Freedom of information, right to access information, open data: who is at the table?

Many national governments have adopted the idea of the ‘right to access information’ (RTI) or ‘freedom of information’ (FOI) as an essential element of the rights of citizens to freedom of opinion and expression, human rights, trust in public discourse and transparent, accountable and open government. Over 100 countries worldwide have introduced access to information legislation: 50+ in Europe; a dozen in Africa; 20 in the Americas and Caribbean; more than 15 in Asia and the Pacific; and two in the Middle East (Banisar, 2014). This article will provide an overview of access to information legislation and focus on the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 as a case example. It will discuss the impact of the UK FOI Act on public authorities, with particular attention to records management implications, drawing on research undertaken by University College London. In the final section, it will reflect on relationships between access to information and open government data. If governments are moving to more openness, what implications might this have for those charged with implementing FOI and RTI policies, including for records management professionals

Hidden Voices in the Archives: Pioneering Women Archivists in early 20th century England

This chapter explores the hidden lives and voices of women archivists in early 20th century England. It establishes the reasons why this new area of research is valid and sets out a framework within which the research could be carried out. It includes two exemplars: Joan Wake and Ethel Stokes

An ‘academic’ dilemma: the tale of archives and records management

This article discusses the development of academic research in the archives and records management field. It is argued that the field has faced a dilemma between educating graduates for work in a professional domain and developing robust research methods and frameworks for the emerging academic discipline. The article reports on some projects which have developed research frameworks and networks in the UK and internationally and considers some future directions for archives and records management research. In the light of the Research Assessment Exercise 2008, and in preparation for the Research Excellence Framework 2014, this is a good time to take stock of the progress made in this sub field of LIS and map its future strategic direction

Freedom of Information and records management in local government: help or hindrance?

Research into the impact of the UK Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 on records management services in public authorities, especially in local government was carried out by the Department of Information Studies at UCL in 2008–2009, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project considered the inter-relationship between records management and freedom of information, and examined the co-operation and partnerships needed in order to maximise the benefits of freedom of information. The first phase of the research was an extensive literature review, focusing on freedom of information and records management in the UK. This was followed by qualitative research using semi-structured interviews to gather rich data from council officials responsible for the provision of records management, information governance and freedom of information functions, complemented by interviews with requestors, to provide an outsider's perspective. The article reports on the position of records management in local government prior to 2000s drawing on the literature, outlines the research findings on FOI and records management policy and practice in local government, and concludes by considering the perspective of requestors and users of the FOIA as engaged citizens

Chapter 10: Right to Information

‘Right to information’ (RTI), ‘access to information’ (ATI) or ‘freedom of information’ (FOI) has been adopted by countries around the world, as a manifestation of the rights of citizens to freedom of opinion and expression and a prerequisite for human rights. In 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 stated the fundamental ‘right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’ In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights declared that ‘…access to information is inextricably tied to freedom of expression.’ The right to information has frequently been linked to trust in public discourse and to enabling accountable and open government. Access to information establishes a right for individuals to seek information held by public authorities, often in a manner defined by the law, and generally subject to exemptions for such things as national security, defence, international relations, police investigations and privacy. Recordkeeping professionals in corporate and public organisations provide access to records for internal business use to support current activities, as well as ensuring access to records needed over the longer term for the study of cultural heritage and the history of communities and families. In addition, in the accountability domain, records can be used to hold individuals, officials and corporations to account, both internally and externally. Providing access to reliable records is commonly cited as a necessary prerequisite for accountability, transparency, and good governance. Transparency International (Pope, 2003) asserted that ‘when we campaign for greater access to information we must at the same time campaign for improved records management. There seems little point in having access to information that is chaotic and unreliable’. Archives have been called ‘arsenals of democratic accountability’ (Eastwood, 1993; Iacovino, 2010) and this chapter will examine the recordkeeping role in providing access to records so that individuals can exercise their ‘right to information’. It will consider four different aspects of access to information: national archives and records legislation; secrecy and privacy; responsive release of information by governments under freedom of information; and proactive release of information under open government policies. It will reflect upon whether these aspects together provide citizens with ‘a right to information’ and therefore whether such a right can be said to exist in practice. Unofficial routes to information access, such as whistleblowing or unauthorised disclosure by activists, will not be covered in this chapter

A balance of trust in the use of government administrative data

Government departments and agencies around the world routinely collect administrative data produced by citizen interaction with the state. The UK government increasingly frames data as an ‘asset’. The potential in administrative data can be exploited by sharing and linking across datasets, but when the rhetoric of the benefits of data sharing is bound up in commercial exploitation, trustworthy motivations for sharing data come into question. Such questions are framed around two apparently conflicting public goods. The public good in re-using data to increase government efficiency and to enhance research is set against the public good in protecting privacy. Privacy is a collective as well as an individual benefit, enabling the public to participate confidently in citizen-state interactions. Balancing these public goods is challenging given rapidly evolving technology and data science. The analysis presented here draws on research undertaken by the authors as part of the Administrative Data Research Centre in England. Between 2014 and 2017, four case studies were conducted on government administrative data across education, transport, energy and health. The purpose of the research was to examine stakeholder perspectives in relation to administrative data sharing and re-use. The themes of trust, risk and consent were chosen to articulate the research questions and analysis: this article focuses on the findings related to trust. It explores the notion of trust in the collection, analysis, linkage and re-use of routinely collected government administrative data in England. It seeks to demonstrate that securing public trust in data initiatives is dependent on a broader balance of trust between a network of actors involved in data sharing and use

On the recent elevation changes at the Flade Isblink Ice Cap, northern Greenland

This is the final version of the article. Available from AGU via the DOI in this record.We have used Radar Altimeter 2 (RA-2) onboard ESA's EnviSAT and Geosciences Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) onboard NASA's ICESat to map the elevation change of the Flade Isblink Ice Cap (FIIC) in northern Greenland. Based on RA-2 data we show that the mean surface elevation change of the FIIC has been near zero (0.03±0.03 m/a) between fall 2002 and fall 2009. We present the elevation change rate maps and assess the elevation change rates of areas above the late summer snow line (0.09±0.04 m/a) and below it (-0.16±0.05 m/a). The GLAS elevation change rate maps show that some outlet glaciers, previously reported to have been in a surge state, are thickening rapidly. Using the RA-2 measured average elevation change rates for different parts of the ice cap we present a mass change rate estimate of 0.0±0.5 Gt/a for the FIIC. We compare the annual elevation changes with surface mass balance (SMB) estimates from a regional atmospheric climate model RACMO2. We find a strong correlation between the two (R = 0.94 and P < 0.002), suggesting that the surface elevation changes of the FIIC are mainly driven by net SMB. The correlation of modeled net SMB and measured elevation change is strong in the southern areas of the FIIC (R = 0.97 and P < 0.0005), but insignificant in the northern areas (R = 0.38 and P = 0.40). This is likely due to higher variability of glacier flow in the north relative to the south. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union

The role and nature of consent in government administrative data

This article draws on research undertaken by the authors as part of the Administrative Data Research Centre in England (ADRC-E). Between 2014 and 2017, we conducted four case studies on government administrative data for education, transport, energy and health. The purpose of the research was to examine stakeholder perspectives about the sharing, linking and re-use (secondary use) of government administrative data. In relation to the role and nature of consent given by data subjects for re-use, our study revealed significant variations in data provider and researcher attitudes. Although our study setting was England, we believe that the findings have wider resonance. Our analysis identified six factors which might account for the variations around consent: the specificities of the legislative framework governing the collection and processing of particular data; the type of data being collected and the relational context in which it is created; the broader information governance framework in which the data resides; the creating organization's approach to data release; the relative levels of risk aversity within the creating organization; and public perceptions and social attitudes. In conclusion, we consider whether consent is still the best mechanism available for data re-use, or whether a social contract model of data sharing should be developed

Funding archive services in England and Wales: institutional realities and professional perceptions

This article reports on two related pieces of collaborative research carried out by the International Centre for Archives and Records Management Research in the Department of Information Studies at University College London, The National Archives, and the National Council on Archives between 2007 and 2012, which together investigated how archives in England and Wales are funded and the perceptions of funders and fundraising amongst archivists. Both pieces of research aimed to establish the institutional realities of funding and the funding mix for archive services, identifying which funding sources and fundraising techniques are well embedded and which are underdeveloped within the sector. The research projects also considered professional perceptions about fundraising and funding, in particular about funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Although not linked originally, the findings of these two projects throw light on an under-researched area of funding of archive services, and so the results of both projects are presented in a single article. The article also outlines some further research and professional development needs; suggests a target for a more robust funding mix and also that fundraising skills should properly form a part of the professional competencies framework

Dirac Leptogenesis with a Non-anomalous U(1)′U(1)^{\prime} Family Symmetry

We propose a model for Dirac leptogenesis based on a non-anomalous $U(1)^{\prime}$ gauged family symmetry. The anomaly cancellation conditions are satisfied with no new chiral fermions other than the three right-handed neutrinos, giving rise to stringent constraints among the charges. Realistic masses and mixing angles are obtained for all fermions. The model predicts neutrinos of the Dirac type with naturally suppressed masses. Dirac leptogenesis is achieved through the decay of the flavon fields. The cascade decays of the vector-like heavy fermions in the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism play a crucial role in the separation of the primodial lepton numbers. We find that a large region of parameter space of the model gives rise to a sufficient cosmological baryon number asymmetry through Dirac leptogenesis.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, version to appear in JHE