Gils, the government information locator service

Abstract

How government developed the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) is the focus of this dissertation. It is a qualitative analysis based on the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann (1982, 1990b, and 1995). Data were analyzed by means of second-order observing of the communications of the political system which is itself differentiated into the sub-systems of politics, administration, and the public. Findings reveal that GILS was a successfully completed task or project for government; at the same time it was an opportunity for profit in the economic system and a problematic information finding aid for library science. GILS is an electronic index which is based on an international voluntary standard for information search and retrieval, Z39.50, also known as ISO 23950. The purpose of GILS was to make government information public, a fundamental operation of democratic government. It was designed during a time of rapid technological change and intended to function like a library's card catalog to help the public and government agency personnel locate government information via the Internet. Included are chronologies tracing the history of the predecessor to GILS, the Federal Information Locator System (FILS), and the events that contributed to the final GILS product. The data analyzed were communications of the political system. For politics these communications are of persons and party programs and were found especially in congressional debates and hearings. For the administrative sub-system, the communications function as binding decisions. Communications analyzed included the Paperwork Reduction Acts of 1980 and 1995 and other legislation; information policy and guidance documents like OMB Circular No. A-130 and FIPS 192 and 192-1; vision documents like Eliot Christian's 1994 "The Government Information Locator Service: Report to the Information Infrastructure Task Force;" and standards like the GILS Applications Profile). The communications of the public function as statements of public opinion. These were found in congressional hearings, newspaper and journal articles, research reports, and an archived collection of electronic mail communications sent to a discussion list established for the development of the GILS Application Profile, the GILS Forum.