Government Information News Sources, Part Three

And now the final part of our survey of government information news sources. (If you've missed part one and part two, read them first or else the plot twist in this part won't make any sense!)

There are a number of print publications available for anyone who craves news about government information. If you are working for a government library, you can receive free subscriptions to the titles discussed below. If you are in the private sector, however, the websites for all five of these publications should sufficiently cover your news needs.

The first two sources cover news about the federal government in general. Federal Times is geared towards federal managers. However, that doesn’t mean that its content isn’t interesting to a general audience that’s looking detailed stories about the way the federal government works (versus the way elected officials say it does or should work).

Government Executive, the other general news source, describes itself as "the Forbes and Fortune of the public sector," with stories covering the government work environment, management decision-making, and homeland security issues.

Government Executive has also recently launched NextGov.com, which focuses on technology's effect on government. My one gripe with NextGov.com: no RSS feed. Doesn't that seem a bit odd for a site focused on technology issues?

Speaking of government technology, Government Technology offers coverage of a variety of topics, from e-government and mobile government to technology policy. GovTech also provides updates on the state government level.

The final two resources, Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News, are both published by 1105 Government Information Group. FCW focuses on the management side of information technology , while GCN comes from the technology procurement side. In reality, you’ll find that there is a lot of crossover in what they each cover. (Although you’ll get more than you ever cared to know about IPv4 from FCW.)

There are, of course, a lot of other ways to get news about government information, and I’ll talk about them from time to time here. In the meantime, the sites I’ve discussed here should give you plenty of reading material.