[ Back to the Table
of Contents ]
.
Recommendations and Action Items of the Depository
Library
Council to the
Public Printer
Spring 1997 Council Meeting, Arlington, Virginia
April 14-17, 1997
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Title 44 Revision
Council supports in principle the goals for reforming Title 44 as
outlined by
Eric Peterson, Staff Director of the Joint Committee on Printing,
in his
keynote address to the 1997 Federal Depository Conference on
April 14, 1997:
to resolve the constitutional separation of powers issue; to
establish an
enforceable compliance mechanism; to ensure public access to
taxpayer
supported information by preserving and protecting the Federal
Depository
Library Program; and to ensure that both Title 44 and the Federal
Depository
Library Program are able to operate effectively in this era of
changing
dynamics and technologies. Council believes that any reform of
Title 44
U.S.C. should include the August 1996 proposed revisions to
Chapter 19
submitted by the GPO to the Senate Rules Committee. We believe
that the
level of specificity articulated in the August 1996 revision is
necessary to
address these complex issues successfully.
Endorsement of JCP Consultations With GPO And
NARA
Council endorses the Joint Committee on Printing's pending
action, as
announced by Eric Peterson on April 14, 1997, to consult with the
Government
Printing Office and the National Archives and Records
Administration to
define their respective roles in the preservation of and
permanent access to
electronic Government information.
Collection Management Officer For Electronic Products in
Superintendent of
Documents
The Depository Library Council recommends that the Public Printer
create,
within the Office of the Superintendent of Documents, the
position of
collection management officer for electronic products. The
implementation of
a collection management program for electronic products, whether
stored on
facilities operated by GPO, by GPO partner institutions outside
the Federal
Government, or in coordination with other Federal agencies,
should be the
primary responsibility of this officer. Collection management in
this
context should encompass selection, acquisition, organization,
maintenance,
and preservation activities for electronic products and services.
Rationale: When tangible products are distributed to
FDLP libraries, GPO has
no further responsibility for the preservation of or permanent
public access
to these products. These responsibilities are fulfilled by the
nationwide
system of depository libraries. However, in the world of
non-tangible
electronic Government information products, GPO must take
responsibility for
the entire life cycle management of these products to ensure that
tomorrow's
users of Government information can find the Government
information they
require.
NTIS-GPO Pilot Project
Council is encouraged by the National Technical Information
Service (NTIS)
and University of California, Davis pre-pilot project, which
provides for no-
fee distribution of Federal Government information products from
the NTIS
collection in electronic format directly to a Federal depository
library. We
recommend that GPO pursue an expanded pilot project with NTIS
that will test
the effectiveness of such distribution to a range of depository
libraries.
Ongoing evaluation of the project should address the issues of:
expanding the
range of material available; allowing the end user to receive an
electronic
copy of Federal Government information; and no-fee depository
access to the
full range of NTIS bibliographic data.
Rationale: Council encourages cooperation between GPO
and NTIS in providing
no-fee public access to the Government information products in
the NTIS
collection previously available only at a cost to Federal
depository
libraries. However, Council has grave concerns about the
copyright-like
restrictions imposed by NTIS which prevent further dissemination
of the
electronic image files.
When the information is in machine-readable form, the user should
be able to
obtain the information at the location most convenient for use,
and should be
able to study and evaluate the information before determining
whether or what
parts to print. Such study and evaluation may in some instances
be more
effectively done outside the library environment and should not
be subject to
workstation and print constraints.
Council also encourages cooperation between GPO and NTIS in
providing no-fee
public access to the NTIS electronic bibliographic database,
which would
assist Federal depository libraries in identifying Federal
Government
information products.
GPO Web Site
Council recommends that GPO appoint a Web Site Coordinator to
facilitate
consistent agency-wide Web development, structure, and
navigation, and that
GPO enhance its Web-based resources by redesigning the Web pages
to be more
intuitive to all user audiences. This redesign should include
the following:
1. A "Search-This-Site" mechanism which, at a minimum,
will
index by agency, product title, subject, and keyword.
2. A cumulative electronic product listing with scope
notes,
site configurations and mechanisms so that GPO Web resources can
be included
in the search results of commonly used Web search engines.
Rationale: GPO Web site resources continue to grow in importance
as more are
added from various divisions of GPO. With growth comes
difficulties in
locating desired information within the site, and in coordinating
the
consistent and directed inclusion of information from various
providers. A
Web-site coordinator would eliminate these problems. While
remaining aware
of security issues inherent with this recommendation, Council
suggests that
GPO does the following to facilitate public access to GPO Web
resources
beyond the depository community: 1) continue to rearrange,
redesign, and
enhance its Web site to meet the needs of various user groups
such as the
legislators, depository librarians, reference librarians, and the
general
public; 2) develop internal location tools to facilitate
searching and
locating information sources within the GPO site (i.e.,
Index-This-Site); and
3) devise methodologies that facilitate the inclusion of GPO
information into
the results of popular Web search engines like Yahoo, AltaVista,
InfoSeek and
other appropriate Web crawlers and information gathering
mechanisms.
Frames Technology
Council supports the use of frames technology on the GPO Web
site, as long as
users accessing the pages using Lynx or non-graphical software
have
functionality comparable to those using graphical user
interfaces.
Rationale: Frames technology has the potential of providing GPO
Web site
users with a quick and more user-friendly method of accessing
materials
located on the GPO Web site. Council recognizes that some users
accessing
the GPO Web site lack the software necessary to use frames
technologies.
Council supports the premise that people using lower end
technologies to
access the GPO Web pages should be as well served as users
employing more
sophisticated means of access. Therefore, Council recommends
that GPO
utilize alternative methods for providing access to the
information included
within the frame which would allow users to select the frames or
non-frames
version of the Web page.
Core Documents of Democracy
Council endorses the concept behind development of the Core
Documents of
Democracy: An Electronic Collection as originally presented to
Council for
review. This collection "should be made available for free,
permanent,
public access via GPO Access service"and should include vital
information
beyond the scope of the original list. However, Council
recommends that GPO
delete the words "of democracy" so that it can more readily
include
information beyond the scope of the original list. Furthermore,
Council
recommends that GPO formulate a collection development policy in
cooperation
with the library community to ensure that it defines such issues
as criteria
for inclusion, authenticity of information, and organization of
this
collection.
Rationale: As the Internet continues to become one of the
primary resources
for permanent public access to Federal Government information,
GPO needs a
mechanism whereby it can proactively identify information that
belongs in a
permanent electronic collection and arrange for its incorporation
into GPO
Access. Furthermore GPO must have the ability to include
information already
in electronic format as well as to arrange for conversion to
electronic
format of other information of historical importance. Council
believes that
the public's right to know includes access to information beyond
the scope
defined as Core Documents of Democracy and looks forward to
seeing a more
fully developed concept.
ACTION ITEMS:
Biennial Survey
The Working Group on Statistical Measurement will continue to
work with the
Government Printing Office to develop the 1997 and 1999 Biennial
Surveys.
Council recognizes the short lead time before the 1997 survey is
to be
conducted and, therefore, suggests that the depository community
be alerted
to the general nature of the changes in the survey from the 1995
version as
soon as possible. Council believes that the survey should use
standard
library definitions, ask for basic information, provide for
longitudinal
analysis and result in a report of benchmark data for the library
community.
Service Guidelines Working Group
Council will appoint a working group to draft public services
guidelines for
electronic Government information in depository libraries. The
working group
will include representation reflecting various types of
depository library
concerns. It will present a progress report at the Fall 1997
meeting and a
final report to Council at its Spring 1998 meeting.
COMMENDATIONS:
Commendation to William W. Thompson, GPO staff
The Depository Library Council commends William W. Thompson of
the staff of
the Director of the Library Programs Service for his
professionalism and
resourcefulness in support of Council's work. We deeply
appreciate his
efforts on our behalf, including the planning and coordination he
does prior
to the meetings and his cooperative "can-do" spirit when we need
him to work
his magic to smooth out logistical problems during our sessions.
Commendation on the GILS Application on GPO Access
Council commends the Government Printing Office for creating the
Government
Information Locator Service (GILS) application on the GPO Access
system.
This application provides a single point of access for users to
search the
GILS records of 26 executive branch agencies. The recent
enhancement that
provides transparent remote access through this application to
the GILS
records of an additional 14 agencies increases the value of this
unique
service. We commend GPO for developing a partnership with the
National
Archives and Records Administration to fulfill the Privacy Act
provisions of
the GILS mandate for all Federal agencies. The impressive user
statistics
for this application and the very positive public comments
demonstrate that
this centralized point of access is a valuable means of locating
Government
information in all formats. We encourage the GPO to continue to
develop the
GILS application on GPO Access as a valuable service for
libraries and the
American public.
[ Back to the Table
of Contents ]
.
Depository Library Council to the Public Printer
CURRENT MEMBERS (as of 7/2/97)
TERM EXPIRES SEPTEMBER 30, 1997:
Phyllis R. Christenson
Director, Information Services Center
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street NW.
Washington, DC 20548
(202) 512-2647 or
(202) 512-8405
christensonp@gao.gov
Susan Dow
Electronic Information Services Librarian
Law Library
State University of New York at Buffalo
O'Brian Hall - Amherst Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-1110
(716) 645-2347
(716) 645-3860 (Fax)
lwlsusan@acsu.buffalo.edu
Janice Anita Fryer - CHAIR
Reference Librarian
152 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
(515) 294-2849
(515) 294-5525 (Fax)
jfryer@iastate.edu
Stephen M. Hayes - SECRETARY
Reference & Public Documents Librarian
313 College of Business Library
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556-0399
(219) 631-5268
(219) 631-6367 (Fax)
shayes@vma.cc.nd.edu
David R. Hoffman
P.O. Box 247
Harrisburg, PA 17108-0247
(717) 232-7926
TERM EXPIRES SEPTEMBER 30, 1998:
Eliot J. Christian
Chief, Data and Information Management Staff
Information Systems Division
U.S. Geological Survey
802 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
(703) 648-7245
(703) 648-7069 (Fax)
echristi@usgs.gov
Dan Clemmer
Head Librarian
Ralph J. Bunche Library
U.S. Department of State
IM/IS/OIS/LR, Room 3239
Washington, DC 20520
(202) 647-3002
(202) 647-2971 (Fax)
clemmer@class.org
Lynn G. Walshak
Head, Government Documents Department
Zach Henderson Library
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460-8074
(912) 681-5117
(912) 681-5034 (Fax)
lwalshak@gasou.edu
Anne Watts
Coordinator, Information & Technology Services
St. Louis Public Library
1301 Olive
St. Louis, MO 63103
(314) 539-0377
(314) 539-0393 (Fax)
bookie@vulcan.inlink.com
Dr. Richard Hume Werking
Director, Nimitz Library, Associate Dean and Professor of
History
U.S. Naval Academy
Annapolis, MD 21402-5029
(410) 293-6901
(410) 293-3669 (Fax)
rwerking@nadn.navy.mil
.TERM EXPIRES SEPT. 30, 1999:
Thomas K. Andersen
Head, Government Publications
California State Library
Government Publications Section
P.O. Box 942837
Sacramento, CA 94237-0001
(916) 654-0243
(916) 654-0241 (fax)
tanderse@library.ca.gov
Carol Bednar
Government Documents Coordinator
Department of Technical Service
University Library
California State University Fullerton
Fullerton, CA 92634-4150
(714) 278-7035
(714) 278-2439 (fax)
cbednar@fullerton.edu
Denise Davis
Reference Collection Specialist
Howard County Library
6600 Cradlerock Way
Columbia, MD 21045-4912
(410) 313-7750
(410) 313-7742 (Fax)
dd46@umail.umd.edu
Diane Eidelman
Documents Librarian
Suffolk Cooperative Library System
627 North Sunrise Service Rd.
Bellport, NY 11713
(516) 286-1600 ext. 325
(516) 286-1647 (fax)
diane@suffolk.lib.ny.us
Margaret S. Walker
Head, Government Documents Department
Florida Atlantic University
3130 Millwood Terrace, #M109
Boca Raton, FL 33431
(407) 367-3788
walker@acc.fau.edu
TERM EXPIRES SEPT. 30, 2000:
Duncan M. Aldrich
Head, Business & Government Information Center
University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV 89557-0044
(702) 784-6500
(702) 784-4398 (Fax)
duncan@unr.edu
Mary Alice Baish
Assistant Washington Affairs Representative
American Association of Law Libraries
Georgetown University Law Library
111 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-1417
(202) 662-9200
(202) 662-9202 (Fax)
baish@law.georgetown.edu
Diane L. Garner
Head, Documents & Non-Book Formats
Lamont Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 496-2532
(617) 496-0440 (Fax)
dgarner@fas.harvard.edu
Gregory W. Lawrence
Government Information Librarian
Albert R. Mann Library
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 255-3242
(607) 255-0318 (Fax)
GWL1@cornell.edu
Julia F. Wallace
Head, Government Publications
10 Wilson Library
University of Minnesota
309 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0414
(612) 626-7520
(612) 626-9353 (Fax)
j-wall@tc.umn.edu
.
[ Back to the Table
of Contents ]