ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program [ Back Issues ] -------------------------------------------------------------------- May 1, 1999 GP 3.16/3-2:20/08 (Vol. 20, no. 08) -------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NEW GPO: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT MILLENIUM Remarks by Francis J. Buckley, Jr. Superintendent of Documents Before the Depository Library Council and Federal Depository Conference April 12, 1999 Bethesda, MD [Delivered by Gil Baldwin in Mr. Buckley's absence.] Good morning! I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you for the last time at our spring meeting in Washington. As many of you know, we are switching around the dates for holding these events. The next time we will be in the Washington, DC area will be in the fall of 2000. Our fall 1999 session will be in Kansas City and we are negotiating arrangements to meet in Newport, RI in the spring of the year 2000. FDLP in the Information Age I'd like to address the overall issue of GPO's dissemination programs. It is noteworthy that some of the problems we face and the solutions we have put forth are receiving general attention. As an example, the Washington Post had a front page article last month about digital information and preservation concerns that highlighted activities at the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). From that article, I pulled some quotes that I think frame those issues we in the Government and we as librarians are dealing with as we head into the next century: * "The Information Age, the experts warn, could become a blank spot in human history." * "The world's not ending, it's just becoming incomprehensible." * "...the Internet is heavily skewed toward recent information, the latest data, with little trace of older material. A person might surf the Web for hours and not encounter anything written before 1995." * "The worst fear of a librarian is that knowledge will be lost, that the world will somehow see a repeat of the tragedy of the burning of the great library of Alexandria, in Egypt, by the forces of Julius Caesar in 47 B.C." The author of the article goes on to say that, in fact, nobody is quite sure when the library in Alexandria was burned, or by whom or how much information was lost. The problem? There was no definitive information passed down through the centuries that could precisely tell us. So I would wholeheartedly agree with those who are concerned that vital information that we take for granted today might not exist in the coming millennium. Now, having shared some of these dire statements let me say that we in GPO think that the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is one solution as far as Government information is concerned. The program is evolving to meet the changing methods for information dissemination and participating libraries are evolving to meet the needs of their constituents. Gil Baldwin, who will speak later this morning, will provide you with the specific details of progress in various facets of the depository program. NCLIS Assessment But on one front, I'd like to say I am very pleased to report that GPO has published the long-awaited Assessment of Electronic Government Information Products. Printed copies of the report are being sent to every depository and it is available on both the GPO and NCLIS Web sites. As you are no doubt aware, this study was commissioned by GPO as a critical component in our transition to a more electronic FDLP. It was intended to provide data about what types of standards and mediums were being used or which Federal agencies planned to use electronic dissemination of their information products. We established an Interagency Agreement with NCLIS to conduct the assessment since, as an independent Executive Branch agency, it is charged by law to advise the President, Congress, state and local Governments and others on national and international policies and plans for library and information services. NCLIS in turn contracted with Westat, a professional survey firm, to conduct the assessment. The final report makes 16 key findings. The survey identified the most prevalent mediums used to disseminate Government information, as well as the most prevalent formats, noting that these medium and format standards are "common agency practice rather than agency-mandated." The survey found that the most prevalent types of mediums are the Web, paper, CD-ROM, and bulletin board systems; (and) the most prevalent formats are HTML, PDF, GIF, JPEG, TIFF and ASCII." The survey found that "some...agencies are exploring a range of innovative formats and Web design approaches for electronic Government information products." But another key finding was that "there is an overall lack of Government information policy guiding electronic publishing, dissemination, permanent public access, or information life cycle management, especially as information policy relates to agency missions. Also, there is lack of overall coordination of these initiatives at the Governmental, branch, or even agency level." Although not a surprise, the report does state that "the concept of permanent public access is not well understood," and that "there is a lack of understanding of what ensuring authenticity (of Government information in electronic formats) entails." We are all well aware that the U.S. Federal Government produces an enormous quantity and variety of information. The standards best suited for one type of product or data may be substantially less suited, or even entirely inappropriate, for another. Consequently, there is no single standard in which all Government information products can, or should, be created or disseminated. Nevertheless, it is in the best interests of the Government, and those who use Government information, to achieve a greater degree of standardization than now exists. You will be getting more details about the study tomorrow morning when Woody Horton, NCLIS consultant and project director, will be speaking to you. Outreach & Upcoming Activities Members of the staff and I have been involved in numerous outreach activities in the last 6 months since the Fall Council meeting and you will hear more about the other speakers' experiences later this morning. I have had the opportunity to speak to and meet with individuals at library and information-related conferences, library science classes, various professional association meetings and Government organizations. The farthest my travels have taken me is to Tokyo last November. And on American soil, in February, I went back to Michigan and spoke to groups of special, medical and law librarians in addition to participating in a colloquium at Wayne State University and the Biennial General Meeting of the Michigan Council of Depository Libraries. Recently, I've spoken to the DC Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, the Interagency Council on Printing and Publication Services and at the regional library at the University of Maryland as part of their speaker series. Upcoming venues for me include the Department of Energy Inforum, the Montana Library Association, the American Library Association (GODORT/FDTF), the American Association of Law Libraries, and the annual meeting of the White House Conference on Library and Information Services. Partners Last month, I had the honor of representing GPO at a ceremony during which a "Hammer Award" was presented to the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) for the DOE Information Bridge Web site. As I am sure many of you are aware, the partnership that GPO has with OSTI enables the Information Bridge to be made available to the depository program and therefore to the public at large. There will be a presentation tomorrow by OSTI staff about Information Bridge -- and where they are one year later after its implementation. In another form of partnership, I know you recently received information from me about the Atlas of Understanding that is being developed to present an array of issues facing Americans as we enter a new century. It will be produced under the auspices of an organization called TED, which runs annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conferences. What I have found interesting about the project is their focus on the "now," not, as they point out, "millennial retrospectives or future forecasts." This Atlas is to serve as a public information resource, presented in a bipartisan manner to help the public make informed decisions. Sound familiar? I am sure you would agree that this focus complements the mission of the FDLP. Therefore, I hope that the letter and information you received piqued your interest to take advantage of this new opportunity to promote the services of the depository program. John Shuler of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Eliot Christian of the U.S. Geological Survey will be discussing this project in more detail on Wednesday afternoon. Sales Our Sales Program has been experiencing declining sales volumes, changes in buying patterns, reduced number of titles to sell and more competition for the distribution of Government information products as agencies look to public/private partnerships to reduce their cost of publication, in whatever format, and generate revenue for their agency. However, we are looking at ways to strengthen the program and I am pleased to report that we are more "aggressive," and flexible about getting items into our Sales Program; by fashioning new arrangements and examining different ways of doing business with other groups, both inside and outside of Government. As an example, this year we agreed to purchase copies of the Federal Tax Products IRS CD-ROM from the National Technical Information Service for the GPO Sales Program. * GPO staff has worked with the Central Intelligence Agency in ensuring that its World Factbook is printed and included in our Sales Program. * We have reprinted public domain portions of the North American Industrial Classification System. * We have worked with agencies to publish O*NET and the Export Administration Regulation (EAR). * We buy copies of Environmental Health Perspectives from the contractor for our Sales Program. In addition, we have established a program to retain some U.S. Government publications for long-term availability in the GPO Sales Program. An initial group of titles that will not go out of print has been identified, such as volumes of the Congressional Record, Public Papers of the Presidents and other works of historical significance or long-term reference value. There will be a meeting taking place during the conference with Peggy Walker and other volunteers who are giving us advice on the formulation of this program. IPS The staff of GPO's Sales Program has been very busy in planning for the implementation of the Integrated Processing System (IPS) that will significantly improve our order processing and inventory operations. It will be a fully integrated on-line real-time system for processing sales orders, inquiries, and complaints. It will replace some 18 mainframe applications. The goals for IPS are to provide world-class customer service and to reduce processing times from days or weeks to a day or less. And I should mention that this system has been certified to be Y2K compliant by the vendor, Northrup Grumman. Y2K And speaking of Y2K, as Mr. DiMario has mentioned, there have been concerns raised on Capitol Hill about GPO's Y2K readiness. Let me assure you that staff is moving forward on ensuring that systems within Library Programs Service are, indeed, Y2K compliant. We are preparing a transmission to go to the Joint Committee on Printing requesting approval to update the Automated Depository Distribution System; which is our higher-tech name for the lighted bin system. Conclusion While these annual depository conferences don't have a particular theme, this year I would like to say we are a "new GPO" -- one that is more active and aggressive in the collection of Government information products for our information dissemination programs. There continues to be an increased focus on our responsibility for bibliographic control and cataloging, indexing and locator services. You will be hearing more about these issues over the next few days. And we continue to pay a great deal of attention to concerns raised by you and your colleagues over permanent public access to Government information products. This is an exciting time to be at GPO as we develop and evolve our systems that will ensure current and permanent public access to as comprehensive a collection of Government information products in all formats as possible.