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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ July 15, 2001 GP 3.16/3-2:22/11 (Vol. 22, no. 11) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FDLP Developments Remarks by Gil Baldwin Director, Library Programs Service Before the Federal Documents Task Force Working Group Government Documents Round Table American Library Association June 17, 2001 San Francisco, CA I appreciate being here for the FDTF Work Group's session today, because it gives us all a change to do things a little less formally. I want to cover just a few topics this morning, and then my colleagues and I will open things up for questions. Yesterday you heard the Public Printer and the Superintendent of Documents talk about some of the issues before us in Washington, but today we're going to get down to the nitty-gritty. I'm going to try to stay away from the things in the LPS Update handout, but please feel free to ask questions about those items if you'd like more information. LPS Personnel Now the first thing I'm going to do is break the rules, because I'm going to talk about an issue that is in the handout. The topic is personnel, because I feel this is critical to LPS' ability to manage the Depository Library and Cataloging and Indexing Programs. So far 2001 has been filled with staffing challenges. Obviously you all know about Sheila McGarr leaving LPS, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Vicki Barber, formerly Chief of the Depository Distribution Division, recently left LPS for a promotion to Chief of the Documents Technical Support Group. We are recruiting to fill Vicki's position now, and I hope to have someone on board soon. Colleen Davis, an LPS veteran who has been acting as Chief of the Depository Distribution Division, is expected to retire in a couple of weeks. We have also put in the paperwork to fill her job. Bonnie Trivizas has returned to LPS as Chief of the Library Division. Bonnie, who previously served in LPS from 1986-92, has management responsibility for the Cataloging Branch (CB), the Depository Administration Branch (DAB), and the Depository Services Staff (DSS). DSS' library inspection team is presently staffed with only one library inspector, Walter Zoller, since Charles Bradsher has just left LPS for the Defense Technical Information Center. LPS intends to select two new inspectors this summer. Thomas A. Downing, Chief of the Cataloging Branch, has been the acting Chief of the Depository Administration Branch, in addition to continuing as Chief of the Cataloging Branch. LPS is in the process of filling the DAB Chief position. The "all sources" vacancy announcement closed on May 17. We are also in the process of filling the Chief of Micrographics Section, a position that is critical to meeting our microfiche contracting obligations. LPS is working with GPO's Personnel Office to address the ongoing brain drain of professional librarians to other Federal agencies. The impact of this out-migration has been particularly marked among our library inspectors and catalogers. We are going to try to fill these positions on an ongoing "flow" basis, rather than reacting to individual vacancies. FDLP Electronic Transition What I see for the future of the FDLP is three major trends: more online access to content, continuing resource squeezes, and changing relationships between GPO and the partner libraries. Since 1996 we have made big changes in the FDLP in terms of collection building and content delivery, but as Yogi Berra said, "it's not over 'til it's over." Yet the program mission is unchanged: providing free and unrestricted public access to the published works of the U.S. Government, both today and into the future, and to make Government information accessible to the public through a network of depository libraries. What is changing is our means to carry out this mission and our emphasis within LPS. As we move toward an essentially "all-electronic" Program, LPS' role is moving toward managing an electronic collection for current and future public access. And one of the most important elements in accomplishing this is by cataloging and organizing the innumerable Government publications on the Internet. Transition to More Electronic Dissemination The transition to a more electronic FDLP is continuing, as required by Congress, and consistent with the trends in Government publishing. Throughout FY 2000, LPS staff searched the Web for online versions of Government publications for inclusion in the FDLP Electronic Collection. At the beginning of FY 2001, LPS amended over 100 agency term printing contracts to eliminate the requirement for paper copies for FDLP distribution. In January 2001, the Superintendent of Documents issued policy guidance (produced with library community input) to assist GPO staff in determining which products should be disseminated solely online. As a result, there are now more online-only titles in the FDLP than ever before. For the first half of FY 2001, 62 percent of the new titles available to the public through the FDLP have been online. In the electronic era, we have also expanded our cataloging and locator services efforts. We've moved beyond the traditional Monthly Catalog as our principal output. Even though our MARC/AACR2 cataloging work is still a major operation, we also have a whole family of browsable locator tools available through GPO Access. Electronic Documents Working Group In its Fall 2000 Recommendations to the Public Printer, the Depository Library Council recommended that "GPO establish a working group for the purpose of tracking selected agency Web sites for online-only government publications, determine the scope of agency online publishing, recommend priorities for inclusion in the FDLP, and examine other issues as identified by the working group." Volunteer members of the depository community will assist GPO in its efforts to bring online documents into the FDLP Electronic Collection (FDLP/EC). Under the leadership of Diane Eidelman, a group of approximately 30 volunteers was established to work with LPS to increase the number of electronic resources included in the FDLP/EC. On May 24, 2001, Diane Eidelman and John Stevenson, Council chair of the Operations committee, met with members of LPS staff in Washington to discuss the project. The purpose of the meeting was to plan the activities between the community volunteers and LPS staff, familiarize John and Diane with the online documents workflow in LPS and determine the tasks to be accomplished. The main functions of community volunteers will be to: 1. Identify online titles/products currently in the program in tangible format for possible migration to "e-only." 2. Identify new titles/products that are not in the Program. Evaluate for inclusion in the FDLP/EC. 3. Identify titles/products that are currently in the Program that have become fugitive. Determine status and availability. In each, the Working Group volunteers will be asked to provide the most complete information possible to GPO, following procedures that will be outlined by GPO. Working Group Resources LPS will design a web page linked from the FDLP Desktop that will have a listing of all of the working group participants; their contact information, the agencies that they will be covering and their LPS staff contact. Links will be created to various resources that should be used as guidance in determining if titles/products should be included in the FDLP/EC. Resources available: a. USC, Title 44 b. GPO Circular Letter No. 456 c. SOD 71, January 2001 d. Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection, Oct. 1998 e. Essential Titles, January 2001 f. Classification policy for online materials: Draft, May 2001 g. Classification Manual, 1993 h. GPO Cataloging Guidelines, 4th ed, 2001 i. Cataloging Priorities, Fall 2000 Council Recommendation j. List of Classes k. Triage of E-Material, May 2001 In addition, this page will include a template for submitting proposed electronic resources to LPS. By following a suggested set of procedures, and using the template, Working Group members will be able to provide the most complete information to LPS. The page will also include a list of agencies that have been "claimed" and identify who the miner is. Working Group/LPS Relationship We envision that an LPS staff member and a volunteer might work together to identify online titles/products for a specific bureau or office within a larger agency. This is a good way to develop agency contacts, guarantee that all necessary information is passed to LPS, and that all tasks in the LPS processing cycle are completed. We decided that a "Review Board" would not be necessary if a submission form was designed to include specific information and a volunteer and LPS staff member worked together on a specific agency or bureau. State Plans I want to shift now to an entirely different topic. Last month I traveled down to Georgia, and spoke at a meeting of all of the Georgia depository coordinators and their directors. This meeting was hosted by the regional, the University of Georgia, and coordinated by Susan Field. One of the principal topics was state plans, since the Georgians are in the process of updating theirs. I provided them with some background on how state plans came to be, and some elements that GPO thinks are important for state plans in the 21st century. The state plan effort may be traced back to a Resolution of the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer in April 1981. The idea was that the development of state plans for the FDLP would provide a cost-effective means of enabling depository libraries to share the responsibility for the development of collections and provision of services within a state. Another major cause for state plans was the problems being experienced by regional depositories. By the early 1980's the law establishing the regionals had been in effect for nearly 20 years. Some serious collection management and space issues had emerged. Remember, this was the pre-electronic era, and mostly the pre-microfiche era. We were distributing paper products literally by the ton, and regional collections were bursting at the seams. Coordination at the state level was seen as one possibility for alleviating this problem. Early state plans emphasized the management and retention of physical products. Today, GPO has state plans on file covering some 34 states and Puerto Rico, and we know there are some more out there that we don't have on file. But all of the plans we know about in detail date from the pre-electronic era. There are several states that are somewhere in the revision process: Minnesota, Texas, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Georgia and Florida are the ones that we know about. State Plans for the E-FDLP In recent years the transition to the electronic Federal depository library program, what we call the E-FDLP has caused major re-examination of the roles and responsibilities of GPO and the regional and selective depositories. Users and their expectations have changed, too. The demands for instant gratification put stresses upon traditional library services. And the way in which many libraries organize their Government information areas has evolved to the point that separate documents areas in libraries are going the way of the dinosaur. So we need to look at state plans against this backdrop, and revise them to fit the E-FDLP environment. Features of a 21st Century State Plan From GPO's perspective, the time for state plans has come around again. Born about 20 years ago to address the problems of regionals, a state plan for the 21st century is an opportunity to demonstrate the leadership and an enhanced role for regionals. As the FDLP has become more electronic, it depends on access to decentralized virtual collections. A parallel development is that GPO is trying to decentralize management of the FDLP, while still working within the confines of the statutes. We would like to see regionals act as leaders within their service areas; in effect becoming the field commanders for the FDLP. There are many decisions that are best made locally, and we see this kind of meeting as a very positive stride in that direction. To sum up, here are some features that you might want to consider as you develop your next state plan: * How to manage the transition from the physical to the online world of information. * Focus on electronic resource delivery, including issues of access policies for the general public, selections, service guidelines, security, and infrastructure. * The role of the regional depository; both with the selective depositories it serves, and coordination with other regionals. * Retention issues when substituting online versions for physical products. * Contingency planning for service interruptions of various types. * Provision of service in a 24 by 7 world. [In the discussion following the presentation, the Superintendent of Documents agreed to write to the directors of depository libraries to encourage state planning efforts.]