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LPS Annual Report: FY 1998[ As printed in Administartive Notes, November 5, 1998 issue,
GP 3.16/3-2:19/13
(Vol. 19, no. 13) ]
Summary During Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 the Library Programs Service (LPS) made significant progress in its efforts to incorporate electronic Federal Government information products into the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). These efforts reflect LPS' initial realization of the policies and plans for the FDLP Electronic Collection. As might be expected in any transition period, LPS' work was divided between maintaining and enhancing the traditional functions that relate to the management of tangible Federal Government information products, and developmental activities. The developmental efforts focused on expanding the FDLP Electronic Collection and implementation of information technology solutions to improve services to the depository library community and the public. A substantial amount of staff time was devoted to developing and implementing programs that enhanced communications between LPS, depository libraries and other program participants. Several new partnerships and agreements were forged among GPO, other Federal Government agencies, information-related organizations and depository libraries, in order to produce, make available, and permanently store a wide range of electronic Federal Government information products. LPS 1998 highlights include:
FDLP Electronic Collection LPS staff continued to refine a policy defining GPO's management of the various electronic Federal Government information products made available through the FDLP as a library-like collection. The policy is documented in a paper entitled "Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection: A Policy and Planning Document," (the Plan). The Plan provides a foundation for policies and procedures, and defines organizational responsibilities for managing the Collection. It was developed by a team led by LPS, joined by staff from EIDS and the GPO Production Department. In April it was presented to GPO upper management, and subsequently was discussed at the spring Depository Library Council (DLC) meetings. In May a draft was reviewed by the DLC members, who provided significant input. Additional discussions took place at the American Library Association Annual Conference in June. In July, GPO staff met with Dr. Lewis Bellardo, Deputy Archivist of the United States, and members of his staff, to discuss GPO and the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) common interests. Copies of the draft plan were shared with NARA. Overall, NARA's reaction was supportive, and their comments helped us further clarify the difference between NARA's responsibility for the preservation of Federal records and GPO's permanent public access role for FDLP publications. We have published the Plan on GPO Access [ old URL ] www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/ecplan.html, and we will distribute a copy to every depository library. Even though not yet published, the Plan is shaping how we in LPS think about our role in developing the FDLP Electronic Collection, the relationship between the Collection and our cataloging and locator services, and our role in ensuring current and permanent public access to information provided through the FDLP. The following activities exemplify how the FDLP Electronic Collection is being built:
Based on components of the Collection, these pages, developed by Cynthia Etkin, provide links to full text resources from GPO, FDLP partner sites, and other Federal Government agencies. A collection of finding tools will assist users in locating tangible electronic products in depository libraries, as well as products on other agency sites that GPO identifies, links to and describes.
GPO, the National Library of Education, and OCLC signed an agreement to make public domain reports from the Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) available online through the FDLP. All 300 libraries in the FDLP/ERIC Digital Library Pilot Project received their authorizations and passwords this past summer and are making public domain ERIC reports available free via the OCLC FirstSearch interface. Reports from January 1997 forward, previously provided to the FDLP in microfiche, are converted to TIFF image format and stored at OCLC. This pilot will provide the project participants with useful information on managing a large, high-demand electronic collection. The project is currently scheduled to conclude December 31, 1998, and data will be analyzed in the first months of calendar year 1999.
An interagency agreement was signed between GPO and the Department of Energy (DOE)/Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) in December 1997 that provides depository libraries and the public with electronic access to more than 26,000 reports that have been produced by DOE/OSTI since January 1996. OSTI staff introduced the depository library version of its electronic dissemination system, Information Bridge, during the April Federal Depository Conference. Since that time over 5,000 documents have been added to the system. The OSTI staff also provided training to the GPO Access User Support Team. During its first month of operation to the depository community, Information Bridge was a "Pick of the Week" from Yahoo!, the Web navigation and indexing site. In September the Information Bridge Project Team at OSTI was selected to receive a FY 1998 DOE Information Management Quality Award for Technical Excellence. This award is designed to recognize those individuals, organizations, teams and/or groups who have made significant quality contributions to DOE's Information Management Program.
In December 1997, GPO and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) signed an historic interagency agreement that enables depositories to have free online access to scientific and technical documents that are currently available in electronic format from the NTIS collection. The University of California, Davis and the University of Nevada, Reno have participated in a pre-pilot test. This past summer, 20 libraries, out of a group of 31 volunteers, were chosen by LPS staff to take part in the pilot project. LPS and NTIS staff have been working out the details for the project start-up. In mid-September a listserv was set up through which the project participants and LPS and NTIS staff will be able to communicate during the pilot phase.
Identifying and reviewing products available from Federal Government Internet sites has expanded traditional acquisitions duties. By September 1998, the Browse Electronic Titles page had over 2200 electronic product titles listed on the page. These products are classified and the information is sent to the Cataloging Branch, which provides cataloging records for them in the Monthly Catalog. Weekly updates, performed each Monday, add an average of over 30 titles a week to the Browse Electronics Title page. Electronic Transition Staff A number of the electronic collection projects involve the LPS Electronic Transition Staff (ETS), which consists of four individuals; two permanent GPO staff members, Joe Paskoski and Lee Morey and two "expert consultants" from the depository library community. George Barnum joined ETS in July 1997 and has been reappointed for a second one-year term. He continues to concentrate on the issue of permanent public access for electronic Federal Government information. He is working on creating partnerships between depository libraries, Federal agencies, information-related organizations, and GPO, and on the development of the management plan for the FDLP Electronic Collection. Judy Andrews came to GPO in July from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA on a one-year appointment. One of her first projects was to review and define LPS' responsibilities regarding GILS records. The initial conversations about GILS has grown into investigating all the Locator Services and examining how they fit with one another and the FDLP Electronic Collection Management Plan. She is currently working on a report about the Locator Services with suggestions about future implementation. She is also working on the NTIS pilot project with Sandy Schwalb and exploring the possibilities of a partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ms. Schwalb was reappointed for a second one-year term in August 1997, but left ETS when she was selected for a permanent position in LPS as a management analyst. She continues to work on implementing and managing projects that were negotiated with DOE as well as the NTIS pilot project. LPS Web Applications ETS continues to work with other staff from LPS, the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services (EIDS) and the Production Department on a number of Web projects, such as the item selection update process and the creation of askLPS, a Web-based inquiry and answer module for the depository community. Other projects being examined relate to Web claiming and related issues of electronic shipping lists.
Cataloging and Locator Services LPS staff are examining how the suite of cataloging and locator services work together to determine user presentation, comprehensiveness and possible consolidation in relation to the FDLP Electronic Collection.
The electronic transition has produced a complex assortment of interrelated works in all media. We are challenged by a workload that is both heavy and complex. During FY 1998 the Cataloging Branch received approximately 39,000 pieces of work in all media, including thousands of Internet related titles. Catalogers processed approximately 29,000 pieces of work. Most works in paper and CD-ROM and available via the Internet are being cataloged within one or two weeks of receipt. Between 80% and 90% of our cataloging is original. A significant initiative that has helped to keep cataloging of most Internet related resources current is the use of our ALA GODORT Cataloging Committee approved Collection Level Record (CLR) cataloging policy. To date, we have produced more than 70 records that lead users to several hundred collected works available from Federal agency Web sites. These records provide a reasonable level of access that is consistent with the manner in which many Federal agencies post electronic works to their sites. At present, all but 186 of the 3,336 Browse Electronic Title entries have been cataloged. Of this number, 113 are electronic serials. Our current backlog consists of approximately 10,000 pieces, most of which are serials distributed in microfiche. Given the importance of maintaining current cataloging we are investigating the potential use of modest-size cataloging contracts for selected materials which would supplement the efforts of our staff. Two new catalogers joined LPS in FY 1998, which brings the number to 18. We also have hired an administrative librarian to work on initiatives associated with our transition to a more electronic FDLP.
LPS now assigns persistent uniform resource locators (PURLs) in the cataloging records for electronic resources listed in GPO's Browse Electronic Titles (BETs). A PURL provides a mechanism to forestall broken URLs by providing a seamless, automatic interface to the most recent URL. Working with OCLC, GPO staff have participated in the development of software that contains features that are essential for large scale use of PURLs, such as an integrated URL checker application, the ability to machine generate unique, consecutively assigned accession numbers, and a report module that identifies broken links. PURLs are an essential component of our efforts to bring continued access and bibliographic control to products in the FDLP Electronic Collection. The PURLs application is also significant for the many library catalogs that contain URLs. In this new environment, libraries with record update services will not need to update records locally when URLs change. GPO's PURLs applications were the subject of a membership news article titled, GPO Improves Access to Government Internet Resources in the July/August 1998 edition of the OCLC newsletter.
The GPO Access Web edition of the Monthly Catalog contains approximately 103,000 records representing titles cataloged since 1994. Approximately 4350 of these records contain PURL or URL data. Most GPO Monthly Catalog Web site records with URLs provide hot-linked access to the electronic publications. Each issue of the CD-ROM edition of the Monthly Catalog now contains approximately 46,000 records cumulated since 1996 and includes the Periodicals Supplements for 1996, 1997 and 1998. This version of the Monthly Catalog has been enhanced by a new interface that makes the product more user friendly and by features that enable users to simultaneously search more databases than had been possible with the original software. LPS staff worked closely with data processing personnel of GPO and the Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS), Library of Congress, to rectify the delays in distributing GPO cataloging data that occurred during the first quarter of 1998. These efforts to re-establish effective services have succeeded. From April 1998 (when all data sets from January through April were issued, including the 1998 Periodicals Supplement) through August 1998, prompt service has been restored. Monthly data sets are being distributed to CDS via tape cartridges within two days of production at GPO. For their part, CDS staff has expeditiously disseminated data to customers within one or two days of the receipt and additional processing of GPO-produced records. Although tape cartridges remain a viable means of transferring data from GPO to CDS, all parties recognize that a more convenient and potentially more effective method would be to employ an FTP (file transfer protocol) service. Personnel from GPO and CDS are testing and evaluating such an option as an alternative to the continued use of cartridges.
Pathway Services, which assist users in locating Federal Government information products on the Internet, continued to expand during 1998. The Pathway Indexer search engine is maintained using Harvest, a freeware product. This effort will continue until the Federally-funded Advanced Search Facility (ASF) is available. The ASF is an effort to create an information community architecture based in part on GILS as well as other related technologies. Lee Morey is in the process of installing and alpha testing the ASF software. Currently, the Pathway Indexer indexes at any given time between 150,000 and 200,000 Web pages from over 1600 different servers. New sites are added on a daily basis. The initial collection of sites for over 170 Topics in the Subject Bibliography-based Browse Topics is almost complete. Volunteers from the depository and information communities maintain over 75 topics, with links created from Topics to relevant Subject Bibliographies. It is the goal of the staff responsible for this site to update the topics on at least a quarterly basis. The 1998 annual revision of the Recommended Specifications for Public Access Work Stations in Federal Depository Libraries is available in Administrative Notes (v. 19, no. 8, 6/15/98) on the FDLP Administration Page of GPO Access. askLPS and Other Inquiries In April 1998, LPS inaugurated askLPS, a feature of GPO Access designed to expedite the submission of inquiries and enhance communication to appropriate LPS personnel. Inquiries received via askLPS are given priority over inquiries submitted via fax, phone, or regular mail, although fax continues to be an important mechanism for providing additional information necessary for the completion of an inquiry (such as photocopies of title pages, introductory pages, etc.). Users have been encouraged to check WEBTech Notes and the FAQs & News weekly postings before submitting their inquiry, as the question may already have been researched and the response posted to the database. Since March over 12,400 inquiries have been received through all LPS channels with some 11,600 responses sent, generally within the 10 working day time frame. Product Update The number of tangible electronic products, a category that is virtually all CD-ROM titles, continued to grow in the FDLP in FY 1998.
New Services via the Web
Distribution of Tangible Products by LPS The following figures do not represent the total number of products distributed to depository libraries. The FDLP total includes an additional 1,147 titles mailed directly from printing contractors (direct mail titles). The total also includes distributions from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Imagery and Mapping Administration (NIMA) directly to depositories. Data for the USGS and NIMA distributions was not available at the time this report was prepared. Following is the FY 1998 distribution of tangible FDLP products from LPS. These figures do not include direct mail distributions (mail list), or distributions made by other agencies, such as the U.S. Geological Survey or the National Imagery and Mapping Administration, on LPS' behalf
Effective June 1, 1998, Potomac Business Center (PBC) and the United States Postal Service (USPS) became the primary carriers of depository materials. PBC subcontracts delivery of packages through the United Parcel Service (UPS). Delivery of packages sent through PBC is made by UPS directly to the depository library's shipping address of record. Prior to June 1, Roadway Package System (RPS) and the USPS made depository library deliveries. Self-Studies and Inspections As of September 1, 1998, Depository Services Staff (DSS) conducted on-site inspections in 102 depository libraries. In addition, 170 self-study Evaluations were compiled which summarized the strengths and weaknesses of the depository operation. In March 1998, 233 documents librarians and their directors whose depository operations were last inspected in 1992 were notified to submit a mandatory self-study. The states included California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. The due date for these self-studies was June 15. A centralized information page for self-studies and inspections was created on the GPO Web site. Links are provided to the self-study template, sample self-studies, and the Writing the GPO Self-Study presentation with accompanying slides in .pdf format. Federal Depository Library Directory The Depository Library Directory is a new feature on the FDLP Administration Web page. Depository libraries can view Directory and Item Lister data on any library by keying in a combination of data elements, such as depository number, size and type of library, state, etc. Depository librarian e-mail and item selections are also hot-linked. Directory changes can only be made by using the library's password. Directory data is used to correct addresses for shipments as well as the "Locate Libraries" function on GPO's Web site, U.S. Fax Watch, and the printed Federal Depository Library Directory. Two editions of the print version of the Federal Depository Library Directory were produced in February and August 1998 and distributed to depository libraries, GPO bookstores and the General Services Administration's (GSA) Consumer Information Center. The February 1998 issue was also mailed to the 535 Members of Congress.
1997 Biennial Survey The Superintendent of Documents is responsible for conducting the Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries. Required by Title 44, United States Code, section 1909, the Biennial Survey provides LPS with important information used to administer the Federal Depository Library Program. In FY 1997, the Biennial Survey was conducted on the World Wide Web for the first time. Each depository, using its unique password, entered data electronically. This application allowed more timely cumulating and release of data. The raw data from the 1997 Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries is available for downloading from the FBB. The files include the text of the Biennial Survey, data conversion table, and the answers from each depository in comma-delimited format. The following are highlights of the 1997 Biennial Survey responses:
Conferences DSS is responsible for organizing continuing education efforts for documents librarians. The two premier events are the annual Federal Depository Library Conference, which is conducted in conjunction with the spring Depository Library Council meeting, and the annual Interagency Depository Seminar. To continue the momentum from the 1997 Regional Librarians Conference, a one-day regional program was held on April 19 at the University of Maryland. The 7th annual Federal Depository Library Conference and spring meeting of the DLC was held April 20-23 in Arlington, VA. It was, again, an overwhelming success. There were over 550 attendees and 70 speakers. For the third successive year the Conference was held at the Washington National Airport Hilton. Registration by the Web was provided and used by over 90% of the participants. As in previous years, the agenda allowed the attendees to choose among a number of simultaneous sessions in addition to the plenary sessions. The conference Proceedings were distributed in paper to all depositories, and they are also loaded on the FDLP Administration Web page. DSS also coordinated the weeklong 11th Annual Interagency Depository Seminar held from May 27-June 3. Intended for those documents librarians with three or fewer years' experience, this seminar is designed as basic training. Sessions were conducted by GPO, Library of Congress, Patent & Trademark Office, Copyright Office, U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, General Accounting Office, Department of Energy, Office of the Federal Register, and the Bureau of the Census. The 8th annual Federal Depository Library Conference and Depository Library Council meeting is scheduled for April 12-15, 1999 at the Holiday Inn in Bethesda, MD. The Regional Librarians meeting is planned for April 11. The preliminary agenda will be announced in the December 15, 1998 Administrative Notes. The 12th annual Interagency Depository Seminar is scheduled for June 2-9, 1999 in Washington, DC. The preliminary agenda will be announced in the October 15, 1998 Administrative Notes. DSS also developed programs for the concurrent sessions held at the fall 1997 Depository Library Council in Clearwater Beach, FL and the fall 1998 Council meeting in San Diego, CA. Outreach The LPS staff was quite active in FY 1998 in expanding its outreach activities to the library/information communities and beyond. Gil Baldwin presented an Update on Title 44 Revision and the Electronic Transition on Federal Depository Libraries before the Government Documents Interest Group, Maryland Library Association (MLA) in November 1997 in College Park, MD and in May 1998 he spoke about Future Challenges for the FDLP to the same organization, MLA, in Ocean City, MD. Sheila McGarr provided LPS tours to a variety of groups including members of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC); Kent State University library school students; J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College librarians, and the Law Librarians Society of DC. Gail Snider presented Hints on Writing the GPO Self-Study to the Federal Depository Library Conference in April and in September 1998 to VA GODORT at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Ms. Snider and Tom Oertel attended the Kansas GODORT meeting in conjunction with library inspections in October 1997. Cynthia Etkin presented Hints on Writing the GPO Self-Study to the Kentucky Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) in May 1998. She represented GPO at the May 29th reception honoring Senator Wendell H. Ford sponsored by GODORT of the Kentucky Library Association. Senator Ford, the ranking member of the Joint Committee on Printing and Senate Rules and Administration Committee, will be retiring at the end of the current (105th) session of Congress. Ms. Etkin also represented GPO at the dedication of the Young Library on the University of Kentucky campus. During the May 7-8 Spring Forum at Mankato State University (MN), Ms. Etkin presented "CD-ROMs in a Webbed World." The forum was a joint meeting of Minntro Docs, Minnesota Library Association GODORT and a regional meeting that included South Dakota documents librarians.
Robin Haun-Mohamed made a presentation to the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) in October 1997 in Washington DC and to the Cartographic Users Advisory Council in May 1998 at the U.S. Geological Survey, Reston VA. She visited the U.S. Agency for International Development in July 1998 to discuss their electronic database.
In May, George Barnum gave a presentation on the FDLP Electronic Collection concept at the DOE/OSTI Inforum '98 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In June he moderated a panel discussion on permanent access to electronic government information, sponsored by the Federal Documents Task Force of the American Library Association. Many LPS staff members worked at the GPO booth at both the ALA mid-winter (January) and annual meetings (June), as well as during the Computers in Libraries Conference in March. NCLIS Assessment Pursuant to the January 1997 interagency agreement between GPO and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), a contract was awarded to Westat Inc., a social science research firm, in June 1998. Westat is tasked with conducting the basic research and producing a report of findings for the NCLIS/GPO Assessment of Government Electronic Information Products. The purpose of the assessment is to:
During the summer, Westat, NCLIS, and GPO identified 24 agencies in all three branches of the Federal Government that will participate in the study, selected nearly 400 information products, developed the survey instrument, held numerous briefings for the participating agencies' personnel, and distributed the survey instrument to the agencies. Our goal is to have a report of the project's findings available for publication and distribution by the end of February 1999. The Assessment will provide important baseline information on the Federal Government's electronic product plans and practices, information that will enable GPO to improve its ability to advise the depository library community about the types of products that they may expect to receive. In addition, results will also assist GPO to provide permanent public access to FDLP electronic information, and will identify possible areas for future standards and policy development discussions. Y2K LPS staff have analyzed all of our legacy mainframe applications and local personal computer (PC) applications to determine steps necessary to ensure that the various systems and services are year 2000 (Y2K) compliant. The PCs used for the Shipping List (SL) application need to be replaced, and orders for new machines were placed in August 1998. The existing shipping list program needs minor modifications and the work should be done by October 1, 1998. Another option under examination for the shipping list is to modify programming for ACSIS (Acquisition, Classification and Shipping Information System) to allow staff from the Depository Administration Branch (DAB) to pull shipping list data off the mainframe into a shipping list template for the paper shipping list distribution. This will also allow the data to be posted to the Web site more easily than is currently possible. The most important aspect of this solution is to reduce the need to re-key data, which is part of the current process. GPO's Office of Information Resources Management (OIRM) staff completed an assessment of the requirements for the two mainframe systems in DAB, ACSIS and the Depository Distribution Information System (DDIS), and expect the changes to be implemented by November 1998. In the ACSIS system, the fields with two digit years will be increased to four digits. For DDIS only a few date calculations are used in the system as it currently exists. OIRM is working to identify those areas needing "fixes." Fourteen 486-chip computers used in DAB are not Y2K compliant, and orders will be placed for new ones in October or November. The other 20 PCs in DAB are Y2K compliant. Overall, there are some 41 systems in LPS that need to be replaced with Y2K compliant systems. The process of replacing the systems is underway and will be completed well in advance of the year 2000. As the cartridge system used to produce the List of Classes is not Y2K compliant, DAB requested programming changes to the List of Classes to obtain the data for the Alphabetic List of Government Authors (Appendix I) and Classes No Longer Active with Explanation (Appendix II). These programming changes have been completed. A final product, Inactive or Discontinued Items from the 1950 Revision of the Classified List, is scheduled for conversion from the cartridge format in March 1999. All of the Microsoft Office 97 software on the Windows NT network is Y2K compliant. These software packages are upgraded as new versions are made available. The Windows 95 operating system is also compliant with one minor exception. A patch for Windows 95 has been made available to make the Windows Explorer in Windows 95 Y2K compliant. This patch was installed on all systems this past summer. LPS Orientation Program An orientation program was developed and implemented during FY '98 to provide current LPS and EIDS employees with an overview of basic job functions within all work areas of LPS. Managers and supervisors from LPS worked together on developing the program. Although the orientation is not mandatory, employee participation has been strongly encouraged. The ultimate goal of the program is to build a stronger work force that better understands the mission of LPS. By participating in the orientation, staff has gotten an understanding of how each individual position makes a difference in the accomplishment of the LPS mission. The program has fostered positive working relationships among employees in both LPS and EIDS. Managers and supervisors have received feedback and recommendations so that they may continually improve their efforts in serving the depository library community. There have been six sessions since the program began in January 1998. Consisting of eight half-days, the program has been held over a two-week period. In FY 1998, 31 employees participated with five to six employees from various work areas within LPS and EIDS in the sessions.
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