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Administrative Notes: Newsletter of the FDLP

Judy Russell Honored with Top Library Award

Judy Russell, Managing Director of Information Dissemination at the U.S. Government Printing Office, has been honored by the Special Libraries Association (SLA) for her outstanding contribution to the global community of information professionals. She is one of two honorees to receive the 2005 SLA Professional Award for exceptional and exemplary service as an information resource expert.

Russell, who also serves as the 22nd Superintendent of Documents and is the first woman to hold the historic position, is delighted to be included in the list of outstanding individuals recognized. "I am extremely honored to be among those receiving this important award. I am especially touched because I know how tirelessly my fellow award recipients work in the library communities to continuously strive for excellence and set standards for our entire country," Russell said.

At the GPO, Russell leads the agency in providing public access to Government information published by the U.S. Congress, Federal agencies, and the Federal courts. She manages the Federal Depository Library Program, the Document Sales Program and the GPO Access Web site, which provides electronic access to many of the most important information products produced by the Federal Government.

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2005 Federal Depository Library Conference & Fall Depository Library Council Meeting Scheduled for Washington, DC

The fall Depository Library Council meeting will be held in Washington, DC at the Hyatt Regency, located at 400 New Jersey Ave., NW. The meeting will begin Sunday, October 16, 2005. Registration starts at 8:00 a.m., and the first session, the New Attendees Orientation, begins at 10:00 a.m. The GPO Update and a plenary session will commence that afternoon. The meeting will conclude at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday October 19, 2005.

The Council meeting is open to everyone and there is no registration fee. The meeting provides Federal depository library staff, information professionals, and all others interested in Federal Government information dissemination the opportunity to stay current with Federal Depository Library Program activities, to provide input into the planning process, and to exchange ideas among colleagues.

Advance registration is important to provide us the information necessary to make this meeting productive and enjoyable for you. The earlier you register, the more time it allows us to prepare. Pre-registration is now available at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/events/fall_conference.html

A block of 250 sleeping rooms is available at the meeting hotel for attendees at the government rate of $153.00 per night (plus tax) single, or $178.00 per night (plus tax) double occupancy. The District of Columbia's room tax is 14.5%. This rate will be honored for stays up to 3 days before and after the official meeting dates (10/13-22/05).

Online hotel reservations are accepted for this meeting at: https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=21633

Reservations may also be made by calling 1-888-421-1442. Please mention the GPO's Federal Depository Library Conference and Council meeting to receive the correct rates. The hotel does not offer shuttle service from the airport. Metro rail from the Reagan National Airport to Union Station is approximately $1.75 and cab fare is approximately $9.00. If you drive, daily, overnight and valet parking is available for a maximum of $33.60 per day (including tax).

A preliminary agenda is being developed and will be available soon at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/events/fall_conference_agenda.html

Additional information is available at these websites:

Washington DC, Convention and Visitors Bureau - "The Official Tourism Site for Washington DC" http://www.washington.org/index.cfm?blnNavView=True&idContentType=36&idCurrentPage=7&CFID=14964317&CFTOKEN=27824960

National Park Service, District of Columbia - http://data2.itc.nps.gov/parksearch/state.cfm?st=dc

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Microfiche Contracts with ESI Terminated

GPO has terminated the contractual services of Engineered Systems, Inc. (ESI), one of three microfiche providers for the Federal Depository Library Program. ESI will no longer accept claims from depository libraries. All microfiche claims in which ESI served as the provider should be directed to the Office of Acquisitions and Development, Betty M. Jones (bjones@gpo.gov)
(202) 512-1071.

Joint Effort Underway to Prepare Electronic Depository Manual

GPO is consolidating and updating its various FDLP instructions and manuals into a single online publication. The Electronic Depository Manual will be a collaborative effort by GPO and the depository library community. Within the manual will be best practices, tips, and hot links to additional information of interest to government documents librarians. For more information, a presentation about the new manual from the Spring 2005 Federal Depository Library Council/Conference proceedings is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/new_manual.ppt

The publications to be consolidated and updated in the electronic manual include the Instructions to Depository Libraries available at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/instructions/index.html, and the Federal Depository Library Manual and its supplements, available at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/fdlm/index.html.

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Nominate the 2005 Federal Depository Library of the Year

What is the Award?

The Federal Depository Library of the Year Award provides special recognition for a library that furthers the goal of the Federal Depository Library Program by ensuring that the American public has free access to its Government's information through:

•  Outstanding service to meet the Federal government information needs in the library's service area;

•  Creativity and innovation in developing specific community programs for use of Federal government information or a dramatic increase in their community's usage of Federal government information;

•  Leadership in creating public service programs that can be emulated by other Federal Depository Libraries.

What are the benefits of winning?

Here's what a past winner had to say:

"Winning the Federal Depository Library of the Year award enabled us to increase awareness of our library in the community and among our colleagues. It also gave us the 'bells and whistles' we needed to raise our profile with our library board. I think any depository library could greatly benefit from winning." - Suzanne Sears, Tulsa City-County Library

The winner will be announced at an award ceremony during the fall 2005 Depository Library Conference and meeting of the Depository Library Council. The conference will be held in Washington, DC from October 16-19, 2005. GPO will provide travel to and lodging during the Conference for the depository coordinator and library director from the winning library.

How Do I Nominate A Library?

You are invited to nominate any Federal Depository Library, regardless of its size or type. To apply, go to: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/fdlofyear/application05.html. (Past winners, libraries of current Depository Library Council members, and libraries on probation are ineligible for consideration.)

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GPO Releases Report on Digital Preservation: Metadata Specifications

The final version of The Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation: Metadata Specifications is now available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/metadata.html.

Background:

GPO is working with the library community and others in the information community on a national digitization plan, with the goal of digitizing a complete legacy collection of tangible U.S. Government publications. The objective is to ensure that the digital collection is available, in the public domain, for no-fee permanent public access through the FDLP.

The project will ensure that the collection is digitally reformatted for preservation purposes. The digital preservation masters and the associated metadata will be preserved in the GPO electronic archive (in addition to any other places that the materials might be held), and there will be no-fee public access to the content through derivative files on GPO Access.

The Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation: Metadata Specifications, which is located at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/metadata.html, is a summary of the second of two meetings held to assist GPO in developing specifications for the digitization project. This meeting, focusing on descriptive and preservation metadata, was held at GPO in June 2004. A summary of the overall discussion of the experts and the necessary resources for the metadata package submission are included in the report. Also included is a listing of metadata elements that is not meant to be viewed as a final list of required metadata elements, but a list of metadata elements, based on this discussion and the recommended readings as put forth in the meeting. It provides a common set of elements from which to build for the digitization project. For information on The Report of the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation: Digital Preservation Masters, held March 2004, go to http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/preservation.html.

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Future Digital System Documents Available

As discussed at the past two FDLP conferences, the Future Digital System (FDsys) currently under development by GPO will be a world-class information life-cycle management system that will transform GPO into a leadership content management agency. The system will be designed to accept, organize, manage and output authenticated content for any use or purpose and to preserve the content independent of specific hardware or software. For more information, please visit the Office of Innovation and New Technology's website at http://www.gpo.gov/projects/fdsys.htm.

Three documents regarding the FDsys are now electronically available in PDF format:

•  FDsys Requirements Document v1.0

•  FDsys Concept of Operations v2.0

•  FDsys Phase 3 Summary

The Requirements Document (RD) defines preliminary requirements for the FDsys. These requirements will be refined and shaped based on feedback from user, technical, and vendor communities. RD version 1.0 is available at http://www.gpo.gov/projects/pdfs/FDsys_RD_v1.0.pdf

The initial FDsys Concept of Operations (ConOps) document was released in October 2004. ConOps documents are designed to describe the high-level user requirements of a system, as well as general system capabilities. In order to remain consistent with the FDsys Requirements Document, the FDsys ConOps has been updated to version 2.0 and is available at http://www.gpo.gov/projects/pdfs/FDsys_ConOps_v2.0.pdf.

Completing the initial RD fulfilled Phase 3 of the FDsys project. An executive summary of Phase 3 is available at http://www.gpo.gov/projects/pdfs/Summary_Phase3.pdf. This document also outlines the activities required for future phases of the FDsys project.

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Appreciation for Map Cataloger Vi Moorhouse

Vi Moorhouse came to work at the United States Government Printing Office on September 9, 1968, after working at the New York Public Library for 7 years. Vi's commitment to serve the public via the United States government was strengthened by a desire to do something positive following the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Since that time, Vi has served the GPO faithfully for 37 years as a cataloger of monographs, serials and maps, and at times served as GPO's only maps cataloger. She has contributed more than 106,000 bibliographic records and has initiated an uncountable number of geographic name authority records in the Library of Congress authority database, providing a deep contribution to the field of geophysical data. Her prodigious talents have been so valued that in 1998 she received the American Library Association's Map and Geography Round Table (MAGERT) award presented to librarians for outstanding service to map librarianship. In the late 1990s she published regular articles on GPO map cataloging in the MAGERT publication base line and in GPO's own Administrative Notes newsletter, and she wrote the chapter on the Superintendent of Documents classification of maps in GPO's Classification manual. Vi has been active in ALA's Government Documents Round Table and in the Cartographic Users Advisory Council, as well as in MAGERT.

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A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Last update Date: June 21, 2005
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