The Role of Public Libraries in Enabling Open Government

A Stakeholder Workshop

Definitions, Concepts, and Issues

Theresa A. PardoDirector

Center for Technology in Government

Why are we here?

• Many public libraries are seeking to proactively engage with government partners and other key stakeholders to develop portfolios of programs and services geared toward the realization of a more open government.

• Balancing such portfolios with the portfolio of traditional programs and services and public library capabilities and resources is a challenge

• This project is designed to help libraries meet this challenge.

Open or Closed?

• “In the 21st century, the US is convinced that one of the most significant divisions between nations will be not between east or west, nor over religion, so much as between open and closed societies”

- Secretary of State Clinton2012 OGP Meeting, Brazil

Openness as a powerful lever

• Open Data and Transparency may be the most powerful levers of 21st century public policy. – They present multiple opportunities offering benefit to the

public sector, individuals, businesses and the UK as a whole.  

• Open Data enables accountability; it improves outcomes and productivity in key services through informed comparison; it transforms social relationships – empowering individuals and communities; and it drives dynamic economic growth.

  – Prime Minister David Cameron (2010)

Tools of Transformation

• e-Government: Shift of government services to the World Wide Web

• Open government – A more transparent, accessible and responsive governance

system, where information moves freely both to and from government through a multitude of channels

– Open government more than Open Data, encompasses• Information and data transparency• Public engagement• Accountability

Historical context of open government in the US

• Constitutional guarantees– Freedom of speech– Freedom of the press– Right to assemble

• Freedom of Information Act• Open Meetings Laws

Traditional implementations

• Land records• Vital records

– Birth, death, marriage

• Federal Register• Government archives• Census and other statistical data

The 2009 U.S. OGD

• Principles – Sets out the principles of increased transparency, participation and

collaboration as a framework to guide agency-level plans for implementing the directive.

• Process– Includes an implementation process to institutionalize policies and

practices that employ technology and information-based strategies to create more openness at the federal level and beyond.

• Responsibility– Assigns this responsibility to agency administrative and operational

levels to strengthen their capability to provide information and opportunities for citizens and non-government stakeholders to play a greater role in the workings of government.

Transparent

Participatory

Collaborative

The 2009 OGD

• Directs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration:

– Publish Government Information Online– Improve the Quality of Government Information – Create and Institutionalize a Culture of Open

Government– Create an Enabling Policy Framework for Open

Government• Central Mandate

– Open data requirement, not a political transparency requirement

State and local adaptations of the OGD

• Launched new data portals sites.• Focus more on service delivery than

transparency. • Particular adaptation – improving communities

through better services. Source: Yu and Robinson, 2012

Public Value of Open Data

• San Francisco Mayor sees DataSF.org as a way to... – “stimulate local industry, create jobs and highlight

San Francisco’s creative culture and attractiveness as a place to live and work.”

• Briefly acknowledged greater transparency.Source: Yu and Robinson, 2012

Future U.S. OG Priorities

• Create a more community-oriented focus.

• Reduce the barriers to information for citizens and policy makers at all levels of government and around the world.

• Reduce the silos at the federal level - but also to reduce distance between levels of government.

Source: U.S. Deputy CTO Chris Vein, 2011

Community Information Ecosystem

• A CIE is the people, entities, practices, values, information sources and technologies that interrelate to support a defined community’s information needs.

• Relationships among a CIE’s components are dynamic and changes in one component will influence others

• CIEs include:– Entities interested in and able to access, use, and share information that

a community needs– Formal and informal networks for the exchange knowledge, ideas,

opinions, and perspectives– Entities that generate and transmit news and information

– Entities that help people/entities access, use, and interpret information.

CIEs, Open Government and Libraries

• Opening government is an initiative or process that occurs within the context of a CIE

• Public libraries – Serve as information intermediaries helping people access,

use, and interpret information within a CIE, including in the context of opening government initiatives

– Have great potential to facilitate the opening of local government

• Open Government presents new opportunity for libraries

• Impact of eGovernment on libraries was unanticipated – Increased expectations that libraries will provide services in areas

where staff resources, expertise, and available technology is limited – Diversion of resources from traditional library services– Fiscal impact on libraries as their role as e-government intermediaries

becomes a type of unfunded mandate

• Impact of Open Government on Libraries– Has yet to be studied– Dominant view is that it will match trends seen in eGovernmentt and

introduce new challenges

Open Government Challenges for Public Libraries

Why Are We Here?• Open Government as a strategy for government transformation• Open Government’s focus on the role citizens and other non-

government actors can play in and improve governance• The need to understand and improve Open Government at the

local level• Public libraries continued role as trusted community partners

and information intermediaries• Public libraries interest in understanding the needs of their

communities and developing the capabilities to meet these needs.

• The importance of partnerships to meet community needs

Local Government “As Is”

• Open Government initiatives focused on providing more and varied data to the public are occurring.– Larger cities with progressive attitudes towards technology

or with a large university community– Large suburban counties– Smaller municipalities in metropolitan areas of

technologically progressive cities

• Across the country local governments of all levels and sizes are exploring e-participation or e-democracy as well as e-government services on their websites

Public Libraries “As Is”

• Providing robust services to support community use of e-government services

• Involved in opening government activities, although these activities have not always been identified as such – Engaging communities from providing neutral civic spaces to enabling

civic literacy

• Actively expanding community engagement activities in new and creative way– Some of these activities clearly involve local government and are

opening government to various community groups

Why are we here?

• Many public libraries are seeking to proactively engage with government partners and other key stakeholders to develop portfolios of programs and services geared toward the realization of a more open government.

• Balancing such portfolios with the portfolio of traditional programs and services and public library capabilities and resources is a challenge

• This project is designed to help libraries meet this challenge.

The Role of Public Libraries in Enabling Open Government

A Stakeholder Workshop

Definitions, Concepts, and Issues

Theresa A. PardoDirector

Center for Technology in Government