ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES NEWSLETTER OF THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM Vol. 20, no. 05 GP 3.16/3-2:20/05 February 25, 1999 MANY IMPROVEMENTS MADE TO GPO ACCESS; MORE TO COME REMARKS BY T.C. EVANS ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION DISSEMINATION Before the Federal Documents Task Force and Cataloging Committee, Government Documents Round Table American Library Association Philadelphia, PA January 31, 1999 Introduction It is a pleasure to have another opportunity to update the library community on the current and future state of GPO Access. Since we last met, a tremendous amount of GPO resources have been devoted to improving the products and services of GPO Access. While I am confident that you will agree that the results represent a move in the right direction, I am also afraid that you will agree that there is much to be done. All of the hardworking individuals at GPO who make GPO Access a reality deserve a word of public thanks, but so do you. The time and effort put in by documents librarians to provide us with the essential feedback necessary to produce a more useful service is deeply appreciated. These efforts are paying off both in terms of utility to our users and attention for the site. GPO Access products and services have continued to grow and an increasing number of authoritative sites are linking to them. Just this past week, the Dow Jones Business Directory site included a review of our congressional applications stating: "This straightforward site will be invaluable for librarians, students, journalists and others who want to know who is in Congress and what transpired." There are now more than 1,000 official Government databases available on GPO Access. These databases contain almost 100 gigabytes of data and the total is growing daily. In addition, thousands of other Government information products are accessible through GPO Access. In fact, the most recent count showed that over 135,000 electronic titles are available through the FDLP Electronic Collection. These titles include all of the products and services available on and linked to from GPO Access. This total is continuing evidence of the transition to a more electronic FDLP. The number of electronic titles has grown by more than 11,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 1999 and will continue to expand as more content is added to our servers, additional partnerships are achieved, and more titles on other sites are bibliographically controlled and linked from our site. Usage GPO Access usage continues to be high, even though we are still experiencing slow system performance and it has been a traditionally slow time of year. While recent system changes have prevented us temporarily from capturing exact numbers, we can confidently estimate using the data available. Over 250 million documents have been downloaded from GPO Access since it began operation in 1994. With an estimated 45 million documents downloaded in the first three months of fiscal 1999, approximately 180 million documents should be downloaded this fiscal year. System performance has not yet reached desired levels because the implementation of our server controller array has proven more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated. The size and complexity of the GPO Access system presents some difficult challenges to such an implementation, but our Production department is working hard to get the job done while still providing access to the systems resources. It would be difficult to give you an exact date for completion of this effort, but I can assure you that it is receiving the highest possible priority. What's New on GPO Access There are a number of recent changes to GPO Access that should be noted. The most important are: * An important new feature has been added to our Congressional Record Index (CRI) application. With this feature you can use the available hyperlinks to jump directly to the appropriate pages in the Congressional Record instead of having to perform a search. Initial user response has been quite favorable, but we would like to get additional feedback. * There is a new electronic replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. It is known as O*NET. Working in partnership with O*NET's publishers, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, the Superintendent of Documents is now distributing the full range of O*NET 98 products. The principal product is the CD-ROM that includes the full range of O*NET products. The full suite of O*NET products is also available on GPO Access. Additionally, the O*NET Viewer and Database are available individually on diskette. The User's Guide and Data Dictionary are available in print. Labor has decided not to produce a printed version of O*NET, which was planned and developed as an interactive database rather than a text file. All versions are being made available to depositories. Additional information on O*NET is available at the GPO Booth (Booth # 2153). * Based on a suggestion from some of our Council members (Dr. Fred Wood and Mary Alice Baish), links to official Congressional Committee Web sites have been added to our congressional pages. * A prototype of an interactive GPO Access training CD-ROM has been developed. I encourage you to visit the GPO Booth at the Convention Center (Booth # 2153) and take the time to field test this prototype and give us your feedback. The evaluation process will take about a half-hour, so you can sign up for a time most convenient to you, and you will receive a GPO Access Field Tester Certificate after giving us your review. The CD was designed to augment our training sessions around the country. EIDS staff will still be providing hands-on training sessions at sponsor sites around the country. In fact, requests for GPO Access training sessions to be held this year are still being considered by LPS. * A new and improved list of our available CD-ROM products has been created and copies are available at the GPO booth (Booth # 2153). * New pages were recently made available pulling together links to all of the materials from the House and Senate related to the impeachment process. * Daily Sales Product Catalog text files and monthly Monthly Catalog text files are now available on the Federal Bulletin Board. Compressed text files of the Sales Products Catalog or SPC (formerly the PRF, Publication Reference File), and compressed text files of the Monthly Catalog (MOCAT) in USMARC format are now available on the Federal Bulletin Board. Both files are available in the SPCMOCAT directory from: . The cumulative Sales Product Catalog text file is updated daily. This file serves as a guide to Government information products currently offered for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, and is arranged by GPO stock number. The SPC includes citations to forthcoming Government information products as well as to titles which have recently been superseded or gone out of print. The cumulative Monthly Catalog text file will be posted on the Federal Bulletin Board the Monday following the last Saturday of each month. The new file will contain every record created, produced, or updated during that month on OCLC by GPO catalogers. The data set in each file appears as a continuous stream of unedited USMARC records (i.e. no line breaks separating one entry from another), and of records from previous months that have been revised and updated that month on OCLC. The records will be ordered by OCLC number. There are help documents in text and PDF format for the SPC and MOCAT files. The GPO Access User Support Team is available to answer questions that concern downloading and other technical matters from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays). You can reach the User Support Team via e-mail at gpoaccess@gpo.gov, or by phone at (888) 293-6498. * The List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA) is now available on GPO Access. What's on the Horizon for GPO Access 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: * Export Administration Regulations from the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Export Administration is being added to GPO Access. This new availability will take two forms. A browse feature has been released that will enable users to freely download any section in ASCII, PDF, or WordPerfect form. A searchable database will soon follow. * Based on valuable feedback received through focus groups, suggestions, and personal contacts, the GPO Access Web Committee is hard at work on a new GPO Access home page. This will include some eagerly awaited features such as a site search mechanism, quick jumps to key products, and links to new pages created to reflect products available on GPO Access grouped into intuitive categories. * A new GPO Access user survey is being prepared and details on participation will be released through common channels in the near future. * Software has been successfully tested that will provide an encrypted secure environment to enter payment information through GPO Access when purchasing sales products. This new enhancement will be released as soon as the required permissions have been received. This is but one of the many enhancements being developed for the sales portion of our site. Current plans call for this portion of our site to be called the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, and a team is looking at a myriad of ways to create a more enjoyable and functional means of locating and purchasing Superintendent of Documents sales products. * A new CIA World Factbook CD-ROM will be released in late February. * A new Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission CD-ROM containing their decisions is being prepared. It will be released as a quarterly subscription. * And last, but not least, the Budget will be released tomorrow morning in print and on GPO Access. The CD-ROM version and the print version of the Economic Report of the President will be released on February 4, 1999. Once again, I urge you to stop by Booth 2153 and see the changes in GPO Access offerings. We will be happy to demonstrate any part of GPO Access. We can also provide you with promotional materials on what is available in the Sales Program, and as an added bonus, LPS personnel will be available to answer questions related to the Federal Depository Library Program.