Update: The PEGI Project’s Backbone Plan
Based on findings from our two-year report [PDF], and with the support of our advisory board, the PEGI Project is now sharing our high-level roadmap for engagement to advance work toward the preservation of electronic government information. In this post, we will briefly discuss the opportunities and outcomes guiding our work, and the focused strategies we are pursuing to achieve these outcomes. Future posts will present work already underway.
We invite you to consider ways in which your organization or initiative may be interested in partnering with the PEGI Project. You are welcome to send your interests and ideas to the team at info@pegiproject.org.
Opportunities & Outcomes
In our role as connector and collaborator, we will realize our vision by focusing on a cluster of opportunities:
Expand permanent public access to born-digital government information through improved understanding of the landscape for disseminating, collecting, and preserving digital content.
Increase cooperation among stakeholders to ensure that local, state, and federal government information is preserved and accessible.
Communicate the context and continuity of government resources by connecting born-digital collections to existing print and converted materials.
With this vision in mind, we will use these opportunities to realize the following outcomes:
The community of practitioners recognize the opportunities and challenges to government information dissemination.
Stakeholders and decision-makers are aware of the issues related to preservation of born-digital government information.
Coalitions of stakeholder organizations form to pursue the work of preservation with support from the PEGI Project.
To achieve these outcomes, we seek to build engagement around concerns about the future of electronic government information. We define engagement as active participation and pursuit of learning and advocacy about collection and preservation of born-digital government information.
Strategies
The PEGI Project seeks to build sustainable communities and provide tools that enable their work. Librarians should understand the current issues and concerns, and have outlets for contribution and action. This requires developing educational programs, building technical capacity and tools, and developing common vocabulary, norms, and standards.
The strategies we will focus on for the next twelve months are intended to scaffold social infrastructure in ways that lead toward our identified outcomes. Social infrastructure is a way to think about how people connect with each other to develop and sustain communities and relationships. While there is overlap and crossover among the strategies we focus on in our work, we see resonance in three areas of social infrastructure: educational development and support; alignment in organizational relationships; and improvements in technical infrastructure.
1. IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
A. Community engagement
Community engagement involves identifying and building coalitions of interested parties as well as helping to advance the skill sets of those working in their respective communities. The PEGI Project will engage with those who work with government information outside of siloed collections and will increase connections with those who work with traditionally underserved communities.
Improving the reach of education and the quality of supporting resources for engagement in the preservation of government information is a primary concern for PEGI. The community for these educational efforts is multidisciplinary with a wide range of needs and interests. While the primary target audience has been librarians and archivists, especially those connected to government documents, the PEGI Project recognizes that our efforts need a broader reach. In addition to the library community, we will collaborate with policy advocates, researchers, and other users of government information.
B. Communicate landscape
One takeaway from our 2019 National Forum [PDF] is the relative lack of research on government information preservation, particularly research informed by current systems of dissemination and access. Our Environmental Scan [PDF] received accolades for exploring this arena and should be extended, either independently or in collaboration with other stakeholders.
2. IMPROVE ORGANIZATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
A. Advocacy within our professions
We need to continue and extend our advocacy targeted toward leaders in our professions and organizations in order to generate systemic change in the prioritization and resourcing for this work. The PEGI Project has made inroads in engaging with academic library deans and directors, but more progress is needed. We will also continue to pursue partnerships with stakeholders invested in civic data, and work to shift priorities within our own community of government information librarians.
B. Policy advocacy
We will participate in more concerted policy advocacy, in coordination with those already engaged in this space. While there are a number of highly effective advocacy efforts focused on government transparency, civic data, and Freedom of Information, we see the opportunity to strengthen advocacy in support of long term access to government information. We are well-positioned to provide coordination within formal and informal networks, and we can connect with public interest groups to improve the stewardship of public information by all levels of government.
3. IMPROVE TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
A. Enhance and connect existing collections and systems
We will supplement efforts to transform existing tools so that they work better for building and using collections. Redesigned user interfaces, or enhancements to systems leading to more aggregated and contextualized content or metadata, can increase the impact of existing collections and make a compelling case for potential future collections. Making collections more accessible and relevant to diverse users will spotlight the need for reliable long-term preservation.
B. Create new systems that bridge gaps
We will provide leadership and guidance around the creation of new technical infrastructure where it does not currently exist in order to preserve and provide access to content. Where system gaps are identified, we will build consensus and a shared vision for deploying a community-run system that can ensure long-term access to historically significant content.
To help spark ideas and move our agenda forward, we will share several specific projects now underway in future posts. Meanwhile, we invite input and ideas from interested organizations and individuals as potential partners. Get the conversation started with us at info@pegiproject.org.