The circular continuum of agencies, public libraries, and users: A model of e-government in practice

• E-government information flows between government, intermediaries, and users.
• Varied directions of information flow impact the effectiveness of e-government policies.
• Libraries need additional support to better serve the intermediary role.

When e-government first became a viable solution to the dissemination of government information, experts believed that the rise of direct government-to-citizen (G2C) services would improve government transparency, foster civic engagement, and offer new and innovative service possibilities. It soon became clear, however, that not all users received the type of information, instruction, or services that they needed through this arrangement, giving rise to the need for an intermediary in this continuum of interaction. Increasingly, public libraries fulfill this role. Instead of direct government-to-user interaction, government information and services flow through channels from agency to public librarian to user, from user back up to agency, and from agency to user to public librarian. Based upon research conducted in collaboration with public libraries, government agencies, state library agencies, and a national library association in the United States, this paper expands on the idea of these multiple pathways of information and services, offering a practical model of e-government.