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 [ PDF version ] [ Back Issues ] --------------------------------------------------------------------- April 15, 2001 GP 3.16/3-2:22/06 (Vol. 22, no. 06) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Readers Exchange Recognition for Your GovDocs Web Sites Bob Gaines Head - Government Documents & Microforms Jackson Library University of North Carolina, Greensboro Recently our Government Documents subject Web site, "Sexual Harassment Resources" received a small but much appreciated honor when it was chosen as a "Hot Site" by USATODAY.com in their "Web Guide" section ( and click on "Hot Site Archive" and then on Feb. 8, 2001). The following week, it was also listed in the "Life" section under "The Net: New and Notable," page 3D, in the Feb. 15 issue of USAToday. While we have no idea how USAToday picked it up, this recognition is no doubt due to our having "given" the site to many of the major Web directories and search engines (see the various logos at the top of our site: ). Which brings us to the crux of this article: there are probably hundreds of depository libraries out there with thousands of helpful Web sites, BUT those sites may not be readily available to the public because no one knows they are there! When we first began to create Web links to U.S. government resources, approximately 6 years ago, there was little to link to of any substance. One was reminded of the little old lady on the TV commercial of yore, asking, "Where's the BEEF?!" The "beef" arrived quickly, as mandated by Congress, and fairly soon we found ourselves with nearly a hundred and fifty Web sites to keep up with and correct and revise on a regular basis - not a job for the squeamish. With these sites now attracting approximately 14,000 hits per month, one would think that they were "visible" enough and well worth the effort put into them. Indeed, the labor intensive nature of keeping Web sites up-to-date might remind us all of the unrelenting work of shelflisting all those thousands of paper and fiche documents which we used to receive every year. Of course, we continue to receive a quite impressive number of paper, fiche, and CD-ROM documents, but the shelflist and the catalog records are now automated, and much of what we receive is actually on the Web anyway, so we can and should spend more time on helpful Web sites. How then do we make certain that those time-consuming sites are actually available to the largest number of patrons? The answer was alluded to above - give the site to as many of the well known and heavily used Web directories and search engines as possible, and make certain that they are prominently displayed and easily accessed through your own institution. Remember - even most search engines have some subject directory functions, and we found that quite a few already had "Sexual Harassment" subject pages set up, recommending a small number of sites. Since none of these sites appeared to have anything like the sources we had provided, we decided to "rattle the cage" of as many Web directories and search engines as possible. It is one thing to have your site covered within a major search engine, but it is another level entirely for your site to be listed on one of their subject directory pages. We all assume that this will increase usage substantially, and, after all, this is one of the primary reasons for the continued existence of depository libraries, and an excellent argument for retaining the Federal Depository Library Program! Think about it - who knows U.S. government information sources better than government documents librarians, and who, therefore, can put up better Web resources? A side issue - should we utilize information resources NOT directly related to the U.S. government? Absolutely! We decided long ago not to limit our information to only that which was government-produced. If it helps, put it in. Those of us who have recently dealt with the major Web directories and search engines will have encountered the daunting issue of payment for listing! We have paid NOTHING - NADA - for our listing in Yahoo, the DMOZ Open Directory Project, the Librarians' Index To The Internet, the Scout Report for Social Sciences, and last but not least, Grace York's excellent GODORT Handout Exchange (which does NOT charge for anything!). We simply sent in our sites and hoped for the best. The gurus who run these directories will generally recognize a useful site when they examine one, so if your resources fill any void in their listings, they will very likely use it without asking for a dime. Closer to home, all depository librarians who have created substantial Web resource sites should be in close contact with any and all local institutions which utilize the web. Every public library, large or small college, school media center, government or business site which has potential need for our information should be contacted, notified of your work, and encouraged to link to your material. Sharing information starts in your neighborhood! Government information, like the rest of the universe, is now riding the crest of the World Wide Web/Internet wave. It has been sink-or-swim time for depository libraries and the FDLP for several years. We now must live with workstations which are obsolete in a matter of months instead of years, and ever increasing requirements for hardware and software. Publications which we have come to value and utilize over decades are now being shifted to electronic format and generally to Web sites - the world's cheapest method of mass distribution. We worry about archival issues with respect to information published only via the web, and CD-ROM documents which might be just about as useful as a Frisbee in a few years. Still, we continue to live in a world of human communication and interaction, and the more efficient we make that world, the better we will all be for the effort. [Addendum] Just a little piece of statistical information - we just got our Web site stats for this department for the month of February. Normally we have around 14,000 hits on the Documents Department Web sites for a given month. Last month we totaled 19,367, with 6880 of those coming from the "Sexual Harassment Resources" site alone! A little publicity never hurts!