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Readers Exchange
Government Documents Processing Tutorial
ALA GODORT and AALL Government Documents Special Interest Section
Collaborative Tutorial Project
Charlene Cain
Paul M. Hebert Law Center
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
The initiative for the AALL/GODORT Government Documents Tutorial began with Paul Arrigo, Documents Librarian at Washburn University of Topeka School of Law Library. As chair of the American Association of Law Libraries Government Documents Special Interest Section (AALL GD-SIS), Paul sent a survey to section members as part of an overall long-range planning initiative. Several responses to the survey indicated an interest among members in an electronic tutorial on government documents processing for use in staff training.
Shortly afterwards, Charlene Cain became chair of the section, setting the goal to forge a closer relationship between law librarians and the rest of the depository community. Charlene approached then-GODORT Education Committee Chair, Trish Cruse, seeking technical expertise for the tutorial. Trish recommended Larry Schankman of Mansfield University, who was not only a documents librarian, but at the time completing a second Masters in Instructional Technology. The two partners then agreed that Charlene would write the content, and Larry would design the tutorial using software purchased by the AALL GD-SIS.
Charlene roughed out a short draft covering some very basic skills, and Larry designed a Web-based prototype. The two met in New Orleans during the 1999 summer ALA conference to go over practical issues. After all the modules were completed, the team realized that the tutorial was too long to be practical, and had to make some difficult decisions to reduce the size. Despite much cutting, the tutorial contains more than fifty screens.
One of the first design decisions concerned distribution. At the time the project began (1998/99 membership year), dynamic HTML was still relatively new, and many libraries had older browsers that could not view the advanced features of the tutorial. CD-ROM distribution was dismissed as too costly, and the creation of a PC-based program was deemed unacceptably complex and error prone, since it would require users to download and install software. For this reason, Charlene and Larry decided on Web delivery. For software, Larry used a combination of Macromedia Course Builder, an enhancement to the popular Dreamweaver editor, and HomeSite, a powerful HTML text editor.
The tutorial is now mounted on the AALL server at: <www.aallnet.org/sis/gd/tutorial/>. It introduces staff and student workers to the basics of government documents processing and in no way supplants the Federal Depository Library Manual or the Instructions to Depository Libraries. The tutorial is arranged in three parts. Module One contains the basics of documents processing, including shipping lists, check-in, and claims. Module Two deals with collection maintenance and covers item number configuration, the update cycle, maintenance tools, superseded materials, preparation of discard lists, and the basics of preservation and storage. Module Three is a guide to the Superintendent of Documents classification system, including the parts of a SuDocs number and filing advice. There is also a multi-page "quiz" so that users can test their newly acquired skills. Thus far the tutorial has been well received. As of late February there were over 500 hits on the site. Of the nearly fifty comments received, a very few have related to minor corrections, but even those messages were very complimentary overall.
Part of the original strategy for content selection was to minimize the need for major updates by choosing information of enduring usefulness. The plan is for the AALL GD SIS Webmaster, Eric Parker (Northwestern University School of Law), to make such minor updates as may be needed for as long as the tutorial is of value to the depository community. Users are requested to send questions or comments to Charlene Cain (llcain@lsu.edu) or Larry Schankman (lschankm@mnsfld.edu) either directly or via the suggestion box on the tutorial's main page.
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The Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection:
Preserving a Tradition of Access
to United States Government Information
George D. Barnum
Electronic Collection Manager
Library Programs Service
United States Government Printing Office
Washington, DC
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Steven P. Kerchoff
FEDLINK Network Program Specialist
FLICC/FEDLINK, Library of Congress
Washington, DC
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[Presented by George D. Barnum at the Preservation 2000 Conference in York, UK, December, 2000. The conference was an international gathering of librarians and archivists focused on the preservation and long-term accessibility of digital materials, sponsored by the Cedars Project of England, and the Research Libraries Group and OCLC, Inc. of the U.S. The conference proceedings are available at <www.rlg.org/events/pres-2000/prespapers.html>.]
Beginning with a Congressional mandate in Public Law 103-40 (1993)1 for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) to create and maintain online access to "appropriate publications distributed by the Superintendent of Documents," GPO has endeavored to translate its historic mandate for free access to Government information to the digital age. Throughout much of U.S. history, GPO has maintained a system of dissemination and access based on the deposit of printed publications by the government in designated libraries. This system has been widely emulated by state governments as well as by other nations and international organizations. In the face of rapidly expanding adoption of digital technology and a climate of Government reform, the challenge for GPO has been to determine which attributes and principles of the historic depository system are successful and valid, and with that as a basis, to seek applications within the context of the digital revolution.
In this context GPO has been at work over the past four years in a transition to a more (or primarily) electronic dissemination program. This transition has had several phases, beginning with extensive study2 and a strategic plan in 1996, followed by various experimental and pilot projects, modifications of workforce and working routines, and, at the beginning of the 2001 fiscal year, a more general and wide-ranging application of the assumptions and new goals of the transition across the entire Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) driven by a substantial reduction by Congress in funding for tangible format distribution.
The Goal and the FDLP
Stated simply, the goal of the FDLP is to assure current and permanent public access to the universe of information published by the U.S. Government. This universe includes information products, regardless of form or format, which are of public interest or educational value, not strictly administrative or operational in nature, and not classified for reasons of national security nor otherwise constrained by personal privacy issues. The primary user community consists of end users gaining access through the facilities and resources of designated libraries. The program that has grown around this goal was first enacted in the 1860s, and took the statutory form it retains today with the enactment of the Printing Act of 1895,3 which linked the distribution of publications to libraries with the newly centralized system for the procurement of printing by the Congress and executive branch agencies. Briefly, any printing order sent by a Government agency to GPO, for products that meet certain minimum criteria, has a quantity added to the total order earmarked for distribution to libraries. The libraries, designated by act of Congress, receive the publications for free and in return must agree to be open to the public, and to meet certain minimum standards for service. Although a multitude of variations has developed over the years, the system has remained remarkably robust at capturing and guaranteeing access to Government publications.
In practice, the FDLP has evolved to perform four broad functions:
- Deposit. The functions that relate to selection, acquisition, distribution, and physical control of publications (classification, etc.) by GPO, including the retention of ownership of deposited publications by the Government, and inspection to assure compliance;
- Assurance of current and permanent public access, including the requirements made of depository libraries for free access to the general public, retention schedules, and service to users of Government information;
- Provision of locator tools, including the statutorily mandated catalogs and indexes GPO produces as well as bibliographic description and other types of finding aids;
- Promotion and facilitation of use, including training opportunities, conferences, and marketing.
It is in the first two categories, deposit and assurance of access, that the transition to a more electronically-based program has had the most fundamental effect. In the print world the system of deposit provides a stable and secure environment in which information is, as a by-product of the legal requirement that Government printing be either performed or contracted for by GPO, funneled into a geographically distributed and fairly closely regulated system of outlets. In return for receiving the information free-of-charge, these libraries agree to be bound by various requirements for access. In the Internet environment, Federal agencies no longer have an imperative to involve GPO in the dissemination of their information, and the need for redundant housing of copies of publications to achieve geographical equity is obviated by the ability to use a single source from multiple remote locations. At the same time, needs and expectations on the part of librarians and library users for access to this information have grown.
The attempt to reinvent distributed, permanent access has centered on the creation of the FDLP Electronic Collection, a digital library conceived on fairly traditional library collection development principles, and consisting of an interdependent set of locator tools, user interfaces, links to content on agency servers, a digital archive, and various kinds of metadata. The collection is being built using a standard collection development document4 which emphasizes a blending of new and adapted roles for the depository program.
On one level, the FDLP must continue to provide access, through its network of designated libraries, to the information that its enabling statute describes as being in scope5. The everyday realities of providing both actual electronic access and bibliographic/intellectual access tools have been in a state of almost constant change since the first introduction of electronic products in the early 1990s. Previously the processing of materials from the printing press through GPO’s verification and distribution mechanisms and into libraries was a highly detailed process not far removed either in concept or practice from other mass-production processes employed in a large printing and publishing concern. The shift to a digital FDLP has altered this model, changing the skills and workflow required to provide access. Over time, the size and composition of the workforce performing these tasks is changing, with an increase in the need for so-called knowledge workers superseding the need for production-line materials handlers and lower-level clerical employees.
The Challenge and the Electronic Collection
In the third edition of her book Tapping the Government Grapevine: The User-Friendly Guide to U.S. Government Information Sources, Judith Scheik Robinson has said, "Although the focus has shifted from on-site physical collections to electronic linkage, the underlying ideology of permanent and equitable access remains a FDLP hallmark. Depository libraries are government information sanctuaries...by championing audience-appropriate and use-appropriate formats, permanent preservation, and public access, the FDLP preserves the nation’s oeuvre..." Robinson interprets a summary of GPO’s transition goals first put forth by GPO official Gil Baldwin in 1996:6.
Transition to Electronic FDLP