ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES NEWSLETTER OF THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM Vol. 20, no. 04 GP 3.16/3-2:20/04 February 15, 1999 ELECTRONIC TRANSITION STAFF UPDATE [HANDOUT ( ALA ( 1/30/99] BUILDING THE FDLP ELECTRONIC COLLECTION Work was completed on Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection: A Policy and Planning Document, known as "the collection plan," in late 1998. The published document has been distributed to all depositories and many interested stakeholders, and is available on GPO Access at . Although the document is published and the plan is in effect, LPS considers the plan a work in progress and welcomes comments from the depository community. With the plan in place, the Electronic Transition Staff (ETS) has begun to work with the other operational areas within the Library Programs Service to identify and implement the steps that will bring its provisions into practice. The first major activity was to establish an exploratory, cross-organizational team of staff from the Depository Administration Branch, Cataloging Branch, Electronic Information Dissemination Services, and the Electronic Transition Staff. The team met for a two-week long exercise in identifying issues and developing strategies for building the electronic collection. This experience has led to many activities and explorations that will be presented to the Federal Documents Task Force during this conference. ETS also continues to make presentations on the plan to interested groups, the most recent of which was the Federal Publishers Committee, a group of agency publishing officials, on January 19. PARTNERSHIPS NTIS The 22 libraries in the NTIS Pilot Project have all received (or will be receiving shortly) login and password information and instructions for using the pilot system. Staff from LPS visited the NTIS offices in December to view the user interface and finalize arrangements with NTIS staff. Users will be able to search in a database of 35,000 image documents and download to their own computers. FDLP/ERIC Digital Library Pilot Project The active phase of the FDLP/ERIC Pilot Project concluded on December 31, 1998. Final surveys have been distributed to all 305 libraries in the pilot group and were due back to GPO by January 20. Results from the mid-term survey will be combined with final survey information and use statistics compiled by project partner OCLC, and a final report will be issued in the first quarter of 1999. National Civil Aviation Review Commission The University of North Texas has taken on permanent access responsibility for the web site of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which ceased operation in late 1997. Based on the model for the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, GPO and the University of North Texas have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that assures permanent access to the Commission materials on the site. Notices advising users of the status of the commission have been added to the site at . NEW PARTNERSHIP MODEL The role of partnerships in providing ongoing access to Government information is evolving. Our initial model was a three party agreement between an agency, a cooperating institution, and GPO, with GPO in the role of facilitator and safety net. We have begun to draft a model agreement in which GPO plays a more active role in identifying, "acquiring," and providing access to information products, and facilitates permanent storage with an institutional partner such as a library or university. This new model will better position GPO to offer a useful service to agency publishers and to gain the benefits of permanent access for the FDLP and the public. DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS PRESERVATION STEERING COMMITTEE Electronic Transition Staff are representing GPO on a Steering Committee organized by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) which will implement the Framework for the Preservation of and Permanent Public Access to USDA Digital Publications. The Framework was developed out of the work of a conference co-sponsored by GPO, the National Agricultural Library, and Cornell University in 1997. The Steering Committee is meeting quarterly to address issues of inventory and life cycle management of USDA digital publications, technical requirements, and user access and retrieval. DEPOSITORY WEB SITE URL SURVEY ETS coordinated a Depository Web Site URL Survey in late 1998, working with other LPS staff and GPO Production. Very shortly those URLs gathered from the Survey will be added as hot links to our Library Directory Open Text Web searchable database at and also the Locate Federal Depository Libraries by State or Area Code at . Libraries can add, modify, or have a URL deleted via the Depository Directory Update Form.