ABSTRACT
The primary method used to curb excessive information demands is the Office of Management and Budget’s clearance process required by the Federal Reports Act. There are strong incentives within the federal bureaucracy that lead to the generation of excessive federal paperwork/information demands. The chapter illustrates how incentives might be chosen and applied to improve federal information practices. The process should begin with a review of the primary causes of information/paperwork excesses, which would provide a basis for determining which incentives would be most effective in generating good information practices. Government efforts to improve information management practices have been derelict. Time is rarely taken to understand the causes of bad information practices. The information specialist responsible for the development of a data system rarely knows enough about the potential users’ information needs to develop the most relevant retrieval channels.
