Many people and organizations need government information: the researcher trying to understand trends in education, the local charity documenting the need for senior housing, an engineering firm preparing an environmental impact statement, a sixth-grader writing a term paper about the history of her town. Increasingly, the information they need or prefer is in electronic form.

Many different kinds of organizations provide access to government information libraries, government archives, and all kinds of public agencies at every level of government. Universities and nonprofit organizations may also be repositories of government information. They, too, are making the transition to a largely electronic way of working.

The growing demand for information to be available in electronic form and for direct access to these electronic records is changing the design and management of records access programs. Programs are becoming increasingly focused on electronic records as the format desired by users. They are also shifting from staff-supported access models to direct-user access models, now made possible over the Web. Making a successful transition to this increasingly user- and usage-focused electronic model requires careful assessment of the users, uses, content, operation and cost of a desired program. This shift often requires program managers (content experts) to join traditional information access professionals in a new way of working.

Several practical tools are presented here to help these professionals create electronic records access programs that are effective, manageable and affordable. Each tool includes both a description and an example of the tool in action. Because access programs can involve digital data, images and documents of all kinds, we use the general term "information" to cover them all. This practical guide is designed to be used from the point of view of access providers. It can be used to develop new access programs or to revise existing ones.

We use a single hypothetical case example throughout the guide. It is a state government initiative to create a Web-based repository of information pertaining to the status of children. We call it the Children's Project Clearinghouse (CPC) and assign responsibility for it to the fictional State Commission on Human Services (CHS), a small policy and educational agency that provides research and information on social issues and trends to government officials and the public. Because the Commission will be the access provider for the Clearinghouse, all of the examples are prepared from CHS's point of view.

The Commission works with federal, state and nonprofit organizations to carry out this mission. These independent players will have an important role in the Clearinghouse. This is the Commission's first effort to make data and information more widely available by electronic means. Currently, the Commission sponsors or develops research and statistical reports. In the children's area, the main product is an annual compilation of statistics drawn from nearly 20 organizations and published in book form. To create the Clearinghouse, the Commission will have to adopt new policies and practices and learn more about data, meta data, technology, customer service and interorganizational management. If this first effort is successful, it may be expanded beyond children's issues to encompass other topics such as aging, education or community development.