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April 1996
Government Information at Your Fingertips:
NHPRC Promotes State Government Information Locators
A new electronic directory of public information available within the Federal government has been established to improve public access to government information. This directory is known as the Government Information Locator Service, or GILS. The Federal GILS has served as a model for state information locators as well as for national initiatives in other countries. The ambitious goal of GILS visionaries is to create a global network of publicly available government information ranging from the local government to the multi-national level.
GILS is a decentralized collection of databases that uses a network technology and international standards to direct users to relevant government information resources. GILS identifies public information resources, describes the information available, and assists users in obtaining the information. For example, users can access the National Archives and Records Administration GILS to find out how to do research at the National Archives and to find information about the Archives' holdings.
Federal agencies have been working for more than a year to create descriptive records of their information resources and put them online as required by the Office of Management and Budget in a bulletin issued last year. The Federal GILS, a National Information Infrastructure initiative, was incorporated into law under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The National Archives participated in the planning of GILS and is responsible for establishing the descriptive standards for GILS records created by Federal agencies. The Archivist of the United States serves on the interagency GILS board that oversees Federal GILS activities.
The NHPRC is helping to promote the creation of state-level information locators. At its November meeting, the Commission recommended a one-year grant of $21,700 to assist the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in planning and developing a prototype information locator system for the South Carolina state government. Project Director Roy Tryon reports that the GILS concept has caught the attention of state administrators, and that the Archives is now co-chairing a GILS working group in coordination with the State Office of Information Resources. Other states with GILS either established or in the planning stages include Minnesota, New York, and Texas. Many Federal agencies have contracted with the Government Printing Office to provide their GILS records online. GPO, through its GPO Access program, makes these records available to the public either directly or through the Federal depository libraries. Other Federal agencies maintain their own GILS databases, and GPO has mounted cross-reference or "pathway" records to many of these databases. For those wishing to point and click on interagency Federal information, the GPO Access GILS records can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.access.gpo. gov/su_docs/gils/gils.html. For state GILS information, the World Wide Web address is http://www.usgs.gov/gils/us_state.html. More information about GILS in general can be found at http://www.usgs.gov/gils/index.html. The Federal government does not charge for any of its GILS services, although intermediary commercial providers may charge user fees.
