Through the use of 134 public documents, mainly of provincial origin and accompanied by individual commentaries, Saskatchewan Speaks depicts the building of the province of Saskatchewan from its creation by the parliament of Canada in 1905 down to 1982. Reports of legislative committees and royal commissions as well as legislative debates and statutes are reprinted. Chosen to demonstrate major areas of government activity, such as the establishment of public institutions, the formulation of economic and social policy, and relations with the federal government, these selections and others reflect the province's unique political climate, one that spawned North America's first socialist government. Devised for a university course in provincial politics because of a paucity of secondary sources, Saskatchewan Speaks illustrates the capacity that jurisdictions in a federal system have to innovate and assert their distinctiveness.
The copyright issue affects the business of many branches of the information industry, e.g., CD-ROM, video, online databases, software, music. Electronic means and computers must provide features enabling information providers to disseminate information in a better way in respect to legal consideration and business practices. The European Community's CITED project is providing the various information industries with a solution that addresses these concerns and has demonstrated implementation capabilities. CITED has also defined methodology to assess any information system in regard to issue of copyright
The distribution of Canadian government publications has remained virtually unchanged for 60 years. While there is much development work being done currently, two key influences on the activities stand out. Firstly, there has been a tremendous change because of technological advancement in data accessibility. Secondly, there has been an awareness by librarians that either legislation will have to replace guidelines in the distribution of documents or that the present guidelines must be strengthened and enforced properly. There have been many developments on the provincial scene as well in terms of depository distribution mechanisms.
