An article published the Fall 2016 issue of FOCUS on Global Resources features an important new Center for Research Libraries initiative, an open web repository of civil
society documentation. CRL President Bernard Reilly notes that the
initial phase of this project, undertaken with support from the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, marks a new chapter in the history of collecting and
preserving official gazettes published in various world regions. The project
has targeted documents from ten nations cited in Transparency International’s Corruption
Perceptions Index as among the countries with the most corrupt public
sectors.
Towards an Open Web Repository for Civil Society Documentation
"Government publications known as official gazettes (variously titled “journal officiel,” “diario oficial,” “bulletin officiel”) have long been key documents of civil society. These publications function as the legal newspapers of many countries, wherein the texts of new laws, decrees, regulations, international treaties, legal notices, legislative debates, and court decisions are announced. The laws published in the gazettes are the versions of record—and in many jurisdictions the only published versions—of many nations’ primary laws. In some cases, publication in the gazette even initiates jurisdiction."
