Users of Federal information resources must have skills, knowledge, and training to manage information resources, enabling the Federal government to effectively serve the public through automated means. The availability of government information in diverse media, including electronic formats, permits agencies and the public greater flexibility in using the information. Federal managers with program delivery responsibilities should recognize the importance of information resources management to mission performance. Appendix IV to OMB Circular No. This responsibility requires that agencies distribute information at the agency's initiative, rather than merely responding when the public requests information.
Federal agencies are often the sole suppliers of the information they hold.
The agencies have either created or collected the information using public funds, usually in furtherance of unique governmental functions, and no one else has it. Hence agencies need to take care that their behavior does not inappropriately constrain public access to government information. Agencies should not attempt to exert control over the secondary uses of their information dissemination products. Statutes such as FOIA and the Government in the Sunshine Act establish a broad and general obligation on the part of Federal agencies to make government information available to the public and to avoid erecting barriers that impede public access. The economic benefit to society is maximized when government information is publicly disseminated at the cost of dissemination.