Ric Davis, Director of Library Services & Content Management at the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), spoke with 1500 AM Federal News Radio last month about Professor Nobuhiro Igawa, a research scholar from Japan. Professor Igawa is spending a year at GPO and the Library of Congress to learn how the U.S. Government makes the documents of its democracy available to the public.

Ric Davis said, “This was our first opportunity to participate in a program like this. Delegations in the past have come through GPO for information sharing, however nobody has dedicated this amount of in-depth research or time like this.”

“It is a great opportunity to share our experiences and to learn what he's doing over in Japan,” he stated in the interview. Ric goes on to say that “he is finding there are more similarities in the issues that must be confronted then there are differences.” Authentication and digitization were specifically highlighted.

A professor from the International University of Tanegashima Japan, Igawa started his work in September and will be researching in the U.S. for a year. His visit is being facilitated by the Library of Congress, where he spends part of his time. He is performing analysis on production, dissemination and the use of Federal public information in the Library of  Congress’s Government Documents Section. GPO’s Library Services and Content Management staff is providing him with topics of research. This information exchange will not only help Professor Igawa in bringing a documents program to his country, but it will also help the FDLP re-examine best practices to see which ones are really effective and examine if improvements are needed.

Listen to the interview from Federal News Radio (05:15):

Read the GPO press release on Professor Igawa's visit.

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