ALIA Government Publications Advisory Committee

Purpose

The Australian Library and Information Association recognises the essential importance of free access to government information from all levels of government for citizens and library users.

The Expert Group on Government Publications exists to:

1. Function as an expert group to provide advice and guidelines on government publications to the Board of Directors.
   
   
2. Focus attention on Australian government publications and government information, at federal, state and local level. ALIA is concerned with the dissemination of government information; the publishing, distribution, and bibliographical control of and access to government publications, both paper based and electronic; and the continuation of the principle of free access to government information through libraries. The availability and access to collections of government publications from IGOs and countries other than Australia are also a concern.
   
   
3. 
   
   1. monitor developments with government publications and access to government information, in particular
   2. lobby for change and improvement where necessary
   3. co-ordinate views from colleagues to respond to government policy proposals and represent ALIA on official inquiries into aspects of government publications publishing and information
   4. liaise with libraries, publishers, and with other professional groups and institutions where appropriate
   5. raise awareness of matters relating to government publications, hold forums for discussion and exchange of ideas on topics of interest and keep the library profession informed of its activities
   
   
   
4. The group is national in focus and maintains an e-mail discussion list Oz-Govpubs-l (see details below). To date, the group has been Melbourne based, but with the minutes being circulated to interstate members who work with government publications. It would be useful to extend the group to include a wider membership of librarians working with government publications, government publisher representatives and other interested people.
   
   

Issues facing the Group now and in the future:

1. Distribution of government publications to libraries.
   
   
2. Government publishing in electronic formats.
   
   
3. Collecting Australian online government publications.
   
   
4. Archiving electronic government publications.
   
   
5. Proposals for digitisation of government publications.
   
   
6. Government web search engine effectiveness eg. websites.
   
   
7. Commonwealth government publications
   
   
   • Library deposit and free issue schemes
   • Distribution, collection, access
   • Parliamentary papers
   • Review of changes in distribution by AGIMO
   
   
   
8. State and Territory government publications
   
   
   • Distribution, collection, access
   • Parliamentary papers
   
   
   
9. Australian Bureau of Statistics publications
   
   
   • Distribution, collection ,access
   • Library deposit
   
   
   

Discussion List

Oz-Govpubs-l is owned and maintained by one of the current members of the group. It is a discussion list for anyone interested in government documents in Australian libraries.

Subscribing:
Send an e-mail message to: mailserv@its.monash.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address)
containing the following line: subscribe oz-govpubs-l your name
[Leave the subject line blank]

Sending a message:
Send an e-mail message to: oz-govpubs-l@its.monash.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address)

Unsubscribing:
Send an e-mail message to: mailserv@its.monash.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address)
containing the following line: unsubscribe oz-govpubs-l
[Leave the subject line blank]

Background

The ALIA Expert Group on Government Publications has been an active library-based group since 1972. It used to be known as the government publications subcommittee of ACLIS and before that of AACOBS. When ALIA assumed responsibility for ACLIS activities at the end of 1998 the subcommittee became an expert group of ALIA.

The group and the subcommittee before it has been an invaluable forum for discussion relating to government publications. It has been involved in a number of major issues over the years: the inquiry into the publications pricing policy of the Australian Government Publishing Service by the Prices Surveillance Authority in 1993 and the inquiry into the future of the parliamentary papers series by the Joint Standing Committee on Publications of the Commonwealth Parliament in 1997. In both these cases, the subcommittee was involved in discussion of the issues which formed the basis of the submission made and the evidence given by the convenor at the hearings.

In 1981 and 1982, the subcommittee organised workshops on government publications; both were by invitation to experts around the country, and the intention was to discuss existing difficulties with the aim to produce recommended solutions. These were not teaching workshops. Teaching was carried out in the 1980s through the LAA travelling workshops led by Michael Harrington.

The subcommittee compiled and published Government publications of Australia: a list of lists in 1976, with a second edition in 1979 and supplement in 1980; and Government publications collections: a directory of deposit and exchange collections held in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific libraries in 1994.