GILS

The goal of the Global Information Locator Service is to make it easy for people to find information of all kinds, in all media, in all languages, and over time.
Source: Global Information Locator Service

GILS would be best conceived as a common search tool tying together a diverse set of publicly and sometimes privately held information within a common union of interests. GILS is not even a union catalog of disparate information respositories, it is an open system search device. It is designed as an end user service. While GILS is a Web-based access tool, a GILS search frequently does not point to a Web-based document, but rather to the bibliographic representation of the document where the native document may exist in a variety of media, including print, microfilm, videotape, as well as in Web format.

GILS, known either as Government or Global Information Locator Service, is a Z39.50 (ISO 10163) confederation of global information providers working to support the G7 Global Information Infrastructure (GII). As currently structured various Government ILS and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the pending Global Environmental Information Locator Service (GELOS) are defined as subsets of Global ILS .

A number of government and non-government entities have use of GILS. For example, see http://130.11.52.178/clearinghouse_sites.html or http://www.gils.net/implement.html

The maintenance and management of GILS records at the US Federal level is decentalized undertaking. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is attempting to coordinate these disparate undertakings into a single searchable service. They despair. The US GPO GILS interface can found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gils.html Additional agency specific GILS portals can be found at http://www.citizen.org/litigation/foic/gilscit.htm

GILS at the State Level

Missouri: MOGILS
New York: NYS ILS
North Carolina: NCGILS

GILS International

Canada: GILS Canada

GILS evaluated

William E. Moen and Charles R. McClure, An Evaluation of the Federal Government's Implementation of the
Government Information Locator Service (GILS) at: http://www.unt.edu/slis/research/gilseval/gilsdesc.htm

Moen, McClure, June Koelker, and Erin Stewart. Assessing the Government Information Locator Service (GILS): A Multi-Method Approach for Evaluating Networked Services at: http://www.asis.org/annual-97/moen.htm

GILS Metadata

GILS is a Z39.50 compliant system. Like other electronic information cataloging systems (MARC, Dublin Core), GILS defines a number of searchable fields or core elements and sub fields or subelements. US federal GILS consists of the following core elements:

Abstract	Originator
Access Constraints	Point of Contact for Further Information
Agency Program	Purpose
Availability	Record Source
Control Identifier	Sources of Data
Controlled Vocabulary	Spatial Reference
Cross Reference	Schedule Number
Date of Last Modification	Supplemental Information
Local Subject Index	Time Period of Content
Methodology	Title
Original Control Identifier	Use Constraints

Source: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gilsfld.html

Note that a number of common fields, in particular the author and publisher fields are not present in this set of GILS core elements. This reflects practice by government as information source. The "use constraints" field in an interesting one, for it defines the legal requisities, if any, for the use of the referenced information. The "spatial reference" core element in the US federal GILS record may also expressed in a manner we may not expect. It may contain geographic coordinates, longitude and latitude, to define the area in which the subject of the record applies or has jurisdiction.

Making GILS

Government of Canada, Creating GILS Records in an SGML Environment Available: http://gils.gc.ca/gils/creatingg_e.html

To assist in supplying data to GILS, a number of standardized, form fill guides have been provided on-line, including NCGILS HTMLMETA Entry Form, North Carolina's contribution available at: http://dev.ospl.state.nc.us/htmlmeta/form.html

GILS Future

The GILS format may have have a somewhat problematic future as an international standard. It has not been evaluated well. A number of governments, among Australia and in the United States, Texas, Florida, and the State of Washington proposed GILS implementation in the mid-1990s, but have proceeded no further with it. Moreover, the touted inter-agency cooperation at the US Federal level has been more sound than fury.

GILS is however employed by the US and Canadian Federal Governments as well as by several state governments to one degree or another. Is it here to stay. Who knows, but it does have an important constituency.

References and Required Readings

Eliot J. Christian, "GILS What is it? Where's it going?" D-Lib Magazine, December 1996. Available: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december96/12christian.html

For a technical discussion of GILS, see "Application Profile for the Government Information Locator Service (GILS)" Version 2, last updated on November 24, 1997. Available: http://www.gils.net/prof_v2.html

The Government Information Locator Service (GILS) Report to the Information Infrastructure Task Force May 2, 199 [sic]
Executive Summary. Available: http://www.fedworld.gov/ftp/misc/gils.txt