ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program [ PDF version ] [ Back Issues ] --------------------------------------------------------------------- February 15, 2001 GP 3.16/3-2:22/03 (Vol. 22, no. 03) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion in a Noble Cause: GPO Responds Reprinted from the January 2001 issue of Searcher, the Magazine for Database Professionals, with the permission of the publisher, Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055; 609/654-6266; . Why "Not"? A "Quint's Online" Backlash Editor's Comment: Some of my more faithful readers may peruse the column I write for sister publication, Information Today, called - modestly - "Quint's Online.' In the October 2000 issue of that magazine (vol. 17, issue 9), I wrote a piece urging the Federal Government to make the Internet their primary publication medium ("Your Tax Dollars at Work"). [If you want to read a copy of that column, click on http://www.infotoday.comlit/oct00/quint.htm.] The column stemmed from musings generated by my participation in a report to Congress by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS). In one rather off-hand sentence in that column, I discussed the existing Federal agencies that might take a leadership role in advancing this policy. And in a very off-handed aside, I rejected the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) as a candidate. ("Perhaps this could become a new role for a Web-oriented NTIS or for the U.S. Government Printing Office (not), or even the -National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).") Well, the GPO called me on that snide aside - as you can see by the letter below. And I'm overjoyed to see that this government agency seems prepared to defend its role in Federal Internet policy like a lioness guarding her cubs. The letter below contains some useful truths for searchers reaching for Federal data, but, personally, I love its passion in a noble cause--building sound archives and broadening public access by bringing the Feds to the Net. -------------------- [GPO] Sorry for the delay in responding, but this concerns Barbara Quint's article, "Your Tax Dollars at Work: The Internet Should Serve as the U.S. Government's Primary Archive," in the October 2000 edition of Information Today. In that article, Ms. Quint calls for the Federal Government "to move to the Web, big time, to ensure the performance of its mission of service to the people of the U.S." But when she suggests a general oversight role for the Government Printing Office (GPO) in making government information available via the Web, Ms. Quint herself says "not!" Quite frankly, that rather casual remark puzzled us, in view of our extensive involvement in Web-based government information dissemination for much of the past decade. GPO operates GPO Access [at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs], one of the few government Web sites actually established by law, and one of the longest running, beginning operation in 1994. It is virtually the only government Web site that provides easy, one-stop, no-fee access to information from all three branches of the government, including the daily Congressional Record and Federal Register and Supreme Court reports, as well as a wide variety of other government information products (incidentally, we just put up the Plum Book, the listing of Federal jobs open for appointment under the incoming administration). Today, GPO Access links the public to nearly 200,000 individual titles on GPO's servers and other Federal Web sites. The titles available from GPO's servers include those put up on agency Web sites hosted by GPO. Moreover, more than 40 percent of the titles available via GPO Access are linked from other Federal agency Web sites, the result of a lot of knocking on doors by GPO to grow a comprehensive collection of Federal information for public access. The public uses the system heavily. Monthly document retrievals today average more than 26 million. As for the information that isn't available on GPO Access yet--such as that detailed in a recent "filegate.gov" article [Wired magazine article]--much of that has more to do with congressional rules on access than with the Web sites on which it is placed--or not placed. Ms. Quint's article rightly talks at length about the need for permanent public access to Web-based information. In an age when there are thousands of Federal Web sites, on which important public documents appear and disappear with alarming frequency--leading to growing speculation that the current era will one day be known as an enormous "black hole' in the non-availability of government information--GPO Access is one of the very few government Web sites to make a concerted public commitment to permanent public access. That means once a document goes on GPO Access, it stays there. Every issue of the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, congressional bills, and other documents since GPO Access went live in 1994 can still be found there. Every bit of the "Starr Report" and accompanying documents, if anyone is still interested, is still there, as well as the Cox Committee report on China, the Microsoft decisions, and other documents. Our commitment to permanent public access is spelled out on our Web site at , and our position on archiving is stated in our Electronic Collection plan at . These policies distinguish GPO Access from the vast number of other Federal Web sites in their commitment to permanent public access to online government information. The fact that printing is still part of GPO's name has led some people to wonder whether we have been able to shake free of our paper-based past and participate fully in the Web-based information arena. They shouldn't wonder any longer. Today, all major documents processed through GPO have Web and print dissemination channels (and some have CD-ROM distribution as well), and GPO services other government Web sites as well as its own; the Library of Congress's Thomas site, for example, uses congressional information databases built by GPO. Consider the record of GPO's activity in the Web information arena, and both government and public reactions to it: * This year, GPO's experience in Web operations led us to assist the Supreme Court in the development and release of its widely heralded new Web site. Throughout the Microsoft case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia utilized GPO Access for the public release of its decision documents online. Early in the year, GPO made Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids available on GPO Access, at , which has since drawn rave reviews from the library, education, and even legal communities. * In 1999, GPO Access was selected as one of the top 50 legal research Web sites for the year by Law Office Computing magazine, and was named best research site for laws and best government site overall by the newsletter legal.online. It was chosen as the first recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries Public Access to Government Information Award. The Energy Department's PubSCIENCE project, mentioned approvingly by Ms. Quint, is a joint project with GPO begun in 1999 and is available on GPO Access. Also in 1999, GPO and the Department of Energy jointly won a Hammer Award from Vice President Gore's National Performance Review for the Information Bridge, a partnership that makes thousands of DOE scientific and technical reports available over GPO Access. o In 1998, GPO Access was named one of the 15 "Best Feds on the Web" by Vice President Gore and Government Executive magazine. Federal Computer Week magazine said, "The GPO site stands out as an unassuming, information-rich offering." The internationally recognized management firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc., called GPO Access "one of the Federal Government's largest and most active Web sites" and said that the site "has been highly successful in making government information easily available to the public." o In 1997, GPO Access and the Commerce Department jointly earned a Hammer Award for creating the electronic Commerce Business Daily, known as CBDNet. Other awards have included a 1994 Technology Leadership Award and the prestigious 1995 James Madison Award from the Coalition on Government Information. So extensive is this record, in fact, that when the Commerce Department announced the demise of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) in August 1999, GPO used its experience in the Web-based dissemination of government information to offer to continue making the NTIS permanent collection of scientific and technical information available to the public. The only difference is that we would make it freely available to the public through our Federal Depository Library System and online--a project that we have in fact been working on with NTIS on a pilot basis--whereas in the past it has only been available through NTIS for a fee. We at the GPO are justifiably proud of what we have accomplished in making government information available over the Web and of our commitment to ensure that it is available permanently. We invite Ms. Quint and all of Information Today's readers to visit GPO Access and see for themselves one of the Federal Government's premier Web sites. Andrew M. Sherman Director Office of Congressional and Public Affairs U.S. Government Printing Office