ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Vol. 18, no. 05 GP 3.16/3-2:18/05 March 15, 1997 Depository Services Update Remarks by Sheila M. McGarr Chief, Depository Services U.S. Government Printing Office GODORT Federal Documents Task Force American Library Association Midwinter Meeting Saturday, February 15, 1997 Washington, DC Good morning. I would like to update you on the activities of Depository Services. While other units of the Library Programs Service (LPS) are primarily oriented toward the processing and distribution of publications, the focus of Depository Services is on the functioning of the individual libraries and their relation with each other and GPO. Outreach In conjunction with this ALA Midwinter meeting, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) invites you to tour LPS and see a short demonstration of GPO Access services presented by the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services. There will be two opportunities to visit GPO, both on Tuesday, February 18, at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. with each session lasting about 90 minutes. An announcement of these tours appeared on GOVDOC-L, in the January 15 issue of Administrative Notes, and on flyers in the back of this room. As all visitors must be signed in at GPO and pre-registration will expedite issuing visitor badges, please see me at the conclusion of this program if you want to visit us. The 10th annual Interagency Depository Seminar is planned for May 28-June 4, 1997 in Washington, D.C. "New" documents staff (three years or less experience in this field) are the target audience for this continuing education program. Sessions are conducted by GPO, Bureau of the Census, Office of the Federal Register, Patent and Trademark Office, National Ocean Service, U.S. Geological Survey, etc. The preliminary agenda and registration form was announced in the October 15, 1996 Administrative Notes and again in the January 15, 1997 issue and this information is available from the FDLP Administration page on GPO's Web site. To date, we have received only 33 registrations while in the past we filled the room to capacity with 60 people. We think that the Federal Depository Conference in April is drawing away some attendance. There has been some informal discussion about offering the Interagency Depository Seminar every other year. In the meantime, there are still openings for "boot camp." The 6th annual Federal Depository Library Conference will be held from April 14-17, 1997 at the Washington National Airport Hilton in Crystal City. The 50th meeting of the Depository Library Council will meet concurrently with the conference. The preliminary agenda for the conference was announced in the December 15, 1996 Administrative Notes, the FDLP Administration page on our Web site, and on GOVDOC-L. To date, 163 are registered (plus more than 40 speakers) even before the revised agenda appeared in the February 15, 1997 Administrative Notes and on the FDLP Administration web page. Thirty-three indicate that they are first time attendees, 30 are new to documents (three years or less experience) and 20 are new and first timers. The program continues to be a mixture of Federal agency electronic initiatives, presentations from documents librarians on their use of electronic Government information, bibliographic control issues, and innovative uses of the Web, and partnering and preservation issues. Proceedings from this conference will be issued in mid-1997 in print and on our web site. Publications The revised Superseded List was shipped to all depositories in October 1996. It is also available for downloading from the Federal Bulletin Board and the FDLP Administration web page. To date there has been 117 hits. There are still copies available in paper upon request. GPO has submitted an article for the Federal Agency Reports section for the 1997 edition of the Bowker Annual. GPO has been included in the 1995 and 1996 editions of this publication. The "Self-Study of a Federal Depository Library" was distributed as Federal Depository Library Manual Supplement 3 in October 1996. It is also available for downloading from the Federal Bulletin Board and the FDLP Administration web page and there have been 90 hits. We have already begun using the Self-Study to evaluate libraries. Inspection Activities Documents librarians and their directors, whose depository operations were last inspected in 1989, 1990, and a few in 1991, were notified in October 1996 to submit a self-study in December by fax, snail mail, or preferably e-mail. I was too ambitious and have received more than 150 of them to evaluate with just Gail Snider and me to do the work. In December and early January, I spent entirely too much time decoding reports which were UUencoded, Bin Hex code, using word processing software packages that no one in GPO had, etc. Some librarians e-mailed reports in ASCII of 800,000 bytes when the average was 50,000. I could not download the reports as the librarians had failed to remove images imbedded in the text. I was fixing margins, deleting unnecessary citations, non-applicable sections, and introductory material. Some libraries mailed the report on a diskette per instructions but I never got them. Other libraries faxed in the report then mailed another copy as well. Still others e-mailed the self-study then mailed lots of supplementary materials. There were even libraries which photocopied the Self-Study, handwrote their responses, and faxed or mailed back the information. Needless to say, these libraries did not report e-mail addresses and had very limited electronic equipment. The next time I request self-studies, snail mail is the preferred delivery method. Of the 27 self-studies requested from California and Nevada libraries, we have examined 25; two libraries failed to submit any report. What happens to these depository library operations? They will be inspected and also fail the Cooperative Efforts category in the audit. Only one library of 25 requested an inspection because they want to "show off" all the improvements made since our last on-site examination. Three of the libraries will be evaluated even though they submitted "good" self-studies because they have never been inspected before and we want a baseline for comparison. Several of the libraries are being inspected in March as a result of deficiencies noted in their self-studies. Each of the 25 will receive a letter with our recommendations for improvement. Even those we plan to inspect will receive a letter pointing out deficiencies, some of which can be rectified before the inspector arrives. The remaining 125+ self-studies will be reviewed, libraries contacted, etc., but we cannot give you an exact time line as the April extravaganza, May Interagency Seminar, and selecting and training two new inspectors will take up a lot of our time. Later this spring the depository libraries last inspected in 1991 in the following states will be notified to submit a Self-Study: Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. As I just noted, there are two library inspector vacancies. The position announcement appeared on GOVDOC-L, in the January 15, 1997 Administrative Notes, and on a notice in the shipment boxes. The closing date for submitting applications is February 28. If any of you in the audience are thinking of applying, or have submitted your resume, please see me after the conclusion of this program. I have copies of the job announcement, position description, and even the application form with me. During the next few days, it may be possible that we can arrange some time for talking about the realities of the position, working for the Federal Government, living in the metro DC area, conducting an interview, etc. Biennial Survey Under Title 44, U.S.C. section 1909, "designated depository libraries shall report to the Superintendent of Documents at least every two years concerning their condition." Since 1947, the Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries has been that instrument. In September 1997, we plan to issue the next "Biennial Survey." While the Teleform fax software worked well in 1995, and it may well be used in 1997, we are investigating the feasibility of conducting the survey using the World Wide Web.