These guidelines pertain to descriptive information about USDA, its component agencies and offices, and their administrative processes. Examples include the agencies' history, functions, and legislative authorities; their organization charts, the offices within the agencies and their functions; the agencies' strategic and performance plans; and information pertaining to the agencies' administrative processes. The information quality criteria included in USDA's General Information Quality Guidelines comprise the quality standards that USDA agencies and offices will follow in developing and reviewing organizational information and disseminating it to the public. These supplementary guidelines focus largely on making the information useful to the public.
Information should be comprehensive.
The information should include all pertinent information to allow the public to understand the agency's legislative authorities, mission, activities, organization, strategic plan, performance plan, and performance accomplishments.
- Information should be timely and reflect the most current information available.
Information sources should be documented.
Where appropriate, users should be provided with additional documentation or with method(s) to access supporting documentation by reference (e.g., citations) or by electronic means (e.g., "links").
Information should comply with applicable public laws, rules, regulations, and departmental directives, instructions and guidelines.
All information should comply with current departmental policies and guidelines that govern dissemination of administrative materials to the public. The information also should comply with the requirements of applicable public laws, such as the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993.
Information should be accessible.
Make the information easily accessible to the public, make it available in media-print, electronic, visual, audio, etc.-, which are appropriate to accomplish that objective.