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.

Next Call

Our next call is on Friday, March 3rd at 1pm EST.

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

Past Minutes

17 February 2017
3 March 2017

Possible Directions

A few emails have been exchanged, and an initial conference call has been convened. But the work of this group is still in development, and we invite you to join us as we consider possible 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.

Meanwhile, we invite you join our new Interest Group! (You don’t have to be a DLF member to participate.) We have a newly formed Google Group in which you can request membership and will be posting minutes and meeting dates on this DLF wiki page.