Let the sun shine

The Mad Librarian wrote a post last week about Sunshine Week, mentioning in the entry that this seems a natural for government information librarians. It does--although I haven't seen it mentioned on the list server GOVDOC-L yet. But it's still early and I wasn't on the list at this time last year.

A notice about the related Freedom of Information Act Day did show up on GOVDOC-L yesterday as a request for nominations for an award to honor those who champion access to government information. I learned from that message that FOIA Day is celebrated on or near March 16, James Madison's birthday, each year. I assume that is because of a Madison quote that is widely cited among government documents librarians:

A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.

Although my gov docs professor likes to point out that the quote was more in the context of public education than libraries--a point also made on this page (where I took the quote), a part of The Art of Information Access Project by Michael Powell, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at Rice University.

Imagining myself as a government documents librarian....here are ways I might observe Sunshine Week:

• encourage local papers, including student papers, to participate by providing them with resources to make it easy


• set up a Sunshine Week display in my library either emphasizing the issue of open government information or educating patrons about the Freedom of Information Act


• create a web page with relevant links


• present programs on the topic to classes and community groups


• make contacts with local journalists, librarians, and educators to plan a bigger and better observance of Sunshine Week next year

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