Permanent Access to
Electronic Government Information Products
October 27, 1997

Executive Summary

The Government Printing Office (GPO) will manage the various electronic Government information products made permanently accessible via GPO Access as a library-like collection. Permanent public access will be provided under the authority of the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-40), and planning for GPO Access storage will be done in the context of a GPO Collection Plan. GPO planning efforts recognize that GPO is building an FDLP Electronic Collection (the Collection) using GPO resources, and is coordinating permanent access through a distributed networked system. The Collection consists of remotely accessible electronic Government information products, including core legislative and regulatory GPO Access products which will reside permanently on GPO servers, and other products either maintained by GPO or other institutions with which GPO has established formal agreements. Such institutions may include Government agencies, Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) partner libraries, or other service institutions that support a part of the Collection. A Collection Plan will be developed to delineate policies, procedures, and organizational responsibilities for managing the Collection. The Collection Plan is critical for the effective maintenance of remotely accessible electronic information products that GPO increasingly holds for permanent public access.

Establishing a Collection Plan will promote recognition among Federal publishing agencies that GPO is dedicated to ensuring permanent access to Federal electronic information products, whether those products are held by GPO Access or by an institution with which GPO has a partnership agreement. With a demonstrable plan to develop a Collection infrastructure, GPO will be better able to provide or promote these services.

Storage is a key component of Collection management. As used in this report, storage means the functions associated with saving electronic information products on physical media, whether magnetic, optical, or other alternative technology. GPO Access storage refers to the storage of information products through their life cycle as part of the Collection, from initial release as a product through preservation for permanent access. This view of storage of GPO Access databases has evolved from what was visualized in 1993. The most notable changes are:

• that storage capability has become a networked system in which electronic storage functions and capacities are distributed among multiple sites rather than a single facility or site in which all GPO Access products are held, and

• that the act of storage begins when a new product is first written to disc for public access.

Terms used in this paper are defined as follows:

• "Collection Plan" means the policies and procedures developed to manage and ensure permanent public access to remotely accessible electronic Government information products maintained in the FDLP Electronic Collection.

• "Electronic Government information service" means the system or method by which a component of the Government or its authorized agent disseminates Government information products to the public via a telecommunications network.

• "FDLP Electronic Collection," or "Collection," means the remotely accessed electronic Government information products that GPO holds in storage for permanent public access through the FDLP, or that are held by libraries and other institutions operating in partnership with the FDLP.

• "FDLP partner" means a depository library or other institution that stores and maintains for permanent access segments of the FDLP Electronic Collection.

• "Government information" means a work of the United States Government, regardless of form or format, which is created or compiled by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties, or at Government expense, or as required by law, except that which is required for official use only, is for strictly operational or administrative purposes having no public interest or educational value, or is classified for reasons of national security.

• "Government information product" means a Government publication or other work of the United States Government, either conveyed in a tangible format, including electronic media and any accompanying search component, or disseminated via a Government electronic information service.

• "GPO Access storage" refers to GPO’s capacity to maintain information products through their life cycles, from initial release as electronic Government information products through preservation for permanent access.

• "Permanent access" means that Government information products within the scope of the FDLP remain available for continuous, no fee public access through the program. For emphasis, the phrase "permanent public access" is sometimes used with the same definition.

• "Storage, or Storage facility" means the functions associated with saving electronic information products on physical media, including magnetic, optical, or other alternative technology.

An electronic storage facility was mandated in the GPO Access Act of 1993. The fundamental purpose of the storage facility was "to provide a facility for storage of electronic information made available on the system of access by the Superintendent of Documents." (House Report 103-108, p. 171)

Criteria outlined for the storage facility in House Report 103-108 are that the facility:

• provide for online, though not necessarily interactive, access to information stored in the facility;

• include electronic versions of the Congressional Record and Federal Register;

• need not be situated in Washington, DC; and

• accept data as a service to agencies, though agencies are not required to use the storage facility.

By 1995, GPO had completed steps that met these four basic requirements regarding the storage of electronic Government information products. The most visible accomplishments are the production and maintenance of the online Congressional Record and Federal Register, and the establishment of a remote online computer information facility. Since June 1994, the number of GPO Access databases has grown to over one hundred. Current editions of these databases are located in the GPO's main facility in Washington DC. Earlier editions of some major GPO Access databases, such as the Federal Register and Congressional Record, are maintained for permanent online access at the remote storage site. Additionally, storage of Federal agency electronic information products is provided as a service to agencies on GPO's Federal Bulletin Board (FBB).

In daily operations, GPO has performed storage functions, which include the routine management of electronic information products made available through GPO Access, including formatting, backup, migration, and provision of permanent access to these products. Equipment for storage capacity for primary and backup copies of GPO Access information products has been purchased on an ongoing basis as the volume of products in GPO Access has expanded.

This report defines the storage facility to mean the storage functions and capacity of the distributed network that GPO has developed rather than to mean any single site or installation. This definition recognizes that collecting and housing all parts of a particular collection at any single site is not consistent with the topography that has developed on the Internet. A basic premise of the networked environment is that information posted at any one site is available to all that have access to the network. Using the proposed definition of GPO Access storage, GPO can take advantage of Internet topography to store and provide permanent access to electronic Government information products.

In general, legislative and regulatory core products managed as part of GPO Access will reside permanently on GPO servers. Other agency products may permanently reside on GPO servers, migrate from a GPO site to a partner’s site, or products from non-GPO sites may be incorporated into the Collection under a partnership arrangement. In such arrangements the storage of and access to Collection products is managed cooperatively by partner FDLP libraries, consortia, agencies, and GPO, using the storage capacity of the partner institution.

These questions of where and how GPO will maintain storage capacity are important. However, a more significant question is how will GPO manage the information products stored in GPO Access for access through the FDLP.

A fundamental assumption outlined in GPO's 1996 Study to Identify Measures Necessary for a Successful Transition to a More Electronic Federal Depository Library Program is that FDLP dissemination of remotely accessible electronic information products will be through "a distributed system that provides continuous, permanent public access, involving the publishing agencies, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and regional and other depository libraries." This concept of permanent access parallels the traditional statutory requirement that regional depository libraries hold paper and microfacsimile copies permanently.

This mission to provide permanent public access to electronic information products in the FDLP leads to the conclusion that information products should be managed on GPO Access as a library-like collection. This will require standard library collection management policies and techniques, such as selection, acquisition, bibliographic control, access, organization, maintenance, deselection, and preservation for access. In a mature systems environment, an overall plan for managing the Collection will benefit Government information users. A Collection Plan that defines a vision for permanent access to the electronic information products that GPO manages will demonstrate GPO’s commitment to keeping the information available to the public.

Development of a Collection Plan is being undertaken to clarify responsibilities within GPO for managing the Collection. These responsibilities include the identification, selection, acquisition, and provision of access to the Collection, as well as for bibliographic control, security, preservation, and user support. Similar planning will be initiated to coordinate information products distributed among FDLP partners. Outreach efforts to manage relationships with Federal agencies and with library partners will be a key component of the Collection Plan. The collective skills of staff throughout GPO will be leveraged in the planning process.

In the past, GPO and the depository libraries shared the responsibility for permanent access. Traditionally GPO produced, cataloged, and distributed Government information products, and the geographically dispersed FDLP libraries housed, managed, and provided permanent access to paper, microfiche, and CD-ROM products that GPO distributed. By establishing the GPO Access databases, GPO has in effect assumed responsibility for the life cycle management of such Government information products as the Federal Register, Congressional Record, and Commerce Business Daily. The development of the FDLP Electronic Collection, a new enterprise for GPO, requires managing the electronic products maintained in this Collection through their life cycle.

Electronic Government information products will become part of the Collection through several channels:

• Products that GPO produces and manages as online services, such as the Federal Register and the Congressional Record, and products that reside on Web sites that GPO hosts for agencies, will routinely become part of the Collection, much as the print and microfiche products GPO produces traditionally have been distributed to depository libraries.

• GPO plans to collect copies of electronic information products which producing agencies make available only for a limited time, when these products meet the criteria for inclusion in the FDLP.

• GPO will occasionally acquire from agencies electronic source files for various publications.

• In some cases FDLP partners will receive products directly from producing agencies and will hold them for permanent access as part of the Collection. A major task in managing the Collection will be providing the outreach necessary to establish and maintain these acquisition channels.

GPO directly manages that part of the Collection that resides on GPO servers, which includes the core legislative and regulatory information. GPO will also rely on select FDLP libraries, library consortia, or other institutions to serve as FDLP partners in managing other products in the Collection. FDLP partners will provide the storage capacity and other resources required to support permanent access to the parts of the Collection they manage. GPO will coordinate the network of FDLP partnerships, provide locator services to link users to materials in the entire distributed Collection, and assume ultimate responsibility for the provision of permanent access to information products that partners hold, particularly in the event a partner is no longer able to support access. GPO may also rely upon non-library partners or service providers, such as the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), to house segments of the Collection.

The first FDLP partnership was established with the Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the Department of State to provide permanent access to Department of State (DOS) foreign affairs information products. This three-way partnership is defined in a memorandum of understanding which outlines basic responsibilities of the partners and addresses issues such as ownership and custody of products held in partnership, security and maintenance of these products, and access, storage, and preservation. Fundamental to this and all partnerships is that information stored within the FDLP partnership is the property of the people of the United States.

The authority, integrity, permanency, and security of the Collection are ongoing policy concerns for GPO managers. In particular, GPO must articulate and rely upon Collection Plan policies when entering into arrangements with service providers and FDLP partners to assure that all Collection products and sites will be appropriately managed for permanent access. GPO will establish within its Collection Plan policies and procedures for disaster recovery and multiple site backup capabilities. Both are essential components of the management of the Collection.

One critical precept regarding this distributed Collection is that in the Internet environment there can be distributed control over remotely accessed Federal information. GPO directly manages information products on GPO servers and has a long-term responsibility for Collection products held by FDLP partner libraries. However, segments of the Collection on FDLP partner servers are under the direct control of the partner. This is a significant change from traditional FDLP organization, wherein GPO provided bibliographic control of products through the Monthly Catalog and FDLP libraries essentially controlled access to tangible products in their collections. In response to this change, GPO will establish policies and procedures to coordinate the FDLP partners’ efforts to ensure permanent public access.

This distributed responsibility also affects the FDLP's relationships with publishing agencies that maintain Internet sites to disseminate their electronic information products. As with FDLP partners, Federal agencies provide the resources needed to maintain products on their Internet sites. The Superintendent of Documents catalogs and provides locator services pointing to information products the agencies create and works with agencies to ensure that permanent access is provided. However, until those products are transferred from agency Internet sites to the custody of GPO or an FDLP partner, those materials are not considered to be part of GPO's FDLP Electronic Collection. In other words, merely "pointing" users to an agency site or electronic product does not mean that site or product is part of the Collection.

In summary, the FDLP Electronic Collection will be comprised of remotely accessible electronic Government information products that GPO manages, either directly on GPO servers or indirectly through FDLP partners. No one agency or library can hold all Federal Government electronic information products. Many products will be made available for permanent access on other agency Internet sites, through the services of such agencies as NARA, or from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) for scientific and technical information. GPO resources will be used to manage products in its Collection, to link users to other Federal sites and products through Locator services, and to ensure permanent access through coordination with other agencies. Federal agencies, NARA, and FDLP partners will provide the resources required to support permanent access to their Government information product holdings.

The remotely accessible electronic Government information products maintained by GPO comprise a FDLP Electronic Collection for which a Collection Plan will be established. The Collection Plan will delineate policies and procedures for managing the Collection, as well as define responsibilities for implementation of the Plan. The Plan is being developed as a GPO team effort to encourage the establishment of effective cross-agency management of the Collection which builds upon the various skills available throughout GPO.

The benefits of managing electronic products on GPO Access as a Collection are many. Most important, the Collection Plan will provide guidance to GPO Access managers regarding the acquisition, organization, and disposition of products held in the Collection. With this guidance in place there will be increased confidence within Government, the library community, and the general public that GPO is effectively ensuring permanent access to electronic Government information products. It is vital to future users of Government information that GPO provides permanent access to Federal agency electronic information products, whether those products are available on GPO Access or on agency Internet sites.

October 27, 1997