ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program --------------------------------------------------------------------- May 1, 2000 GP 3.16/3-2:21/07 (Vol. 21, no. 07) --------------------------------------------------------------------- GPO'S CATALOGING AND LOCATOR SERVICES: ACTIONS IN PROGRESS AND PROPOSALS FOR CHANGE [See related Council recommendation 7, p. 54.] In October 1999 the Depository Library Council recommended "that GPO conduct a comprehensive review of online locator and finding aid tools to evaluate the need, redundancy, and organization of current tools. The report should also address possible development of new tools. The review process will require Council and depository library input as well as an analysis of available statistics." This review is taking place in the context of the transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). Many of the transition activities to date have emphasized changes in the formats and media in which FDLP information is published, disseminated, and kept permanently accessible. It is now appropriate to reexamine the cataloging and locator services and related outputs provided by the Library Programs Service (LPS) in order to develop plans for future development and improvement. This paper describes actions already in progress to improve these online cataloging and locator services. It presents, for Council's consideration, four Government Printing Office (GPO) proposals relating to these online services, along with two additional proposals pertaining to the tangible cataloging output products derived from GPO's cataloging records. Objectives GPO's objectives are to: * Improve the users' ability to identify, locate, or link to relevant content, by reducing the potential confusion to users of GPO's cataloging and locator services and providing more comprehensive coverage to the print and electronic publications in the FDLP, especially of products in the FDLP Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC). * Assure that cataloging and locator service records created by GPO for an electronic resource link to an official and authoritative copy of the resource, whether the content is on GPO Access, in the FDLP/EC archive, at the originating agency site, or at an FDLP partner site. * Evolve LPS' processes and organization to better manage an environment in which online electronic information is the predominant dissemination format for the FDLP. Operationally this requires integrating the acquisition and bibliographic control of electronic resources into the regular LPS workflow. * Maximize productivity, simplify maintenance of the cataloging and locator services, accept more metadata from external sources, and more effectively utilize the data LPS creates. * Modernize the mix of cataloging output products to maximize their utility, simplify production, and reduce resource requirements. Discussion The discussion of cataloging and locator services in this paper applies to the services that are maintained by GPO and/or a partner and are used to identify and locate products in the FDLP tangible and electronic collections. In describing an existing or proposed service, this paper will focus on the end product used by an external constituency rather than on the internal processes necessary to support the product. GPO is working to enhance the design, scope, and operation of some of the cataloging and locator services now offered by GPO and its partners. Six products1 were considered in this review. LPS staff considered usage data compiled from the 1999 Biennial Survey, the GPO Access Web logs, Council and user input, as well as some four years' experience with these services. Based on these factors, LPS intends to move toward the following mix of GPO services and partner services. 1) GPO Services: * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP; "Monthly Catalog on the Web") * Current awareness service for new additions to the FDLP/EC, replacing today's Browse Electronic Titles (BET) * Simplified browsable GILS application 2) Partner Services: * Federal Agency Internet Sites (maintained by Louisiana State University) * Browse Topics * Pathway Indexer replacement Actions Underway Within GPO actions are already underway to: 1) Enhance the CGP application, with the goal that cataloging records represent everything disseminated or made accessible through the FDLP, whether in tangible or online electronic format. 2) Participate in OCLC's CORC project to gain experience with alternative means to describe and link to content in the FDLP/EC. Investigate incorporating CORC and/or Dublin Core records into the CGP. 3) Work with OCLC to develop an integrated, CORC-based software module that incorporates cataloging in a variety of metadata schemes, PURL assignment, Web resource capture, and archiving. _________________________________________ [ footnote from paper version of Administrative Notes, bottom of p. 43 ( return to TEXT ) ] 1 The six products reviewed (in order of usage, from greatest to least) are: - Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) < www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/adpos400.html > - Browsable GILS applications < www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gils.html . - Browse Topics - Browse Electronic Titles - Federal Agency Internet Sites (LSU) - Government Information on Selected Internet Sites (Pathway Indexer) > _________________________________________________________ 4) Conduct the initial requirements analysis and other planning directed toward the acquisition and implementation of a commercial, off-the- shelf replacement for the legacy mainframe systems that support essential LPS operations. Online Cataloging and Locator Services: Proposals for Council Consideration GPO proposes to: 1) Develop a depository library community partnership to assume administrative responsibility for the Browse Topics application. GPO will continue its oversight and policy direction role. 2) Simplify the browsable GILS applications. Two current pages, Browse GILS Records by Agency and Browse GILS Pointer Records, will be combined into a single browsable tool. The Browse Pathway GILS Records will be eliminated. Pathway GILS Records are created by LPS staff based primarily on information from the U.S. Government Manual, and are not recognized as official and authoritative by the agencies. GPO will continue to partner with publishing agencies to facilitate those agencies' fulfilling their mandated GILS responsibilities. 3) Replace the Harvest shareware-based Pathway Indexer by identifying an external partner to provide this type of service. The Pathway Indexer is the least-used current service. 4) Improve the current awareness value of Browse Electronic Titles (BET) by posting weekly lists of online resources added to the FDLP/EC. The service will be renamed New Electronic Titles (NET). NET entries will appear in a true title arrangement, instead of the BET's current arrangement by agency. After four weeks, the oldest NET list will be moved to an NET archive. LPS will prioritize cataloging all products listed on NET so they will appear in the searchable CGP as soon as possible. These steps should improve the focus of the BET while encouraging users to search the CGP as the prime resource for identifying, locating, and accessing both tangible and online products. Tangible Cataloging Output Products: Proposals for Council Consideration GPO currently publishes the Monthly Catalog in three formats: paper, CD-ROM, and online. The data are also provided to the Library of Congress for redissemination to subscribers. The proposed changes will reduce the resources required to produce the tangible products and will allow greater dedication of resources to the online cataloging and locator services. Specifically, GPO proposes to: 1) Phase out production of the Monthly Catalog CD-ROM edition following completion of the 2000 issues. The CD-ROM edition's design is not optimal, it is slow and expensive to publish, and it replicates content presented in the CGP on GPO Access. A possible alternative is to reduce the frequency of the Monthly Catalog CD-ROM edition to an annual cumulation. 2) Change the print Monthly Catalog to a browsable current awareness list of products arranged in classification number sequence. This will speed up the announcement of new FDLP products by allowing LPS to produce the print edition via desktop publishing. This will shorten production cycles, reduce costs, and will still meet the monthly "pamphlet" format requirements of 44 USC 1711. Attachment 1: GPO Cataloging and Locator Services Usage Data from GPO Access Web Logs, 1999 May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct TOTALS Monthly Average Catalog of 15566 17658 17968 15486 20065 20132 106875 17813 U.S. Govt. Pubs. GILS 15550 16484 15805 14024 15893 16476 94232 15705 Browse Topics 3824 3718 3640 3592 4627 4902 24303 4051 Browse 3664 3830 3435 2989 3580 3726 21224 3537 Electronic Titles, What's New Federal 2489 2666 2261 2256 2821 3048 15541 2590 Agency Internet sites - LSU Pathway 1346 1556 1301 1295 1374 1532 8404 1401 Indexer Attachment 2: Depository Library Usage: Biennial Survey Data Question 43: Do you use the following? Yes Did not Know Not useful know about about, but not how to use Catalog of U.S. 1211 25 23 76 Govt. Pubs. GILS 905 60 127 243 Browse Topics 902 236 67 130 Browse Electronic 936 215 81 103 Titles, What's New Federal Agency 1210 74 13 38 Internet sites - LSU Pathway Indexer 974 238 43 80 Attachment 3: Subscription and FDLP Selection Data for Monthly Catalog Print and CD-ROM Products Product Item no. Depository Copies Price Copies Sold CD-ROM (full) 0557-C 887 19 (subscription) $199.00 Paper 0557-D 334 140 (subscription) (abridged) $52.00 Periodicals 0557-D-01 872 18 (annual) $32.00 Supplement 1999 Congressional 0557-B 399 to be to be Serial Set determined determined Catalog, 103d (spring 2000) Congress