2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

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BEST PRACTICES 2012
Table 2: Public engagement with SAVE Award 2009-2011 (These numbers,
reported on the SAVE Award web site, only include submission and voting number).
Submission Voting Total
2009 38,000 (not reported) 38,000
2010 18,000 164,000 182,000
2011 20,000 48,000 68,000
Grand Total 76,000 212,000 288,000
All suggestions are published on the web, and many (especially the winning proposals)
have been adopted by the government. From this online program, we can see not only
the government’s openness and the overwhelming public response, but also how the
magical power of digital technology enabled the government and public to work together
to improve the government efficiency.
Digital technologies have helped agencies more efficiently process FOIA requests. Based
on the chart of NARA’s Effect of National Personnel Records Center FOIA processing
Changes, NARA’s ability to process FOIA Requests has increased greatly. 18
Figure 10: FOIA Processing Changes
(http://www.archives.gov/open/open-government-plan-1.1.pdf)
According to the Status Report, “Over the last fiscal year (i.e., from October 2009 through
September 2010), which is the first full year of the Administration for which such data are
available, agencies increased their disclosures in response to FOIA requests. Agencies
made full disclosures—i.e., un-redacted disclosure of all requested information—for nearly
18 See Open Government Plan, Supra 12, p. 18.