Finding the Keys to the Kingdom:
Accessing Foreign Country Information In a Networked World
Myoung Chung WILSON
Information Services/Collection Development Librarian
Alexander Library, Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey
1 Introduction
2 Official Publications of Foreign Countries
3 Who Holds the Keys to the Kingdom?
4 Conclusion
1 INTRODUCTIONWhile the theme of this conference addresses the characteristics and patterns of demand for Japanese scholarly information (and its supply within various countries) I will direct my attention to a complementary issue. This concerns the enormously complex problem of how foreign country information is accessed and what tools, bibliographic or otherwise, are available for students and faculty for obtaining information about countries such as Japan and Korea.
Last year at this conference two distinguished American librarians, Dorothy Gregor and Donald Simpson, described U.S. national strategies and efforts to acquire foreign research materials. Simpson elaborated on the cooperative acquisition of foreign materials by the Center for Research Libraries and the Library of Congress.1 He also noted the joint initiative of the Association of Research Libraries, the Association of American Universities and the Mellon Foundation that created the AAU Research Libraries Task Force on Acquisition and Distribution of Foreign Language and Area Studies Materials. Latin American and German language materials as well as Japanese language scientific and technical resources were initially targeted by the Task Force. The goal was to develop a model for foreign language acquisitions that would be shared among research libraries. These various activities, among others, reflect the concerns of information providers and are examples of the strategies that are being employed to meet what is clearly a problem of international dimensions.
My presentation today deals with the obverse side of this need, namely the concerns and strategies of information seekers. The problem I will address is how researchers actually access data sources to obtain information about foreign countries. I will use official government publications as my point of departure in order to discuss how the availability and accessibility of official foreign country information influence modes of scholarly research. Although disputed by some for their scholarly value, government publications are used here as examples because they reflect the general output of a countryﾕs scholarly resources. I will then briefly discuss the government publications that are available in academic libraries in the United States and how global electronic interconnectivity affects the continued viability of the traditional format. I will conclude with a discussion of current developments aimed at increasing the accessibility and availability of foreign country information in general. My final remarks will touch on the appropriate strategies available to countries such as Japan and Korea for making the information that is delivered to foreign countries more accessible.
For the purposes of this paper, foreign country information is defined as information, data and knowledge about a specific country. It must be recognized, however, that mere availability of foreign country information leaves aside the important question of reliability, whether data have been modified to fit particular policy needs or ideological prescriptions. Many governments expend enormous sums of money to disseminate information about their countries. 2 Yet this fact by itself begs the questions of the accuracy of that data. This is an important factor that must be considered by librarians when assessing the most appropriate strategies for obtaining information.2 Official Publications of Foreign Countries
Overt restrictions by governments on the publication of official data correlate generally with restrictions on the availability of information in general (this assumption, while not proven here, holds in my view as a general rule). No strategy for the analysis of a foreign countryﾕs information can be developed, therefore, without assessing the quantity and quality of its government publications. While it is not possible in this paper to be more than suggestive, both the availability and reliability of government documents decisively influence the way in which foreign country information is utilized.
What is needed at this point, therefore, is a means of ordering our thinking in order to account for the assumptions noted above. I propose to do this in three phases: (1) Establish categories that are appropriate for defining distinctions among the quantity and quality of government publications published by various countries; (2) Set forth the three prevalent modes of inquiry utilized by scholars who wish to access foreign country data; and (3) Briefly elucidate the reasons why certain modes of inquiry are more appropriate than others depending on the quantity and quality of the government information that are available, i.e., a discussion of the matrix that is generated by combining points 1 and 2 above, and how analysis of these relationships predicts the information seeking patterns of researchers.
2.1 Quantity and Quality of Government Publications
Government publications contain a wealth of information on socio-economic, political and cultural factors. Official government publications from countries such as the United States, Japan and Korea are, in fact, the main suppliers of these nationﾕs economic, legal and political data. In the United States, the Federal Depository Library Program assures that a wide distribution of U.S. federal government publications are available free of charge to every citizen. In other countries such as New Zealand 3 and many Latin American countries, the concept of ﾒopenﾓ information does not exist. Official government publications are for consumption by government agencies not by the public. Under these circumstances, government publications are available only upon request, often for a fee.
Except for a handful of countries including Japan, no extensive guides to official government publications exist that can aid researchers to identify foreign government publications. In order for librarians and researchers to tap the enormous wealth of information in the official publications of countries that do not provide guides, the International Documents Task Force of the American Library Associationﾕs Government Documents Round Table decided in 1987 to begin the compilation of a world guide to official publications of countries with which they are unfamiliar. In its 1990 publication 4 over 100 countries were represented, with the information from them divided into ten different subject categories. Statistical data, law and regulations, government directories and organizational manuals are but a few examples. This Guide is currently in the process of being updated for re-publication in 1997 in order to include information about new post cold-war governments as well as fresh categories that reflect a world that is being increasingly networked.
The data in the Official Guide reveal an interesting pattern. Government publications from various countries can be divided into three major categories:
A. Countries that publish in "high volume" frequently have a centralized government publishing office that coordinates publications from different agencies and is also responsible for distribution. The Government Printing Office in the United States and Her Majestyﾕs Stationery Office in the United Kingdom are good examples of organizations that disseminate government information from ﾒhigh volumeﾓ countries.
B. "Medium volume" countries have a centralized government printing office responsible for publishing certain titles only. Individual agencies are responsible for the publication and dissemination of data relevant to their own activities. There is no central government office that handles distribution of official publications; instead, well established private vendors are the main distributors of official publications. Many Latin American countries belong in this category. 5 Korea and Japan as well as many smaller Western European countries are located here as well.
C. "Low volume" countries have no centralized government printing office for official publications. Agency publications are minimal. Examples of countries in this category are North Korea and countries at war.
Any meaningful measurement of the quality of official government publications is beyond the scope of this paper. It can be generally stated, however, that the quality of data from high volume countries tends to be the most reliable. In contrast, data from low volume countries are generally the least reliable, if only because they are least subject to independent verification, i.e., they are often from countries that are ﾒclosedﾓ for political reasons. Means of data collection in these countries are frequently unknown and there is a greater likelihood that information will be skewed for ideological reasons. The reliability of data from medium volume countries falls variably between these two extremes.
2.2 Modes of Research Inquiry About Foreign Countries
A vast amount of literature exists regarding information seeking behavior. Among earlier studies is one that deals with the behavior of specific groups of scholars. 6 How anthropologists obtain and access information and what humanists do when they conduct research is thus relatively well known. Perhaps the most rigorously examined group is the scientific community.
Less well known is how anyone, be it an historian, an economist, or an engineer does research when they need information about a specific country. In order to put this paper in proper perspective, therefore, I will describe the two most commonly identified information seeking behaviors of academic researchers, citation chasing and informal networking, and add a relatively new but rapidly emerging category of behavior, electronic browsing. Although not mutually exclusive in practice, the attributes of these three information seeking behaviors can be analytically described as follows:
A. Citation Chaser
This is a well established and common mode of scholarly inquiry among many active researchers regardless of their topic. That is to say, when a user has an appropriate article or book in hand, s/he finds related articles and books in the bibliography and footnotes. The prevalence of "citation chasing" was the reason for the development of the ISO's Citation Index.7 This Index has now become an indispensable and widely used research tool.
Citation chasing as a research methodology is critically dependent on the availability of material. Where such availability is restricted by lack of resources or for political reasons, this mode is less than optimal. Societies that prevent free access to information from a wide variety of sources concomitantly compromise the effectiveness of this research strategy.
B. Electronic Browser
Researchers in this category can be labeled technophiles. They are the ones who frequently surf the Internet in search of online catalogs, subject indexes and abstracts, full text articles, homepages of government agencies from around the world, etc. These individuals are also sophisticated users of the e-mail system that not only increases access to global data but also personal contacts. Many scientists especially belong clearly in this category. From the point of view of information providers, much more needs to be understood about this category of researcher.
To some extent, the caveats mentioned above for citation chasing apply here as well. Efforts to restrict access to electronic mail, for instances, as is the case in China, reduce the effectiveness of this methodology. Perhaps more important, however, is the general paucity of personal computers in societies with low levels of economic development. The opportunity for employing this mode is then restricted to a privileged few.
C. Informal Networker
Many scholars still utilize personal networks (the notion of an invisible college applies here), particularly area specialists and those who need advanced research information from a specific country. Others in this category have information needs that can most reliably be met by colleagues or informants in the field. Conference attendance is an important vehicle for these researchers as are interviews (structured and unstructured) and personal correspondence.
This is clearly the strategy of choice for people who require data from societies where information is distorted for political reasons and/or is limited in amount. In these circumstances distortions imposed by the information environment can be circumvented reliably only by access to data that are provided through a trusted personal context.
2.3 Impact of Government Publishing Patterns on Information Seeking Behavior
It is now possible to construct a matrix which relates the availability and reliability of official government publications with appropriate forms of information seeking behavior, keeping in mind the assumption noted above that availability is generally associated with reliability. Using this matrix as a general guide it should then be possible to determine the most effective strategies for obtaining government information from various countries. Librarians, especially those who function in open and information-rich societies, are then in a position to structure a research environment that matches type and quality of data with an appropriate research mode.
The availability of government publications and the ways that the research community normally seeks information about foreign countries are noted in Table 1. Note that this table is only concerned with the optimal information seeking strategy depending on the volume and reliability of information that is received; it does not assess the strategies that are likely to be employed depending on the nature of the information environment in the receiving country.
Table 1: Prevalence of a Mode of Information Seeking Behavior Depending on Whether Data is from High, Medium or Low volume Countries
Types of Information Seeking Behavior Volume of Government Publications High Volume Country Medium Volume Country Low Volume Country Citation Chaser High Occasional Rare Electronic Browser High Occasional Rare Informal Networker Low Occasional High
The United States and Canada and some western European nations are examples of high volume countries; Japan and Korea, in my view, fall somewhere between the high and medium volume categories. Most countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East represent medium volume categories; North Korea, Albania and some African countries are representative of low volume countries. Table 1 suggests that if the research topic concerns high volume countries, e.g., North American countries, scholarly inquiry will generally employ citation or electronic methodologies whereas when research concerns countries like North Korea, the most reliable information (excluding electronic intelligence data which are not available to the general public) will be derived primarily from personal networks, to the extent that these are available.
2.4 Information Environments
The information environment of the receiving country is also a critical variable in determining the most effective mode for obtaining data. Table 2 sets forth which type of information seeking behavior is likely to be employed depending on the political, economic and social context of the receiving country.
Table 2: Prevalence of a Mode of Information Seeking Behavior Depending Upon Information Environment
Types of Information Seeking Behavior Information Environment Open Restricted Repressive Citation Chaser High Occasional Rare Electronic Browser High Rare Rare Informal Networker Low Occasional High From the point of view of information providers, a citation chasing strategy implies that researchers have relatively free access to information. An electronic strategy implies both the availability of equipment and, concomitantly, the willingness of governments to foster a free flow of information. An informal networking strategy, however, suggests restrictions on the free flow of information (e.g. researchers in the former Soviet Union and in Maoist China). In these circumstances personal contacts are a critical means of obtaining information about and from a specific country. Librarians, as well as governments, must take these strategies into account when designing the delivery of services.
Table 2 suggests that different strategies must be employed by governments like Japan and Korea when disseminating information about their countries overseas. Different information seeking strategies will be employed by researchers in different information contexts. For example, where access to computers is limited or virtually non-existent for economic reasons, as is the case in some medium and all low volume countries, information disseminated in an electronic mode from a high volume country will have limited impact. The reverse holds true when this information is targeted electronically at a high volume country. Thus, while Dorothy Gregor urged Japanese research libraries to make their online catalogs available on the Internet, 8 it may well be the case that for low volume countries the most appropriate strategy is to enhance personal communications through the sponsorship of conferences, etc.
Given the assumptions set forth in Tables 1 and 2 that certain forms of information seeking behavior are associated both with the volume and reliability of information from a sending country and with the nature of the information environment in the receiving country, it is possible to combine these to show prevalent forms of information seeking patterns depending on both sets of conditions.
Table 3: Expected Types of Information Seeking Behavior Based on the Volume and Reliability of Data From the Transmitter and the Receiverﾕs Information Environment
Information Environment Citation Chaser Electronic Browser Informal Networker What Table 3 tells us is that information seeking behavior varies markedly depending on both "sending" and "receiving" conditions. Those who target information to potential users must be aware of these limiting conditions. Librarians who are responsible for facilitating the provision of information must also take into account the same factors when designing service programs.
3 Who Holds the Keys to the Kingdom?
The federal government of the United States is, not surprisingly, one of the largest suppliers of information and data about foreign countries in the world. The U.S. government, for example, summarizes (and translates into English) radio broadcasts from throughout the world through its service called FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service) Daily Report. During the Cold War era, the FBIS Daily Report, in conjunction with the JPRS (Joint Publications Research Services), became the main source of information about countries such as North Korea. JPRS Reports provide translations from non-English language newspapers, speeches and journals.
One of the most popular sources of information about any specific country is a series published by the United States Department of the Army called the "Country Studies." While generally recognized as unbiased and scholarly, the perspective of this series is clearly from the United States Army point of view. In the current age of global commerce, the US Commerce Department has also developed a huge database called the NTDB (National Trade Data Bank) where economic and political data about, and business opportunities in, foreign countries are detailed.
Many of these traditional American information sources regarding foreign countries are now greatly supplemented with appropriate Internet Websites, whether constructed by individuals, governments, academic institutions, the media, research organizations or intergovernmental organizations such as the UN, the ILO and the OECD. The Internet also offers an opportunity to access once distant specialized library catalogs from around the world. The East Asian Librariesﾕ Cooperative World Wide Web Server located at Ohio State is one such example. Many government publications, especially from the United States, are, in fact, now available on the World Wide Web including the US GPO Access.. To the extent that computer resources are available, the trend in information seeking will likely favor the "electronic browser" research methodology. It must be recognized, however, that this trend simultaneously disfavors researchers in countries where the basic information environment is still "low tech and low cost" (e.g. many African nations).9
Obviously electronic browsing has not entirely supplanted citation chasing and informal networking. These remain important research modes in appropriate circumstances (e.g. the use of personal networks may be essential when information is scanty or highly unreliable.); they are, however, fast becoming secondary as the most desirable ways to obtain certain categories of information. Given the spread of democratic (open) political forms in the last two decades in Latin America and Eastern Europe and steady economic growth in many countries, there is no reason to believe that the trend toward ﾒelectronic browsingﾓ will not continue.
Advanced computing clearly helps to gain access to foreign country information. Professors Naito and Aihara have cogently elaborated possibilities for adapting a universal standardized subject heading system to a multi-script language environment such as in the CJK. 10 An expanded and enhanced subject access such as the one they describe will unquestionably improve the accessibility of information about various countries as well as the unique scholarly resources that exist in the international world.
Since the arrival of the information superhighway, the American news media has on several occasions headlined the way in which eyewitness information, particularly from the worldﾕs trouble spots, has been speedily disseminated through the Internet. Information that is unavailable due to official news blackouts (e.g. following Chinaﾕs Tienamen Square Incident, during Russiaﾕs recent failed coup d'etat and the troubles during the past year in the Serbian capital of Belgrade) is now made regularly accessible to the rest of the world through the links provided by the World Wide Web and electronic mail. This mode of distribution of information will change the ways that researchers as well as the general public obtain information about foreign countries.
Internet news flashes have special characteristics in that they go directly to those who have access to the Web. It may thus appear that librarians (as well as journalists) have a greatly reduced intermediary role to play in providing access to this information; however, given the often chaotic nature of the Internet and a perception by the public of virtual libraries as "virtual graffiti," it is critical that librarians help users make sense of an often seemingly senseless cyberworld.
4 ConclusionThis paper has briefly reviewed two critical aspects of how information about foreign countries can be sought and, its corollary, how such information can best be supplied. Using official government publications as examples, this paper posits that the uneven flow of information from one country to another coupled with differences in the information receiving environment affect information seeking behavior.
While remaining cognizant of how information seeking behavior is affected both by the volume and reliability of incoming data and the environment in which information is received, it has also argued that electronic browsing is likely to become the dominant ﾒsearchﾓ mode in the future. Increasingly reliable information is now being made available in an electronic format, the access to which is also daily increasing as computer technology spreads around the globe.
In this paper I have pointed out that librarians as well as information suppliers such as governments must learn to respond in a timely way to the changing international information market. New technologies and means of access provide librarians with an unprecedented opportunity to develop new types of delivery services and to improve the design of subject searches. These opportunities, however, must be placed within the context of constraints defined by types of information delivery and modes of information acquisition.
Having set forth the relationship between information seeking behavior and the availability/reliability of data in conjunction with the nature of the information environment, it is now necessary to test these assumptions against empirical data. From this, it is hoped that the trend lines that have been suggested will be verified.References
1. Simpson, Donald. "Exploring Expanded Cooperation between the Research Libraries of Japan and North America," in Study on Demand and Supply of Japanese Scholarly Information Abroad, International Joint Research Project Funded by a grant-in-aid From Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. Report for the year 1995. Pp. 69-76.
2. Chung, Myoung Ja. "Embassy Newsletters As Information Sources Current Affairs," Government Publications Review, Vol. 7A, pp. 329-332, 1980.
3. Hernon, Peter. "Government Information Policy in New Zealand; Business Like but Evolving," Government Information Quarterly: An International Journal of Policies, Resources, Services and Practices, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1996.
4. Guide to Official Publications of Foreign Countries. Edited by Gloria Westfall. Washington DC and Chicago: CIS and American Library Association. 1990.
5. Ibid. p. xix.
6. For a comprehensive review of literature on this topic, see Elizabeth T. Hemin's chapter on "Information Needs and Use Studies" in the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 25, 1990, pp. 145-172. See also William Sugarﾕs chapter on "User Centered Perspective of Information Retrieval Research and Analysis Methods" in the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, vol. 35, 1995. pp. 7-107.
7. There are three Citation Indexes; Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts and Humanities Citation Index published by the Institute for Scientific Information, Inc.
8. Gregor, Dorothy. "Current Projects of Bibliographic Utilities and Research Libraries," in Study on Demand And Supply of Japanese Scholarly Information Abroad. Op. Cit., p. 63.
9. Thapisa, A. P. N. "The Impact of Global Information on Africa," Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1996. pp. 71-78.
10. Naito, Eisuke and Aihara Nobuya. "Adaptation of a Universal Standardized Subject Heading System in the CJK Environment," a paper presented at the IFLA conference, Beijing, China, August ,1996.rev.2/12/97 (ed. 3/13/97)