11.10 Tips, Practical Advice, and Lessons Learned

When partnering with LSCM:

• Begin with a business proposal. Before approaching LSCM about a partnership, the best first step is to create a formal business proposal. This proposal should explain why your library can make a difference in the government information arena and why you can be an effective partner. Include a realistic “game plan” that includes your vision of financial responsibility, staff time involved, server space, and any financial or other gain for your parent institution or community and LSCM. Make sure the mission statement of the partnership is clear.
• Obtain the approval of your library administration. Remember that a partnership with LSCM will REQUIRE approval from your library or parent institution’s administration. Make sure that you have obtained this approval before you contact LSCM and begin negotiations.
• Enlist the cooperation of the Systems or Information Technology department that services your larger library to get approval for server space and technical support for your project.
• Consider the timeframe for completing and obtaining approvals of a partnership agreement. To form a partnership, the participating library and LSCM will have to sign a partnership agreement. Remember that your library administration and parent institution’s legal counsel will most likely require time to examine the partnership agreement before approval. Equally, LSCM MUST also have the partnership agreement reviewed by legal counsel. Several months should be allowed to send the documents back and forth before both parties approve it.
• Network with other partnership institutions to get advice. If you are interested in forming a partnership, contact other institutions that have ongoing partnerships with LSCM to get advice on such things as amount of time required to formulate the partnership agreement, staff time required, server space required, available grants to support the program, and anything else you might not have considered. For a list of current partnerships click here.
• The partnership site design is a consideration. Your partnership site may be designed or redesigned by LSCM to coordinate with the rest of GPO’s Web pages. LSCM will need to map your partnership site appropriately from its site, so that users will be able to easily locate your partnership’s material.
• Site maintenance is your responsibility. In a service partnership, most of the maintenance for the partnership site will be up to the partnering institution, and not LSCM. If you wish to make changes to the characteristics of the service, you will NEED to get approval from LSCM. You will also be required to give up some control of the editorial service that you provide.
• Remember that in the spirit of cooperation, depository libraries are responsible for periodically updating your depository information through the FDLP Desktop.
• Complete the Biennial Survey. The survey provides LSCM with valuable data that is used to plan for the future of the FDLP.

If you are interested in partnering, contact information is available. If you have an idea for a new partnership project, contact the Office of Planning and Development, Library Services.

Collaboration among Federal Depository Libraries

• Remember the FDLP works best when depositories work together.
• Share resources by submitting and fulfilling interlibrary loan requests.
• Local depositories can work together to share collection development responsibilities.
• Make other near-by depositories aware of your collections strengths. This will help facilitate referrals.

State Plans

• Each state is unique so there is no right or wrong way to develop a state plan. The number of regional depositories and selective depositories in each state will influence the way the state plan is created and organized. For example, California has one regional depository and 90 selective depositories while New Mexico has two regional depositories and nine selective depositories. Some states, such as South Carolina, have shared regional depositories, while other regional depositories are responsible for more than one state.
• If you are developing a state plan for the first time, review the plans of other states to find out if there is one that you could use as a guide.
• Include state documents groups, such as a state chapter of GODORT in the state plan process.
• The regional librarian or librarians should take an active role in creating or revising a state plan. They should serve as the coordinator for the process, can be chair of the committee, can ask interested persons to volunteer, can appoint committee members, can serve in an advisory capacity, etc.
• Writing a state plan is an opportunity to involve the depository library directors in the state and to further educate them about the FDLP and LSCM. For example, the director of the regional depository at the University of Georgia hosted a daylong seminar in Athens for depository library directors and depository coordinators. The director also invited a staff member from the FDLP to participate in the seminar and give the keynote address. This seminar provided the directors an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about LSCM and the FDLP from a LSCM official.
• The state plan process gives depository coordinators a chance to promote the FDLP to the depository library director and to other library staff members.
• An approval process and procedure should be included in state plan. The type of approval process may differ between states.
• Include a timetable in the text of the plan for future revisions. The revision process should also provide an opportunity for the depository libraries to review general library policy in regards to its U.S. Government publications collection.
• The state plan should be placed on a Web site so that it is easily available.