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In every modern State it is the Government's job to see that its citizens are properly informed on everything it is doing for their benefit and for the community in which they live and work. That is the object of making the Government's actions and activities known to the public. But publicity alone is not enough. Making facts generally known or generally accessible still does not explain why the measures concerned have been taken. Some explanation is needed of what lies behind policy decisions, so that the public can see what the consequences will be and how the measures implementing the policy will affect them. Maintaining a government information service used to be regarded as a right that the Government claimed for itself, the right to announce and explain its policy directly to the public. Nowadays, publicity and the provision of information are deemed to be a primary duty of the Government, a duty deriving from the right of the public to receive information, to know what is going on. There are two kinds of government information: active and passive. By ‘active’ I mean information that the Government provides on its own initiative, and by ‘passive’ information that is provided in response to a specific request.

E-government involves the use of technology for the betterment of government and for making government more responsive to the governed. However, as practiced, some barriers complicate the achievement of this goal. This chapter provides an overview of e-government at the US national level; identifies access barriers; proposes a research agenda intended to make e-government more accountable and helpful to the audiences it intends to serve; and discusses the implications of e-government to the library community.

Citizens are substantial stakeholders in every e-government system, thus their willingness to use and ability to access the system are critical. Unequal access and information and communication technology usage, which is known as digital divide, however has been identified as one of the major obstacles to the implementation of e-government system. As digital divide inhibits citizen’s acceptance to e-government, it should be overcome despite the lack of deep theoretical understanding on this issue. This research aimed to investigate the digital divide and its direct impact on e-government system success of local governments in Indonesia as well as indirect impact through the mediation role of trust. In order to get a comprehensive understanding of digital divide, this study introduced a new type of digital divide, the innovativeness divide.

The research problems were approached by applying two-stage sequential mixed method research approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative studies. In the first phase, an initial research model was proposed based on a literature review. Semi-structured interview with 12 users of e-government systems was then conducted to explore and enhance this initial research model. Data collected in this phase were analyzed with a two-stage content analysis approach and the initial model was then amended based on the findings. As a result, a comprehensive research model with 16 hypotheses was proposed for examination in the second phase.

In the second phase, quantitative method was applied. A questionnaire was developed based on findings in the first phase. A pilot study was conducted to refine the questionnaire, which was then distributed in a national survey resulting in 237 useable responses. Data collected in this phase were analyzed using Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modeling.

The results of quantitative analysis confirmed 13 hypotheses. All direct influences of the variables of digital divide on e-government system success were supported. The mediating effects of trust in e-government in the relationship between capability divide and e-government system success as well as in the relationship between innovativeness divide and e-government system success were supported, but was rejected in the relationship between access divide and e-government system success. Furthermore, the results supported the moderating effects of demographic variables of age, residential place, and education.

This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. The study contributes to the developments of literature on digital divide and e-government by providing a more comprehensive framework, and also to the implementation of e-government by local governments and the improvement of e-government Readiness Index of Indonesia.

To provide a case study focusing on efforts Lied Library has undertaken in collection development and management, space utilization, electronic access, web site revisions, and staff training in government publications.

The construction of and move into Lied Library have coincided with major developments in the production and dissemination of federal, state and local government publications and other information products. Among them is a trend away from print publications and toward “born‐digital”, electronic‐only publications. At the same time, space utilization issues have become even more critical in the new building. This article will explore the ways in which these developments and the new technologies available both within Lied Library and elsewhere are shaping the management and use of the print collections, collection development practices and bibliographic control of government information and public access.

This article highlights activities that have been undertaken over the past two years in Lied Library to make the government information collection more user‐friendly.

The article only highlights activities that have been undertaken at UNLV Libraries regarding government information resources, not on developments and challenges in other parts of the UNLV Libraries.

This article provides a useful case study focusing on one academic library's attempt to make government information resources more accessible to both library staff and users.

This article highlights and identifies Lied Library's experiences in making government information more accessible to both staff and patrons and discusses issues such as storage, evaluating the collection, cataloging, training staff and users, and revising the government information web site. Libraries may be able to use similar techniques in making their government resources more accessible to clientele.

Although governments have used social media platforms to interact with the public in an attempt to minimize anxiety and provide a forum for public discussion during the pandemic, governments require sufficient crisis communication skills to engage citizens in taking appropriate action effectively. This study aims to examine how the National Health Commission of China (NHCC) has used TikTok, the leading short video–based platform, to facilitate public engagement during COVID-19.

Building upon dual process theories, this study integrates the activation of information exposure, prosocial interaction theory and social sharing of emotion theory to explore how public engagement is related to message sensation value (MSV), media character, content theme and emotional valence. A total of 354 TikTok videos posted by NHCC were collected during the pandemic to explore the determinants of public engagement in crises.

The findings demonstrate that MSV negatively predicts public engagement with government TikTok, but that instructional information increases engagement. The presence of celebrities and health-care professionals negatively affects public engagement with government TikTok accounts. In addition, emotional valence serves a moderating role between MSV, media characters and public engagement.

Government agencies must be fully aware of the different combinations of MSV and emotion use in the video title when releasing crisis-related videos. Government agencies can also leverage media characters – health professionals in particular – to enhance public engagement. Government agencies are encouraged to solicit public demand for the specific content of instructing information through data mining techniques.

With the worldwide open government data (OGD) movement and frequent public health emergencies in recent years, academic research on OGD for public health emergencies has been growing. However, it is not fully understood how to promote OGD on public health emergencies. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the factors that influence OGD on public health emergencies.

The technology–organization–environment framework is applied to explore factors that influence OGD during COVID-19. It is argued that the effects of four key factors – technical capacity, organizational readiness, social attention and top-down pressure – are contingent on the severity of the pandemic. A unique data set was created by combining multiple data sources which include archival government data, a survey of 1,034 Chinese respondents during the COVID-19 outbreak and official COVID-19 reports.

The data analysis indicates that the four factors positively affect OGD, and pandemic severity strengthens the effects of technical capacity, organizational readiness and social attention on OGD.

This study provides theoretical insights regarding how to improve OGD during public health emergencies, which can guide government efforts in sharing data with the public when dealing with outbreak in the future.

Since the 2016 presidential election, hyper-partisanship has become a regular facet of the political landscape with Democrats and Republicans in increasing conflict. The purpose of this paper is to determine if perception of government sources related to trust and credibility has changed since the 2016 election and if the experiences and strategies of librarians who teach or consult about government information has changed in response to this environment.

A 24-question survey was distributed to garner qualitative and quantitative responses from librarians who teach or consult about government information in an academic environment. A total of 122 responses were used for analysis.

Academic librarians are seeing more concern from patrons about disappearing online government information and wider distrust of government information. Librarians also noticed that the political leanings of students color their perspective around government sources and that librarians also need to keep their political beliefs in check. Respondents emphasized a need for more government literacy and information literacy topics when discussing evaluation of government sources.

The data collection only included responses from academic librarians. Further research could include in-depth interviews and look at experiences in various library types.

With the timeliness of this topic, there has not been an in-depth investigation into how the Trump administration has changed user trust and perception of government sources from the librarian’s point of view. This paper continues the conversation about how librarians can address the growing distrust of government information and give us insight into the effects of a turbulent political climate on government sources.

The article aims to identify the possibility of contextual shift in traditional notions of e‐government service environment. The authors propose the existence of a new institutional entity as core service providers in addition to the government (G) and citizens (C) in the existing G2C e‐government service environments. Considering the nature of actors involved, the authors position the new e‐government environment under “credence based” service setting that emphasizes user's perspective. The work expands the scope of e‐government to accommodate a much broader range of similar services.

Scenario study has been chosen to understand the proposed contextual shift in traditional e‐government service setting. Study of one of the e‐government practices – “e‐counseling in India” – has been illustrated to advocate the authors' viewpoint. The data is collected from authorized government websites in India that offer e‐counseling services. In addition, 15 in‐depth interviews were also performed with government officials and users to have a deeper understanding about the new service setting.

The study has revealed and defended the authors' proposition on “contextual shift” and validated the existence of “credence based” setting in e‐government service environments. Moreover, it provides preliminary insights about why and how information quality can be a critical element for the aforesaid setting.

Identification of “credence based” e‐government service environments may require a different design strategy for structures, policies, systems, and services to fulfil the user expectations.

Attention is given to developing credence based context for G2C e‐government environments. This “contextual shift” identified in this paper contributes to the existing stream of research that emphasizes user's perspective in e‐government services.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings of a survey conducted during 2012 in Iceland with the intent of examining public opinion on government provision of information, i.e. whether the public felt that the authorities withheld information, either about subjects of general public interest or about public expenditures, if the authorities felt there was a reason to do so.

A survey questionnaire was sent in March 2012 to almost two thousand Icelanders. This was a random sample selected from the National Registry. The response rate was almost 67 per cent. The survey was modelled on other research and resources that had examined trust toward public authorities and the influence of Freedom of Information Acts on government information practices.

The survey discovered that the greater part of the citizenry felt that the authorities did keep important information of general public interest secret often or sometimes. Only 2-3 per cent of them believed that this never happened. Most of those surveyed felt as well that important information about public expenditures was often or sometimes withheld. Only 3-5 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that this never happened.

The results could be of value to public authorities that want to improve the provision of information and practice according to freedom of information act. They could also bring varied and valuable opportunities to the profession of records managers as well as others who practice information management.

The survey adds valuable information and fulfils a need for a better understanding of what the public believes regarding government provision of information in Iceland. Although the survey is limited to Iceland, these findings may also be of value to public authorities and researchers in the Western World, Australia and New Zealand, to give a few examples where the culture and the practice of government may not be that different, as well as in other countries. The survey can lay the foundation for further research into the field.

To review the challenges associated with ensuring the capture and preservation of and long‐term access to government records and publications in the digital age and to describe how libraries and archives in Australia are responding to the challenge.

Literature‐ and case‐study‐based conceptual analysis of what makes government online information so vulnerable and initiatives at the National Library of Australia and the National Archives of Australia.

Democracy, governance, consultation and participation all depend on the availability of authentic and reliable information. Government agencies as well as educational and research institutions are producing increasingly large volumes of information in digital formats only. While Australia has done more than most countries to date to address the need to identify, collect, store and preserve government publications and public records in digital formats, large amounts of information are still at risk of loss.

Focuses on circumstances and initiatives in the Australian Government.

Librarians and archivists need to become more proactive in influencing the behaviour of government agencies to ensure that important evidence of democratic governance is created and managed in ways that facilitate their accessibility and long‐term preservation.

Emphasises the vital role that information management agencies such as libraries and archives have to play in supporting transparent and accountable governance in the digital age, and explores innovative strategies for ensuring the long‐term preservation of this important documentary heritage material for the use of future generations.