Adoption of information policies that would promote searchability is supported by the goals of government regulations and legislation, including the E-Government Act of 2002, the Paperwork Reduction Act, Electronic FOIA, and other federal materials regarding the management of public informational resources.
Paperwork Reduction Act/Circular A-130, 2000
Circular A-130 was published by OMB to establish policy and guide the management of the informational resources of federal agencies. This circular reinforces the importance of efficient management of information resources, including the "free flow of information" and the effective dissemination of government information to citizens.
Circular A-130 indicates that agencies should use techniques that reduce the burden on the public to access agency materials. Agencies are required to "[d]isseminate information in a manner that achieves the best balance between the goals of maximizing the usefulness of the information and minimizing the cost to the government and the public." Since the information is already distributed via agency Web sites, it would take very little effort to ensure that the information is widely accessible to the public via search engines.
While Circular A-130 delves deeply into the specifics of how to manage information resources, it is clear that at a higher level, it is a document that mandates and guides agencies in making government resources easily available. This includes making the agency resources and information available to the largest possible audience.
E-Government Act, Section 207, 2002
Section 207 of the 2002 E-Government Act seeks to improve the organization and accessibility of government information. The E-Government Act directed OMB to require that agencies use information technology and Internet-based technologies to improve citizens' ability to access government information and services.
Section 207 of the E-Government Act specifically mandates that each agency director be responsible for creating guidelines for their agency's Web site, with two of the goals being to speed the retrieval of search results and to improve the relevance of those results.
As President Bush said in his signing statement for the E-Government Act, "[t]he Act will also assist in expanding the use of the Internet and computer resources in order to deliver Government services, [...] for a citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market-based Government."
Electronic FOIA, 1996
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was signed into law in 1966; a recent amendment in 1996 broadened FOIA to cover electronic records. The Act was created to "ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed." FOIA affirmed the public's right to know about the business of government as a central principle of our open society.
The 1996 amendments to FOIA were intended to simplify and expedite access to federal government records through the use of electronic communications media. The 1996 amendments received widespread bipartisan support.
Making this information available electronically is a step in the right direction. However, if this information is made available only through agency Web sites, many users searching for these resources will not find them. Now that so many resources have been made available in electronic form, it is relatively simple to ensure that they are easily accessible by using the Sitemap protocol.
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