Copyright 1995 Judy Curry

Establishing and Maintaining a Local Government Documents Collection 1

Judy Curry 2

ABSTRACT: Local governments fulfill many important functions, but the documents which they produce are not well represented in most library collections. This article provides a brief overview of the structure and responsibilities of local government in Canada, and examines some of the challenges involved in establishing and maintaining a local documents collection.

RÉSUMÉ: Le gouvernement provincial remplit plusieurs fonctions importantes mais les documents qu'il produit ne sont pas bien représentés dans la plupart des collections de bibliothèque. Cet article fournit un bref aperçu de la structure et des responsabilités du gouvernement provincial au Canada et examine quelques défis en cause à l'établissement et au maintien d'une collection de documents provinciaux.

"Most Important and Least Important"

Municipal government has been referred to as "the most important -- and the least important -- level of government".3 Most important because it provides many of the services which are an integral part of everyday life; least important because it depends on another level of government for its structure and authority. It is the level of government which is perhaps least well known and understood by the average voter, despite the fact that it may be the most accessible and the most responsive to local concerns.

In much the same way that local governments normally run a poor third to their federal and provincial counterparts in terms of voter recognition, the documents that they produce often form the neglected corner of a government documents collection. Yet local documents can be the best source of information on demographic and statistical trends at the city or neighbourhood level, as well as on the social, environmental and economic issues facing local communities.

The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of the structure and responsibilities of local governments in Canada, with particular emphasis on Ontario, and to offer some suggestions for libraries trying to establish or maintain a local documents collection.

Local Government Powers

A common way to describe local governments is to say that they are "creatures of the province". The responsibilities which they exercise are those which their parent body -- the provincial government -- delegates to them. In Ontario, acts such as the Municipal Act, the Municipal Elections Act and the Planning Act, plus various other public and private acts which deal with specific regional and local governments, almost entirely prescribe the functions, organization and powers of municipal governments. The province also defines the ways in which municipalities can raise money and sets out procedures and guidelines for municipal accounting, auditing and financial recording systems.

Above all else, local governments are service providers. Garbage and sewage disposal, drinking water supply, public transportation and maintenance of the road network, police and fire protection, parks and recreational facilities, day care, library service, schools, health care programs, public housing and social assistance are all included in the wide range of services that local governments administer and deliver. Municipalities also regulate the physical development of a community and devise official plans at both a neighbourhood and a city-wide level.

Local Government Structure

One of the factors which causes confusion about the nature and role of local government is the complexity of municipal structure. In Ontario, there are over 800 municipalities, ranging from villages and towns to cities, counties, townships, and regional governments. To complicate matters further, most Ontario citizens are under the jurisdiction of two levels of municipal government -- an upper tier and a lower tier municipality. There are also many other local governing bodies in the form of agencies, boards and commissions.

The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, for example, was created in 1953 in order to meet the infrastructure demands of a rapidly expanding suburban population. The two-tiered, federated system was designed to allow regional services and issues to be dealt with at the Metro level, while retaining city councils to handle those matters best administered locally. In this structure, public transit, policing, ambulance services, water pollution control and solid waste disposal were deemed to be Metro level responsibilities, while neighbourhood planning, garbage collection and provision of local recreational services were left to the local level. While this system has served the citizens of Metropolitan Toronto remarkably well, it has also often left the average voter confused as to exactly who their councillor is (and why they have two), and what the difference is between the Mayor and the Metro Chairman.

Councils, Committees and Bylaws

In Ontario, municipal governments are run by a council whose composition and size is determined by the Municipal Act. The municipal franchise is based on age, citizenship and residency and is usually conducted by ward or by general vote. In Ontario, the length of term for a municipal council is currently three years, with a set election date in November.

The head of the council is known as a "mayor" in cities and towns, a "reeve" in villages and townships, and a "chairman" in regional and metropolitan municipalities. The council head's role is to be "first among equals" -- to preside at council meetings and to act as a consensus builder. Because party politics is not recognized at the local level in most provinces, the mayor does not have the support of a formal party structure. It is not unusual to see shifting alliances among councillors, depending on the issue under discussion, and there is no guarantee that the policies and projects favoured by the mayor will always have the support of a majority of his council.

Many municipalities use a standing committee structure in order to enable councils to deal effectively with the wide range of activities under their jurisdiction. Committees are assigned an area of responsibility (such as planning, transportation, works) and appropriate issues are funnelled to the committee before being considered by the full council. Committees prepare reports based on input from both departmental staff and members of the public and present council with their research and recommendations, thus allowing for a more streamlined decision-making process.

All regular council and committee meetings must be open to the public. The business of the meeting is presented in an agenda, which should be made available prior to the meeting. The agenda will have various attachments, including relevant reports and correspondence. The record of council action is usually referred to as the council minutes, which detail the reports and motions which have been considered and adopted by council.

Municipal legislation is enacted through bylaws. A zoning bylaw, for example, describes in detail the various property uses which are permitted in specific areas throughout the city. A procedural bylaw regulates the actions of the council and its committees. Other types of bylaws which are common to many municipalities are parking bylaws and property standards bylaws.

Municipal Administrative Structure

While the municipal council may be the most visible agent of local government, it is often supported by an extensive municipal staff structure. Even the smallest municipality will have a clerk, a treasurer and a tax collector, while large cities or regions may employ a staff of thousands arranged into many departments. Typical departments found in a large municipality include: Clerk's; Planning; Transportation; Works; Economic Development; Parks; Community Services; Finance; Personnel; and Legal. Staff in these departments perform the day-to-day administration of programs, prepare policy reports and respond to information requests from both the public and members of council.

Municipal Publications

Municipalities produce a wide variety of useful documents. Council minutes, reports and bylaws are an invaluable source of information on policies and development projects. Financial reports, in the form of operating and capital budgets, annual financial statements and audit reports, provide insight into municipal functions, priorities and spending. Official plans, neighbourhood plans, and studies of special areas, such as the downtown core or the waterfront, illuminate the past, present and future face of the city. Issue papers, policy proposals, administrative studies and technical reports are prepared on the diverse subject areas under municipal jurisdiction. Municipalities also gather statistical data on population, housing, employment, crime, traffic, and use of social services. Maps, periodicals, pamphlets and online databases can also be added to the universe of municipal publications.

Selection and Acquisition of Local Documents

Although it may seem obvious, the defining characteristic of local documents is that they are local -- i.e., there is no centralized agency which coordinates the distribution of municipal documents on a national or province-wide basis and no equivalent to federal and provincial depository systems and checklists. Instead, each one of the thousands of municipalities across Canada prepares and distributes its own documents independently. Indeed, it is not uncommon to discover that even within a municipality there is no coordinated sales policy among individual departments and no master publications list or order desk.

Because municipal documents are so fragmented, it is essential that each library should be clear on what publications it wants to acquire from what cities. Is the library only collecting material from its own municipality, or from all municipalities in the region, or from all municipalities in Canada above a certain size? Does the collection aim to be comprehensive, or does it focus on certain key documents such as official plans, statistical guides and financial reports? Are there certain kinds of publications, such as bylaws or draft documents, which are not collected? Are serials retained indefinitely or is the emphasis on current material only? The library's collection policy should clearly spell out the range and depth of the library's local documents collection.

Once the parameters of the library's collection policy are defined, then the selection process can begin. In the case of local documents, however, most of the standard methods which can normally be used in the selection and acquisition of either commercially published materials or even federal and provincial documents are not really applicable. Reviews and publication catalogues are rare, as are formal depository arrangements. Instead, the establishment of a successful local documents collection is largely dependent on the ability of the library's staff to establish themselves in the hearts and minds of individual municipal employees.

In the case of documents from nearby towns, cities and regions, it is essential that the library establish contact with all of the key publication sources within a municipality. If the municipality has an information officer with a mandate to make the city's publications accessible to the public, then the library should try to conclude an agreement to ensure that it will automatically receive all those publications which are consistent with its collection statement. It is always useful to stress how the library can be a convenient referral point for those municipalities which lack the staff or space to allow members of the public to have access to documents in the municipal offices. The library offers the added bonus of trained reference staff and weekend and evening hours.

If there is no centralized publication sales desk, then it will be necessary to identify contacts in those departments which are likely to be the most prolific publishers, such as Planning or Clerk's. Librarians working in departmental resource centres can also be invaluable sources of information on documents or on who to call to get them. If the library can offer assistance in the form of helping municipal employees with their information needs from time to time, this can help immeasurably in cementing the relationship.

Because of the need for consistent follow up and reinforcement of the library connection, the most effective way to keep abreast of the publications of a municipality may be to assign someone to be a liaison with a specific city or cities. Ideally, the liaison should make personal contact with key information sources, make sure that the library is established on mailing lists, visit important departments, scan the newspaper for references to new reports, review committee and council reports, and generally make themselves thoroughly familiar with the workings of the municipality. As well as ensuring that the library's collection remains current and up-to-date, the liaison also functions as a key reference resource for all staff.

It is necessary to be persistent and pro-active when tracking down the whereabouts of a report. It is not unusual to be passed around by three or four people before you reach that magic someone who knows exactly what you are talking about and is willing to get you a copy. Library staff must be able and willing to use the phone (a sometimes under-rated skill!), and to follow up with written or emailed requests if necessary.

There is no easy way of acquiring a range of documents from different municipalities on a province-wide or national basis. Establishment on mailing lists, the use of form letters to acquire certain standard documents that all municipalities produce on a regular basis (such as financial documents, official plans, statistical profiles) and the acquisition of publication lists (where they exist) will have to be organized for each municipality from which the library wishes to collect. One valuable reviewing tool is the magazine Liaison, produced by the Intergovernmental Committee on Urban and Regional Research (ICURR). Each issue highlights the key documents which ICURR has acquired from various government bodies on issues of interest to municipalities.

The one alternative to city by city collecting is offered by Micromedia[4] through its Canadian Research Index: Microlog. This service provides access to a range of Canadian government documents and does include a local government component. The index can be used as a reviewing tool for ordering individual documents or a subscription can be established to a microfiche set of all the local government documents listed in the index.

Many municipal documents are free of charge, especially for publicly funded libraries within the same municipal jurisdiction (there is often a nominal charge to members of the public and to private institutions). There is, however, an increasing trend on the part of municipalities to charge for some publications on a cost-recovery basis. The City of Etobicoke, for example, charges for its official plan, municipal code and zoning code. In some cases, municipalities which are willing to supply most publications to a public library on a free basis feel that they must charge for documents which are very expensive to produce (such as bound council minutes) or which involve time-consuming amendment services (such as zoning bylaws).

A hidden cost in the maintenance of a local documents collection is the cost of binding. Because documents are often issued in flimsy paper covers with spiral binding, high use items or items which are intended to be retained retrospectively may have to be bound in order to guard against wear and tear.

Many local documents are printed in very limited quantities and it is not unusual for documents to go out of print within the space of a few months. One of the few ways to try and fill in collection gaps or acquire replacement copies is through gifts from municipal councillors or staff who are cleaning out their offices. Even in the case of libraries which do a good job of staying on top of all "official" departmental publications, gifts from a councillor's office may often bring to light a treasure trove of reports prepared by consultants or neighbourhood groups, which may have only seen limited distribution (e.g., to members of a standing committee).

Cataloguing and Access

One problem which a municipal documents collection usually presents is the necessity of providing a high percentage of original cataloguing. Because local documents are not widely acquired by either public or academic libraries, derived cataloguing copy is rarely available. At the same time, the current, public nature of the issues with which local governments deal makes it imperative that some system be set up which will allow for fairly quick cataloguing of high demand items. If documents are not available when demand is the greatest, the effectiveness of the collection will be greatly diminished and both public and staff will lose confidence in their ability to ever find the information that they are seeking.

Some libraries have turned to CODOC-based systems in an effort to provide speedy access to documents. This arrangement may work well in some settings, but may not be feasible in the public library environment, where a centralized cataloguing function may require that local documents be integrated into the library's general cataloguing scheme and online catalogue. If normal cataloguing turnaround times are not acceptable, then the local documents unit may have to negotiate alternatives such as a "rush" stream for key documents or a "cataloguing on demand" system for in-process items which are requested by users.

Access through the online catalogue may also be hampered by the complexity of corporate body names and the frequency with which those names change. Libraries which maintain any kind of a retrospective collection will spend a considerable amount of time in establishing new names and linking records. Also, tracking and claiming serials such as budgets and annual reports can absorb a great deal of staff time.

Reference

Other than the "standard" problems associated with providing reference service to a government documents collection, there are some particular difficulties which arise in the case of local documents.

A very basic problem can occur if the user is unaware of municipal structures, jurisdictions or responsibilities. A user looking for a bylaw or a piece of statistical information may often be stumped by the question "Are you looking for a bylaw/statistic for the City of Toronto or Metropolitan Toronto?" (A typical response is "City. No, Metro. What's the difference?") There is often a need to explain the basics of local government structure as part of the reference interview.

Users also often require precise, detailed information on topics which are not readily accessible through the public catalogue -- e.g., a new development project which is still going through council, a profile of a neighbourhood for which no planning study exists, a municipal regulation or policy which has been discussed by council but which has never been the topic of a separately published departmental report. It is not unusual to find that the first step in most subject queries -- a search of the online catalogue -- is of little or no use. For this reason it is important that staff draw on their own knowledge of alternate approaches, such as searching council minutes, checking departmental annual reports, or calling key contacts. Staff should also have ready access to up-to-date directories, guides, special indexes and finding tools, such as a where-to-look file.

The length of time which it takes for many municipalities to produce bound, indexed council minutes also makes reference service difficult. Users often need up-to-date information on recent council or committee decisions, but reference staff may be stymied by their lack of access to the current, online indexes of council proceedings which many municipalities now maintain in their clerk's department, but which may not be networked to the library. Particularly in the case of bylaw questions, library staff may have to rely on municipal officials to guarantee the current status of a bylaw or assist the layman in the interpretation.

Conclusion

Municipal documents are an under-utilized resource in most libraries. Barriers in selection, acquisition, cataloguing and access all have the potential to prevent the establishment of an effective collection. While municipal documents are usually quite inexpensive, they do demand staff time, effort and organization if the goal of creating a vital, up-to-date and well-used collection is to be met. But, at a time when many libraries are looking to identify materials which are relevant to their local communities, municipal documents can be an invaluable asset to the collection.

Notes

[1] May be cited as/On peut citer comme suit:

Judy Curry, "Establishing and Maintaining a Local Government Documents Collection," Government Information in Canada/Information gouvernementale au Canada, Vol. 1, No. 4.3.

[2]

Judy Curry
Senior Collection Librarian
Metro Urban Affairs Library
Metro Hall
55 John Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada  M5V 3C6

(416) 397 7240
(416) 397 7245  FAX
[3] C. R. Tindal, You and Your Local Government, 2nd edition, ([Oshawa, Ont.]: Ontario Municipal Management Development Board, 1988), p. 1. Much of the information in the first section of this article is drawn from the title noted above. Mr. Tindal is also the author of Local Government in Canada, which was issued this year in its fourth edition by McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

[4] For the Micromedia home page, see:

http://www.mmltd.com