GODORT's
Principles on Government Information
As published in Documents to the People, v.19:1 (March 1991):12, 14.
The following eleven principles were adopted in the GODORT Business Meeting during the 1990 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago and represent official GODORT policy. The annotations that follow each of the Principles were adopted during the 1991 ALA Midwinter Conference in Chicago as the report of the Federal Documents Task Force (FDTF) Work Group on GODORT's Principles on Government Information. As such, the annotations are not official GODORT Policy. Rather, they are intended to provide language which GODORT members and others can use when corresponding with Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and other agencies in all issues regarding government information policy.
GODORT PRINCIPLES ON GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
1. Access to government information is a public right that must not be restricted by administrative barriers, geography, ability to pay, or format.
- An informed citizenry is a prerequisite to maintaining the social contract between the established government and those governed by it. The people who constitute nations, states, or localities require unimpeded access to information to continually assess and evaluate their governments. Government must accept the responsibility to provide to its citizens unrestricted access to public information on government activities. This responsibility includes providing information regardless of geographic location or mobility of those who require it. Information must be made available to the public without impediment through deliberate policies, charging fees which intentionally or unintentionally limit access by those unable to pay, or by limiting access through the use of format(s) which are not equally accessible to all citizens.
- The free flow of information between the government and the public which it serves is essential to maintaining an informed citizenry. The public's right to know about government operations and functions is essential in holding government accountable to its citizenry. To facilitate accountability, it is the government's responsibility to collect information on its policies, program, debates, deliberations, and legislative or executive activities, and disseminate this information to the public.
- Because many different social and commercial decisions depend on information generated by governments, it is vital that governments issue information in formats that promote access to and enhancement of the usefulness of government information. Public access to government information mist not be thwarted by costs nor by special knowledge required to use the media in which government information is maintained. In managing information resources, governments must always consider the dual responsibility of maintaining public information in formats that are useful both to government agencies and to the public. Furthermore, information collected by the government must be consistent in content so as to facilitate geographic and/or chronological extrapolations, and be in formats which make it easily accessible to the public.
- Depository library programs are effective means for providing wide dispersal of and free public access to government information. As joint ventures between government and libraries, depository library programs are based on the principle that government information is a public resource that must be freely available to the people regardless of their location. The imposition of fees by libraries or by government to access government information would undermine the basic principle of free access to this rich public resource. Furthermore, user fees would deny access to government information by those unable to pay the fees. This would foster the creation of an information poor and an information elite. The introduction of such a convention should be abhorrent to governments dedicated to the principle of equal opportunity.
- The collection, collation, storage and dissemination of public information are integral responsibilities of government. Government must allocate adequate financial resources from publicly appropriated funds to meet these responsibilities. The government cannot abrogate this obligation to ensure that government information is freely and equitably available to the public.
- Access to government information is essential to the maintenance of a responsible government, the health and well-being of society, and the continued economic growth and development of the nation. The obligation to guarantee full public access to valuable government information resources rests with the government. While the participation of the private sector in the collection, storage, and dissemination of government information be significant, this involvement does not relieve the government of its fundamental information responsibilities. Government must guarantee widespread, free, and equitable access to public information, regardless of whether the information is produced and disseminated by the government or through the services of the private sector. In its contracts with the private sector, government must carefully assess whether factors such as corporate stability, continuity of service, proprietary control, or fees required to assure profitability will impede public access to the product.
- Just as the government has a responsibility to collect and disseminate information to the public, the government must also guarantee that information collected by the government is presented to the public in its entirety, without editing or missions which may change content or interpretation. This policy is intended to ensure the collection and dissemination of government information mist come under the review and approval of the elected representatives of the citizenry.
- It is essential to protect the individual's right to privacy, therefore confidentiality must be maintained in all transactions wherein individuals access government information, whether through libraries, government agencies, or private vendors. Any mechanism that might identify users must be prohibited, except in instances where proper legal procedures are employed.
- Most information generated by government serves as the official public record of government. Government, as an agent of the people, has the responsibility to preserve public information, regardless of format, as official record. To fulfill this responsibility, government must examine preservation technologies and adopt those which will best preserve government information. Archived government information, regardless of format, must be readily accessible to the public, except for information which would violate the right of privacy or endanger national security.
- Government information is a public resource collected at public expense. A comprehensive catalog describing all government information and information services, regardless of their format, is necessary to ensure that the public has the knowledge of and access to this resource. The absence of such a catalog, is, in effect, a barrier to public access to government information. The catalog must provide sufficient information by which individuals seeking government information can identify and access it. Furthermore, access to this comprehensive catalog must be widely available and in formats that ensure all people have the opportunity to utilize it.
- Copyright of government information would impede public access to that information. The underlying intent of copyright is to protect the intellectual property rights of private authors. However, property rights of government information reside with the people; therefore, copyright should not apply to information produced by government.