March 11, 2022

Celebrating Sunshine Week 2022

What is Sunshine Week?

Started in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors (now the News Leaders Association), Sunshine Week  (March 13-19, 2022) is an annual celebration of the continued effort to promote open government and free public access to U.S. government information. it coincides with national Freedom of Information Day, March 16th.

Sunshine Week takes places each March in observance of the birthday of James Madison, one of the early advocates for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. Madison’s quote, “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both,” is often cited in promotional materials for Sunshine Week, although some dispute whether it refers to access to government information or access to information and knowledge more broadly.

Join the Conversation

We welcome you to join the UW Libraries this week in observing Sunshine Week (March 13-19, 2022) by participating in informational webinars on the current state of public access to government information. You can view the full schedule of Sunshine Week events here, or consider attending a few of the spotlighted events below:

• Igniting Inspiration: Bringing Data to Light and to Life–Monday, March 14, 11 am PT; Register and More Info Here 

• Sparking Discovery: Using FOI and Big Data to Tell Stories, Build Community, and Solve Problems–Wednesday, March 16, 12 pm PT; Register and More Info Here

Public Access to Government Information

Laws governing access to government information vary across jurisdiction (i.e. federal, state, local) and branch (i.e. legislative, executive, judicial). In 2016, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a helpful primer on “Access to Government Information in the United States” and notes that “(n)o provision in the U.S. Constitution expressly establishes a procedure for public access to executive branch records or meetings.” There have, however, been acts of Congress over the years that have set a standard for access to federal executive branch information, including the landmark Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (1966), the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) (1972), the Privacy Act (1974), and the Government in the Sunshine Act (1976).

Laws such as FOIA help make the work of many UW researchers possible, including at the Center for Human Rights (UWCHR), which published a free online guide on How to FOIA in 2019. You can browse a collection of the documents released through FOIA requests by the UWCHR on the UW Libraries’ Research Works site. Over 800,000 FOIA requests are made each year.

Libraries Access to U.S. Government Information

The UW Libraries provides access to government information in a variety of ways and formats. The UW Libraries has been a member of the U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), established in 1813 to ensure public access to government information, for over 130 years. You can find documents distributed to depository libraries and other government documents in the Government Publications collection on the ground floor of the Suzzallo Library. Government information librarians at UW have also curated several research guides to help you start your search for government information.

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