In The Thick Of It: FreePint for Government Information Professionals
Jinfo Blog

By Mark Faulkner

Abstract

Mark Faulkner examines how FreePint can help information professionals in government organisations identify new sources, help review older sources in a new way and provide assistance in thinking about procurement decisions. He highlights articles covering topics from grey literature to identifying authoritative news sources and improving the value of content investments.

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Government departments and agencies, and equally information professionals who work within them, have an obligation in what they do to provide value for money. Information professionals have the added challenge of meeting a constant increase in the demand for information from "customers" in order to do their work against budgetary pressures. FreePint can help information professionals in government organisations identify new sources, help review older sources in a new way and provide assistance in thinking about procurement decisions.

Recent FreePint Articles and Reports of interest to those working in the government sector: 

Articles:

• Validating and Improving the Value of Content Investments
• Practice Report: Reliable Research Sources
• Mini Review: Bloomberg Government
• Beyond the Pale: Researching Non-Text Resources and Grey Literature
• Government Approved Apps

Providing Value for Money

Willem (Bill) Noorlander’s article Validating and Improving the Value of Content Investments tells you all you need to know if you are starting out in an organisation managing a portfolio of online services. This is a familiar procedure for veterans such as myself who’ve worked in government organisations for years that now reach double figures. One piece of advice I would add is to make the most of networking opportunities where you can, and although not everyone may be able to share, benchmark as much as you can against other organisations in similar fields in the lead up to negotiating and reaching that final decision. I was fortunate enough when working within the UK civil service to have information networking groups and geographically close organisations I could use to share experiences – a practice I am pursuing now I am in an entirely different sector.

Authoritative Sources

Part of the analysis that takes place in reviewing and procuring sources is establishing the authoritativeness of the source, important since much depends on the organisation’s reputation and the risk of libraries within government providing incorrect information. Jan Knight’s Practice Report: Reliable Research Sources is a review in itself of FreePint’s recent articles on the rapidly changing face of the media and proffering the advice of a little healthy scepticism required to ensure we identify reliable, trusted news sources. Jan Knight also reviews Bloomberg Government, a web-based information source where users can find news related to government, business, industries and in the same product, search for and keep up to date with legislation, regulation and government contracts. Cindy Elliott’s article Beyond the Pale provides a thorough overview of sourcing grey literature.

Moving Technologies

My experience of working in government departments of old has been that you were lucky to look at anything that could get through the firewall! These days though, government organisations (and IT departments) have developed apace in order to meet and enable technological advancement and new platforms to be accessed via mobile devices. Libraries and information professionals have also had to adapt when considering access rights and subscription renewals. Government data has been arguably slow to adapt to the wider web’s openness and Africa S. Hands’ 2012 article outlines some of the US’s achievements compared to the UK’s "baby" steps. Now it is more commonplace. What did we do before we had all this technology?!

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