ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program --------------------------------------------------------------------- May 1, 2000 GP 3.16/3-2:21/07 (Vol. 21, no. 07) --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISPOSITION OF DEPOSITORY COLLECTION TO THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Remarks by George Barnum Electronic Collection Manager and Robin Haun-Mohamed Chief, Depository Administration Branch Before the Depository Library Council April 11, 2000 Newport, RI [George] It's been something of my role since arriving at GPO to be the official teacher of "Archives as a Second Language" for librarians and "Library as a Second Language" for archivists. This is in part because I have some archives training, and because that fits with an ever-increasing need for our work in the FDLP to dovetail with work going on at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Last fall Council made a recommendation asking us to report on the status of deposit of non-print tangible materials with the National Archives. Robin and I will to describe for you what procedures we have in place for all tangible items in the FDLP, and we'll give you a small taste of what we've heard from our friends at NARA about what the future holds. First, let's talk about what the law requires, and what that means. The Federal Records Act requires that all government agencies take a variety of steps to ensure that the essential evidence of the functions of government are appropriately preserved. NARA and agencies work together to develop record retention schedules which guide the lifecycle of records and the process of selecting which records have ongoing value and are thus to be retained, and which are to be destroyed. Bear in mind that we're talking about a staggering mass of material to be considered here, everything from interoffice memoranda to fair copies of treaties. A revised GPO records schedule appeared in 1996. Under that schedule, it is a requirement that publications cataloged in the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications are to be retained permanently and transferred for that retention to the National Archives. In this sense, the "residue" of the cataloging process, these copies, with the various marginalia and notes added as part of the cataloging process, are evidence of the carrying out of a statutory function, namely the cataloging and indexing function specified in 44 USC 1701. It needs to be emphasized that, although these are Federal agency publications, the evidence they provide is not of the operation of the creating agencies, but rather of the cataloging and indexing function at GPO. In other words, these publications do not meet individual agencies' records retention requirements, only GPO's. [Robin] What is a Federal record? This can vary from agency to agency. NARA and agencies decide which Federal records will be accessioned and archived. It is important to remember that not all records are kept for permanent retention. Records management in the Federal government is a statutory responsibility of the Archivist of the United States and the heads of Federal agencies, as defined in 44 USC, Chapters 29 and 33. The Federal Records Act, 44 USC, Chapter 33, defines Federal records as "all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine readable materials, and other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successors . . ." For GPO, all tangible government information products in all formats that have been cataloged by the Library Programs Service are subject to the regulations as essential evidence of GPO's statutory function of cataloging and indexing. In GPO, the Support Services office is responsible for meeting GPO's requirements for record retention and scheduling with the Federal Records Center and the National Archives. LPS works with this office to ensure the records are sent to the Federal Records Center as scheduled, in a timely manner. A records center is a storage area for records no longer needed for everyday use. Records in a records center may be either temporary records (those waiting for their destruction date) or permanent (those waiting to be transferred to the Archives.) The material while at the Federal Records Center in Suitland, Maryland technically remains under the control and authority of the GPO until the material is then transferred to the National Archives for accession. The depository material is kept as a collection and the finding aid used by Federal Records staff and archiving staff for this collection is the Monthly Catalog. The physical products (paper, microfiche, maps and posters) are sent to the Federal Records Center every four years, coinciding with the Presidential terms. To prepare the material for the Federal Records Center, LPS boxes the material in acid free containers, which must be labeled according to specific instructions. Paper documents are placed in SuDocs order and each box is labeled with box number and accession number. Oversized maps and posters must be packed and wrapped individually. All cataloged products are sent to the Federal Records Center, with the exception of the tangible electronic products, and as I said earlier, George is going to handle that discussion. The material is kept for eight years at the Federal Records Center before it is transferred to the Archives. For publications converted from paper to microfiche format, there are three categories of microfiche produced. The first generation silver halide master copies are sent to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) every four years according to the established schedule for depository records. The second generation silver reproducible microfiche are used for reprints for depository claims as needed until these copies are transferred to the Library of Congress every two years. The diazo copies, sent to the Federal depository libraries, are the copies the catalogers use for producing the cataloging record. These are also sent to the Federal Records Center on the same schedule as the rest of the cataloged material. Material that is sent to the Federal Records Center and then NARA is not always easily accessible. For depository material, NARA is a collection of last resort. For missing microfiche, you will want to contact the Library of Congress if the regional library cannot locate the required material. GPO and LC have an Interagency Agreement to send all second generation silver microfiche to LC for the collection. LC has agreed under the Interagency Agreement to provide copies of the microfiche material for libraries according to their established prices. In a nutshell, this is the process GPO follows for sending records to NARA. For additional information on the Federal Records and Retention process, please see Agency Recordkeeping Requirements: A Management Guide, National Archives and Records Administration Management Guide Series 1995. It is available online at the NARA site at . [George] The records schedule for GPO from 1996 deals only with traditional paper and microform materials. In 1997, the records management officials in GPO (in the Office of Support Services) initiated a request to NARA for additional scheduling of tangible electronic products from the FDLP. In order for electronic products to be eligible for transfer to NARA, the products must be in a format independent of any software (such as retrieval software). The most common manifestation is ascii text. NARA has maintained that it can only assure preservation if the material is in a readily preserveable format. Obviously, most depository CD/ROMs do not meet this requirement. During the review process, GPO officials withdrew the request, and it has not, to date, been reinstated. We can easily predict that the outcome of such a request would be that the products are ineligible for transfer. In the absence of any schedule providing otherwise, such records are considered permanent and must be retained by the agency. The very good news is that we have retained all the depository CD-ROMs, as well as other tangible electronic products. The further good news is that, in the course of their development of new systems that we all hope will handle the mass of electronic Federal records, NARA, in cooperation with the San Diego Supercomputing Center, has unveiled plans for an electronic archival system that may potentially address the issue of format dependence or independence. To describe NARA's concept in broadest terms, they are specifying requirements for a system that will receive electronic records without regard to medium, store the information independently of software used to create or retrieve it, and deliver the information based on a sophisticated electronic interpretation of what the particular records need in order to be presented to a user. This system will be developed over the next five years. This closes the circle for us, and it's very encouraging news, since it provides not only a possible solution for the dilemma about what's to become of all manner of electronic records, but will fit in with the efforts we have undertaken already to preserve access to agency publications in electronic form. For now, the tangible electronic products are appropriately retained, and will be able to be scheduled at some time in the not-impossibly distant future for transfer to the electronic system.