Libraries also facilitate access to other government transactions by ensuring ease of access

to local, state and federal government information. At the Toronto Public Library, this is

done via the Virtual Reference Library (VRL) http://vrl.tpl.toronto.on.ca. The VRL is

designed to deliver reference and information services in an online environment. Its 

subject guide to the Internet consists of resources that have been selected and organised

by professional staff. The category  Government  within the subject guide can be used to

locate official government websites as well as indexes, directories and other finding aids

developed by other agencies in order to access government information. 

The provision of seamless access to government information is the next step in this process.

An important aspect of access is to be able to offer citizens all government information by

means of one interface. While some countries offer national portals, no country appears to

be able to offer information from all levels of government from one site only. 

In Somerset, in the UK, two major external funding initiatives are currently under 

development to change this situation:

   Invest to Save : A project worth  500,000 to establish a multi agency web portal

for Somerset providing users with a common point of access to services of all District

Councils (5), to the Police Authority and the County Council. A key feature will be

the ability to update personal information for all services via a single entry.

  Pathfinder Project: This will extend the above portal to Digital TV access also using

postal codes where applicable. Services and information will be presented to citizens

by location, regardless of which authorities or agencies are involved.

Another consideration for libraries is ensuring that access is available to online government

content. A report by the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science

(NCLIS)

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discusses the issues that arise when government material is only available on the

Internet. The report cautions against government departments assuming that everyone

has access to this medium, and offers a number of recommendations on the dissemination

of government information. Despite the caution, online content availability is becoming

increasingly common for government departments.

Future

There are two broad areas that leading e government countries are currently develop 

ing: portals and interoperability. These areas are connected; the portal and its support 

ing metadata provides a consistent and reliable interface into government services and

information, while the capability for agencies to interoperate behind the scenes allows

for online services to reflect the idea of  joined up government . At the very least, 

public libraries need to be aware of the developments in their countries of these two areas.

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