Access to British local government documentation

Social Science Znformatzon Studies (1982), 2 (195-203) 0 1982 Butterworths

ACCESS

TO

BRITISH LOCAL DOCUMENTATION

GOVERNMENT

D. KENNINGTON* Capi/nl Planning Information

Limited,

Stonelezgh, 49 Main Street, Empingham, LE15 8PE, UK

Leicestershire

ABSTRACT The ‘Access to local government documentation’ project carried out by Capital Planning Information under the auspices of the British Library Research and Development Department in 1979 and 1980 is described. The project had its origins in the problems encountered by librarians and others who require access to the increasing number and range of documents produced by local authorities in the United Kingdom, especially since the reorganization of local government in the mid-1970s. In particular, the study was concerned with the use, or possible use, of these documents to transfer information on topics and methodologies of mutual interest between authorities and to other agencies and individuals both inside and outside their immediate geographical area. The project aimed to identify as much as possible of the total documentary output of all departments in five selected local authorities, and to discover how such documentation, once identified, could be acquired. All the documents obtained were examined in detail to establish what, if any, bibliographic standards were being applied. The study also examined local authority attitudes to publication and the procedures established by them to provide access to the documents produced. Conclusions based on an analysis of 286 documents collected over a six-month study period are outlined, and the main recommendations of the final report on the study are summarized.

INTRODUCTION In British local government, as in other areas of governmental and industrial concern, the structure of the communications mechanisms in use, or necessary, is of considerable importance. The subject of the study described in this paper is a major element in the overall information management and communications process, though by no means its only aspect. In this project (code named LOGODOC) an attempt was made to identify the issues involved when information collected, and subsequently held, by a local authority, for “‘Don Kcnnington helped set up Capital Planning Information and is currently involved in work on the marketing of local government publications for Devon County Council. Hc has spent much time abroad on advisory projects. Following posts with 111~English Electric Company and the College of Librarianship Wales, he joined the Greater London Council to set up information, library and publication services. He is recognized as an expert in local government information services.

Access to British local government documentatton

196

whatever purpose, generates the production of documents. Access to these documents once they are produced, as well as the associated problems of identification, acquisition, dissemination and retrieval at local and national level, were the main concerns of the study. Documents produced by local government represent and reflect both the long-term interests and the immediate concerns of the 521 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. As such they are part of both the decisionmaking and the public consultation processes which involve elected members, paid officers, and all those external to the authority who need to understand what it is doing. In the study, particular emphasis was placed on the need to transfer information outside the authority itself: to central government, to other local authorities, to universities and colleges, to business and commerce, and to individuals and community groups. These needs are generated in various ways; it is a legal requirement in some cases, in others it is a need occasioned by commercial competitiveness, while in others it is the requirement to feel fully informed as part of the democratic process. THE

SCOPE

OF

LOCAL

GOVERNMENT

DOCUMENTS

Local government produces documents on a remarkable, indeed bewildering, range of topics. Many of these are produced as part of some directly relevant activity, though others which appear are, at least superficially, tangential to the main thrusts of local government responsibilities. In the United Kingdom local government was reorganized in 1974 (I975 in Scotland), with a general result of creating larger multi-functional organizations. In England and Wales local authorities now fall into four main categories: the metropolitan counties (of which there are six), the non-metropolitan counties (471, the metropolitan districts (69) and the non-metropolitan districts (333). In addition to these there is the Greater London Council (GLC), which has a strategic planning role for the capital city. The London Boroughs, which comprise the primary units of London local government, were included in the metropolitan districts for the purpose of this study, with the GLC being treated as one of the metropolitan counties. In Scotland reorganization created two main levels of local government, and there are now 65 regional, district and island authorities. It is not necessary in this paper to indicate the precise differences in function and responsibility of the varying types of authority, though it is useful to bear in mind that these exist and affect the output of documents in particular subject fields. Examples of some recent titles examined during the study may assist in the perception of the range of information documented. They include Traff;c congestion and touring carauans (Clwyd County Council), Games and small apparatus skills for infants (Suffolk County Council), Conservation grants in Lincoln (Lincoln City Council), Parking in front gardens (Edinburgh District Council), and Redprint”’ for the 1980’s in Cannock Chase District (Cannock Chase District Council). Some publications were issued jointly by two or more local authorities, perhaps indicating that many are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits and cost-effectiveness of pooling their efforts. Recent sample titles in this category include Financial statistics of local authorities in geographical county ofNottinghamshire, the Monthly monitor of planning applications published by the +i.c., a Labour

Pal-ty policy

docunwnt.

D. KENNINGTON

197

Humberside County Council in collaboration with the ten districts within its boundaries, and Schools and industry issued jointly by the Devon and Cornwall Information of particular interest to business County Education Departments. and industry is now featuring more substantially in local authority publishing programmes as councils establish industrial development programmes as part of their support to the local economy. Some further examples illustrate this trend. They include Tourism in West Sussex (West Sussex County Council), Intensive livestock units subject plan iHumberside County Council), as well as business directories such as those produced by the Greater London Council and the Cambridgeshire County Council, and the regular registers of land and industrial buildings availability issued by authorities as widely spread as East Sussex County Council and Strathclyde Region in Scotland. Some joint publishing takes place with outside organizations, and advantage is then taken of the support of the outside body in the marketing and distribution of the resulting documents. A fairly typical example is the Llay village trail ui~th b&f history and ~hotogru~hs of Llay Main Colliery produced by the Clwyd County Planning and Estates Department in association with the Llay Women’s Institute. Libraries and archives departments within local authorities often have a tradition of publishing the historical material collected by them. Examples such as the following illustrate the type of documents that have been produced : The maize, the wheat and the rye: a nostalgic look at Essex windmills (Essex County Library), ~r~ck~aking: a history and gazetteer (Bedfordshire County Council ). and The mnris nnd Parke/\ of ~~~rlc~.~te~ (Doncaster Librarie\ Swviw). All are good examples of high standard publications in the held ot local studies. METHODOLOGY The methodology used in the study was basically uncomplicated, and is described in the following paragraphs. Five local authorities were selected for a detailed study. The choice of these five was made after considering the differing functions and responsibilities of different types of authority. An additional factor considered was the need for a local presence by the research team staff. Those chosen were located in southern England, Greater London, north-east England, south-east Scotland, and south Wales. This choice reflected widely contrasting area profiles, as well as providing dispersed geographical locations. They also offered examples of different types of authority, and included a non-metropolitan county (East Sussex), a metropolitan county (Tyne and Wear), a London borough (Lewisham), a Scottish regional authority (Strathclyde), and a Welsh nonmetropolitan district (Swansea). There are differences in lifestyles, economic bases, size, and population structure in these areas. One of the authorities studied was controlled by the Conservative Party, while all the others had Labour Party majorities at the time of the investigation. 111planning the approaches to officers of the councils concerned it was decided initially not to seek ‘official’ cooperation from the authority, since such an approach could possibly have altered the pattern of access to documents. The local authoritv associations had been informed of the project and had raised no ob,jections to it, but no formal application was made initially to council chief executives or to elected members. It was hypothesized that such an approach could result in edicts from management requesting staff to collaborate with the

198

I rf TV\ 1 to British local government documentation

study, which might ha1.e meant that documents not generally available to the public would have been made available to the research team. Alternativdy, such an approach might have caused officers of the authority to have restricted access to those documents which had not been declared ‘fully published’. This factor of ‘publication’ or ‘being made available’ is an important element in access patterns IO local authority documents, and it was believed initially that nothing should be done by the research team to disturb these. In the event approaches were made direct to officers who could be identified as likely ‘gatekeepers’ (for example, librarians, public relations officers, committee clerks), and to others with whom some form of personal contact already existed. This approach triggered off differing responses within different authorities. In three out of the five no apparent reference was made to higher authority; contacts were established direct with departments as described, and in due course documents were provided. In the remaining two authorities officers were not prepared to cooperate without securing the support of the chief executive. In both cases this caused delays. In one authority, reference back to the local authority association eventually secured full cooperation, while in the other, after protracted negotiations, the chief executive agreed to participate, though only through one central agency within his own departmcnt. This art~angement precluded direct access by the researchers to departments in the authority. It was decided to attempt to collect all available docLlnleI~ts produced over a six-month period from 1 September, 1979 to 28 February 1980. It was felt that this would provide a representative coverage of material which would allow some conclusions to be drawn. In parallel with this identification and collection process it was arranged that some of the major national institutions involved in the collection of local authority documents would also assist the project by supplying details (by means of photocopied title pages! of‘ those items received by them in the period under review. This process was designed to provide some data on the national situation, and more specifically to provide a check on which (if any) items were deposited with these agencies. The British Library Copyright Receipt Office is, by law, supposed to receive all published items, and the project was able to test the compliance of authorities with these legal requirements. The British Library Lending Division and the Department of the Environment both aim to collect as much of this material as possible, and with their help it was possible to investigate how comprehensive their collection processes were, and to establish where duplication existed between them. Documents received from the five local authorities were examined closely, and the bibliographic details were entered on to data sheets for statistical analysis. On completion of the data collection phase the information gathered was analysed and an interim report prepared. This interim report was submitted to a selected group of experts assembled for a 24-hour workshop. Their comments and recommendations were then taken into account before the final report was written and presented to the British Library in September 1980 (Capital Planning Information, 1981).

SUMMARY

OF THE

RESULTS

From the 286 completed data sheets representing following points emerged :

valid document

examples

the

D. KENNINGTON Bibliographic

199

information

1. Document

2.

3.

4. 5. 6.

7.

titles were generally descriptive of the contents though many documents did not have a separate title page. In 19 examples, where a separate title page was provided, the title given on the cover differed from that on the title page. Except in nine instances (from two of the five authorities) personal authorship of documents was not found; corporate authorship, either by department, section, or the council as a whole, is the usual practice. Where personal authors were named, the documents concerned were generally in as local history and similar areas. Such areas are usually regarded non-controversial by senior officers and elected members because they have no policy implications. Only eight documents had recognizable series numbers, though many local authority publications, including committee and council papers, are serials in the true sense. Only seven documents carried International Standard Book or Serial Numbers. Only three documents included copyright statements. Document pricing was relatively rare, with only 27 of those collected being priced. Some of the documents which were priced had no indication of this on the publication itself. Only 53 of the documents examined included a contents list, while only 2 had an index, and 9 contained a bibliography.

Location of documents The location of documents was most effective through direct personal contacts, as Table 1 shows. Scanning of local and national newspapers and journals proved to be very unrewarding, with only 14 documents identified in this way. It proved difficult to tabulate information collected on departments as document producers, largely because of the different nomenclatures used to describe their activities, and because the range of statutory functions varied according to the type of authority. In some authorities the chief executive (where he had departmental responsibilities) was a major generator of Table 1. Document identification sources Direct contact East Sussex Lewisham Strathclyde Swansea Tyne and Wear Total

Local paper

National paper

Journals

Other

Total

8” -

67 68 24 50 77

56 68 24 16 77

1 10 -

1 2 -

1 -

22-I -

241

11

3

1

30

286

*This figure includes five documents identified through Inform, the bulletin of the county library local government unit, one from a ‘mail shot’ from the planning department, one from agenda papers, and one by direct telephone call from a department. tIncludes 1.5 items identified through committee papers, six from library catalogues, and one through local radio.

Access to British local gouernment documentation

200

documentation, mainly for administrative purposes. In others, the council agenda papers and committee minutes were produced by the secretary or director of administration. Planning departments have been generally regarded as major producers of documents, but, in terms of quantity at least, we found their contribution to the total acquired was relatively small. However, it does seem that planning department documents are often of the widest significance, especially if a definition of ‘wide significance’ is equated to the phrase ‘of interest to those outside the authority area’. Other departments which produced significant quantities of documents included education, libraries, treasurers, social services, and highways/transport/engineers. These were all well represented in our sample. Acquisition

mechanisms

Mechanisms of acquisition of documents are shown in Tables 2 and 3. It can be seen that over 58 per cent of them were acquired directly from the producing departments. Over 63 per cent of the documents were acquired during, or as a direct result of, personal visits, with a further 23 per cent being supplied following telephone calls. These figures seem to be of particular significance, since they support the view that coordination of distribution in local authorities, even where such coordination is official policy, is not in fact very effective. The corollary of this, especially for those seeking rapid and continuous access to local authority documents across a range of subjects, is Tablr

2. Document acquisition mechanisms (sources) From issuing department

East susscx Lewisham Str-athclydc Swansea Tynr and WealTotal “Includes Tyw and and items lbm sources Table

Enst

su\\cx

‘:‘A11Tvnc and Wear

67 68 24 50 77

168

38

80

286

acquisition

through

r-eccived

central

mechanisms

180

documents

Total

1 _ _ 2 77

25 18 10 50 7 7 :zC

Total

Other”

33 4 _ 1 -

Prl-sonal visit

Lc\vi\ham Strathclylc S\vallsea T\ne and Weal-

central unit

33 64 24 47 -

Wear documents supplied outside the authority. 3. Document

From

on a standing

research

(means

and

intelligence

ofaccess) Telephone call

Letter-

unit

Total

29 10 _ _ _

13 40 14 _ _

67 68 24 50 77

39

67

286

order

system

after an initial

visit

D. KENNINGTON

201

that some form of continuous personal contact will require to be maintained if’ they are to be successful. Few documents were identified which were totally unavailable, for reasons of confidentiality or because they had gone out of print. In a few cases access to documents was denied, though the items requested were not strictly confidential and had been made available to persons outside the authority itself. The continuous monitoring of the project staff probably explains the lack of difficulties with out-of-print items, though this is known to present problems, especially to librarians, where publicity is localized or non-existent. The availability of local authority documents in public libraries in the areas being studied was also investigated by the project. This showed a fairly encouraging pattern, with libraries generally being better served than initial discussions with librarians led the team to expect. National level At national level it was found that the situation on the legal deposit of local government documents is confused and unsatisfactory. As was pointed out by Lesley Grayson in her book Library and information services for local government in Great Britnzn (Grayson, 1978), many local authorities have no clear idea of the requirements for the deposit of published documents with the British Library. The study found that, over the six-month period, 143 of the 521 British local authorities (27.5 per cent) had deposited at least one document with the Copyright Receipt Office. The total number of documents deposited by these authorities was 541, and of these only 138 were selected by the British Library for inclusion in the British National Bibliography. This represents some 25 per cent of those received, and the remaining 75 per cent are therefore largely untraceable since few of them are included in any of the national indexing services. If the figures of documents collected by the project team are typical, then it seems likely that over a full year some 50 000 documents are issued by British local government. If this assumption is correct then the Copyright Receipt Office is currently receiving around 2 per cent of the total output, and only 0.5 per cent of that total is disseminated through the British National Bibliography. This is also reflected in an analysis of the documents received by other major national agencies such as the British Library Lending Division and the Department of the Environment Library. Although not studied in such close detail, some figures were also obtained from the Greater London Council Research Library and Scotland’s Planning Exchange, and a similar pattern of incompleteness emerges. SUMMARY

OF

RECOMMENDATIONS

The recommendations in the final report were aimed at individual local authorities, at the local authority associations, and at the British Library. It was suggested that many local authorities could do a good deal, at relatively little cost, to improve their own situations, and it has been gratifying to hear that the report has had some influence in this area. It has been less successful in engaging the interest of the local authority associations, whose influence was seen as crucial if some standardization of procedures was to be achieved. As far as the British Library is concerned, their interest in this field of documentation

202

Access to British local government documentation

has been maintained, and the Lending Division has stepped up its document collection programme, mainly through a private contractor. The Research and Development Department of the Library has also maintained an interest, and is considering various follow-up research proposals stemming directly from the research. The recommendations themselves were divided into those aimed at the local level and those aimed at national and regional levels. In the first category, it was recommended that all local authorities should review their existing arrangements for publications, with a view to determining a basic policy. Such a basic policy should include the following key elements: 1. A nominated and well-publicized depository within the authority structure for all council documents. 2. Clarification on all documents of availability status. 3. A serial numbering system for all council documents. 4. Provision of dates on all documents. 5. Compilation and maintenance of up-to-date listings of documents which include clear information on where documents can be inspected or obtained. A second recommendation suggested the provision of guidelines for the production of publications. This would need to be prepared at national level, but would be for utilization by individual local authorities. A third recommendation suggests better training in the necessary ‘publishing’ skills; while a fourth indicates that it may be appropriate to review the legal deposit provisions in this sector, especially if the proposals for a national clearinghouse are implemented. At regional and national level the CPI report urges that all the current awareness services listing local authority documents should include more availability information than hitherto. It is suggested that local newspapers have an important role in improving access, and therefore local authorities should always include availability details with all press releases, and on the documents themselves when sent to the press. Review articles in the local government press could also play a valuable part in alerting the likely user groups to documents, and it is suggested that these should be encouraged. Further research into who uses local authority documents, and for what purposes, is seen as an urgent priority, as this was recognized throughout the project as an area on which little is known. Another area where further study is needed is in costing the options for developing existing networks as distribution mechanisms and for the national clearinghouse proposal outlined below. In proposing a national clearinghouse for England and Wales the experiences of the Canadian Intergovernmental Committee on Urban and and of the Scottish Planning Exchange, have been Regional Research, examined closely. Both have evolved as a very direct service to their client groups, and both have attracted a successful combination of central and local government funding to support their services. Although both these agencies have wider-ranging roles and are not solely concerned with documentation, this aspect has been important in their development. Funding for an England and Wales clearinghouse might be sought from the locat authority associations, the Department of the Environment, and the British Library, with a further, and perhaps increasing, element coming from direct charges to user authorities as the clearinghouse became established. In brief, it was recommen-

D. KENNINGTON

ded by the study responsibilities:

that

such

a clearinghouse

203

should

have

the

following

identify and collect all local government documentation from English and Welsh local authorities (for Scotland the role of the Planning Exchange could be strengthened and expanded). To promote the use of this material, primarily for the benefit of local government. To provide advice to local authorities in developing positive publication policies. To act as a channel for selecting and forwarding documents to the national libraries, and to ensure that appropriate material was recorded in suitable subject collections and databases. To undertake the production and updating of publishing guidelines. To prepare state-of-the-art reviews on topics of concern to local government based on the documents collected and examined.

1. To

2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

If such a clearinghouse is established, it could be situated in a low-cost area, possibly in converted industrial premises, since it would not be providing direct on-site reference facilities. Although the report has stimulated considerable response (as indicated earlier), its submission at a critical time for local/central government relations, when financial restraint is the overriding priority, has made implementation at any level other than local extremely difficult. Nevertheless, initiatives have been taken, including a private-sector venture by Bell and Howell Micromedia Ltd., with the support of Capital Planning Information, to launch a microfiche file with printed indexes from early 1982 (Bell and Howell Ltd., 1982 fD. In addition, the aforementioned financial problems have caused some local authorities to look more positively at the information they hold to see if there is potential for making it available on a sale basis and thus provide a contribution to revenue. It seems likely that this sector will remain one of interest to researchers and librarians for some time to come.

REFERENCES and HOWELL LX-D, (1982fo. Urbandoc microfile. Bicester: Bell and Howell Limited, Micromedia Division. CAPITAL PLANNINGINFORMATION(198 1). Access to local government documentation. London: British Library Research and Development Department (BLRDD Report No. 5619). GRAYSON, L. (1978). Library and information services for local government zn Great Britain. London : The Library Association. BELL