Digital Democracy Starts Here

From his unheralded office inside the National Archives and Records Administration, Charley Barth sees himself as cheerleader for what is must-reading for some, but may be hard-slogging for many—

the Federal Register. 

As the official in charge of the government’s daily compendium of regulations in progress, he sees his mission as engaging the public in the federal rule-making process and packaging data in newly accessible ways to add to its value for agencies and businesses.

“Our partnerships with regulations.gov and private sector sites like popvox.com have increased our reach and introduced the Federal Register to more citizens who want to be engaged in the democratic process,” he says.

“Digital democracy starts here,” proclaims the website of the Office of the Federal Register, which administers the Electoral College and the constitutional amendment process.

Like all federal publications, the Federal Register—produced daily on paper by the Government Printing Office—is saving money and boosting access through its presence online (www.federalregister.gov). “Hard-copy subscriptions are below 2,000 annually,” Barth says. “The number of unique hits on our website is now over 14 million annually,” with active subscriptions to the website’s table of contents and topic-specific alerts topping 23,000.

Other advantages to reading the Federal Register electronically is that it is broken down into six subject areas, searchable by an array of criteria.

After two decades as a fed, Barth brings information technology experience at the Navy and Homeland Security departments to the task of transitioning to the digital era. “Our customers, internal and external, realize we will someday provide our publications in an online format only,” he says. “The easier we make it for them to navigate and find the content they are looking for, the less they will rely on the paper version.”