ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program --------------------------------------------------------------------- February 15, 2000 GP 3.16/3-2:21/04 (Vol. 21, no. 04) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Update on Superintendent of Documents Programs Remarks by Francis J. Buckley, Jr. Superintendent of Documents Before the Federal Documents Task Force Government Documents Round Table American Library Association San Antonio, TX January 15, 2000 Introduction Good morning. It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to talk with you here in San Antonio and provide an update on the Superintendent of Documents programs. As some of you might have heard me mention at the Depository Library Council meeting this past October, a few days before that meeting, I participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for PubScience with Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. In his extemporaneous remarks he complimented the work of GPO and noted we were often not recognized for all the important work we do, but that we were doing the Lord's work. Well, I extend that to the FDLP and all libraries providing access to government information to people all across the country. Electronic Transition As we enter the new millennium, we in GPO are pleased that we continue to provide more and more access to more government information in a variety of formats to more people than ever before! The methods and mediums are evolving and changing, but the overall purpose of informing the nation is being fulfilled. In FY 1999, the FDLP distributed over 16 million copies of 40,000 tangible publications to depository libraries, an increase of 1.37% in titles over FY '98 and an 11.5% increase in copies over the same period. GPO Access provided access to another 30,000 titles, increasing the electronic collection of in-house databases and agency electronic publications to over 150,000 titles, which are currently being used at the rate of more than 21 million times a month. And in the Sales Program, we distributed over 19 million copies of the more than 12,000 publications available. While the times and our programs are changing, we are achieving a high level of information dissemination. As an example, let me describe developments in the Consumer Information Center (CIC) programs and our distribution center in Pueblo, CO. In FY 1999, the number of orders processed declined slightly from the previous year from 2.03 million to 1.98 million. The number of publications mailed dropped from 7.6 million to 6.3 million. But the number of items used on the CIC web site, which has all of the publications available for free access, increased from 6.5 million to 9.5 million. Thus the total number of consumer publications distributed increased to a record setting 15.8 million. This is wonderful, but this changing paradigm of use and the consequent issues of funding are driving a study of the future programs and services of the Pueblo Distribution Center. The growth in electronic technology in some ways provides more and better access to government information products, but I think we can all agree that it has created problems, too. It has become more difficult for GPO, librarians and the public to acquire data in the decentralized environment of Federal web sites that are being established without any coordination, standards or guidelines. There are a number of public and commercial efforts underway to provide indexing and retrieval programs for the government information on the Internet. There are various approaches by search engines such as GovBot, Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista and Google, and some services are establishing specialized programs or portals such as Northern Light and America Online. Within the government in the last couple of years, there have been proposals for a master web.gov site, and currently there are discussions about a partnership-based clearinghouse for Federal government information. Through it all, GPO Access has continued to grow and develop. GPO continues to provide data to the Thomas web site at the Library of Congress and to other information redisseminators. And we have removed the robot exclusion so our site can be indexed by other search engines and retrieved by people performing general searches as well as by those performing searches specifically on GPO Access. Of course this gets back to our concern (as Mr. DiMario has mentioned) about permanent public access to agency data that can disappear with the click of the "delete" key. In fact, I am sure that many of you have heard about the problem that was recently reported about the loss of 43,000 e-mails at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). What makes the incident most unfortunate is that the e-mails are gone without a trace; there was no back-up system in operation at the time this happened last summer. How the messages disappeared is really not the issue. The fact is that they are gone and that is happening to other government agency information. It is imperative that there be safeguards in place to ensure that government information from the late 1900's not wind up in a black hole in cyberspace. Benefits of the FDLP I also want to take this opportunity to discuss the importance of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), especially in this electronic age. We have seen a small decline in the numbers of libraries in the program. At this time last year, there were 1,353 libraries in the program; there are now 1,342, a decrease of 11 libraries, less than one percent. Not earth-shattering but, indeed, libraries are leaving the program. There are certainly many reasons for this decrease; lack of resources, less staff, housing issues, to name a few. But one reason that has been mentioned by some libraries is the assumption that "everything they need is on the web" and that there's no need to go to all the trouble of handling the tangible documents. Without sounding like a Luddite, I must disagree that all government publications are "out there" in an electronic format. We are continuing to see a variety of formats used for government information dissemination. Most material published in tangible formats is not also online and is not even available for sale. We foresee a mixed format environment in the future, and I believe that many thinkers in the library world agree with me. Indeed, I do believe that librarians and archivists agree that we must consider the formats we are using to save, capture, preserve, and archive information. An article in the July 12, 1999 issue of Newsweek was titled, "History: We're Losing It." The subheading says, "They told us digital data would last forever. They lied. How do we save the past before it all disappears?" Perhaps we have not been lied to. But as new and snazzier formats come along in this web-driven world, few of us actually know how long these media might actually last or be useable. Although the benefits of the FDLP are getting less tangible there are several key points in the program: o Depository libraries continue to provide an essential service to their primary clientele and the American public by serving as centers for access to Federal government information. Although it is now estimated that 130 million households own computers, 130 million do not. Of those with computers, there is no estimate of how many are connected to the Internet and how many people have the skills and knowledge to find the government information they may need. o The FDLP provides both tangible publications, many not on the web, and access to some electronic publications not freely available. It provides backup services, and a support system through the network of regional and selective depositories for reference and retrieval of government information. Last summer, as I was preparing to speak at the American Association of Law Libraries annual conference, I followed an online discussion that took place on AALL's Professional Development Committee's discussion list about the role of law libraries in the depository program. When asked why law libraries should stay in the FDLP, responses included: o "...receiving the documents themselves is the biggest advantage, even if there is alot of chaff with the wheat." o "...creating good will in the community is always a plus." o "I have...found that depository status has brought my institution positive attention from our congressional delegation." o "With so many problems with commercial legal publishers in these days of mergers and buyouts - billing problems, discontinuing titles, poor service - GPO as a publisher is starting to look better and better!" That last comment is my favorite, although I might be a bit biased. This is not to say that the FDLP is not moving towards an electronic future. With more open access to digital information we must be cognizant of information in cyberspace AND information in tangible formats. We should not forget that in the Y2K hype and millennium madness of a mere few weeks ago, the invention of movable type was hailed as a major achievement of the last 1,000 years and Gutenberg, a printer, was hailed as a major figure and in some cases, THE person of the millennium! Biennial Survey Although a handout has been provided by the Depository Services Staff that highlights preliminary results from the 1999 Biennial survey, I would like to take a moment to discuss some of the results with you here. o As of December 10, 1999 we had received 1298 responses. o Of that number, we are pleased to note, over 95% of the respondents said that their library meets the requirements for "Public Access to Electronic Information Provided through the Federal Depository Libraries," by having at least one Pentium level PC for Internet access. o 1141 depositories have a written collection development policy for U.S. depository documents, while 152 do not. We hope that those libraries without such a policy consider producing one. o We are encouraged that most libraries make depository CD-ROMs accessible from stand-alone workstations (1143), the Internet (278), and library-wide local area networks (260), in addition to circulating them to patrons (743). Sales Program I would like to briefly talk about the other major dissemination program I oversee -- the Sales program, which in this past fiscal year continued to incur losses. We are experiencing dramatic reductions in sales due to a number of reasons: o Changing government printing practices, both in quantity and format o Changing customer purchasing patterns o Increasing competition for products and markets from other government sales programs and the private sector o GPO (like so many other government agencies) has put some of its sales publications on the web for free access Indeed, as I noted earlier, the advent of new technologies such as the Internet, has both pros and cons. With free online access to some of our best sellers, such as the Federal Register, Congressional Record, etc., our sales are declining. In fact, two-thirds of our decline in revenue from 1998 to 1999 was due to reduced sales revenue from the Code of Federal Regulations. But in this electronic world, we must look at things in a new and different way. We are currently enhancing our online bookstore to better assist users in finding Federal information products available for sale through GPO. And Sales staff is working with both amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com to see that the publications we have in the Sales Program can reach a wider audience using the World Wide Web. I would like to conclude with some comments about developments in GPO Access. Biennial Report On December 31, 1999, we released our Biennial Report to Congress on the Status of GPO Access. This publication reported the growth in content, popularity, and capability that GPO Access has experienced over the last two years. The report is being made available in electronic format only at the following URL: . User Survey Over the last three months, the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination (EIDS) conducted a user survey on GPO Access. Preliminary results from December 15, 1999 showed that of 213 respondents, nearly 20% use GPO Access daily and 35% use it at least once a week. With regards to finding information on the site, 98% of respondents indicated that they found what they were looking for, with 58% having found it either "easy" or "very easy" to find the information they wanted. A vast majority of respondents also displayed satisfaction with the timeliness of information, online user aids, and web site organization. Ben's Guide On December 1, 1999, we released "Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids." With Benjamin Franklin as a guide, the site provides a locator service to age-appropriate online educational resources about government for students in grades K-12, parents, and teachers. In addition, "Ben's Guide" provides tips for using GPO Access and links to other Federal Government web sites for kids. Since its release, "Ben's Guide" has received excellent feedback. The Newsletter of the Documents Interest Group of Oregon described the site as "a well-designed children's web site" that "could be useful for reference questions as well" and described it as having an "attention to detail and to readability that is exemplary in web design." I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the GPO staff members who have worked so hard to bring Ben's Guide to "life"-- they are Cindy Etkin and Steve Kerchoff of LPS (he is here at the conference) and Karen Sieger from EIDS. Davis-Bacon Act This coming March, we are hoping to make government documents' librarians' lives easier by posting the General Wage Determinations Under the Davis-Bacon Act on GPO Access. An agreement has been reached between GPO and the Department of Labor that will allow the information to be posted on GPO Access with no usage restrictions and at no charge to our users. We are still finalizing implementation details with Labor, but we plan to begin by mounting the 2000 basic manual as a searchable database and then add new Determinations in weekly batches. Electronic Collection Later this morning, George Barnum and Steve Kerchoff will discuss the FDLP Electronic Collection and related issues. I am very pleased that we've set some specific objectives for this program. In FY 2001, GPO will have at least 500 "at-risk" electronic titles stored in the FDLP Electronic Collection archive. In each subsequent fiscal year, GPO will select, acquire, archive, and provide access to an additional 500 electronic titles. By FY 2003, we plan to develop a plan for avoiding technological obsolescence of the files in the FDLP/EC archive. Conclusion As you can see we are very busy. But we certainly want your comments, questions and suggestions about our programs. There are a number of GPO staff here who are available for consultations, including Mr. DiMario, Gil Baldwin, Sheila McGarr, T.C. Evans, Tad Downing, Robin Haun-Mohamed, George Barnum and Steve Kerchoff. I also look forward to talking with you in the coming days here.