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APPENDIX 10. NCLIS PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION, JUNE 29, 1990 

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From the birth of our nation, open and uninhibited access to public information has ensured good 

government and a free society. Public information helps to educate our people, stimulate our progress 

and solve our most complex economic, scientific and social problems. With the coming of the 

Information Age and its many new technologies, however, public information has expanded so 

quickly that basic principles regarding its creation, use and dissemination are in danger of being 

neglected and even forgotten. 

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, therefore, reaffirms that the 

information policies of the U.S., government are based on the freedoms guaranteed by the 

Constitution, and on the recognition of public information as a national resource to be developed and 

preserved in the public interest. We define public information as information created, compiled 

and/or maintained by the Federal Government. We assert that public information is information owned 

by the people, held in trust by their government, and should be available to the people except where 

restricted by law. It is in this spirit of public ownership and public trust that we offer the following 

Principles of Public Information. 

PRINCIPLES 

1. The public has the right of access to public information. 

Government agencies should guarantee open, timely and uninhibited access to public 

information except where restricted by law. People should be able to access public 

information, regardless of its format, without any special training or expertise. 

2. The Federal Government should guarantee the integrity and preservation of public 

information, regardless of its format. 

By maintaining public information in the face of changing times and technologies, 

government agencies assure the government's accountability and the accessibility of 

the government's business to the public. 

3. The Federal Government should guarantee the dissemination, reproduction, and 

redistribution of public information. 

Any restriction of dissemination or any other function dealing with public information 

must be strictly defined by law. 

4. The Federal Government should safeguard the privacy of persons who use or request 

information, as well as persons about whom information exists in government records. 

 

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5. The Federal Government should ensure a wide diversity of sources of access, private as well as 

governmental, to public information. 

Although sources of access may change over time and because of advances in 

technology, government agencies have an obligation to the public to encourage 

diversity. 

6. The Federal Government should not allow cost to obstruct the people's access to public 

information. 

Costs incurred by creating, collecting and processing information for the government's 

own purposes should not be passed on to people who wish to utilize public 

information. 

7. The Federal Government should ensure that information about government information is 

easily available and in a single index accessible in a variety of formats. 

The government index of public information should be in addition to inventories of 

information kept within individual government agencies. 

8. The Federal Government should guarantee the public's access to public information, 

regardless of where they live and work, through national networks and programs like the 

Depository Library Program. 

Government agencies should periodically review such programs as well as the 

emerging technology to ensure that access to public information remains inexpensive 

and convenient to the public. 

CONCLUSION 

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science offers these Principles of Public 

Information as a foundation for the decisions made throughout the Federal Government and the nation 

regarding issues of public information. We urge all branches of the Federal Government, state and 

local governments and the private sector to utilize these principles in the development of information 

policies and in the creation, use, dissemination and preservation of public information. We believe that 

in so acting, they will serve the best interests of the nation and the people in the Information Age. 

Adopted by the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science 

June 29, 1990