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Safety of FDLP Shipments

The Library Programs Service (LPS) has been receiving numerous telephone calls and emails concerning the safety of the shipments to Federal depository libraries. While we wish we could answer all of these questions, we do not have all of the information to respond to you concerning the safety of the depository shipments, or whether they may, in some way unknown to GPO, pose any hazard.

GPO's Director of Occupational Health and Environmental Services has stated that "We do not believe that any area of GPO has been exposed to anthrax." No trace of anthrax was detected in tests of GPO’s incoming mail processing areas.

Here is what we know about how your materials are shipped:

FedEx Ground:

Most depository shipments are delivered to you by the LPS' shipping contractor, FedEx Ground. FedEx Ground deliveries do not go through the postal stream. FedEx Ground shipments include:

U.S. Postal Service:

You may obtain the latest information from these carriers by checking their Web sites at <www.usps.gov and http://www.fedex.com>.

This is the extent of the information that LPS has at this time. Should additional information become available we will provide an update.

Please Fax Claims for Safe, Efficient Service

LPS reminds libraries that faxing claims is the fastest and most economical way of submitting claims for missing depository receipts. Because of the recent safety concerns and possible delays to mailings in the Washington, DC area, we at LPS now strongly prefer that all claims usually mailed via the U.S. Postal Service be sent via fax. In this way we can continue to receive your claims and process them as normal, while eliminating potential safety hazards for our mail handlers here at GPO. All claims can be faxed to 202-512-1429 or 202-512-0877.

In response to the concerns raised about the withdrawal of information from the Federal Depository Library Program, I would like to restate some of my comments at the recent Depository Library Council meeting regarding our policies and procedures and clarify the situation regarding my recent request to withdraw a U.S. Geological Survey CD-ROM.

The Government Printing Office is entrusted by Congress with the stewardship of depository materials, both as tangible property and as intellectual property, for free distribution and public access. Over the last couple decades there have been an average of two documents a year which GPO has asked depositories to remove from their collections for one reason or another. Only the Public Printer, the Superintendent of Documents, or our agent can legitimately order a library to withdraw a document from its depository collection.

The Government Printing Office acts as an agent of the Federal publishing agency, which makes the decision that a title should be pulled. When an agency requests that a title be withdrawn, we:

1. Verify that the title was distributed through the FDLP.
2. Discuss the reasons for the recall with the agency’s official contact. Was there an error in content? Will the publication be replaced by a revised edition? Was official or sensitive information released inadvertently? Is the publication to be embargoed until a certain date? We try to get as much information as we can, but sometimes agencies just don’t give a reason and we do not have the authority to demand one.
3. Inform the agency of recall options:

• Request libraries destroy
• Request libraries pull and hold until further notice
• Request libraries return the title to GPO
• Request libraries return the title to the publishing agency

1. Inform the agency that GPO must receive an official request in writing. These procedures are for tangible publications that were distributed to depository libraries. We are in the process of formulating a policy and procedures for titles that are online only, consistent with that for tangible publications.

At GPO we have had one recent request to withdraw a publication from the FDLP. The U.S. Geological Survey Associate Director for Water, following the above procedures, requested that USGS Open File Report 99-248: Source-Area Characteristics of Large Public Surface-Water Supplies in the Conterminous United States: An Information Resource Source-Water Assessment, CD-ROM, be destroyed. On October 12, 2001, I issued a notice requesting depository libraries to withdraw and destroy this publication.

Subsequently Mary Jane Walsh from Colgate University contacted USGS and was given contradictory advice. But recently Mr. Patterson, Hydrologist, USGS, issued the following statement:

Biennial Survey Ends November 30

The 2001 Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries is in full swing and will end on November 30. To avoid the last-minute rush, submit early, on:

Additional information about the Survey is posted at <www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/bisurvey/index.html>.

1. Specific examples

1. "Valuation of Government Documents/Maps Collection," email message from Michael Cotter, East Carolina University, 4/22/99. Cotter calculated a figure of $18 for bound documents (average price of items for sale from GPO bookstore was then $13 but did not include historical items that are out of print or which may be reprinted commercially); $10 per map; $0.25 per fiche (duplicating cost, not purchase cost); $19 per CD-ROM (averaged from 20 representative titles); $34 per reel of National Archives films and $50 per reel for other films). He then multiplied the number of each type of item in his depository’s collection by the average prices for each. He used the 1998 Price List of Congressional Information Service, Inc. to estimate his institution’s cost for commercially produced microfilm or microfiche of Congressional hearings, U.S. Executive Branch Documents, Statutes at Large, Congressional Record, U.S. Census, and similar publications. He also noted that the replacement cost of some items in paper, such as the Statutes at Large since 1923, did not figure in the replacement for bound volumes because if his depository were to lose the volumes, they would be replaced with microfiche instead of the bound volumes.
2. "Replacement value of documents collections," email message from Mary Fetzer, 4/1/99. Refers to Sandy Faull’s January 1980 Documents to the People report of a small group of Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) members. Pp. 37-38 of the article describe how several sample collections were examined for the value of merely one year’s receipts, plus an alternative method of taking number of documents received on deposit for a given year multiplied by the average per copy printing cost for a publication shipped (using a figure supplied at that time by the Superintendent of Documents).

A formula used by another respondent in the 1970s was to take a sampling of prices in the Publications Reference File (PRF) to get a cost per page estimate. Pages per inch were then calculated and multiplied by the linear length of the collection.

A third respondent used the Congressional Information Service price list to come up with replacement costs for those segments of the collection which CIS made available. Additional calculations were made for microfilm reels purchased from the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) at the cost of $34/ reel.

3. "Value of Depository Collection," email message from Jim Vileta, University of Minnesota, Duluth, 10/25/93. Used the publication "New Books, Publications for Sale by the Government Printing Office" to compute average prices for paper documents. Indicated that, in the past, it was "commonly agreed" that $100,000 was the average value for a full depository’s collection. Suggested using $12.34 (average paper document price for 1992/93) and multiplying by number of items in a selective depository’s collection to arrive at value. (Recent update from Joe McClane, Chief, Bibliographic Systems, of GPO's Sales Management Division: "[GPO's ] Tech Support says the average price per document in FY 2000 is $15.13. This figure is based on publications and individual issues of subscriptions. The figure comes from Tech Support . . . The average price is derived from the statistics from the Superintendent of Documents Bluebook on the Sales Program and they are consistent with previous estimates given.

"The usual caveats apply: This is the average for the SALES PROGRAM not the Depository Program. The figure includes individual issues of subscriptions rather than the entire subscription run price. There are many ways to count our sales publications. Also, this is a general average and due to anomalies in pricing and counting sales publications, it is not as precise as we would like. But, it our official estimate.")

4. "Value of spatial data holdings," email message from Barbara Levergood, University of North Carolina, 1/30/01. Includes resources that sender identified as containing files that can be used in a GIS (with ArcView, MapInfo, Arc/Info, ERDAS Imagine, etc.). List of her institution’s holdings includes the estimated value of each (based on current or actual selling price). Federal Depository Library holdings account for $18,462 and are also broken down by title.
5. "Cost of replacing ‘essential titles’", email message from Sharon M. Partridge, Jefferson County Public Library, Lakewood, CO, 12/26/00 (calculation performed in 1998)
6. "Cost Figures—Basic Government Documents for Law Libraries." Source "The Federal Depository Program in Law Libraries: Status Symbol or Essential Service?" 1995 Annual Meeting, American Association of Law Libraries, Pittsburgh, PA. Compiled by Susan Tulis.

1. General information

1. U.S. Government Subscriptions Catalog.
2. GPO Subject Bibliographies https://orders.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/sale/sb/about.html
3. "Prices of U.S. and Foreign Published Materials," by Sharon G. Sullivan (Chair, ALA ALCTS Library Materials Price Index Committee). The Bowker Annual 2001. Latest version of an article feature which provides price indexes and percentage changes for trade publications. Useful to apply as an inflationary factor even though not specifically for government documents.
4. American Libraries. May issues include updated information on U.S. Periodical Prices and U.S. Serial Services. Again, not government documents but gives an idea of inflation rates.
5. Commercial publishers. Catalogs and price lists from publishers selling reprints, microforms, or electronic versions of U.S. government information.

This information is also posted on the Council Web site at
< www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/council/drepcost.html>

Developments in the FDLP
Remarks by Francis J. Buckley, Jr.
Superintendent of Documents

Good morning! Let me also add my welcome to you. I am very pleased to see such a good turn out at this conference. We at the Government Printing Office (GPO) recognize that many of you had to rearrange travel plans and take convoluted routes to get here and we thank you for taking these extra efforts. Indeed the perseverance and determination you all have shown to get to this joint meeting of the Depository Library Council and the annual Federal Depository Library Conference is just one indication of your dedication and commitment to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and what it stands for.

I have a little story to tell you. It is said that in the House of Representatives in the 1890s, the then Speaker of the House, Thomas Brackett Reed, was once forced to send telegrams to absent members asking their attendance in order to obtain a quorum. One congressman, delayed by a flood that had disrupted railway service telegraphed back: "Washout on line. Can't come." Upon receiving this message Reed sent a reply telegram: "Buy another shirt; come on next train."

Well, we certainly didn't have to send telegrams to get you here and I know you will not be disappointed in your decision to attend the conference. We have a full agenda in the coming days, so I'd like to take just a few minutes to talk about the state of the Federal Depository Library Program.

Last week I traveled to the heartland of America to speak with librarians at the Missouri Library Association in St. Louis and to participate in a program at Fort Hayes State University to recognize their 75^th anniversary as a depository library. What I took away from those programs was a renewed recognition of the strength and importance of the FDLP to librarians and the public. Next week I'll be traveling to Wichita to recognize their 100^th anniversary in the FDLP. But, of course, the Program today has changed dramatically from when these libraries became depositories.

Inside the Beltway we hear that change happens at a glacial pace in the Federal bureaucracy. Indeed, it took eleven years and the careers of four Public Printers for GPO to move from the horse and carriage to the electric automobile (1912). However, this is not so with the transition to an e-FDLP. It was at the request of Congress that GPO began the transition in 1996. It only took three years for online dissemination of information to exceed tangible distribution.

A major part of building the Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC) has been in partnership with libraries and Government agencies. I am pleased to be able to announce today a new partnership with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). Energy Citations Database, (ECD) is now available through GPO Access. ECD contains bibliographic records for energy and energy-related scientific and technical information from the DOE and its predecessor agencies, the Energy Research & Development Administration (ERDA) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Dr. Walter Warnick will be talking about this new service during the Federal Agency Update Session on Tuesday afternoon.

GPO and depository libraries are now on the threshold of year six of the electronic transition. We have seen Y2K come and go and we have seen a change in administrations. We weathered both of those events nicely. Of course, that is not to say that we have been without challenges. And today, as an aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, we, as Americans and as depository librarians, find ourselves confronted with an old issue with a new face--access to Government information. Our favorite quote of James Madison from 1822 (A popular government without popular knowledge or the means of acquiring it is but a prelude to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both) is being used by more than the depository community these days. In the LA Times last week it closed a commentary entitled "An Informed Public is the Greatest Weapon of Democracy." The Government is grappling with trying to balance our "right-to-know" with ensuring national security. In this environment we are concerned with two types of access: (1) physical access to information itself and (2) publishing agencies taking information out of the public arena. And again, these are not new.

Physical access involves not only the patrons being able to get into a library, but also being able to get to the information they need. This includes using tangible materials as well as the library having the equipment to access online Government information. The purpose of the Federal Depository Library Program is to make Government publications available for the free use of the general public and restricting such access is a direct violation of Title 44. Mindful of safety and security issues facing libraries, GPO has tried to build flexibility into its access and service policies, allowing libraries to strike a balance. The Internet Use Policy and Service Guidelines for Electronic Formats are available from the FDLP Desktop and are handouts here at the conference. We are interested in learning if depositories are facing this problem and how you are handling it.

The Government Printing Office is entrusted by the Congress with the stewardship of depository materials, both as tangible property and as intellectual property for free distribution and public use. There have been occasions, and no doubt there will be more, when GPO has asked depositories to remove documents from their collections. Considering the number of publications that have been distributed to depositories through the years, there have not been many requests of this nature. Over the last couple of decades there has been an average of two documents recalled per year. Only the Public Printer, the Superintendent of Documents, or our agent can legitimately order a library to withdraw a document from its depository holdings. Let me review how this process works. It is important to remember that GPO acts as an "agent of the agency." We do not decide that a title should be pulled; that decision is made by the publishing agency. When they contact us this sets into motion a sequence of events:

1. Verify that title was distributed
2. Discuss with the agency's official contact the reason for recall

Is it an error in content? If so, will they be replacing it with a revised version? Was official or sensitive information released inadvertently? Is the publication to be embargoed until a certain date? We try to get as much information as we can so that we can have comprehensive records and we pass as much information as we have on to you. The reasons for a recall are numerous. Sometimes agencies just don't give us a reason, and we do not have the authority to demand one.

3. Inform the agency of the recall options

• Request libraries destroy
• Request libraries pull the title and hold until further notice
• Request libraries return the title to LPS
• Request libraries return the title to the agency

1. Inform the agency that GPO must receive the request in writing

These procedures are for tangible products that were distributed to depositories. We are in the process of formulating a policy and procedures for titles that are online only, in the FDLP Electronic Collection. A model consistent with that for tangible products will be applied to EL titles. Again, we are agents of the agency. Our business is to provide public access to published Federal Government information that is within the scope of the Program and we will do this unless we are directed by the agency to do otherwise. As to what is to be made available to the public, §1902 of Title 44 states:

In the electronic environment the relationship between GPO and depository libraries and among depositories is changing. Rather than GPO being a provider of materials and depositories being receivers, we are working together even more as partners in the Federal Depository Library Program. In a recent letter to all depository libraries and directors I urged that state plans for depository services be reviewed in light of changes in the Program and expectations of information seekers. State planning is one way that depositories can come together in the spirit of resource sharing to help each other improve delivery of services to users and make the best use of already stretched limited resources. We have always said the Federal Depository Library Program functions best when libraries cooperate rather than work in a vacuum. State plan revision strategies were discussed at yesterday's meeting of regional librarians and I am certain that we will all benefit from the creative juices generated by the discussion.

Documents Sales Service is now offering a standing order plan for acquiring the U.S. Congressional Serial Set for the 107^th Congress (2001-2002). The volumes will be distributed during the years 2004-2005 and will cost approximately $26,000. There is concern in the community about how long it takes to assemble and distribute the Serial Set. I have had discussions with Production about picking up the pace of this process and extra staff has been assigned to this project.

GPO Bookstores in Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco and McPherson Square in Washington, DC are now closed. The decision to close these locations was based upon program performance. Despite increased marketing attempts, these locations continued to have significantly reduced sales. This has resulted from the public's increased ability to access Government publications free of charge over the Internet, as well as a reduction in the number of publications produced to sell. Press releases announcing the closings encourage the use of the Online Bookstore and the new toll free number (866-512-1800, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern time). Free use of Government information at local Federal depository libraries is also encouraged.

Amid our rapidly changing environment there are some things that never change. The Federal Depository Library Program will survive, as its purpose is based on the principles of access to government information. And though part of a larger community, depositories respond to local needs and have an impact in their districts daily. The expertise of a government information specialist is still very important and there will continue to be a role for them in libraries. The president’s Management and Performance Plan has citizen centered e-government initiatives as key elements of government reform. As you cope with change and try to find new meaning for what we do, turn to the jargon of the day. Dig deep to find the meaning and purpose. Cross-agency citizen centric information portal is a new way to say Federal depository library.

I am going to close today with a little technology trivia. On this day in 1950 the first radio paging service began and the first page was sent to a doctor on a golf course twenty-five miles outside of New York City. While many of you probably have pagers and/or cell phones with you today, you will not need them to find GPO staff. We are all around this place, and will be through Wednesday, should you need assistance or just want to talk. Enjoy your stay in the DC area and have a good conference. Thank you very much.

Marking a Decade of Change: FDLP Developments
Remarks by Gil Baldwin
Director, Library Programs Service

Thank you for joining us today for the 10^th annual Federal Depository Library Conference. A lot has changed in the decade since we began these conferences. Back then microfiche was the biggest component of the FDLP and a handful of CD’s was the extent of our electronic dissemination.

This morning it’s my pleasure to represent a very dedicated group of people – the staff of GPO’s Library Programs Service. We’ve all been through a lot this year, and we’ve been touched by events that few of us even dreamed possible. So today I want to focus more on people and their accomplishments than on operations.

Some of the LPS people you’ve known for years have left us, some through retirement and others for greener pastures. This past fiscal year saw unprecedented personnel turnover in LPS, both among the managers and the operational staff. Within a one-year span, LPS has lost four people to the Library of Congress, two to the Defense Technical Information Center, and one each to the Internal Revenue Service and the National Library of Education. These moves don’t count retirements and other causes. The impact of this out-migration has been particularly marked among the library inspectors, Cataloging Branch staff, and in the Depository Distribution Division.

We have some new faces for you to get to know, and some LPS managers who have really come through for you in new or expanded roles.

• Bonnie Trivizas has returned to LPS as the Chief of the Library Division. Bonnie has been on a lengthy tour over in GPO’s Production Dept., working on the E-CFR and other GPO Access projects.

• Cornelius Greene, Chief of Depository Processing Section, has been with LPS for many years. But with Vicki Barber’s departure, and Colleen Davis’ retirement, he has been running the Distribution Division for you, and I know I appreciate the job that he’s been doing in a Division that’s lost half its managers in 6 months.

• Betty Jones, formerly one of our Cataloging Branch section chiefs, became Chief of the Depository Administration Branch this summer. I’m really pleased to have Betty in this critical position, and I’m sure you’ll all come to appreciate how good she is.

• I want to thank Tad Downing for stepping up to the plate and covering not only the Cataloging Branch but also DAB until we got Betty in there. Covering both of these operations took an incredible effort, especially with the personnel turnover in those two Branches.

• And finally, Robin Haun-Mohamed, who took over Depository Services, which means leading the inspection team, plus organizing this Conference. You all know Robin earned her spurs in DAB, and now she’s carrying on the tradition in DSS. This is Robin’s first conference, and I think she’s done a great job in getting this organized.

• But these Conferences could not happen without Willie Thompson. Willie is an expert on conference arrangements and he works non-stop with the hotels to make these things run smoothly. Please give Robin and Willie a round of applause for their hard work.

There are lots of other LPS people here today as well; would you all please stand up. Thank you all. If you in the audience are finding it hard to tell all the players without a scorecard, we have an LPS organization chart as one of the handouts. And you can always find us through the "Contacts" page on the FDLP Desktop.

If you would like to meet some of these people up close and personal, or you are new to the documents arena, you should check out this afternoon’s 2:00PM session for "New Documents Librarians."

Having lost 5 catalogers during the year, LPS is now recruiting catalogers using an "open-until-filled" announcement to fill these positions on an ongoing "flow" basis, rather than by reacting to individual vacancies. We will also soon be recruiting for 2 Cataloging Section Chief vacancies as Betty Jones has moved on and Andrea Gruhl has decided to retire. We will miss Andrea’s dedication to the cataloging program, but clearly we need to get these positions filled. As of mid-September there were 20 recruitment actions underway in LPS, and of these five selections have been made, including two catalogers and two library inspectors. One new program analyst came on board in August through the Outstanding Scholar hiring program. Coupled with the high number of staff in new positions, this personnel turnover has impacted LPS’ production operations and other activities.

Some of LPS’ highlights for the fiscal year just ended include:

• FDLP publication distribution increasingly electronic
• Policy guidance for acquiring online publications
• Expanded role of cataloging staff
• New directions for partnerships
• ILS acquisitions planning process
• State plans revision initiative
• Web Document Digital Archive project with OCLC

The transition to a more electronic FDLP, begun over 5 years ago, is continuing, consistent with the trends in Government publishing. Last year LPS began to move ahead of the publishing agencies in terms of reliance upon online information. No longer reactively moving "in tandem" with agency publishing decisions, LPS now frequently selects only the electronic version of Government publications for FDLP even when the originating agency may still be publishing in a tangible format. This process has created an increasingly complex workload for LPS staff, and stretched the boundaries of our organizational structure.

Since 1996 the FDLP has followed direction from Congress and evolved into a primarily electronic program. To illustrate, in just the last two years the distribution mix has changed from 45% online and 55% tangible in 1999, to 60% online and 40% tangible in 2001. GPO has carried out this transition in continuous consultation with the library community, publishing agencies, and other FDLP stakeholders, and each step has been developed in an open and ongoing dialog.

The changes in the FDLP reflect general changes in Federal publishing practices, and in other information delivery arenas that libraries face every day. Each year more Government documents are being published solely on the Internet; when GPO has a choice between a print or an equivalent electronic document a rigorous evaluation is part of the format selection process. This process is described in the January 2001 GPO policy document (SOD 71), published after extensive discussions with the library community. The heart of this policy is that "information content remains the primary selection criteria" for inclusion in the FDLP.

Many format changes begun in FY 2000 are now in effect. LPS previously established the requirements for depository copies for many publications that are printed under GPO term contracts beginning in FY 2001. Last year, LPS checked each term contract to see if that title or set of publications was available online. If so, and it did not fall into one of the exception categories, LPS changed the depository dissemination to electronic only. The results of these decisions became apparent to you in FY 2001, with nearly a 29% reduction in the number of FDLP paper titles. There has also been an even sharper reduction in the number of microfiche titles, due in large measure to the cessation of the Congressional bills in microfiche at the end of the 106^th Congress.

There have been recent changes in the partner relationships between libraries and GPO. Increasingly LPS is asking its library partners to act as the administrators of service partnerships, in addition to implementing them or organizing the volunteers. Some examples include the University of Central Oklahoma taking on the administration of the Browse Topics service and, more recently, Bill Gordon at the University of North Dakota assuming responsibility for the Needs & Offers list project. LPS previously managed both of these services, although Needs & Offers has traditionally been run by a depository librarian. In fact N&O is our oldest partnership. These and other partnerships are very well served by being managed by librarians in the FDLP community, and we appreciate the contributions of those librarians and their institutions.

On the content partnership front, we also have a new agency permanent access agreement with the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO, for their electronic reports. We're in serious negotiations for an FDLP site for Census 2000 Summary Files, and we hope we can finalize that partnership soon. And we're still looking for a partner to assist us with checking out and archiving the titles represented by the pre-FDLP Archive PURLs.

The 2001 Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries will be conducted on the Web from November 1 through November 30. The purpose of the Biennial Survey is to report on conditions in the depository libraries. Required by law (44 U.S.C. §1909), the Biennial Survey gathers data from all the depository libraries every 2 years, supplementing the more in-depth inspections or self-studies that are performed every 6 or 7 years.

To avoid survey rush hour, you’ll want to submit your survey responses as soon as possible. Additional information will be posted at the Biennial Survey web page late this month, at <www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/bisurvey/index.html>.

Just a reminder: You will need your FDLP internal password to access the survey. If you’ve misplaced it, contact us at askLPS.

Last year at this time, Council recommended that GPO establish what has become the "Electronic Documents Working Group." Volunteer members of the depository library and law library communities are assisting GPO in its efforts to bring additional online documents into the FDLP Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC).

The main functions of community volunteers is to:

• Identify electronic titles that are not yet in the Program, and evaluate them for inclusion in the FDLP/EC.

• Identify online titles currently in the program in tangible format for possible migration to "e-only."

• Identify titles/products that are currently in the Program that have become fugitive. Determine status and availability.

Recently LPS established the Working Group site on the FDLP Desktop, including lists of the participants, what agencies they are each looking at, project resources, and more. We have asked contributors to supply some basic bibliographic elements, suggest a SuDocs class stem, and so on. So there’s more involved in this project than just the resource discovery phase. To support that, the various policies and processing guidelines that we use in LPS are available on the FDLP Desktop. So far we have received over 50 submissions, and 9 of these concerned URLs that might be added to existing records, rather than identifying electronic fugitive documents. If you’d like to participate in this effort, I invite you to look at the project site, stake a claim, and start mining.

GPO is legally mandated to retain FDLP publications in the program permanently, whether in regional depository collections or in the FDLP/EC. We have developed a comprehensive strategy for providing permanent public access to agency publications, which includes agreements with publishing agencies and digital file preservation. GPO and its partners have made significant strides in the past five years to ensure permanent public access to online publications through bibliographic control, arrangements with Federal publishing agencies, and partnerships with universities and other institutions. A multi-year project with OCLC and cooperating libraries, the Web Document Digital Archive Pilot Project, will support the preservation of electronic publications with persistent naming, bibliographic description, a metadata schema specifically for preservation, and distributed file archiving.

LPS and OCLC, Inc. are testing an initial release of a system to locate, identify, process, describe, catalog, and archive electronic publications. The Web Document Digital Archive Pilot Project has recently been expanded to include several other partners including the state libraries of Arizona, Connecticut, and Ohio. The proposed system will incorporate a mix of new and existing solutions in an effort to refine and integrate LPS workflow and routines for processing and storing e-titles for the long term.

GPO is a full partner in this project, and staff has worked closely with OCLC, providing input in the development process. The initial application of the project is based on the CORC interface. Archiving functionality will be added in a subsequent development phase beginning in early 2002. In September ten LPS staff received intensive hands-on training in the CORC interface, paving the way for LPS’ participation in phase one of the project. To hear more about this project, you should attend the conference plenary session Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m., in this very chamber.

LPS’ own archive of electronic publications continues to evolve and grow. The highest priority candidates for this "in-house" solution remain agency publications that are primarily textual or images of text, and which have no tangible counterpart in the FDLP. Information about the operation of the FDLP/EC Archive can be found at <www.gpo.gov/ppa/resources.html>. Those of you taking the LPS tour will also see the GPO Access "server farm" and the physical site of the FDLP Electronic Collection archive.

No single electronic collection is adequate to meet the needs of different communities in this large and diverse nation, and GPO has never proposed that approach. One way in which the electronic FDLP mimics the traditional print world is that depositories create individual selection profiles tailored to local needs, and select from a collection of materials that GPO discovered and acquired for FDLP distribution. This capitalizes on the reliability and security of a distributed system, as well as meeting local needs. The requirement that libraries select and provide access to publications that meet the needs of their users is unchanged by the transition to a primarily electronic program. Far from being a monolithic entity, our Electronic Collection is a distributed set of collections, maintained by participating agencies, depository libraries, or in GPO’s own archive servers. A library’s item selection profile becomes a tool for providing bibliographic records in local catalogs and finding aids, rather than physical custody of the tangible items.

I want to thank each of you for being here today for the capstone of our first decade of Conferences. We know it hasn’t been easy this year and we appreciate this demonstration of your commitment to the program and the work of "keeping America informed." There’s no doubt that this has been a very interesting decade, and it seems that we are entering another period that tests the fundamental values of the FDLP. With your help we can continue in our joint mission to provide access to the published works of our Government, both today and into the future.

GPO Access Improving and Growing
Remarks by T.C. Evans

Director, Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services

I appreciate the opportunity to update the Depository Library Council and the library community on the current and future state of GPO Access. Hopefully, you have a copy of our printed GPO Access update. It contains a variety of statistical information on GPO Access, as well as what is new and on the horizon.

GPO Access continues to grow in terms of both the quantity of information available and in the amount of usage it sees. This growth will continue, particularly in the area of usage, as we improve performance of the site. Efforts are underway to remove some recently discovered barriers to timely and efficient use of the applications on GPO Access, and this should pave the way towards a faster rise in the number of documents downloaded from GPO Access. These barriers have acted to slow, or prevent altogether, the downloading of key documents at prime times during the business day (downloads of documents that time out, particularly large files). If successful, the changes being made should provide better and faster access to documents in popular applications such as the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register. The changes will be made in phases, beginning with the newly released new titles of the CFR, and they will be implemented elsewhere as time and workload allow.

While we believe that this will greatly reduce the problems being experienced by users, we will continue to strive towards other improvements that will benefit our users. Plans are under development for a GPO Access mirror site, to be housed in a geographically removed location such as the Denver Regional Printing and Procurement facility. Initially, the site will consist only of servers configured to provide geographically separate backup storage. Once a replacement for the existing WAIS search engine has been identified, procured, and implemented, work will be undertaken to expand this facility into a complete mirror site for GPO Access.

We are also actively engaged in expanding our ability to measure the performance of the GPO Access system from the user’s perspective. Two tracks are being pursued concurrently. The first is a contract with the Keynote performance measurement service. This contract provides data on the performance of key elements of GPO Access as experienced by users who are both geographically and technologically diverse. The contract also measures performance of transactions such as searching for and retrieving a large file from Title 40 of the CFR. Data from the first three months of the contract has already proved beneficial in identifying areas needing work and we are looking at the possibility of expanding the contract to provide even more useful data.

The second track focused on utilizing volunteers from our user communities to act as our eyes and ears to test system performance. The initial attempt proved unsuccessful, as only two volunteers returned test results. My staff is currently revaluating our approach to see if the concept could be redesigned to get a better response.

On July 25, 2001, we posted our latest user survey on GPO Access. It was our fourth annual survey and was designed to learn about our users, their use of GPO Access, and their opinions as to how it could be improved. Almost 500 responses were received by the September 30, 2001 deadline. As always there were some interesting findings and the following are some I would like to share:

• More than a third of our respondents indicated that they represented a Federal depository library. Thank you for your strong participation.

• More than two thirds said that they use GPO Access more than twice a month and over a third use it 10 or more times a month.

• The single most given response when asked how they learned about GPO Access was from a depository library. Considering the number of depository respondents, who did not all give that answer by the way, this means that quite a few of the non-depository respondents learned about us through your efforts. Thank you for helping to spread the word.

In general we received information that will help as we work to improve our products and services. This is particularly true of the self-help tools on GPO Access. In part, the information gathered will be used to aid a new effort my staff is working on to develop a hyper-FAQ which will hopefully lead users to the appropriate GPO Access resources by clicking on answers to questions designed to learn what they are looking for. I would very much like the assistance of some of the depository community in finalizing this product. If you are willing to share your well-earned expertise in assisting patrons needing Government information resources to help with this effort, please see me at some point during the conference.

The seventh in a series of ongoing evaluations of the positioning of GPO Access pages in the search results of major Internet search engines and directories has just been completed and will be available on the Federal Bulletin Board. It has become clear that it is important to be among the top five results from a search if you want your site to get noticed and the results of this evaluation are encouraging. Top-5 returns improved significantly, with three engines: Searchgov, FirstGov, and GoogleUncleSam each doing so more than 40 percent of the time. Top-10 returns also increased, but at a much smaller rate. While top-30 returns showed marked increases, current industry thinking holds that these are becoming less important in reaching new users. Two sites, Excite and Webcrawler, achieved significant improvement in GPO Access returns, both increasing 122% in top-5 returns from the sixth evaluation to the seventh. Dramatic declines were discovered for About, NorthernLights, and AOL.com.

The increasing importance of paid positioning and how it might relate to GPO Access is being tested through paying for positioning on five keywords related to the U.S. Government Online Bookstore in the widely used index created by GoTo. Since July 12, 2001, over 900 users have visited the Online Bookstore as a result of this positioning. Because GoTo supplies the paid portion of the indices for AOL Search, MSN, HotBot, Lycos, Netscape Search, and Alta Vista, paying for position in GoTo covers a lot of ground. The test’s early success suggests that it might be worthwhile to buy positioning for other GPO Access applications in the future.

As part of our effort to improve through this project, it would be helpful if you could assist us in reviewing the keyword search terms that we are using in the evaluation. Hopefully you picked up a copy of the Keyword Suggestions form that was next to our update handout in the back of the room. Please take a few moments to let us know what you think and return the forms to the registration desk before leaving the conference. If you can’t find the time before leaving, please complete the form when you get home and mail it to the address provided on the form.

There are a number of recent changes to GPO Access that should be mentioned. The most notable are:

• The redesigned GPO Access Training is now available online and an initial print copy will be delivered to each depository library in the near future. It is designed in a double-sided, three-hole, loose-leaf format so that future updates can easily be incorporated into the existing manual. Notifications of all updates will be posted to the listserves commonly followed by the depository library community and the updates will be available online through the GPO Access help page.

• A new listserve service is now available. Anyone with e-mail service can subscribe to a growing number of lists to receive information as e-mail messages. Initially, the options include the daily table of contents from the Federal register and both decisions and studies from the Merit Systems Protection Board. In the near future lists will be added for a number of key subject areas to notify interested individuals of new publications available through the Sales Program. GPO is also working to satisfy requests for different listserves from several other agencies.

• Some important changes have been made to the suite of finding aids available on GPO Access. The Pathway Indexer has been replaced with search across the Federal Government provided by FirstGov. FirstGov was also kind enough to supply an index of just GPO’s web sites that can be searched from the same page. A new page was added to provide links to indexes that are put up by other agencies to identify their publications. This agency publications indexes page currently has links to indexes offered by the Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Justice Departments, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

As always, work is under way to add more content to GPO Access and to refine access to the materials already provided. Some key examples of current efforts are:

• A search is underway for the appropriate software to facilitate the completion and official rollout of the eCFR application. In the meantime the beta version will continue to be available.

• Work is progressing on the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to ensure the authenticity of documents downloaded from GPO Access. Initial efforts are focusing on notices submitted for publication in the Federal Register and Congressional Bills. Users will be able to use a free reader to verify that a document retrieved from GPO Access has not been altered since it was signed. This will remain true if the file is passed on to another user from the user who originally downloaded it. There will be a free version of the reader available for download on GPO Access that has been customized for use with our products, but the regular version will work with our files as well.

• My staff is also hard at work on the Biennial Report to Congress on GPO Access, which is due in December. It will be available on GPO Access as soon as it has been officially transmitted to Congress.

• A number of key enhancements are on the horizon for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore that will make it even easier to use. We are also looking at software packages being used by successful e-tailers that will form the platform for future development of this important site.

As you can tell, there is a lot happening with GPO Access as it continues to grow and improve. I urge you to participate in this development process by continuing to provide us with your valuable feedback whenever possible. Participate in this afternoon’s open forum, volunteer for usability studies and focus groups, or just give your comments to the GPO Access User Support Team. Thank you and I look forward to talking with you during the conference.

GPO Access Update

• Since January 2001, GPO Access has reached over 32 million document retrievals in both January and March, and is averaging almost 31 million document retrievals per month.

• GPO Access contains 128,229 electronic titles and points to 87,668 others for a total of 215,897 titles.

• GPO Access provides use of over 2,200 databases through more than 80 applications.

• The FY 2001/2002 United States Government Manual is now available at <www.access.gpo.gov/nara/nara001.html>

• GPO Access hosts the U.S.-China Security Review Commission Web site at <www.uscc.gov>.

• The Budget of the United States Government for FY 2002 is now available at <www.access.gpo.gov/usbudget>.

• Hinds’ Precedents of the House of Representatives database is available at <www.gpo.gov/congress/house/precedents/hinds/hinds.html>.

• The 2001 Unified Agenda (also known as the Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda) is now available at <www.gpo.gov/gpoaccess/aces/aaces002.html>.

• The new finding aid, Agency Publications Indexes, is now available at <www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators/api/index.html>.

• A new regulatory catalog featuring sales products relating to U.S. laws, regulations, decisions, and guidelines is available at <bookstore.gpo.gov/regulatory/index.html>.

• GPOLISTSERV is now available at <listserv.access.gpo.gov>. This service enables customers to subscribe to email listservs moderated by GPO or hosted on GPO Access for other Federal agencies. Current lists include the Federal Register Table of Contents and MSPB Decisions and Studies Lists. Several listservs are under development that will announce GPO sales products related to popular topics.

A new GPO Access Training Manual has been completed and is now available at <www.gpo.gov/gpoaccess/help/trainingbk/trainingbk01.pdf>. The library community will be notified of updates to the manual through various available listservs. The new training manual includes search tips for recently added applications as well as a better user-friendly format. An initial print copy will be distributed in double-sided, three-hole, loose-leaf format to each Federal depository library. In order to provide the most current training manual possible, updates to the manual will be available from the GPO Access help page to print and add/replace pages in the booklet. Printed versions of the manual are currently in the print process and will be distributed in the near future.

A new GPO Access finding aid has been added to provide greater accessibility to Federal Government information. Designed to replace the page containing the Pathway Indexer, the agency search engine feature, and the discontinued GovBot, users may now search the Federal Government using the FirstGov search index. Users will have the choice to search the entire federal government or just GPO Access pages.

EIDS has completed the seventh in a series of ongoing evaluations in an attempt to achieve higher positioning for GPO Access pages in the search results of major Internet search engines and directories. The results of this report have been favorable. Top 5 returns have improved to 23%, a 10% increase. While top 10 returns only increased 4%, top 30 returns increased 14%. Two search engines that have shown a significant improvement in returns of GPO Access pages are Excite and Webcrawler, both increasing 122% in top 5 returns from the sixth evaluation to the seventh. Furthermore, paid positioning has been purchased for the Online Bookstore for five keywords in the popular search engine GoTo. Since July 12, 2001, over 900 users have clicked to the Online Bookstore from GoTo or one of its affiliates. Because GoTo supplies the paid portion of the indices for AOL Search, MSN, HotBot, Lycos, Netscape Search, and Alta Vista, paid positioning in GoTo will also achieve higher rankings in these engine. Copies of this report will soon be available at <fedbbs.access.gpo.gov/access.htm> by clicking the link for GPO Access Search Engine Project Report.

On July 25, 2001, we posted our User Survey on GPO Access. It was the fourth user survey designed to learn from our users their usage patterns, and their opinions of GPO Access. By our deadline of September 30, 2001, we received 478 responses. Below, we have summarized some of the survey’s key findings.

• Personal Affiliation: Federal depository library (35%); general public (20%); government (14%); other (13%); academic/education (12%); non-depository library (7%).

• Time GPO Access used per month: 10+ (36%); 0-2 (27%); 3-5 (19%); 6-10 (18%)

• Gained knowledge of GPO Access: Federal Depository Library (24%); Internet search (20%); link from another site (16%); training class (11%); conference/trade show (5%); other (26%)

• The most frequently used Finding Aids were: Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (21%), Government Sites By Topic (16%), Federal Agency Internet Sites (16%), Government Information Products For Sale By Topic (11%), Sales Product Catalog (10%), Government Information on Selected Internet Sites (9%), New Electronic Titles (8%), Government Information Locator Service (8%), and other (1%).

• Percentage of the time users find the information they needed: 75%-100% (46%), 50%-75% (32%); 0%-25% (10%); 25%-50% (8%); never (3%).

• GPO Access Site Search page rating: Good (44%), Fair (28%), Excellent (15%), and Poor (14%).

EIDS personnel will be attending and displaying the GPO booth at the following shows:

Public Printer Responds to NTIS Proposal

September 13, 2001

Dear Mr. Finch:

This letter transmits the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) comments regarding Docket No. 010719182-1182-01, RIN 0692-XX08; "Information Dissemination Activities; New Method of Disseminating and Information Product," published at page 42631 in the Federal Register, August 14, 2001. These comments also incorporate the views of the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer (Council), a body of Government information professionals and users that advises GPO on the administration of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and other information access issues.

As you know, the FDLP is the Nation’s oldest public information access program, and disseminates a wide variety of published U.S. Government information through the network of over 1,300 depository libraries across the country. In addition, GPO provides current and ongoing free public access to Government electronic information for millions of users through our GPO Access system.

GPO supports the Department of Commerce's initiative to increase access to Government information without cost to libraries and citizens. GPO has long been supportive of efforts to increase access to scientific and technical information (STI) from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) collection. In recent years a limited number of STI products have been made available electronically to selected depository libraries under the auspices of an NTIS-GPO partnership.

Concerning the NTIS database, GPO recommends that NTIS make the entire bibliographic and abstracts database available for no-fee searching rather than limiting free access to the portion representing "technical reports entered into its collection since 1997." Providing access to the entire database free of charge would be a positive step in providing public access to Government-funded STI reports. GPO further believes that making the entire NTIS database open to the public will increase sales of paper copies.

GPO also recommends that NTIS make the electronic version of the reports available for free. Under the proposal the electronic version will only be available free from the publishing agency. Given the size of the report files, and NTIS' already low rate of sales for such reports, we do not believe that such access would have a depressing effect on the sale of hard copy versions of the reports.

We are also concerned about permanent, no-fee, public access to the reports. As proposed by NTIS, an electronic file will only be available for free as long as it is still available online from publishing agency's site. If the agency opts to take the report down from its online site, an electronic version will then only be available for a fee from NTIS. If NTIS or the publishing agency would work with GPO, we could develop a partnership that would keep this content available to the public at no cost to the user or the agency. GPO already has a permanent public access program in place, archiving agency electronic publications for continued no-fee public access. These measures may involve a partnership with a Government agency, depository library, or other institution, or utilize GPO’s own electronic storage facility; a capability that is authorized by 44 U.S.C. 4101.

In conclusion, GPO must point out that publishing agencies’ and NTIS’ own responsibilities to provide their publications to GPO for inclusion in the FDLP are in no way altered or diminished by participation in an NTIS free dissemination effort.

I appreciate the opportunity to comment on this proposal, and I commend NTIS for a significant first step in expanding no-fee public access to the Nation’s STI resources. If you would like to discuss these comments, please contact Mr. Francis J. Buckley, Jr., Superintendent of Documents, at 202-512-0571, or by email at fbuckley@gpo.gov.

Sincerely,

MICHAEL F. DiMARIO
Public Printer