Creation of asset registries in Spain

1. Creation of asset registries in Spain Rodrigo Sánchez Jiménez / Iuliana Botezan Publidoc - UCM ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

2. PUBLIDOC – UCM. Research group • Research group at the “Universidad Complutense de Madrid” • Background: Library and Information Science • Research Interests: • Public Sector Information management • Public Sector Information re-use • Public Sector Information licensing ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

3. PUBLIDOC – UCM. Research group • Current main project: “Public sector information and documentation re-use in Spain. Adaptation to the European information dissemination framework”. (Funded by the Education Ministry) • Main Goals of the project: • Analysis of PSI characteristics and types. • Analysis and evaluation of PSI management practices. • PSI re-use perspectives and European Directive implementation. • Evaluation of the possibility of creating asset registries ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

4. Current Project on PSI re-use I • First stage (concluded by 2004) global analysis • A single research group cannot carry out an exhaustive inventory of PSI assets • We might be more useful by providing a methodology for doing so • Public administration might adopt whole or part of that methodology and apply it (systematically) to assets under its responsibility • Main kinds of information assets identified. Work plans follow to analyze each of them ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

5. Current Project on PSI re-use II • Main types of public information assets • Official publications (serials and monographs) • Second stage (concluded 2005) • Databases (both free and non-free) • Third stage (concluded 2008) • Administrative archives and registries • Forth stage (to begin by October) • Miscellaneous digital content ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

6. Current Project on PSI re-use III • Administrative levels • Governmental and Central administration • Regional (autonomic) administration • Very important in Spain • Heterogeneous • Local administration • We have analyzed the central administration. Will begin with (some) autonomic administrations next year. ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

7. Official publications: goals and methodology • Research goals: • Analyzing the editorial characteristics of the Central Administration (AGE) (from 2000 to 2005) • Providing clues to improve public dissemination of administration’s publications • Parallel to the project a list was created by the ministry of presidency. Based on the INOP. • Analyzed items • International Number of Official Publications • Periodicity of publications • Subjects of publications (subject overlaps, interesting subjects for citizens and for administrations) • Pricing and licensing ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

8. Official serials - Types of government publications

9. Official serials - Types of government publications

10. Official serials – publishing program of the Central Administration

11. Official serials – BOE

12. Official publications: conclusions and recommendations • International Number of Official Publications • Not correctly applied. Several INOP for a single publication, several publications in the same INOP. Is it at all adequate for the digital environment? • Not enough descriptive information on official publications • The Ministry of the Presidency keeps a database of official publications that is not descriptive enough • No clear license system available • Obvious recommendation is to create one • Less coverage of local and autonomic administration in available asset lists or access points • A single access point for all official publications is desirable.

13. Databases I 1.- Search and identification of databases • Done manually, no single source of references found • Browsed every ministry and found several hundreds of databases (possibly not all) 2.- Analysis and description of the following fields: • Formal data on identification, as title, URL and editor • Characteristics of information, as class, type, source, coverage…etc. • Access and querying • Contents ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

14. Databases II 3.- Creation of an asset register • Every database described in the same way • Single access point • Search engine over metadata on 500 databases • Already on-line but not yet available due to … ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

15. Databases III 4.- Why we have not yet published it • Governmental shift of ministries structure! • Some new ministries created, some merged into a single one, some dissapeard, so urgent updating of databases is needed. • Some minor technical problems with search engine. ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

16. Databases IV • Databases are very difficult to find and keep updated. • Even when one knows they exist or has found them before. • There is not a single access point to public information databases. We are working to create one • In too many cases, not even a partial one (a ministry access point) • Databases are heterogeneous and not interoperable. That requires cooperation between administrations. ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

17. Archives and registries I • Has not yet been attempted. Only preliminary analysis. • This should be a major source of information for re-use. • Implies massive amount of information • Raw data can be aggregated by third parties in order to provide value-added information and services. • TROUBLE: the directive is difficult to implement due to Spanish law on administrative procedures. ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

18. Archives and registries II • Law on public administration and administrative procedures (LRJPAC) • Restricts access in many situations • It is complex because its linked to other laws • It is fuzzy and subject to interpretation • Tradition of denying access to stay out of troubles. • Requires the directive to be transposed in practice (and in spirit) • Probably some major legal changes should occur ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

19. Web content and miscellaneous documents • Much less interesting • A-systematic (chaotic). • Might be useful for citizens, but not for re-use agents • Much more difficult to organize / aggregate • Multiple formats • Multiple topics • Multiple uses (not well defined) ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

20. Conclusions • A single access point (web portal or similar) should be created for all information assets. • Interoperable and useful descriptions are required. • A lot of work has to be done on serial publications as to provide them with clear identification numbers. • Licensing and pricing are not well defined • Legal and mentality changes are required in order to create useful asset registries for a great part of the information (archives) ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

21. Future work • Publishing our asset registry of public information databases • Extending our activities to the autonomic administration (some autonomies already interested) • Promoting a culture of free access to information • Create agreements with general administration of the state in order to normalize, describe and spread information that has no legal protection ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008

22. Future work • Contacting with other European agents, research groups, professionals to get some feedback • Workshop on Madrid (September 2008) about metadata for PSI ePSIplus Conference: ‘PSI Re-use Who Takes Action Next?’ Brussels, 13 June 2008