How Open Are Local Government Documents in Sweden? A Case for Open Standards

There is in Europe an increasing recognition of the need for governmental organisations to support and promote the effective curation of electronic data, including public documents, for easy public access and reuse. Such a vision can stand in stark contrast with reality. In this paper we address the question: to what extent are local government documents preserved electronically for discovery and re-use? Our goal is to establish the level to which calls for the greater use of open document standards is being heeded, and to understand the potential consequences of not heeding the advice. We find that availability of electronic copies of documents is very variable, and accessibility is poor. In particular, there is little evidence of policy to maintain electronic copies of documents, and little awareness of open standards and their importance in data curation. This is in stark contrast to stated central Government policy. The study highlights a lack of strategy in organisations regarding the effective curation of electronic data.