Presentation by Roxanne Missingham, University Librarian, Australian National University at the Where is the evidence conference, National Library of Australia, Canberra 10 October 2012

1. It’s a grey grey world: disappearing
government information
Roxanne Missingham
University Library, Australian National University
Presentation at Where is the evidence? Policy, research and the rise of
grey literature, National Library of Australia, Canberra 10 October 2012

2. Government information
Types Purposes
Reports What has the agency done?
Accountability
Can be issue specific
White papers For consultation on policy
Green papers Policy announcements
Research Evidence base/open policy making
Guidelines Implementation/service delivery
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3. Some key developments
Year Report/change
1964 Commonwealth Parliamentary Select Committee on Parliamentary
and Government Publications report (Erwin report)
1997 Management of Government Information as a National Strategic
Resource (Wainwright report)
1997 AGPS moves to NOIE
2006 Joint Committee on Publications Distribution of the Parliamentary
Papers Series
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4. Year Report/change
2009 Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0
2010 Electronic distribution of the Parliamentary Papers Series
2010 FoI Act changes including the Information Publications Scheme
Establishment of Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner
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5. Policy responsibilities include
• Attorney Generals Department
• Department of Finance and Deregulation,
including AGIMO
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6. 6

7. Towards an Australian Government
Information Policy
Principles on open public sector information
1: Open access to information – a default position
2: Engaging the community
3: Effective information governance
4: Robust information asset management
5: Discoverable and useable information
6: Clear reuse rights
7: Appropriate charging for access
8: Transparent enquiry and complaints processes
http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/papers/issues_paper1_towards_australian
_government_information_policy.pdf
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8. What has happened to government
publishing?
• Devolved responsibilities
• Overall trend reduction in “publications” of
around 50% over the past decade
(recorded in NBD)
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9. Commonwealth government publications recorded in NBD
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
Titles
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
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10. One agency – a decade of change
• 2001 publications – where did online publications go?
Agency A: 2001 online publications
locations in 2012
On agency
No longer website
available online 28%
29%
Pandora
24%
On another
website
(university, OECD)
19%
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11. Agency in 2011
• Consistent with figures from the NBD which show reduced publishing (NBD)
by about 50% from 2001 to 2011.
• Now majority are online.
120%
100%
80%
Not online
60%
Online
40%
20%
0%
2001 2011
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12. Information publications scheme (IPS)
• specifies categories of information that
must be published
• 2012 OAIC survey
– 94% have an IPS plan
– 95% have a senior officer with IPS
responsibilities
– 85% publish on their website information
required under the FOI Act
http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/reports/IPS_survey_report.html
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13. But
• Accessibility:
– 20% documents published under the IPS are in a
format (or multiple formats) which conform to WCAG
2.0 requirements,
– 30% most of their documents comply,
– 44% some documents comply, and
– 5% none of their documents comply
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14. Discoverability
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15. Issues: Long term access
– Agencies often have only the most up to date
manual or guidance
– Around 10% of material is not online (see
http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/2
008-09_Audit_Report_37.pdf and this study)
– Directories - only latest information online
– Machinery of government changes mean
website addresses change and documents
are “archived” or lost
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16. Issues
• Metadata – how can we find information?
– Gaps in metadata now
• Awareness
– Parliamentary papers – strong knowledge of
standards
– IPS - strong knowledge
– Long term access and discovery less
• Data
– A plateau?
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17. Challenges: finding
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18. Top issues
• Transparency and accountability
• accessibility
• Discoverability (including metadata)
• Long term access
• getting leadership support for this cultural change.

19. Developments
• News from the NLA - Pandora plans to
harvest all Financial Management and
Accountability Act Agencies
• Who cares about publications
– Policy record
– Evidence/transparency
– Unpredicted – family history and more
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20. Questions
• Do agencies have a common
understanding that long term publicly
accessible publications are important?
• Do we have an infrastructure that supports
this?
• Do we have the right legal environment?
• What can we do about the “dark age”?
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21. 2013
• An election before 30 November 2013
• Machinery of government changes
coming
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