ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program ------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 25, 1999 GP 3.16/3-2:20/14 (Vol. 20, no. 14) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update on Superintendent of Documents Programs Remarks by Francis J. Buckley, Jr. Superintendent of Documents Before the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer Kansas City, MO Monday, October 18, 1999 Introduction Good morning. I'm very pleased to have a chance to talk to you all as representatives of the depository library community. With more and more talk within the government about provision of information via the Internet being public access, I am more and more appreciative of the partnership between GPO and depository libraries. I recognize and remind others on every possible occasion that it is not sufficient to just put information up on the Internet to achieve effective public access. There are many people without the technology or computer literacy skills to obtain government information and general search programs may or may not retrieve the items needed. Descriptive information needs to be included in bibliographic identification programs accessible to all. The content must be available. And most importantly, there must be a local connection (i.e., depository library) to assist those who need assistance to find the government information they need. Just last week, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate PubScience, our new partnership with the Department of Energy that I will discuss later, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson spoke about the unsung hero role of GPO in our printing and distribution capacities and by extension, that of depository libraries, and recognized us "for doing the Lord's work." A pretty high tribute! Secretary Richardson also spoke of one of the most significant events that took place in this last millennium as being the development, by Johann Gutenberg, of printing from movable type. Certainly those of us who work in the Government Printing Office would agree with this assessment. I understand that the television series, Biography, in listing the top 100 individuals of the past 1,000 years, had Mr. Gutenberg as number one! By contrast, Richardson thought the impact of electronic information would be a defining characteristic for the next millennium. Certainly electronic formats are changing the ways government collects, compiles, stores and disseminates information. What might Gutenberg think of e-books? I would like to talk to you today about a number of general topics affecting the depository library program and our sales program as a complementary information dissemination program. Other staff will be speaking in greater depth about depository and GPO Access issues. Permanent Public Access It has only been in the last decade or so that there has been concern raised about permanent public access to electronic resources. Those concerns have been discussed primarily in the library and archival communities. It is imperative that the rest of the world that uses computers, CD-ROMs and other electronic resources take this issue to heart. Every once in a while, the mainstream media takes a look at this issue. This past July, Newsweek had an article titled, "History: We're Losing It," which called attention to the problem. In fact, the subtitle of the article is, "They told us digital data would last forever. They lied. How do we save the past before it all disappears?" There were, therefore, a number of reasons why, last month, Mr. DiMario convened a meeting of a number of stakeholder organizations to discuss measures that GPO and the others are undertaking or might undertake to advance the goal of keeping essential Federal electronic information available to the American people. All of the national libraries were represented at this meeting -- the Library of Congress, National Agricultural Library, National Library of Medicine and the National Library of Education, as well as the National Archives and Records Administration, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, Department of Energy/Office of Scientific and Technical Information, and from the non-profit sector the Council on Library and Information Resources. We were also pleased that a number of Congressional staff members, representing the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) and the House Administration Committee, were present. The attendees were given the opportunity to share information about their particular organization's activities in the area of permanent public access (PPA), which spawned much discussion and ideas about cooperative ventures. The group agreed that there should be future meetings and GPO offered to organize and host them. Later, Gil will be describing some of the PPA initiatives underway in GPO. NRC Collection As you may be aware, LPS staff has worked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) over this past year to produce a cooperative plan to ensure ongoing public access to retrospective NRC information on microfiche. For a number of reasons, including budgetary constraints and their electronic transition, NRC ended their Local Public Documents Room (LPDR) program as of September 30, 1999. The goal of the GPO and NRC was to maintain at least one microfiche collection in a depository library in each state. Twenty-eight depository libraries housing LPDR materials chose to retain the collections. Eighteen libraries that housed an LPDR chose not to retain this collection. In August I accepted these materials into the FDLP as a depository item with a plan to relocate the unwanted collections to 18 regional depository libraries. LPS staff has been working with the librarians at those 18 regionals to help with details relating to the shipment of the materials as well as any selective housing agreements to be worked out. Sales Program Developments There continues to be a declining volume of sales and numbers of publications in the Sales Program as customer purchasing patterns and agency publication plans evolve. The coming year will be a time of transition as we react to these and other changing circumstances. We have had to increase prices, but the bulk of our stock is priced relatively low. In the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee report for FY 2000, GPO has been directed to undertake an analysis of the future role of the Public Documents Distribution Center in Pueblo, CO. We are in the process of contacting the legislators who requested the study to get clarification of the scope of the study and we are organizing the study team. The study and its recommendations are to be provided to Congress no later than February 1, 2000. This past July, the JCP approved our request to enable us to expand our sales procurement. Under a JCP Printing and Binding Regulation, we have been restricted to selling only those publications printed or ordered printed through GPO. In the past, requests by agencies to have us sell their publications, or public interest in the purchase of individual government publications not printed or procured through GPO, has led us to request waivers of this rule on a case by case basis. Receiving a waiver to the Printing and Binding Regulation reinforces the notion that even those documents not printed by GPO must also be considered of public value. We will now be able to work with other Federal agencies to procure, purchase and sell government publications under two categories: * Government information products produced by Federal agencies holding statutory exemptions or JCP waivers that allow them to obtain printing services outside of GPO and * Government information products procured by agencies under Cooperative Research Development Agreement (CRDA) or other joint public/private partnership agreements under which products are not printed or procured by GPO. This past July, we announced that deposition transcripts of the U.S. vs. Microsoft Corporation court case were available through our Sales Program on CD-ROM for $52. The CD-ROM includes indexed, redacted transcripts of depositions taken between July 1998 and January 1999. In addition, printed copies and videotapes of individual depositions are available on demand. So, if you would like to watch 20 hours of interviews with Bill Gates, you can purchase 11 videotapes from us for only $341! In fact, a few sets of these videotaped depositions of Bill have been sold to the media. IPS The Integrated Processing System (IPS) we have been working on for the last several years, as the automated system to support our sales operations, is still under development. It is progressing, but the complexity of automating our order systems, especially the variety of subscription orders, has caused delays. Content development activities I want to mention various content development activities that are underway. There have been changes in the way STAT-USA will be accessed. Robin will fill you on the details. As I mentioned earlier, GPO is continuing its cooperative endeavors with DOE/OSTI. The new venture on which we are working with DOE is called PubSCIENCE, an electronic system that provides GPO and the public a distributed searching capability of a large compendium of peer reviewed journal literature with a focus on physical sciences and technology. This web site enables public users to identify journal articles of interest, view bibliographic citations and hyperlink to the publisher's site for full-text, if unrestricted, or via a site license, an electronic subscription or pay-per-view. As with our other partnership with DOE, Information Bridge, depository libraries and the public can enter PubSCIENCE via GPO Access. Those of you who subscribe to GOVDOC-L might have seen the recent announcement posted by NTIS publicizing their version of the 1999 Federal Tax Forms and Publications - CD-ROM. I want to take this opportunity to let you know that GPO will be publishing its version of the CD-ROM, which will include 1999 IRS tax forms, instructions, and publications for individual and business filers, in addition to sets of previous years' tax forms. One can fill in the forms on the computer screen, save the data, print the completed forms, sign, and mail. We will be selling this CD-ROM for $20.00 which is $1.00 less than the IRS/NTIS version, if ordered online, or $8 less for orders by mail, phone or fax. The official IRS edition of this material is the NTIS CD-ROM; this is the one that will be distributed to the selecting depository libraries. An announcement from GPO about this product has been posted (perhaps even as I speak) on GOVDOC-L. I am also pleased to announce that the U.S. Supreme Court has asked GPO to help develop the Court's official web site. GPO is now engaged in the first phase of development, the graphic design, which may be the most challenging part of the project. Development will continue in phases, with the Court approving each phase before work proceeds. Once the Court gives final approval, the site will go live and although no specific date has been set for activation of the site, it will most likely be ready for public access during the current Court term. When activated, the site initially will contain slip opinions for the current term, the current schedule, visitors guides, guides for filing cases, Rules of the Court, biographies of the Justices, a brief history of the Court, the building, and information on the institution. Currently, the plans are to continue releasing Bench Opinions through the Hermes system, in which the Federal Bulletin Board is a partner. GPO is pleased to be working with the Supreme Court on the project. Efforts are underway to revise a number of our Circular Letters, which are our means of communications with our customers in the Federal community. Staff are working on updating letters that have to do with paper and web distribution of materials, both in the sales and depository programs; disseminating electronic government information products through the FDLP; guidelines for the provision of government publications for depository library distribution and the use of GPO Form 3868, notification of intent to publish. Form 3868 is the primary means of notifying the Superintendent of Documents of a forthcoming publication. Work is moving forward on producing an electronic version of this form, so that agencies can easily submit it electronically to the sales and depository branches. Access America Discussions are continuing with representatives from the National Performance Review, CIO Council, General Services Administration, Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Geological Survey about the establishment of Access America, billed as a clearinghouse for accessing electronic government information. Conclusion I am certainly looking forward to a good meeting, with lots of discussion, and I hope that the Council and the audience can take advantage of the programs being offered here.