Government Information Access Council Report

At recent COGI meetings a few people mentioned the work of the Government Information Access Council, a group created by the Legislature in 1994 (and repealed in 1997). I thought that many would be interested in the report of the group, so I had it scanned from the Legislative Reference Library's (LRL) print copy, linked it to our catalog record, and sent out an e-mail about its availability. (report) Julie Wallace replied that it used to be on the Department of Administration Web site, along with minutes of the group and other materials, all of which are now gone. At the Legislative Reference Library, we've noted this on many occasions - state documents that were once online are no longer on the agencies' servers. But it is particularly ironic in this case; a report about government information access is no longer accessible online.

Just a bit of background: The Legislative Reference Library has the statutory authority to obtain state documents. Minnesota Statute 3.302 For many years (1981-2003) we obtained and cataloged state documents that were then put on microfiche by the Department of Administration through the State Document Depository Program. That program dissolved. To fill the void, the Legislative Reference Library began a program of keeping digital copies of state documents in 2004, our e-docs grogram. (More state document information) LRL staff work hard to identify important state documents and ensure they are available long into the future. And as I mentioned, we know of many documents that were once on agency web sites, but are no longer, and we have scanned many documents that we have only been able to obtain in print. But we realize the shortcomings of the present system