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 Depository Administration Branch Operations Remarks by Robin Haun-Mohamed Chief, Depository Administration Branch Before the Federal Documents Task Force Government Documents Round Table American Library Association San Antonio, TX January 16, 2000 Good morning! It's always nice to be asked to speak before GODORT. My name is Robin Haun-Mohamed and I am Chief of the Depository Administration Branch (DAB) of the Library Programs Service (LPS). My area is responsible for acquiring and classifying all publications, regardless of format, disseminated through the Federal Depository Library Program. This morning I have a little of this and a little of that to relay. As we announced in December, the Davis-Bacon General Wage Determinations will be available on GPO Access this spring. The Department of Labor is providing the data and LPS will make it available in a WAIS database as part of the FDLP Electronic Collection. Currently this information is disseminated to the libraries in paper format, as a basic manual with weekly paper updates that libraries must interfile as they are received. The electronic database will be easier to use and libraries will save time by not having to interfile the updates each week. We expect the database to be available sometime in March. Please continue to check "What's New on GPO Access" and the Administrative Notes for notification when the database is available. I am pleased to announce the completion of the revision of Circular Letter 456, Guidelines for the Provision of Government Publications for Depository Library Distribution. This was last issued to agencies in 1990 as Circular Letter 320. We use these Guidelines extensively to do outreach to agencies for publications. And because it has been reissued as a circular letter, it has also been distributed by e-mail to all agency printing officials that have requested copies of GPO circular letters. Thus, current information about the program has reached many printing officials and program officers who might not otherwise be aware of the FDLP. In addition to the revision of the Guidelines, we have also issued Circular Letter 457, Notification of Intent to Publish and Circular Letter 458, Disseminating Electronic Government Products to the Public Through the Federal Depository Library Program (better known as the Internet Product Notification form). Each of these circular letters includes information on how to submit publishing notification electronically to GPO. We hope the agencies find these forms useful. All of the newly issued circular letters are now available on the World Wide Web from GPO's Customer Service page. And the Notification of Intent to Publish is available from the Main GPO home page. For DAB, this is a success story. From one DOE contractor using the new online 3868 notification form process, I have had notice of ten publications that otherwise would be fugitive documents! And I have had contact with several other agencies that wish to be sure their products are included in the FDLP. For many years the Country Studies have been prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army. In FY 1998, the Department of the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations decided to terminate funding for the Program. GPO is working with the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress to publish the next two country studies in a physical format. If all goes well, two studies, the Dominican Republic and Haiti and the Cuba Country Studies will be distributed to the libraries in paper sometime in the late spring or early summer. In another project, GPO has been working with EPA to coordinate dissemination of the information in the "Off-site Consequence Analysis Information" (OCA) portion of the EPA Chemical Accident Prevention Risk Management Program to the libraries in the FDLP. At this time we are discussing dissemination options, including E-Books, for the depository libraries. Under the Clean Air Act of 1990, facilities that use large amounts of extremely hazardous substances must prepare Risk Management Plans (RMP), including worst-case accident scenarios. But in S.880, Congress directed EPA to prevent full disclosure of the OCA data via RMP databases on the World Wide Web. EPA was directed to establish an information technology system that provides for the availability to the public of the OCA data through a central database that contains information that users may read, but that provides no means by which an electronic or mechanical copy of the information may be made. I've probably said more than I should on this topic as Lisa Jenkins from EPA is a scheduled speaker here today and I am sure she has a great many more details for you on this project. In June, the State Department announced the decision to discontinue publishing Dispatch magazine, effective with the December 1999 issue. According to the agency, every speech, testimony, and briefing made available to Public Affairs is provided to the public via the World Wide Web. Because Dispatch provides a narrow selection of speeches and testimonies per month, the State Department believes this is the time to focus resources on the area in which they can economically reach the most readers. On a brighter note, the Background Notes will continue to be distributed to the libraries in paper format. Although the State Department is no longer going to print the Background Notes, GPO will obtain the information from State and make them available for sale and distribute them through the FDLP in paper format. Since I am speaking about all the "good stuff" I'd like to make a plug for Ben's Page. I really want to take credit for this terrific product, but since I can't, I'd like to thank my co-workers, Cindy Etkin, Steve Kerchoff, and Karen Sieger for their efforts. For those of you who haven't seen the page, go to . I even brought it to the attention of some teachers in our local school and they like it too! When I asked one teacher what he thought of the page, he responded, "I can see one problem—they're going to fight over who gets to do the puzzles." OK, back to the more traditional fare. In late December we received the copies of the daily Congressional Record and Federal Registers that were missing due to the change from direct mail to shipping in the shipment boxes. You should have received all the issues by this time. We have been placing these titles in the Congressional shipment boxes to allow them to go out ahead of regular shipment boxes. Then, as I was preparing this speech, we realized the List of Sections Affected and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents also had delivery problems. (The September, October November issues of the LSA and Weekly Comp from issue 43 +) So, we are going to obtain copies of the missing paper issues. Please let us know if you are still having problems with receipt of any of the titles that used to be sent directly to your library. And while I am speaking about the congressional shipments, let me give you an update on the rebinding project for the defective bound Congressional Record volumes. At this time the Bindery Division continues to have more material to process than they have staff. I am hoping the volumes will be sent back to the libraries by mid-March. This is significantly longer than you expected to have the volumes out of your library and I apologize for the delay. I appreciate your continued patience with this project. Quite some time ago, we took on the project of updating the Superseded List. As most of you know, this is a joint project between LPS staff and the librarians who use the material, because LPS does not have a physical collection of depository material. For the material distributed to the libraries in a physical format, our processing copies go to Cataloging and then to NARA as scheduled every four years. When the Superseded project was first mentioned, there were some who wished to concentrate on the tangible electronic products. We thought this would be useful and began with that plan in mind. But once the reviewers started their agencies' review, it was determined to be easier to do all formats, not just focus on the CD's and floppies. So, we have 35 volunteers who have done a great job in reviewing the material—almost all of the initial review has been done. The next process is to compare the new entries against a database of the 1996 edition and reconcile any conflicts. Then we will convert the data to an SGML database that will be accessible via the web, similar to the WEBTech Notes database. While we are not there yet, I did want to assure you we continue to work on this project. LPS continues to update WEBTech Notes on a weekly or twice monthly basis. The most up-to-date information on classification numbers and item numbers is found in WEBTech Notes. We send our thanks to those librarians who check the database before submitting their askLPS inquiry. It really does help keep the numbers down. Of course, it also makes it more difficult to process the inquiries, because there are very few easy ones, only the "challenging" ones are left. For the askLPS service for this year, LPS has received 818 inquiries and processed 1132 (boy have we been working on some backlogs!). There are a few reminders I'd like to make at this time. When submitting an askLPS inquiry, please always include your e-mail address. Sometimes libraries submit the inquiry and there is no way to determine who sent it, because the library number and email address fields are not filled in. Occasionally you may see a response that begins with, "I hope this is going to the right place…" because the only return address information included on the inquiry was the library number. One further thing on askLPS, we can't always answer the inquiries in the order we receive them. Because some inquiries are very complicated or if we have to contact the agency to verify information, the answer will take more time than a straightforward, "there was a typo on SL 2000-0020-P." The Administrative Notes Technical Supplement (ANTS) will continue to be distributed to libraries in paper format. In the May 15, 1999 issue of Administrative Notes, the Library Programs Service (LPS) proposed changing the ANTS from a printed product to an electronic only product. This proposal was one response to a fall 1998 recommendation from the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer to continue the transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program by discontinuing or consolidating "traditional" tangible products and services. LPS received numerous comments and expressions of concern over this proposed change. Many of these comments concern the difficulties of producing a complete and satisfactory printed version of ANTS from the HTML pages on GPO Access. In light of these comments, LPS is investigating ways to improve the WEBTech Notes application. Until such changes can be accomplished, LPS will continue distributing ANTS in paper format. Lastly, I'd like to close with an update on the classification backlog in the Depository Administration Branch. For physical products, we have 3108 pieces to be processed in the Branch. We have 837 products awaiting conversion to microfiche format and 389 microfiche publications that need to be duplicated and sent to the libraries. Electronic product identification and classification continue to be our greatest challenges. We are working on additional training for Internet searching skills and online systems to refresh staff on the Internet polices already established over the last couple of years. We are also working on a process to systematize the discovery, classification, and cataloging practices associated with online resources that will allow for all our staff to participate in finding resources for the electronic collection. I do have a few stories to relate to you about DAB activities—this is probably the part I enjoy the most, except when I have to tell you we missed the opportunity to ride the requisition for the Surgeon General's Mental Health Report. The good news, because we were looking for it when it came into GPO for the Sales program, is that we were able to work with Customer Service and the agency to obtain sufficient copies for distribution to the libraries. We sent out the IRS tax forms on CD-ROM earlier this week. They are being mailed to the libraries as a separate from the mailing contractor. And the 1998 Statistical Abstract in paper has finally arrived and was also sent to the libraries from the separates mailing contractor in late December. Finally, I'd like to tell you about my favorite new publication just because I have the podium and a captive audience. Take a look at My History is America's History; 15 Things You Can Do to Save America's Stories. It was distributed to libraries on shipping list 2000-0081-P dated Dec. 16, 1999. It's a four color, spiral bound publication with lots of pictures, interesting text, timelines, and tips on projects and preservation of material. I thank you for your time and hope that you have a successful conference.