As Chief of Depository Services, I am responsible for a variety of activities. The primary responsibility of the Depository Services staff is to monitor the condition of all depository libraries. This is accomplished through periodic inspections visits and the Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries which each depository is required by law to complete. In addition, other responsibilities include the designation and termination of depositories; workshops such as the Interagency Depository Seminar, Federal Depository Conference, and speeches before library groups; liaison with regional depositories; and publications such as Administrative Notes, Instructions to Depository Libraries, Federal Depository Library Manual, Superseded List, etc.
1. Now that the Congressional District Atlas has been published, staff will be assigning all 1404 depositories to their new Congressional districts resulting from the 1990 Census. This task will determine the number and location of vacancies for potential designation. Our thanks to Virginia and Michigan for supplying this information for their entire states.
2. Biennial Survey questions are being finalized. Then the scanning sheet must be prepared by a contractor. We hope to have it mailed to depositories by July.
3. The 6th Annual Interagency Depository Seminar, which is aimed at new depository librarians who learn about the products and services of various federal agencies, is being held from May 19-26 this year. There are 75 confirmed attendees.
4. The Federal Depository Library Manual was submitted by Anne Diamond and her committee last year. Its publication has been overtaken by events. The first problem was the text was in Macintosh and had to be converted to IBM compatible. The second, LPS reorganization. Thirdly, the GPO Classification Manual, for which I had prior responsibility and which was in the production queue first, was finally distributed in February 1993. Now time can be devoted to preparing the Manual. The inspectors updated all the core lists using a recent List of Classes. Other chapters were revised due to agency changes, e.g. LPS chapter, USGS and DMA in the map chapter, etc. Separate chapters, on Bibliographic Control and Technical Processing, Collection Development and suggested core lists, were combined. Rather than have the first three chapters contain page after page of core list, they will appear in an appendix. Each chapter will be outlined in a fashion similar to the GPO Classification Manual. Shading, blocks, and graphics to highlight material will be used, and an index will be created. It will have a "look" similar to the Instructions, Superseded List, etc. We hope to have it out by the end of July.
5. The Superseded List was distributed last fall. In order to keep it up-to-date between editions, we inaugurated a new column entitled "Update to the Superseded List" in Administrative Notes. As LPS does not have a library collection, we are dependent on receiving recommendations of superseded items from the depository community.
6. Administrative Notes is distributed to all depositories biweekly in the shipment boxes and is available on our bulletin board up to two weeks earlier by dialing (202) 512-1397. We encourage contributions to Administrative Notes, especially to Electronic Corner and Readers Exchange.
7. Since the Printing Act of 1895, GPO has been authorized to conduct "first hand investigations" of depository libraries. During the remainder of 1993, inspections are planned in a number of states where the libraries were last inspected in 1987 and earlier and some with 1988 dates. Libraries are notified about six weeks before the scheduled inspection. They are evaluated on compliance or non-compliance with access, custody, preservation, and maintenance provisions in Title 44, United States Code and the Instructions to Depository Libraries.
There is a statutory ceiling on travel funds and during fiscal year 1993, inspections were cut by 25% due to budget cuts. We are in the data gathering stage of obtaining criteria used by accreditation agencies of law and academic institutions. As over 70% of our depositories are academic and accredited, we are looking at the possibility of depositories conducting self studies, not self certification, in between on-site inspections. Based on an evaluation of the self study, a depository could be inspected earlier than the regular cycle.
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