F e d e r a l D e p o s i t o r y L i b r a r y P r o g r a m ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program --------------------------------------------------------------------- March 15, 2001 GP 3.16/3-2:22/05 (Vol. 22, no. 05) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers Exchange Government Documents Processing Tutorial ALA GODORT and AALL Government Documents Special Interest Section Collaborative Tutorial Project Charlene Cain Paul M. Hebert Law Center Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge The initiative for the AALL/GODORT Government Documents Tutorial began with Paul Arrigo, Documents Librarian at Washburn University of Topeka School of Law Library. As chair of the American Association of Law Libraries Government Documents Special Interest Section (AALL GD-SIS), Paul sent a survey to section members as part of an overall long-range planning initiative. Several responses to the survey indicated an interest among members in an electronic tutorial on government documents processing for use in staff training. Shortly afterwards, Charlene Cain became chair of the section, setting the goal to forge a closer relationship between law librarians and the rest of the depository community. Charlene approached then-GODORT Education Committee Chair, Trish Cruse, seeking technical expertise for the tutorial. Trish recommended Larry Schankman of Mansfield University, who was not only a documents librarian, but at the time completing a second Masters in Instructional Technology. The two partners then agreed that Charlene would write the content, and Larry would design the tutorial using software purchased by the AALL GD-SIS. Charlene roughed out a short draft covering some very basic skills, and Larry designed a Web-based prototype. The two met in New Orleans during the 1999 summer ALA conference to go over practical issues. After all the modules were completed, the team realized that the tutorial was too long to be practical, and had to make some difficult decisions to reduce the size. Despite much cutting, the tutorial contains more than fifty screens. One of the first design decisions concerned distribution. At the time the project began (1998/99 membership year), dynamic HTML was still relatively new, and many libraries had older browsers that could not view the advanced features of the tutorial. CD-ROM distribution was dismissed as too costly, and the creation of a PC-based program was deemed unacceptably complex and error prone, since it would require users to download and install software. For this reason, Charlene and Larry decided on Web delivery. For software, Larry used a combination of Macromedia Course Builder, an enhancement to the popular Dreamweaver editor, and HomeSite, a powerful HTML text editor. The tutorial is now mounted on the AALL server at: . It introduces staff and student workers to the basics of government documents processing and in no way supplants the Federal Depository Library Manual or the Instructions to Depository Libraries. The tutorial is arranged in three parts. Module One contains the basics of documents processing, including shipping lists, check-in, and claims. Module Two deals with collection maintenance and covers item number configuration, the update cycle, maintenance tools, superseded materials, preparation of discard lists, and the basics of preservation and storage. Module Three is a guide to the Superintendent of Documents classification system, including the parts of a SuDocs number and filing advice. There is also a multi-page "quiz" so that users can test their newly acquired skills. Thus far the tutorial has been well received. As of late February there were over 500 hits on the site. Of the nearly fifty comments received, a very few have related to minor corrections, but even those messages were very complimentary overall. Part of the original strategy for content selection was to minimize the need for major updates by choosing information of enduring usefulness. The plan is for the AALL GD SIS Webmaster, Eric Parker (Northwestern University School of Law), to make such minor updates as may be needed for as long as the tutorial is of value to the depository community. Users are requested to send questions or comments to Charlene Cain (llcain@lsu.edu) or Larry Schankman (lschankm@mnsfld.edu) either directly or via the suggestion box on the tutorial's main page.