This preprint has been published in Human Dimensions of Wildlife 11(3). State wildlife agencies have little guidance about what Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) information to present on their Websites. This article describes four approaches to public information publication (private citizen view, attentive citizen view, deliberative citizen view, stakeholder publisher) that agency staff can employ to consider what CWD information to offer to the public.

This preprint has been published in Human Dimensions of Wildlife 11(3) 2006. State wildlife agencies have little guidance about what Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) information to present on their Websites. This article describes four approaches to public information publication (private citizen view, attentive citizen view, deliberative citizen view, stakeholder publisher) that agency staff can employ to consider what CWD information to offer to the public.

This article explores the Internet as a resource for political information and communication in March 2003, when American troops were first sent to Iraq, offering us a unique setting of political context, information use, and technology. Employing a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project. We examine the political information behavior of the Internet respondents through an exploratory factor analysis; analyze the effects of personal demographic attributes and political attitudes, traditional and new media use, and technology on online behavior through multiple regression analysis; and assess the online political information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War. The factor analysis suggests four factors: activism, support, information seeking, and communication. The regression analysis indicates that gender, political attitudes and beliefs, motivation, traditional media consumption, perceptions of bias in the media, and computer experience and use predict online political information behavior, although the effects of these variables differ for the four factors. The information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War differed significantly. We conclude with a brief discussion of the value of "interdisciplinary poaching" for advancing the study of Internet information practices.

This is a preprint accepted for publication in Government Information Quarterly (2007) 24(1), pg. 64-88. This paper develops a framework to assess the text-based public information provided on program level government agency Websites. The framework informs the larger e-government question of how, or whether, state administrative agencies are using Websites in a transformative capacity - to change relationships between citizens and government. It focuses on assessing the degree to which text information provided on government Websites could facilitate various relationships between government agencies and citizens. The framework incorporates four views of government information obligations stemming from different assumptions about citizen-government relationships in a democracy: the private citizen view, the attentive citizen view, the deliberative citizen view and the citizen-publisher view. Each view suggests inclusion of different types of information. The framework is employed to assess state Websites containing information about Chronic Wasting Disease, a disease effecting deer and elk in numerous U.S. states and Canada.

This article extends Stratford's brief observations about the problematic status of racial and ethnic group statistics to a discussion of the relationship among these statistics, public policy, and the conceptual status of race and ethnicity. Federal statistics are organizational products that are socially constructed. They represent the implementation of public policies that govern political, social, and economic life. It is the interaction between politics and the subjective meaning of race and ethnicity that is responsible for the continual modification of racial and ethnic group statistics. The article discusses the premises on which racial and ethnic group statistics have been based and illustrates how they were implemented in the instructions of the decennial censuses for classifying the race and ethnicity of the population. The article then summarizes some of the empirical evidence from recent research conducted by federal agencies and social scientists to show that racial and ethnic group statistics produced by government record keeping systems have no objective status. The meaning of race and ethnicity is contextual, situational, and subjective, and, thus, how respondents and observers define these concepts has significant consequences for the quality of federal statistics.

Law, mission, and information management practices inhibit access to computerized administrative records produced by state government. Research use or secondary analysis is not on the agenda of the agency administrator. Computerized records are not routinely maintained or preserved. Records managers and archivists for public records do not participate in decisions about retaining or destroying computerized records. These findings emerged from a recently completed cooperative study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin on the impact of automation on state agency records keeping practices. In addition, changes in rules for access, computer-based technologies, pressures to maintain routine administration in the face of high turnover in data processing staffs, reduced budgets, and legislation to reduce paperwork pose a threat to the retention of administrative records. This article discusses the implications of the findings and trends, provides examples of data delivery failures, and recommends changes in law and administrative behavior. The authors conclude that the social scientist has a role to play in assisting government agencies in improving access to computerized administrative records.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-147).

Zugl.: Kassel, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 409-428).

Thesis (M.A.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Geography. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-290). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR29522