. Providing input at a session or online is very important.
    • Today we addressed permanence of open government information in terms of access to preservation / archival copies of data, publications and websites; reducing the need for ATI requests, everything (almost) should be open; the need to change the culture of government so that everything is open . One thought… open government is yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We were also asked to recommended groups to consult.
    • The Open Government License will be more clear and will include data, information, and publications, and commercial and noncommercial use. The virtual library is going ahead and there is a plan in the works. The virtual library was mentioned and the TSB person said the publications.gc.ca was being reorganized.
  5. CLA Information Policy Advisory Committee (IPAC) (Todd Kyle) and the federal government’s Action Plan on Open Government. IPAC needs examples of information that has disappeared as a result of changes resulting from the Action Plan. Caron advised to see our Google doc created form entries on the LOST DOCS section of our blog.
  6. Update on the Depository Services Program and the DSP Library Advisory Committee:
    • New Terms of Reference for the Advisory Committee have been posted on the DSP website. References to “depository” libraries were removed. The committee needs another member from a public library. Notable digital collections received from departments for inclusion in the DSP e-collection: historical census and historical Agriculture Canada documents. (See supp checklists 12-43, 13-04, 13-17). The DSP follows the Government of Canada Communications Policy and Procedures for Publishing. A question about the new ILS was asked; it is proceeding. The DSP is still uploading to GALLOP portal (monthly) and working with the CGI-PLN.
    • Minutes of DSP meetings are posted online.
    • The Supreme Court of Canada and the CGSB will continue to send material to former depository libraries upon request.
    • Infodep-l listserve will continue.
    • Relevant sessions at CLA 2014:  The DSP is Dead; Long Live the DSP, Session H58.
  7. Government Information Days:
    • BC has a long standing “Gov Info Day”. This year, the event was held on April 25, 2014 at SFU Vancouver. A summary of this event will be published in a forthcoming issue of the BCLA Browser http://bclabrowser.ca/index.php/browser/index
    • Ontario held a Gov Info Day on 1 November 2013, and uOttawa is organizing one for this coming fall (2014).
    • “Access in the Academy” – This new free ebook provides instructions on how to embark upon federal and BC access to information requests. A troubling statistics is that the number of “non-responsive” requests is increasing. A listserv discussion last year on CLA-GIN brought to light that requests for publications sometimes result in the requirement for disclosure of personal information. (Caron)
    • Dr. Luanne Freund (UBC SLAIS) – results of her research on use of government web sites. Her research shows governments use websites to put up news; citizens want information on programs and services. Feedback shows that citizens want “findability” issues addressed, and governments are removing sites and content when they should be improving metadata and search engines.
  8. Announcements:
    • The Statistics Canada Library is using the Summon discovery layer. It appears that their entire collection, previously digitized (see CLA 2012 conference presentation, session D31 Open Past: Digital Projects from Government Libraries) , is now in the Internet Archive and links to the content provided by Summon. CORRECTION JULY 2014 The complete collection of STC’s published census volumes are available via the Internet Archive. STC is in the process of digitizing the official numbered publications and work is ongoing. A sizeable part of the collection has been digitized and can be accessed in electronic format by STC librarians. If there are specific publications that you are looking for, send them a request and they will send them to you electronically when available. Check their library catalogue – items that have been digitized will be indicated in the status field.

Submitted by Caron Rollins