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 October 15, 2001 Vol. 22, no. 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------- RESPONSES TO RECOMMENDATIONS DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL TO THE PUBLIC PRINTER SPRING 2001 1. Program on Baseline Electronic Proficiencies at the October 2001 Conference Council recommends that the Government Printing Office develop a program for the October 2001 Depository Library Conference on suggested baseline proficiencies for public access to federal electronic resources. Rationale: Council recognizes the widespread uncertainty regarding the proficiency level needed for accessing electronic government resources when providing public services. It is the sense of Council that a program delineating baseline proficiencies would serve the dual purpose of providing practical information of immediate use, as well as opening a dialog on proficiencies that could become the catalyst for more advanced training opportunities. Response: The Library Programs Service (LPS), in coordination with Council, has scheduled a session entitled "Baseline Electronic Proficiencies" for the October 2001 Depository Library Conference. Speakers will address the issue from three different perspectives: o Overview of electronic competencies from a professional educator. o Implementation of training for baseline electronic proficiencies in an academic library. o Review of issues and concerns from the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table (GODORT). 2. Basic Collection Proposal Council recommends that the Government Printing Office proceed with the "Basic Collection" revision proposal. Council also requests that the Government Printing Office regularly review this list. Council further recommends that the Government Printing Office examine the functions and scope of all collection lists in the Federal Depository Library Manual. Rationale: Council agrees that the Basic Collection list is outdated and in need of revision to reflect the changes in currently available, tangible and online, government products. In order for this to continue as a viable list, Council suggests the list be reviewed for possible revision on a regular basis. Council asks the Government Printing Office to clarify the primary purpose of the Basic Collection and all collection lists in the Federal Depository Library Manual to make sure they are still valid and useful, and that the purpose for each is clearly explained. Response: LPS has further revised the changes to the Basic Collection proposed at the spring 2001 Depository Library Council Meeting held in San Antonio, Texas. The updated Basic Collection is located at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/coll-dev/basic-01.html. The revision included updating of some titles, deletion of discontinued products, and inclusion of online equivalents for all titles when available. The Basic Collection will be revised as needed to keep the information current and useful to the libraries in the Federal depository library community. Depository Services Staff have begun reviewing the Suggested Core Collection lists, Appendix A of the Federal Depository Library Manual. As this list was last updated in 1993, it includes many publications with title changes and discontinued publications. This review will be carried out as resources permit. LPS intends to solicit assistance from depository community librarians in updating the lists in the future. 3. Clarify the Phrase "select or otherwise make available" in the Basic Collection Proposal Council recommends that the Government Printing Office clarify the phrase "select or otherwise make available" as used in the Basic Collection proposal. Rationale: The electronic environment that we work in makes the concept of "selection" more fluid since libraries can access things that they have not selected. Questions that Council raised include: does each library have to point to all items in the basic collection or is one pointer to GPO Access enough; should the online catalog include each title; and are there reference service implications? Council believes that an articulated range of options for depository libraries would be helpful. Response: LPS has changed the wording in the Basic Collection proposal from "select or otherwise make available" to "All depositories should select or provide electronic access to titles from this Basic Collection." This wording is identical to that used in the Instructions to Depository Libraries (p. 5). An article in the July 15, 2001 Administrative Notes advised the depository community of the revision and included several ways for libraries to meet the requirement to select or provide electronic access to these titles: o Link to all the titles in the Basic Collection from the library's Web site. o Catalog the Basic Collection using a collection level record and include a hyperlink. o Link to the revised Basic Collection Web page from the library's Web site. o Purchase and make available commercial equivalents (tangible or electronic) of the titles in the Basic Collection. o Incorporate titles into topical bibliographies or guides. In addition, a plenary session dealing with item selection and electronic products has been scheduled for the fall 2001 Federal Depository Library Conference and Depository Library Council Program. The session, entitled, "Item Selection Rates, Electronic Formats, and Collection Development Policies in the More Electronic Federal Depository Library Program" is scheduled for Tuesday, October 16, 2001 from 11:15 to 12:00 noon. 4. Cooperative Cataloging Partnerships Council recommends that the Government Printing Office investigate the feasibility of entering into cooperative cataloging partnerships with depository libraries. The investigation could include the development of criteria and requirements for cooperative cataloging partners. Rationale: Through partnerships, depository libraries would have the opportunity to share the results of local and regional cataloging efforts by contributing records for inclusion in the Government Printing Office's Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and distribution as GPO records. Cooperative cataloging by GPO partners has the potential to add value to other FDLP initiatives, such as the University of North Texas Cybercemetery and the Permanent Public Access initiative. In addition, cooperative cataloging partnerships may enable the Government Printing Office to discover and obtain cataloging for government information products outside the current GPO cataloging workflow. Once developed, cooperative cataloging partnerships could be used to enable depository libraries engaged in a variety of digitization, retrospective conversion, and discovery projects to share cataloging of GPO-distributed products. Response: Cooperative cataloging has been and remains an essential component of bibliographic control of U.S. Government publications. For years, GPO has been an active participant in all national cooperative cataloging programs. These programs are managed by the Library of Congress (LC) within the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), and include components for name authority, subject authority, monographs, and serials (NACO, SACO, BIBCO, and CONSER, respectively). All these programs support the cataloging of U.S. Government publications. To be effective, cooperative cataloging programs require that catalogers of member institutions must be trained and certified and must produce records that meet national standards. GPO catalogers meet these criteria and they adapt records produced by other certified institutions, when they are available, for use in producing the Catalog of United States Government Publications and for distribution to libraries throughout the United States and in many foreign countries. While not technically a cooperative cataloging program, the efforts of volunteers in the Electronic Fugitives Working Groups to identify online versions of U.S. Government publications show promise as a prototype for identifying and sharing basic bibliographic and location information. Information provided by the Electronic Fugitives Working Groups is passed to GPO catalogers for production of widely disseminated records. Such a model provides some of the benefits of cooperative cataloging, such as shared basic information, but without the administrative costs associated with forging agreements, monitoring compliance, and assuring that volunteers meet requirements for PCC membership. Given the interest in cooperative cataloging, we have arranged for two representatives of LC PCC programs to make presentations during a plenary session of the Fall 2001 Depository Library Council. This session will feature Jean Hirons, CONSER Coordinator, and Carolyn Sturtevant, NACO Coordinator.