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Citizen Access, Government Transparency Noted in Lecture by Bruce R. James 4/10/2008
Bruce R. James, the 24th Public Printer of the United States, spoke to an audience of 75 general jurisdiction judges, invited guests, university personnel and the general public on April 9 as part of The National Judicial College’s Robert H. Jackson Lecture Series. Mr. James is credited with the transformation of the Government Printing Office (GPO) from a print-centric factory operation into a modern, 21st century digital information provider. From 2002 to 2007, he served as the Public Printer, a position first held by Benjamin Franklin. The GPO is charged with the production, distribution and preservation of both electronic and printed publications for all three branches of the Federal government. In his lecture, James noted the importance of citizen access to government information and the need for government to be transparent in that endeavor. “Digital technology has transformed, and is continuing to transform the way our government sends, receives and archives official documents,” James said. “For our court system, this will be a huge undertaking, but it must happen, and will happen.” James noted that virtually all published Federal government information is available on the Internet and the GPO is moving to make all past documents back to the Federalist Papers also available to the general public. During the process of converting the GPO into a digital clearinghouse, James focused on six key points that he says are essential for government entities, such as court systems, to employ to realize full citizen access and government transparency: 1. Preservation
of documents He continued, noting that more than half of government documents today are born digital and will never be printed by the Federal government. And, the challenges of authenticating and preserving electronic documents are being met in a variety of ways by the GPO that can also be used by local government. “Federal courts in the U.S. are far behind federal courts of other countries in terms of adopting and utilizing digital solutions for court documents," James said. “Digital change is coming rapidly and judges in the very near future will have to adapt to make certain that what happens in their court is ‘transparent’ and available to all.” Looking to the future, James ended his lecture by predicting that printed documents will not exist in 50 years and that we will need to find ways to save and archive these new digital documents in perpetuity. The NJC’s lecture series was named after Justice Robert H. Jackson by his friend and Supreme Court colleague, Justice Tom C. Clark, one of the College’s founders. The Jackson Lecture Series is presented by the NJC to heighten awareness of leading judicial issues and topics, and is provided free of charge to the College’s participants, university community, and general public.
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