The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has released two new Public Access Assessment resources:

•  Public Access Assessments: Initial Review Checklist
•  Public Access Assessments: Guidelines for Completing Initial Review (Final)

These documents will be used by GPO personnel as they start an assessment of an individual depository library. They describe the factors that we will review for each element in Focus on Access, Collections, Service, and Cooperative Efforts during the initial step in the Public Access Assessment process. The Guidelines also describe some of the scenarios that may prompt further review of a library.

Focus on Access, Collections, Service, and Cooperative Efforts, an update of the document describing the focus and organization of the assessments, has also been released. This document describes the focus and organization of the assessments and is now entitled, Focus on Access, Collections, Service, and Cooperative Efforts.

The biggest change from the previous version was the creation of a specific category for Cooperative Efforts to emphasize how libraries cooperate as partners in the FDLP. This replaced the Overarching Responsibilities category in the previous document. The elements previously in that category were moved to either Service or Cooperative Efforts. Some of the other elements were updated based upon feedback submitted in November, 2007. Among other comments received were requests to further define the concept of providing “timely or ready access” or “access within a reasonable amount of time”. We made some minor changes but left many of the elements including this concept unchanged from the previous version. We will continue to review the issue and incorporate further guidance about it, as appropriate, into the Federal Depository Library Handbook, the source of the FDLP requirements reviewed in a Public Access Assessment. Timely access is a combination of your library’s public service personnel’s professional judgment and expertise, your availability to address questions based on your library’s hours of operation (and the recourse you have available if the hours are limited to the regular work week), and the options available to you to provide access to Federal depository library resources (i.e., your library’s collection, resource sharing options, etc). Please note that “free public access” is defined as “perpetual, no fee, and ready access to Federal Government information products without impediments is available to the general public”.¹

•  Public Access Assessments: Guidelines for Completing Initial Review (Final)

¹ Focus on Access, Collections, Service, and Cooperative Efforts

Comments

We encourage you to review these resources, and we welcome your comments. The deadline for comments is Friday, May 23, 2008.