Disclosing Freedom of Information Releases Ann Apps MIMAS, The University of Manchester, UK

ELPUB Outline JISC Information Governance Gateway (JIGG) project JIGG Freedom of Information Disclosure Logs application Potential of using OAI-PMH Social aspects to take-up Funded by JISC at The University of Manchester Technical development by MIMAS

ELPUB JISC Information Governance Gateway (JIGG) UK Higher Education compliance with UK information government legislation ‘One stop shop’ –Relevant, up-to-date information –Records management –Copyright –Data protection –Environmental information –Freedom of Information –Private discussion area for practitioners

ELPUB 20074

ELPUB Freedom of Information (FOI) FOI Act 2000 (Scotland 2002) –Provide requested information within fixed timescale –Unless valid exemption Applies to Higher Education Institutions Encouraged to publish disclosure logs –Currently few –Mostly lists on a web page

ELPUB JIGG and FOI Publish FOI Disclosure Log entries for UK HEIs Web search within JIGG Dissemination via OAI-PMH Contribution to JIGG by: –Dedicated data Editor Consistency of records –OAI-PMH harvest by JIGG

ELPUB JIGG FOI Application Profile ‘OAI Template’ Investigate content of disclosure logs Agreement with community of practitioners Documented as Dublin Core Application Profile Properties are DC or JIGG-specific Some properties for discovery

ELPUB FOI Log Entry Properties: Descriptive Title: LJMU Review Magazine Description: Cost of production, etc Subject: Marketing Request History: LJMU disclosed some info, etc Response Summary: X pounds per year Full Text: URLs of documents released Title, Description: required

ELPUB FOI Log Entry Properties: HEI and Dates Publisher: Liverpool John Moores University Country in UK (vocabulary): England Is Part Of: URL of LJMU’s FOI Disclosure Log Identifier: FOI 5/12 Date Received: Date Completed (optional):

ELPUB FOI Log Entry Properties: Vocabularies Info Released: partial Legislation: Freedom of Information Act 2000 Exemption: 43 Commercial interests Exemptions cover: –National security / defence –Personal / confidential information –Info already published

ELPUB XML Serialisation Consistent with Dublin Core XML preferred New proposed guidelines verbose JIGG XML based on ‘Dublin Core in XML Minimal’ – example in paper Conformance to Dublin Core Abstract Model indicated by DC-Text example in paper

ELPUB Publication of FOI logs: Benefits and Concerns Persistent repository of common solutions: an FAQ –Reduce number of requests –Share experiences –Consistent responses –Avoid reinventing the wheel Concerns: –Accountability, comparison –Insufficient staff resource – is there value?

ELPUB JIGG Current Status JIGG portal: beta JIGG FOI: implementation phase ‘OAI Template’ agreed Need to engage practitioners Expected that data entry will use Editor Harvest by JIGG from HEIs is visionary

ELPUB JIGG and OAI-PMH Introducing OAI-PMH to a new sector Open Repository of FOI disclosure logs seems appropriate JIGG approach is standards-based JIGG will provide OAI-PMH Harvest of the repository Further vision: broaden to other organisations

ELPUB IESR Details Thank You! Questions?