A rare opportunity to discover international trends and developments in access to government information is presented to you in selected papers from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and Russia. Issues range from basic to sophisticated: public access, including censorship; legislation, facilities for the user, including training; and the possibilities for enhancement of on-line information, through maps, statistics, videos, and sound. Underlying all is access and use of government documents to increase political literacy.