SLA Government Information Division

Dotgov Buzz, May 2009

USA.gov has posted the May 2009 issue of their "monthly newsletter for e-gov movers and shakers," Dotgov Buzz. Some highlights:

• a summary of White House news (new US CIO, launch of the Open Government Initiative, transformation of the White House Office of Public Liaison to the Office of Public Engagement, and more)
• cloud computing in government
• State Department launch of a Virtual Student Foreign Service, and
• links to upcoming e-gov events.

Canada to US Travel Rules Changes June 1

Canadians traveling to the U.S. by land or sea after 31 May 2009 will have to provide the same documentation that is required for crossing the border by air. Questions? Go to www.getyouhome.gov for info from US Customs and Border Protection.The information is also featured on the Canada Border Services Agency website. And there's a widget.

Clarification/Update: Travel documentation rules also change for U.S. citizens going to Canada or Mexico; see www.getyouhome.gov for details.

Federal Government Niche Guides

These two new U.S. federal government reports are handy reference guides:

Designated Federal Entities: Survey of Governance Practices and the Inspector General Role [PDF], from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Report number GAO-09-270. Published 20 April 2009; released 19 May 2009. In Appendix IV, this report identifies the legal authority and governing structure of 31 designated federal entities (DFEs) such as the Smithsonian Institution, Peace Corps, and National Science Foundation. The entire report provides useful details on DFEs.

National Intelligence, A Consumer's Guide [PDF], from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. 28 May 2009. This report profiles the numerous U.S. government intelligence organizations. The report also describes executive and congressional oversight and includes useful guides to the acronyms and lingo of the intelligence community.

Notable Fed, State, Local & International Docs

The Library Journal annual list of notable government documents is online. Looking Back, Moving On: 2008 Best Notable Government Documents presents a list of notable government documents selected by a panel of U.S. academic librarians. The article leads up to the list with a brief summary of U.S. government information trends.

Australia Inventories Online Gov Docs

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has published a review of the online availability of government documents. The review, Online Availability of Government Entities' Documents Tabled in the Australian Parliament [PDF], found that 90% of documents tabled in parliament are available online. ("Tabled documents," as defined in the report's glossary, are documents that have been "presented to either House, typically by being physically placed on the Table of either House. However documents can be ‘deemed to be presented’ ... without being physically placed on a Table.)

The ANAO recommendations center on the 10% of documents still not online and on the format, findability, and accessibility of the documents that are online.

The government's Web Publishing Guide is a portal for finding rules and policies, including a new Web 2.0 section.

New Report: Federal Government Privacy Policy

The Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) has just released a new report for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Toward A 21st Century Framework for Federal Government Privacy Policy [PDF]. The report provides a federal privacy policy history, an analysis of how specific technological changes impact that policy, and recommendations for updating federal privacy policy and law in light of technological change.

ISFAB is located in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory.

Coalition Builds State & Local Recovery Act Info Center

The States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery (STAR Coalition) has launched a website featuring an extensive Recovery Act Info Center. The Info Center has state accountability overviews for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The overviews include a link to and review of the state's Recovery Act website, a description of the state's Recovery Act oversight apparatus, information on local policy debates, and links to local watchdog groups' sites and to any other local web resources. The Info Center also links to about 30 Recovery Act websites maintained by large cities across the country.

At the national level, the Recovery Act Info Center has a summary of federal oversight, summaries of the major funding flows, and a page with web links and a bibliography.

The STAR Coalition website was created by Good Jobs First, a coalition member. The site describes the coalition as "a network of groups working at the state and local levels to ensure that the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is transparent, accountable, fair and effective."

Unofficial Data.gov RSS Feed

Subscribe to the Sunlight Foundation's Sunlight Labs unofficial RSS feed to keep up with additions to the new Data.gov website of government data sets. As announced on the Sunlight Labs blog, the feed is available at http://data.sunlightlabs.com/data.gov/datafeed.xml.

Related post: Data.gov!

Tips from the Government Info Pro

Recent posts on DGI member Marie Kaddell's blog, Government Info Pro, feature advice and info from our US government librarian members. Check out:

• LexisNexis® Government Info Pro Podcast: Episode 10, featuring DGI Prez Chris Zammarelli talking about how agencies can implement their presence on third-party social media sites, and
• Best Practices 2009 -- Change: Managing It, Surviving It, Thriving on It, serving up a compilation of stories and tips from over 50 contributors including many of our DGI colleagues.

Better Regulations.gov on the Horizon

The White House announced today that the administration has been working on designing a new and better Regulations.gov website. The Regulations.gov site as it stands today has been seen as difficult to use and not as helpful as it could be; see, for example, Achieving the Potential: The Future of Federal E-Rulemaking.

Today, the home page of Regulations.gov links to a new Regulations.gov Exchange forum, a site for sending your feedback to the Regulations.gov team. The home page links to specific re-design discussion topics, such as RSS feeds and downloadable dockets. Once you register a user name at the site, you can comment on any of these topics now through 21 July 2009.

See the New Regulations.gov Features page for an overview. From the page:

Based on feedback from users like you, we are proposing a new design for Regulations.gov that makes it easier to navigate, search and comment on regulations. Our proposed changes include a new homepage, improved search capability and a new look and feel for the site.

Explore new designs and features we plan to implement this summer with a 2-minute video tour to the right.

We want to exchange ideas with users like you to improve usability, search and navigation on Regulations.gov. What do you think of the homepage featured in the video? What are the benefits to learning about the regulatory process before searching for and commenting on regulations? What other features may be useful?