ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program --------------------------------------------------------------------- August 15, 2000 GP 3.16/3-2:21/12 (Vol. 21, no. 12) --------------------------------------------------------------------- GPO Access Update Remarks by T.C. Evans Assistant Director, Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services Before the Federal Documents Task Force Government Documents Round Table American Library Association Saturday, July 8, 2000 Chicago, IL It is a pleasure to have another opportunity to update the library community on the current and future state of GPO Access, as well as some current electronic government, or E-Gov initiatives. So much is taking place that it was necessary to be selective in the interest of time. It reminds me of a statement made by R.D. Laing, "We live in a moment in history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing." As usual, I want to publicly thank all of the hardworking people at GPO who make GPO Access a reality, as well as all of you in the library community who assist us with your feedback. The time and effort you put into helping users find and use the resources of GPO Access and to let us know how to make it more useful are deeply appreciated. Size GPO Access continues to grow, with over 1,500 official government databases offered through some 80 applications. At this time, over 182,000 electronic titles are available through the FDLP Electronic Collection, with more than 109,000 titles on GPO servers and slightly more than 73,000 titles linked to from GPO Access. Usage GPO Access usage continues to increase, even though we are in a seasonally slow period of the year. Over the past four months an average of approximately 26 million documents have been downloaded per month, with a high in March of close to 29 million retrievals. To place this March number in context, it means an average of 11 documents were downloaded from GPO Access every second of every day. There is also an interesting transition beginning to emerge. The number of retrievals being downloaded directly from web pages compared to those extracted from the databases through normal search and retrieval methods is growing. While 70% are still retrieved through normal means recorded by the WAIS logs, some 30% are being downloaded directly through links on our web pages. At the beginning of this fiscal year those numbers were closer to 75% WAIS and 25% web pages. System Performance System performance has improved and efforts to enhance system response time continues. The work necessary to increase the bandwidth available for GPO Access is nearing completion. Initially, this will more than double our capacity and provides the infrastructure for rapid expansion as need increases. In addition, our Production Department is determining whether additional servers should be added for key applications. What's new on GPO Access There are a number of recent changes to GPO Access that should be mentioned. The most notable are: * All three of our easier to recognize and remember Web addresses are live: for the GPO Access home page for the Library Services page for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore * The interactive GPO Access CD-ROM has been completed and is in production. A copy will be sent to each depository, but I urge you to stop by Booth Number 1411 at the Convention Center for a preview. * The Federal Register application has been updated so that any URLs published in notices are hot links to those addresses. * The Code of Federal Regulations application now features a page from which users can place online orders for print copies. There are links to this page from both the search and browse portions of the CFR application. * The recent report from the National Commission on Terrorism, titled "Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism" is now available. * The first page of the U.S. Government Online Bookstore page has been updated to make it easier to begin a catalog search or to locate a browseable subject bibliography. This is just one of many enhancements that are on the way including: o A user-managed e-mail notification application which will allow users to sign up to receive e-mail notification when titles of interest are added to our sales offerings. o Improved system integration to provide the most up-to-date information and to allow for the fastest possible processing of customer orders. o A detailed transaction receipt to be provided to the customer when they place an order, including a unique order number to facilitate follow-up inquiries. o The ability for customers to select special shipping options, such as Federal Express. o The capability for foreign customers to operate in a manner that will enable them to see all price differentials as they prepare their orders. * The latest documents released as part of the Microsoft case, including the Final Judgement released June 7, 2000. * Volume I of the 1998 Public Papers of the President. * The 2000 Unified Agenda. * Our GILS pages have been designed to improve use and the unnecessary pathway records removed. * An update of our ongoing comparison of GPO Access legislative resources and those offered by other agencies and the private sector has been completed. Once again, it showed that GPO Access has the most comprehensive set of legislative resources. The report is available on the Federal Bulletin Board. 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: * A browseable list of all Congressional Hearings on GPO Access. * A Statutes at Large application. * The daily version of the CFR, known as the e-CFR is targeted for completion by January 2001. * An agreement with the Department of Labor to put the Davis-Bacon Wage Determination materials on GPO Access has been reached and a written memorandum of understanding has been delivered for signature. The application has been built and reviewed by Labor so a mutually agreeable release date should be agreed upon in the near future. Pathway Indexer Examination A project is currently underway to examine the state of the current Pathway Indexer software. The project team was nearing completion of a draft outlining the options and recommending a course of action when the recent announcement about FirstGov was made. They are now attempting to get sufficient information to determine what the FirstGov effort will mean and to factor that into their analysis. Performance Measures for Government Web Sites Study In conjunction with the Defense Technical Information Center and the Energy Information Administration, GPO has contracted with a group led by Dr. Chuck McClure of Florida State University to determine an appropriate performance measure for government web sites. The group has completed detailed site visits with the participating agencies, reviewed a wide variety of additional materials provided, and examined current Government information policy as it pertains to web sites. In an initial draft of the results of these efforts, GPO Access was given indications of some areas that need examination, but was held up to the other participants as an example to be followed. A set of basic evaluation criteria that could be applied to any government web sites seems to be emerging. They include: * Legal Mandate - Does the site have a legal mandate? Is there some legislative or other authoritative basis for its existence? * Goals and Objectives - Are there articulated goals and objectives tied to carrying out the mission provided by the site's mandate or authorization? * Infrastructure - Does it possess the infrastructure to be sustainable? This includes funding, staff, hardware, software, bandwidth, etc. * Site Content - Does the content offered meet essential criteria, including being authentic, official, and timely? Does the site contain all of the content it could contain? Is there a commitment to permanent public access for this content? * Site Design - Have issues such as ADA compliance, privacy, security, consistent site design, and a children's area been addressed in the construction of the site? * No-Fee Access - Is the content available without charge? * Reuse Restrictions - Can the content be freely reused without restriction? * User Support - Is there a human interface available for supporting use of the site as well as self-help tools? * Awareness - Has the appropriate effort been undertaken to ensure that the site is reachable by the intended audience? For instance, has any effort been put into assuring visibility through search engines and portals? * Usage Metrics - Are useful statistical measurements of the site's usage being maintained and reported? Is that coverage appropriate and consistent? * Customer Satisfaction - Are there mechanisms in place to measure customer satisfaction and to make use of feedback received? * Performance Evaluation - Is there an ongoing effort to evaluate the site's performance and incorporate what is learned in the further development of the site? Search Engine Project The fourth installment of our ongoing effort to improve the accessibility of GPO Access resources through popular search engines has been completed. A brief overview follows. Several things were different in the fourth evaluation: * Yep was taken out of the list of search engines (needed to subscribe to their counter device to gain entry to the index); * Directory trees were examined in an attempt to locate GPO Access pages; and * The engines were divided up into two groups: one that used primarily human-compiled indices and one that used computer 'spidered' or 'crawled' indices. Building upon the excellent user feedback generated in the Open Forum at the spring Depository Library Council Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, we: * Examined the keyword and title metatags of GPO Access source pages; and * Made the changes suggested by the user community in an attempt to make the tags more likely to be terms input by a real-life user. This was finished by July 3, 2000, although the timing means the net effect of this effort will be felt in the 5th installment. The fourth evaluation results: * Overall, there was a 4% decrease in the number of returns of GPO Access pages; * The Open Directory Project and Snap went from being two of the better performing engines in evaluation 3 to two of the worst in evaluation 4 concerning the frequency of returning our pages, falling 49% and 37% respectively; * The About and Excite engines exhibited the largest positive change, increasing by 37% and 20% respectively in the fourth evaluation; * The pages were returned with an 8% higher frequency in search engines utilizing computer robot created (rather than human-compiled) indices; * A GPO web page was present in the top thirty entries under the Legislative Branch heading in 85% (or 11 out of 13) of the directory trees examined; and * It is becoming increasingly difficult to contact the search engines regarding this project and the submission of the GPO Access pages. Our experience shows that we must: * Continue to try to discover and understand how users actually search on search engines; * Tailor the metatags of our source pages to insure that our pages will appear in the results lists for queries that we have relevant information for; and * Continue to attempt to gather a full understanding of how search engines work in the creation and the updating of their indices. Hopefully, this will enable us to determine why the backsliding has occurred. E-Gov Initiatives Electronic Government, or E-Gov, is definitely the hot topic of the moment. No one knows exactly what will happen or when, but it is sure to be exciting. So many things are happening that I could not possibly mention them all here today. I have selected some of the more significant. * E-Gov Conference in Washington, July 10 - 13, 2000 is bringing together key players from Government and the private sector to discuss topics related to E-Gov. * The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (P.L. 105-277, or GPEA) will be a prime mover in realizing E-Gov. It has placed a transactional focus on E-Gov that could pose challenges for dissemination. * GPEA directs agencies to provide public access to Government services online by 2003 and to give the public the option of submitting information to the Government electronically. * Agency implementation plans for complying with GPEA are due to OMB by October 2000. * Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 and the Federal IT Accessibility Initiative (FITAI) works toward: "when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, they shall ensure that the...technology allows Federal employees with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable" to the access that those without disabilities would have, "unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency." These guidelines would also apply to web sites. * Privacy is a topic that is increasing in importance every day and much is taking place. Of recent note was the June 22, 2000 memorandum to agency heads from the Director of OMB stating that agencies should not use cookies to collect information about their online users. An agency would have to demonstrate a unique need to utilize cookies and even then would have to disclose publicly how they would safeguard the information collected. * The Digital Divide of those who can and cannot use the Internet becomes vital in a discussion of E-Gov. In reporting the results of a recent survey, The Economist reported that more than 50% of the population still does not have an Internet connection at home. * The e-Government Project web site sponsored by Senators Lieberman and Thompson is an interesting experiment in receiving citizen participation in the legislative process electronically. Users can weigh in on a wide variety of E-Gov topics as well as read what others have to say. * E-Sign Bill (S761) - Gives electronic signatures the statutory weight of their handwritten counterparts. * Efforts to create the post of Government-Wide Chief Information Officer are interesting. * The Chief Information Officer of the United States Act (HR 4670) would create a centralized post to set standards and facilitate cross-agency efforts in E-Gov, with the exception of national security systems. * The Preparedness Against Terrorism Act of 2000 (HR 4210) would give such responsibility for national security systems to the agency security officer. Thank you for your attention and I urge you to stop by Booth Number 1411 and see the additions and changes to GPO Access. As always, I want to thank you for your feedback and I look forward to discussing your ideas for a better GPO Access during the conference.