DLF GRT Opportunity

Rachel Mattson

Founded in the winter of 2017, the Digital Library Federation’s interest group on Government Records Transparency and Accountability seeks to support a broader culture of records transparency in the digital age. We use a variety of methods to support cross-disciplinary conversation, collaboration, and action around improving access to local, state and federal records and publications (as well as information, data, and documents). Over the past years, we’ve hosted open presentations on topics including the 2020 Census, federal records transparency and its relationship to immigrant justice, Title 44 reform, FOIA and state-level freedom of information laws, and civic data initiatives. These presentations have provoked us to engage in ongoing conversations, and have led to several follow-up projects—including writing and signing onto open letters designed to support expanded public access to government-created materials, and the creation of a Twitter bot using the Federal Register’s API (https://twitter.com/NARA_update_bot). We also serve as the umbrella organization for the national Endangered Data Week project (https://endangereddataweek.org/).

The group is open to all, regardless of membership in the DLF, and welcomes anyone to attend our open monthly virtual meetings or to join our (low-traffic) Google Group (via wiki link below). We’re looking forward to another productive year of inquiry and action. Although our agenda and work-plan is ever-evolving, we have several projects ongoing or in development—including planning for the third annual Endangered Data Week (February 25–March 1, 2019). Visit our wiki (https://wiki.diglib.org/Transparency-Accountability) for additional information about our work, and feel free to join us!

Rachel Mattson (rmattson@umn.edu), Curator, Tretter Collection for GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota; Founder and Co-chair, DLF’s interest group in Government Records Transparency and Accountability.