Peter Williams

The launch of the government website data.gov.uk is one of the most significant steps for the advancement of information since the advent of the accessible search engine. It’s hard to argue against the government’s assertion that the website gives unprecedented and free access to government data in one place. As important as the 2,500 data sets is the open licence which allows government-owned data to be freely used. It’s an impressive start and there is an explicit promise of more to come. Last June the government could barely conceal its delight in announcing it had secured Sir Tim Berners-Lee as expert adviser on public information delivery to assist the project. His presence seems to have done the trick: barely six months after his arrival the website was revealed and we can all check the performance of local schools or look at crime patterns in our area. Or… well that’s up to the individual.

Anyone who has had a wander around the site would agree this one stop shop for data is impressive. The big question is what next? There are several answers. Government minister Stephen Timms claims this liberating of government data creates opportunities for business and should aid wealth creation. Berners Lee took a slightly different stance. His believes the point of making public data available for re-use is that it increases accountability and transparency so people can use information more innovatively. And that has to sound like good news to information professionals.

Problems in academia

While the government may be throwing its information out for free to a presumably grateful public, life is not quite so rosy in the academic world. At the end of 2009 a Research Information Network (RIN) report found that researchers are encountering difficulties in getting access to the content they need and that this is affecting the quality and efficiency of their research. While researchers claim to have no problems finding content in this age of e lectronic information, gaining access is another matter due to the complexity of licensing arrangements, restrictions placed on researchers accessing content outside their own institution and laws protecting public and private sector information.

This means research into important information resources can be missing. Researchers are frustrated by this lack of immediate access and this slows their progress, hinders collaborative work and may well affect the quality and integrity of the work produced. Librarians and researchers fear that unless licensing and technical issues are resolved, moves towards a digital environment may impose new barriers, as researchers face restrictions on access to resources which would have formerly been available in print. Looming cutbacks won’t help either.

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