These open meetings of the Depository Library Council and Federal Depository Library Conference are opportunities for participants in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and users of government information to give us advice, recommendations, and suggestions for the administration of the program. It’s your opportunity for input and interaction with Government Printing Office (GPO) staff and many agency representatives participating in the conference. We hope you make the most of it and we welcome your comments.

First of all, I would like to say that the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is healthy and dynamic. Currently, there are 1296 libraries in the depository program. Last year we saw 19 libraries withdraw from the program for various reasons, and two libraries joined. You all can attest to the volume of use of the program in your libraries, as well as attest to the importance of that access to your users. New titles continue to be added to the program, in both tangible and electronic formats. In FY 2002, GPO distributed nearly 5 million copies of over 14,000 tangible products in print, microform, and CD-ROM formats to depository libraries. In addition, virtually every depository library and everyone with Internet capability also has access to the vast range of information made available online via GPO Access. In FY 2002, over 10,000 online titles and about another 10,000 links to agency titles were added to GPO Access, for a total of over 20,000 new online titles that year alone.

As of September 2002, the GPO Access Web site provided access to more than 140,000 titles on GPO servers and over 91,000 additional titles through links to other Federal agency Web sites. GPO Access averaged close to 31 million document retrievals per month last year, for a total of approximately 372 million document retrievals in FY 2002. Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have exceeded 1.5 billion. This is equivalent to over 36 billion typewritten pages. This is also an extremely cost effective service; we estimate the cost of delivering these electronic resources in FY 2002 averaged less than 1¢ per retrieval.

As many of you already know, GPO has produced a new marketing plan featuring the theme "U.S. Government Information: Make the Connection at a Federal Depository Library." GPO’s efforts, while aimed primarily at the various constituencies in the library community (administrators, reference staff, and bibliographers), also are intended to reach out to the faculty, business, students, government, and the general public.

In addition to developing new marketing materials for librarians to use, GPO is taking an active role in promoting the FDLP. We have contracted with the North American Precis Syndicate (NAPS) to provide information about the FDLP to daily and weekly newspapers and radio stations across the country. One- and two-column filler pieces and a radio spot were developed for distribution to these media outlets as Public Service Announcements. With the campaign still in its early stages, the pieces have already seen much use by the media with a wide-range of audiences.

As of October 8, the radio spot has been broadcast at least 265 times on 162 radio stations in 46 different states, which cumulatively serve 4,623,720 listeners. During the same time frame, the one-column ad that uses the new campaign graphic has generated 308 known newspaper articles in 22 different states with a readership of 11,620,272.

There is an online order form on the FDLP Desktop Web site so depository librarians can order copies of marketing materials to help them promote their collections. In addition to reprints of the PSA articles, we have also produced a poster, a bookmark, and a brochure, all with the theme "U.S. Government Information: Make the Connection at a Federal Depository Library." All of these can be ordered at no cost via the online order form, and already we have had a terrific response from depository librarians.

As you know, the challenge for our program for many years has been to be as inclusive as possible, to identify public interest materials produced through GPO or agency publishing channels, to provide bibliographic control for the materials, and to provide the publications to depository libraries for public access. Post 9-11 that mission has not changed, but agency sensitivity to what should be distributed to the public has been heightened. As a result of concerns about information security, as well as concerns regarding implementation of the new data quality guidelines, we have heard that agencies are publishing less and posting less on their own websites, but we have no way to quantify that yet. We have had no new requests to withdraw publications from the Depository Library Program. The Office of Management and Budget is apparently continuing to work on proposals in regard to sensitive but unclassified information.

In another aspect of information security, as well as to improve performance, GPO is establishing a geographically separate mirror site and backup facility for GPO Access in Pueblo, Colorado. All of the data associated with GPO Access is currently backed up on equipment located in Washington, DC. Beginning with the most frequently used GPO Access resources, GPO will steadily add to the resources and data at this facility until it is a complete mirror site for GPO Access. This will include the portion of the FDLP Electronic Collection Archive maintained by GPO. T.C. Evans will speak to this process in more detail shortly.

I want to make a few comments about our other major information dissemination program – the Document Sales Service (DSS). The sales program currently offers approximately 10,000 U.S. Government publications on a wide array of subjects for sale to the public. These are sold by mail, telephone, fax, electronic and e-mail orders, as well as through GPO Bookstores across the country. We also list our titles on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and other online commercial bookselling sites. The program operates on a cost-recovery basis with no appropriated funds. Consumer-oriented publications are also either sold or distributed at no charge through the Consumer Information Center, in Pueblo, Colorado, which we operate on behalf of the General Services Administration.

In recent years, the volume of sales through GPO’s sales of publications program has been declining. The free availability of publications on GPO Access and other Government web sites has been the primary reason for this decline, although the reduction in the number of general interest publications produced by agencies as well as competition from other Government publications sales outlets has contributed to it. Various cost reduction measures have been undertaken including staff reduction through attrition, space consolidation, and reducing inventory. Prices have been increased and an ongoing effort is being made to identify and close GPO bookstores not able to recover their operating expenses. As a result, bookstores in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Birmingham and one of the two stores in Washington, D.C. were closed. We are in the process of closing the bookstores in Cleveland and Columbus.

In the development of the FDLP and our distribution programs, we have seen many milestones and many changes. For more than 150 years GPO has assured the public’s right-to-know. Through our tangible distribution programs and our (relatively) new electronic information dissemination component, GPO now delivers more content to users than ever before. The FDLP and other Superintendent of Documents programs, together with the help of depository libraries and librarians, will continue to provide the public with access to official, public Government information.

I want to thank all of you for being here today and I look forward to talking to many of you individually. Please enjoy the conference!

Before the Depository Library Council and
Federal Depository Library Conference
Arlington, VA
Monday, October 21, 2002

Good morning and welcome to homecoming for the depository library community. Our staff has worked intensively throughout the year to get together valuable and interesting programs, and we hope you will get a lot out of the sessions. But like homecoming, much of the real value of these meetings is the opportunity to catch up with your friends and colleagues from around the country, so we hope you’ll be able to mix and mingle. This morning I want to run through some of the most important highlights of LPS activities over the last year. But if you want more detail, including URL’s of interest, we have LPS’ FY 2002 annual report available as a handout.

Our focus has been on critical program infrastructure, rebuilding personnel and updating automated systems. But we have also made progress in publicizing the FDLP, communications with the community, and in digital archiving.

LPS has made significant progress in revamping its workforce to deal with the challenges of electronic information. LPS has experienced unprecedented personnel turnover in the last few years. Recently we restarted our LPS Orientation Program for new employees, and found that about 30% of our staff was new to LPS in the last three years. And that doesn’t even count the ones who are in different jobs in LPS. This year we made extraordinary efforts to fill vacancies and to rebuild the staff. Among LPS’ new hires were library inspectors, catalogers, program analysts, distribution staff, and replacement supervisory personnel.

As attrition occurred in positions that deal primarily with processing physical products, some of those FTEs were reallocated to positions that emphasize the management of electronic resources, services to libraries, collection development, cataloging, and digital archiving.

In the electronic FDLP, the LPS cataloging staff has expanded the range of its efforts, and moved far beyond the traditional Monthly Catalog as its principal output. Cataloging now also functions as a gateway for bringing online titles into the FDLP Electronic Collection, and then for disseminating them under the program’s auspices. The Cataloging and Indexing Program provides access to online, as well as tangible, resources through bibliographic control.

The loss of experienced cataloging staff in the past two years, coupled with the increasing complexity of the work, has had a severe impact on cataloging production. In fact, the personnel situation has acted as a brake on our ability to expand the Electronic Collection.

During the past twelve months, nearly 50 candidates have been considered for cataloging positions. Seven persons have been hired. Thirty-one candidates (as of 9/19/02) have declined interviews, declined further consideration, or declined appointments that have been offered to them. Five cataloging vacancies remain to be filled, and the recruiting process continues. In addition, both of the first line supervisors were newly hired in FY2002. This created a need for training and orienting new staff. Training that was carried out in a one-on-one mode has been transformed to a combination of classroom instruction and practical application. We have never before trained so many new staff in so short a time.

We also expanded recruiting, working through the ALA Placement Office at the Atlanta meeting, and advertising much more widely than before. While we worked to enhance and speed up our recruiting efforts, we also looked at ways to improve the retention of our cataloging staff. We obtained, for the first time, a green light to participate in the student loan repayment program, and to pay relocation expenses for new hires. In addition, we asked for a review of the cataloger’s position descriptions and classification, which in turn establishes their basic compensation rate. A personnel specialist from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) conducted an in-depth examination of the catalogers’ positions. This review, which began in May, is expected to result in a non-binding advisory determination concerning the proper grade of the catalogers’ positions. However, to date no report has been received from OPM.

We also succeeded in establishing an additional librarian position in the Depository Administration Branch. This job will focus on collection-building activities, and will be directly involved in classification and product format decisions. We have selected Lisa Russell, an experienced depository librarian from the University of Maryland, for this position, and we look forward to having Lisa on board early next month.

The number of depository libraries continues to decline, with 19 selective depository libraries leaving the system in the last year. In most cases this occurred with no advance notification to LPS that relinquishing status was under consideration. LPS has conducted several discussions intended to identify the causes of libraries leaving the program. One of the principal reasons expressed is that so much information is now available on the Internet that the traditional program paradigm of GPO providing free publications to libraries in a de facto exchange for maintaining the collections and serving the general public has broken down.

Through an article in Administrative Notes, we encouraged libraries that are thinking about leaving the program to contact LPS and their regional depository librarian well in advance of any final decision. When contacted early in the decision making process, LPS can often help the library by clarifying issues or discussing areas of concern that may have contributed to the library’s review of its depository status.

In the future, the program must provide for electronic-only depository library collections, meaning that a depository may select only those items made available in online format and still maintain its status in the FDLP. Nothing in the statute or practice categorically precludes such a selection profile once a depository library has been established. LPS is working with the University of Arizona to develop an evaluative framework to make sure that the needs of the immediate user community and the Congressional district are adequately met, and that a depository which establishes an all-electronic item selection is able to be evaluated in the Biennial Survey, self-study, and inspection on an equal and fair footing with a traditional depository. The pilot project has begun, with staff from the University of Arizona Library, the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science, and the Library Programs Service working together to implement and evaluate the one-year project.

LPS has engaged the regional librarians in developing a plan for standardizing the termination process for depository libraries. In yesterday’s Regional Meeting there was a discussion of issues related to designation and termination of libraries in the FDLP. With feedback from the regional librarians and with additional assistance from library community volunteers, LPS intends to have an initial draft proposal on this issue for Council’s consideration at the spring 2003 Council meeting.

The library inspection program is currently undergoing a performance audit from GPO’s Inspector General’s office. Part of the audit process involves discussion with us and a review of existing documentation. The audit also involves fieldwork, so an IG auditor will probably accompany LPS staff on an upcoming inspection to see in person what happens. The IG staff may also make some surprise visits to depositories. We hope that the results will identify ways to improve the self-study and inspection process that will ease the administrative burdens on libraries, while still supporting the goal of protecting public access to depository information.

LPS is becoming a center of excellence in managing an electronic collection for permanent public access. Last year we expanded use of the GPO archive servers and our participation in the beta test phase of the OCLC Web Document Digital Archive initiative, and we entered into important new content partnerships.

GPO guarantees the public will have permanent access to the online titles in the FDLP, in similar fashion to the assurance that physical products in the FDLP will be permanently accessible at the regional depository libraries. Permanent public access for online electronic files requires an organizational commitment to preserving and maintaining the data, beginning with capturing non-GPO Access content, managing files to prevent deterioration of storage media, creating metadata to facilitate preservation, migrating files to newer file formats to prevent technological obsolescence, managing backup and mirror sites, and other ongoing activities. GPO’s responsibilities for permanent public access are described in LPS’ 1998 report Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection: A Policy and Planning Document.

At the macro level, LPS is using three approaches to provide permanent public access:

1. Digital archiving using partner sites, through contractual partnership agreements with depository libraries and/or publishing agencies.
2. Digital archiving on GPO servers.
3. Developing a processing "tool kit" of software for archiving digital objects, and an off-site archival storage and preservation capability with OCLC.

I call this the "three-horse race" and all three horses are off and running. LPS’ own archive of electronic publications provides a first level of security for agency publications that are primarily textual or images of text, and which have no tangible counterpart in the FDLP.

LPS staff routinely downloads copies of online titles for which there are no analogous print versions in the FDLP. These files are eventually stored on GPO’s archive server, as a security measure. Their active use begins only when the original agency version is no longer available. As of August, there are approximately 4750 titles stored in the archive server, with 77 archived titles being served up to users.

GPO and OCLC have completed the first phases of testing of a system to locate, identify, process, describe, store and preserve electronic publications. The Web Document Digital Archive Pilot Project includes several other partners, including the state libraries of Connecticut, Michigan, Arizona, and Ohio, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The system incorporates 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. LPS’ Director and Electronic Collection Manager were instrumental in conceptualizing this project, convincing OCLC of the value and importance of digital archiving, and in prototyping the features and the user interface. The resulting product, while initially a reflection of GPO's high-level requirements for an archiving system, is making a significant contribution to the ability of libraries worldwide to manage and expand access to digital resources.

As an outgrowth of the digital archive project, GPO is a charter member of the OCLC Digital and Preservation Cooperative, which will advance research and development of digital preservation and archiving solutions for libraries worldwide.

Establishing partnerships with agencies, depository libraries, and other organizations builds on the successful model of the FDLP sharing responsibility for access and preservation. Partnerships have taken various forms. Six libraries provide services or tools for locating Government information or managing depository library collections. Currently, responsibility for one of GPO's original Pathway locators, Browse Topics, is passing to new management at Oklahoma State University.

Nine partners manage content with specific permanent public access safeguards contractually defined. Among these are depository libraries including: the University of Illinois at Chicago, which hosts Department of State material; Indiana University, which hosts an online server of publications previously distributed in the FDLP on unstable floppy disk media, and the University of North Texas, which houses the Cybercemetery, a site which collects and preserves the web sites of Government agencies and commissions that have ceased operation. In the past year the Cybercemetery has averaged over half a million hits per month, and has received favorable media attention from the Washington Post and the Associated Press. Several Government agencies, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the National Library of Medicine, maintain agreements through which GPO is assured that web content will be maintained on agency servers permanently, thus relieving GPO of the burden of capturing and archiving their content.

In late 2002, a content partnership between the U.S. Census Bureau, GPO, and the Case Western Reserve University Libraries (CWRU) began. Case Western will operate a site specifically geared to depository libraries offering the 2000 Census Summary Files for download by File Transfer Protocol (ftp). I want to thank CWRU Documents Librarian Karen Thornton for all her help in this project.

The most exciting development for LPS’ future is our acquisition of an Integrated Library System (ILS). This will enable us to improve services to libraries and make a greater range of Government publications accessible to the public.

In the fiscal year 2002 appropriation, GPO received general approval from Congress to acquire a commercial off-the-shelf ILS. Two other important milestones in the acquisition process have taken place this fiscal year:

• LPS obtained spending approval from the Joint Committee on Printing for the ILS.
• GPO has contracted and begun work with a library automation consulting firm, RMG, Inc., of Chicago, IL, to analyze functional requirements, review available systems for "fit" with those requirements, and recommend the best system to meet LPS’ needs.

RMG’s principal is Mr. Rob McGee, who is working intensively with LPS to refine our needs, define appropriate systems architecture, and so on. McGee has performed similar work for many domestic and international libraries, and he has a well-developed process that we are going through. The next step is that RMG will issue a Request for Information (RFI) on GPO’s behalf to the top 5 system vendors. The RFI sets forth our requirements and asks the vendors to describe the offerings and to respond to a lengthy series of questions. We are working with other GPO offices to ensure that whatever we purchase is consistent with network security requirements and preferred network architecture.

The vendors will be asked to respond by mid-December, and we will begin a very intense evaluation process, likely culminating in vendors’ presentations at GPO in mid-to-late January. We intend to have identified the system for us by the end of February, and then proceed to the acquisition stage. LPS will strive to have the ILS up and running in early 2004.

Of course this means we will face many issues, like migrating data, populating the database, building programming interfaces with other systems, re-engineering our workflow, staff training, and much, much more. In order to meet this ambitious schedule, LPS will have to keep our nose to the grindstone, and try to avoid distractions. I think that those of you who have been through a major system implementation know what we will face. Recently we have had nearly 10 of our staff working exclusively on the ILS project, but of course all of this time comes out of the existing staff resource pie. In order to build the system for the future, we are going to have to accept some constraints on making incremental changes to the existing systems. I trust that you will give us the breathing room to get the job done. The results, in improved service and expanded access, will be well worth it.

The ILS implementation and system installation is expected to take place in phases. Phase 1 features the replacement of the bibliographic functions currently supported by OCLC and the Catalog of Government Publications (GCP). These actions will take place by Day 1 of using the ILS:

• The ILS’ public access catalog will replace the CGP.
• Begin cataloging in ILS and export records to OCLC.
• Perform serials check-in in ILS.
• Utilize authority file functions in ILS.
• Create output products through ILS, for printed products and for MARC record distribution.
• Populate ILS modules with bibliographic and authority records produced by LPS from July 1976- present.

We have a lot of work to do, and a lot of changes to go through. But we have a great team at work in LPS, and I’m confident that the results are going to be spectacular. Before I close, I want to acknowledge all of the support we have gotten from the Council for the ILS project. Thank you for your help, encouragement, and patience.

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.

While there are a number of exciting changes on the way for GPO Access, system performance problems continue to frustrate users. Time-outs due to slow system response and other types of errors are far too common, particularly during the busiest hours of the workday. Even successful transactions take far too long on many of the most popular applications. I deeply regret this poor service and I assure you that steps are being taken to remedy the situation both now and for the future.

We continue to use the Keynote performance measurement service to track performance from the user perspective in 10 major cities in the United States. Based on results from these measurements, our Production department is working to reconfigure some of the servers and the load balancing equipment to optimize their efficiency, and additional servers are being prepared to provide additional capacity where needed.

An effort is also underway to explore options to break up large files wherever possible and to look for more efficient ways to present them for download. One of the methods being examined is to akamaize as many of the static offerings as possible so that they can be delivered through the Akamai content delivery network, which would spread the load out to local servers and lessen the burden on the main GPO Access system. This would potentially ease the load on other resources so that searching would show an improved response time.

While these adjustments should help performance in the short run, a new platform to replace the aging WAIS system is essential to resolve our performance problems in the long run. Work on this important effort is well underway and a procurement of the next generation software for GPO Access should begin in the near future. Users should see the initial benefits of the new software by the end of FY 2003.

This new XML platform should afford users both enhanced performance and usability. The most popular GPO Access resources will be switched to the new platform first and work will continue until all products and services have been updated.

These improvement efforts also include work towards establishing a geographically separate mirror site and backup facility for GPO Access in Pueblo, Colorado. Plans are being finalized and construction on the facility should begin very soon, with backup data storage being the initial goal and progressing to a complete mirror site that shares the load with the systems in Washington as well as providing safe backup.

In addition to striving towards better performance, work continues to translate what we learn from our users into more usable GPO Access pages. Many of you have worked along with us on this effort and this hard work is about to pay dividends. The feedback provided through user support contacts, open forums, focus groups, and usability studies has paved the way for a new look and feel for GPO Access.

As this process is finalized, you will once again have a chance to play a vital role in the outcome. There will be numerous opportunities during this conference for you to contribute to the new look of GPO Access by providing feedback on what has been done so far. Some of you have been invited to explore specific aspects of the new design in a focus group. Others will contribute in the open forum to be held this afternoon. And for those who cannot participate in either of those sessions, there will be a computer set up out in the Promenade area throughout the conference. EIDS staff will be available to show you what has been done so far and get your suggestions on how to make it even better. I will not be able to give you a precise date for the release of the new pages, because your comments will determine how much more work is needed before they can go live, but we hope to make them available in the very near future.

The analysis of the results from our annual online survey was recently completed and some of the results proved quite interesting. The number of responses received was roughly equivalent to last year, but the configuration of respondents changed a fair amount. There were far fewer depository library responses and an increase in the number of respondents who identified themselves as part of the general public. After learning this, it was not surprising to see the reported usage frequency decline this year.

A general decline in the stated use of GPO Access finding aids was reported, including the Catalog of Government Publications and the Sales Product Catalog. The only two that showed increases in the survey were New Electronic Titles and Browse a Topic.

Product performance drew the expected poor ratings, with particular emphasis on the problems encountered when using the CFR and FR. As it turned out, the less popular the resource, the better the performance rating it received.

On the plus side, ratings for the GPO Access User Support Team rose significantly in the areas of product knowledge, technical knowledge, complaint resolution, courtesy, accessibility, and response time. On the down side, even though the number of responses rating complaint resolution as excellent increased significantly, the number of respondents rating our complaint resolution as poor also went up. I can assure you that we will be working hard to make that number go down in the next survey. The planned procurement of a customer relationship management (CRM) software package in the coming months will go a long way towards accomplishing this, as well as strengthening the areas of support that already receive strong ratings. In addition to supporting the generation of a knowledgebase that can serve to speed the resolution of frequently asked questions, it will also provide a web chat capability so that our support specialists can help users directly from the page they are on in GPO Access.

The number of respondents who stated that they found GPO Access through a search engine increased by almost a third over last year. Approximately 30% reported finding us through a search engine compared to about 20% last year. This finding supports our continued efforts to maximize our visibility on major search engines.

We have continued our work on the search engine project, and the just completed 8^th evaluation found an overall increase in successful returns. This included gains in Top-5, Top-10, and Top-30 returns, with Top-5 returns increasing to a new high of 26% of the test searches.

Some of these Top-5 increases came from interesting players, with Hotbot, iWon, and Alltheweb recording huge increases. AOL showed the most dramatic increase, with its Top-5 returns increasing by more than 300%. Unfortunately, FirstGov fell dramatically, dropping from second ranked search engine in the last evaluation to tenth this time. My staff will work with the FirstGov folks to attempt and reverse this decline.

Based on what we have learned from paid keyword positioning for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, testing a revised plan for promoting both the Online Bookstore and the CFR portions of GPO Access is nearing completion. It builds on what we learned ourselves and through the advice of a consultant to produce a flexible and economical strategy designed to place top bids on a variety of keywords shown to be popular with Internet searchers.

My staff has continued working hand-in-hand with STAT-USA to improve the availability and usability of their information products at depository libraries. The use of the STAT-USA module in GPO Access training classes has proven to be a success, and STAT-USA is conducting training sessions of their own using the materials we prepared for inclusion in the GPO Access manual. STAT-USA representatives have also participated in the GPO Access training classes held in Mobile, Alabama and helped out in the GPO Access booth at the Florida EdTech Conference.

The cooperative efforts between GPO and STAT-USA have led to an expansion of the partnership to include free depository access to USA Trade Online. EIDS will be incorporating USA Trade Online into existing GPO Access training classes and information on USA Trade Online will be added to the STAT-USA/Internet insert of the GPO Access Training Manual. We have enjoyed the opportunity to team up with STAT-USA to provide public access to and awareness of STAT-USA products. In the future, we hope the partnership between GPO and STAT-USA will make it possible to provide additional public access benefits through the Federal Depository Library Program.

A new booth was acquired for use at trade shows and conferences to promote the products and services of GPO Access, as well as the Federal Depository Library and Sales programs. The new booth debuted at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, along with a new set of flyers to promote the various components of GPO Access. These flyers are available for your use and can be ordered along with the other promotional materials for the FDLP.

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

• A clickable map of the United States is now available for locating Federal depository libraries.

• The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (George H.W. Bush, 1992-1993, Vol. 1) is now available.

• The new edition of the United States Government Manual (FY2002/2003) is also available.

• The May 2002 revision of the Congressional Pictorial Directory is now available on GPO Access.

• Two more chapters of the Deschler-Brown Precedents of the United States House of Representatives are available. They are:

• Volume 16, Chapter 32 (House Document No. 94-661).
• Volume 16, Chapter 33 (House Document No. 94-661).

• A listserve for those who wish to be notified of FDLP electronic-only items available for sale is available. It is called GPO-ELSALE-L and there are already 130 subscribers.

• Three new Federal Web sites are now hosted on GPO Access:

• The United States Capitol Police, < http://www.uscapitolpolice.gov >.
• The Millenial Housing Commission, < http://www.mhc.gov >.
• Office of Independent Counsel, Donald C. Smaltz - In Re: Secretary of Agriculture Alphonso Michael Espy, < http://www.oic.gov >.

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:

• The use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to authenticate the PDF versions of congressional bills will begin at the start of the new Congress (108^th). Users with a free software reader will be able to confirm that a bill was approved for submission to GPO by the appropriate congressional authority and that it has not been altered since it was signed. We will post information about the free reader on library community listserves and publish it in Administrative Notes before this takes effect.

• A new listserv that will enable subscribers to be notified when a new Public Law is put up on the system should be made available in the near future.

• An adult version of Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government is being designed in response to intense user feedback.

• Future enhancements for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore include improved online ordering for foreign customers and providing the ability to hand off an order created by a user to another person for approval and/or completion. This is being pursued in direct response to feedback from users who are unable to directly purchase from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, but must go through others in their organization to make purchases.

As you can tell, change is a constant with GPO Access. As its offerings and popularity continue to grow, our efforts to provide the best possible service will make every effort to keep pace. Once again I remind you that your feedback plays a vital role in this development process. Participation in this afternoon’s open forum is an excellent opportunity to add your voice to the process, but a comment or suggestion sent to the GPO Access User Support Team serves well at any time. Thank you, and I look forward to talking with you during the conference.

• Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have exceeded 1.5 billion, which is equivalent to over 36 billion typewritten pages.

• The average number of monthly retrievals from GPO Access is currently 31 million and the average size of these documents is currently about 49Kb. With 2Kb equaling roughly one typewritten page, the average size of a document retrieved from GPO Access equates to some 24.5 typewritten pages and costs less than a penny per retrieval.

• GPO Access contains nearly 140,000 electronic titles and points to over 91,000 others for a total of about 231,000 titles.

• GPO Access provides use of over 2,400 databases through more than 80 applications.

• Since the redesign of GPO Access in April 1999, EIDS has been collecting user feedback from a variety of sources, such as usability testing (many thanks to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for letting us use their lab), focus groups, surveys, and comments received by the GPO Access User Support Team. This effort to improve the site’s design and usability of GPO Access will culminate in the release of a new design in the near future. A preview of the new redesign will be given at the GPO Access Open Forum on Monday, October 21, 2002 at 2:00 p.m. You may also preview this redesign with EIDS staff in the promenade of the hotel anytime during the conference.

• Through the use of Keynote Systems Inc., a performance measurement service, we are continuing to monitor system performance from 10 cities around the country. Daily monitoring is conducted on the GPO Access homepage, the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, and a transaction in the Code of Federal Regulations database. The information gained is being used to work toward improved performance.

• The new edition of the Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 107th Congress is available at < http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/107_pictorial/ >.

• Volume I of the 1992 - 1993 Public Papers for George H.W. Bush is now available online at < http://www.gpo.gov/nara/pubpaps/srchpaps.html >.

• Three new Federal Web sites are now hosted on GPO Access:

Several features have been added to the U.S. Government Online Bookstore in order to enhance usability and expedite orders:

• The various browse features on the Online Bookstore have been enhanced so that price and status information is updated daily. In addition, customers may now use the search and browse features to add publications to their shopping cart for a fully integrated shopping experience.

• While the Online Bookstore has safeguarded a customer's personal information through online encryption since 1999, the service was recently changed so users do not have to enter the secure environment until they have finished shopping and need to enter personal information when completing the order.

A new GPO Access booth was acquired to be used at trade shows and conferences. The new booth debuted at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA.

• Future enhancements for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore include improved online ordering for international customers and providing third-party hand off of orders for those who are unable to directly purchase from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore.

• Work toward building the GPO Access mirror site in Pueblo, CO is proceeding. As this work progresses, normal data backup will continue with the addition of the temporary storage of key data at a GPO facility near Washington, DC.

• GPO is working in partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration's Office of the Federal Register on a participatory rule-making site, to be known as Regulations.gov. This site will provide a mechanism for the public to submit comments electronically on proposed rules and to view comments submitted by others.

• The cooperative efforts between GPO and STAT-USA have led to an expansion of the partnership to include free depository access to USA Trade Online. EIDS will be incorporating USA Trade Online into existing GPO Access training classes, and information on USA Trade Online will be added to the STAT-USA/Internet insert of the GPO Access Training Manual.

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