Transparency-Accountability

DLF Government Records Transparency and Accountability Group

This is the page for a newly-forming DLF Working Group on Government Records Transparency and Accountability. Look for more info on this group's meetings and activities soon! Read our announcement blog post.

Upcoming event: "Endangered Accountability: A DLF-Sponsored Webinar on FOIA, Government Data, and Transparency." April 21, 1pm EST. Part of Endangered Data Week.

Join members of the Digital Library Federation’s new working group on Government Records Transparency and Accountability for a live conversation about government data and records transparency. In this webinar, we’ll dig below the headlines to talk about the current state of FOIA, the difference between “records” and “data,” and what, actually, is at risk in this current moment. Featuring presentations by Alex Howard of the Sunlight Foundation, Denice Ross from New America, and representatives from the National Archives FOIA Ombudsman’s Office. Online: https://www.uberconference.com/clir-dlf (use Chrome for VOIP) and/or by telephone: 202-750-4186

Next Call

Our next call is on Friday, March 24th at 1pm EST. Beginning in April and running until the DLF Forum, calls will occur at the same time on third Fridays.

Please join online here (use Firefox or Chrome for VOIP) and/or by telephone: 202-750-4186.

Minutes

• 17 February 2017 (agenda)
• 3 March 2017 (agenda)
• 24 March 2017
• 21 April 2017
• 19 May 2017
• 16 June 2017
• 21 July 2017
• 18 August 2017
• 15 September 2017
• 20 October 2017

How to Join

We invite you join our new Interest Group! You don’t have to be a DLF member to participate.

Simply request membership in our Google Group to stay current on discussions and meeting dates. Meeting dates and minutes will also be posted to this page.

Possible Directions

The work of this group is still in development, and we invite you to join us as we consider strategies for moving forward together. Some possible directions in which our endeavors might go:

• Learn, listen, gather info, ask questions. Reach out to organizations already doing smart work in the area of government sunshine, FOIA, public records transparency, and government accountability, and learn all that we can about their work. Where are these groups putting their efforts? What are the central concerns, questions, and debates they consider to be important? Which groups do we want to make connections to? Also: what are librarians and archivists already doing in this area? How might we extend and contribute to this work?
• Consider, discuss, and outline the ways in which this work, these questions, overlaps with our own areas of expertise and labors. How might we bring conversations about transparency and accountability into our schools, workplaces, and professional communities?
• Consider, discuss, and work toward understanding how we might use our expertise and situated-ness to support increased public records transparency and accountability at the local, state, and federal levels.
• Share what we learn with the broader DLF and library/archives community (and beyond?).
• One project we know we will be supporting in the coming months is the inaugural Endangered Data Week (April 17-21, 2017). Spearheaded by a dedicated group of collaborators in collaboration with DLF, this distributed event is designed to bring “awareness to different types of threats to publicly available data, engage with the power dynamics involved in data creation, sharing, and retention, and make endangered data more secure and accessible.” Please mark your calendars now. More information about this effort will be available very soon.