The expanded mandate of the federal Chief Information Officer reflects the importance being placed on renewing government services through information management and information technology. This means helping government understand how best to bridge the direction government wants to go with evolving technologies. Second, it is important to develop strong alliances with the companies developing new methods of managing information and new information technology. Third, it is also important that we nurture the information management and technology communities both inside and outside government. And, fourth, the CIO can be a catalyst within government to help departments use technological expertise to improve the organization and distribution of the information they generate or hold.
Government is the largest single creator and collector of information in the country.
Consequently, an important objective of my branch is to provide government departments and agencies with policies and guidelines to facilitate public access to information. In this regard, the work of librarians strongly supports what we are doing. You deal with information all day, every day, in a variety of forms. You probably do not need a reminder that information technology is changing the services you provide, nor of the tight fiscal climate in which you provide them. Issues Things are moving so fast that, within the next few years, electronic service delivery will be the preferred way of doing business for government, libraries and private companies.