5.5 Tools Available to Help You Select Items for Your Depository Collection

Once your library has been designated as a Federal depository, you may select as many or as little government information products necessary to meet the needs of your users. Regional depository libraries, however, MUST select everything and keep it permanently whereas selective depositories have flexibility in what they collect and in the amount they select, and need only keep items for five years.

Several tools exist to help you make item selections. These include the:

• List of Classes of United States Government Publications Available for Selection by Depository Libraries and the Union List of Item Selections,
• Basic Collection,
• Suggested Core Collections, and
• Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper or Other Tangible Format.

The foundation of your depository collection should include titles derived from these tools.

List of Classes of United States Government Publications Available for Selection by Depository Libraries and the Union List of Item Selections

• You can currently de-select items in your depository library’s profile at any time, but you can only add items once a year during the Item Selection Update Cycle which usually occurs in the calendar year during the month of June or July.
• The basis for selection is the List of Classes of United States Government Publications Available for Selection by Depository Libraries and the Union List of Item Selections. The List of Classes is a list of currently available products sorted by Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification stem including item number, format, etc. While there may be several products in a variety of media listed under each item number, products can be selected only by item number. The List of Classes is updated semiannually in paper and the Union List of Item Selections is updated monthly on the Federal Bulletin Board (FBB). GPO will send out announcements when items can be added to your selection profile. You can review your library’s selection list using Document Data Miner 2 (DDM2), an invaluable collection of collection management tools for this purpose. The Union List of Item Selections is updated online and available for download.
• The List of Classes and Union List of Item Selections include publications having public interest or educational value which are issued by the various departments and agencies of the U.S. Government. Excluded from the lists are those publications issued for strictly administrative or operational purposes which have no public interest or educational value, those classified for reasons of national security, and those so-called "cooperative publications." “Cooperative publications are documents which must be sold in order to be self-sustaining. For this reason, printed versions are not available for free distribution through the FDLP. Such titles as the National Union Catalog, Federal Reserve Bulletin, and Prologue fall within this category.
• It’s a good idea to review items before you add them to your collection. If it’s an electronic item you can usually find links to it using tools such as the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP), Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), or through another depository’s catalog. The U.S. Government Bookstore is another good source for information on federal documents that are currently for sale. If the item is only available in print, contact your regional depository or a nearby selective depository to schedule a visit to their collection, or borrow representative issues through interlibrary loan.
• One of the advantages of being a member of the FDLP is free access to databases of Federal information that are otherwise commercially available. These databases include Stat-USA for trade and economic information and NOAA Climatic Data Center. These databases may be password protected and/or limited to a certain number of IP addresses in an institution. Contact askGPO for assistance with passwords.