As federal government functions increasingly devolve to the state and local levels, employees at those levels are finding it crucial to have federal information at their fingertips.
To serve their needs, several federal agencies, in collaboration with Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review, have developed the U.S. State & Local Gateway, a one-stop electronic shop for federal news and information. With just the click of a mouse, users can find details about the federal government's effort to implement the Government Performance and Results Act or find out how the Clinton administration is using an employment-focused approach to welfare reform.
"This is not a new technology, but a very innovative use of information technology to cut across organization, programmatic and turf boundaries," said Beverly Godwin Yates, NPR's team leader for intergovernmental service delivery. "It would be much more difficult if not impossible without information technology."
Yates says the site organizes information "the way state and local users are likely to look for it," by functional subject areas like disasters and emergencies or communities and commerce.
The user clicks on a subject matter of interest and then can choose from several subtopics. For example, if a user wanted to find information about how the federal government could help clean up a state's hazardous waste site, he or she would click on the environment/energy category and go to the "frequently asked questions" section.
"Very few federal Web sites organize information by functional subject area," Yates said. "Customers of federal information need to know how to find it easily."
The site also features a "current issues" section that includes information on topics such as sustainable communities, welfare reform and the year 2000 problem, as well as links to state and local government sites.
Yates said that although the site is still under construction, it has received positive feedback from users.
Jennifer Hughes, a senior legislative analyst for the Montgomery County Council in Maryland, said the State and Local Gateway helps her avoid federal Web sites that are "too confusing."
The gateway, she says, "will be an invaluable resource for those of us at the state or local level who are constantly trying to find the information we need," she wrote in response to the site's "Tell Us What You Think" section. "Not only will it make it easier to find the information I already am aware of, but it will certainly highlight resources I might never know about."
Several previous efforts have helped specific customer groups get access to federal information by providing one-stop Internet sites tailored to the groups' needs. These include the Web Interactive Network of Government Services (WINGS) for the general public and CodeTalk for Native Americans.
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