One of the most valuable assets a government can provide to the public, and at not too great a cost, is information that helps people make decisions prudently.

Which childcare center looks good? Did this nursing home come through its inspections with flying colors? Are there any red flags to note before hiring this attorney?

Those are examples of questions that undoubtedly could be answered with information that's made public in Hawai'i, but not through an online database. And the maturing of the Internet age has meant that expectations have soared: People have grown accustomed to finding nearly everything they want on the Web. So if there's a record that's deemed open to all, being told to march down to a government office to get a copy has begun to seem unreasonable, when there's easy technology to make an electronic copy viewable.

This is Sunshine Week, an annual observance promoting openness in government, led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. This year its site (www.sunshineweek.org) showcases a study of government data that states post on the Web.

Hawai'i falls in the middle of the pack, ranking 26th in the nation when it comes to free online information services. In addition to the missing data noted above, this state also comes up short in posting hospital inspection reports, death certificates, environmental citations and violations and other reports.

Surely this state, which is trying to position itself as a technology-savvy marketplace, can do better than that.

Even the state's Office of Information Practices could improve in how it serves the public's right to know. Few of its opinions are designated as "formal" and thus published on its Web site. The agency said many of its opinions are issued as informal letters because they deal with a narrow issue and don't merit the same commitment of time as the formal reports.

Fair enough. But since even the informal opinions are considered public documents, there should be every reason to post them for viewing online. OIP is there to answer information-access questions for government officials, but it also exists to serve the public, which should be able to see what the agency is doing.

Hard economic times have forced government to confront the limits of its service capacity. But information should be free, and the cost of delivering it today is relatively cheap.

Sunshine Week serves as an occasion to remind government leaders to improve what must be a core responsibility.