ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Vol. 18, no. 05 GP 3.16/3-2:18/05 March 15, 1997 Depository Administration Branch Update Remarks by Robin Haun-Mohamed Chief, Depository Administration Branch Library Programs Service U.S. Government Printing Office GODORT Federal Documents Task Force American Library Association Midwinter Meeting Saturday, February 15, 1997 Washington, DC New Electronic Services Good morning. I am the last of the GPO speakers for this update session and I will try to keep this short. What a year it's been already. In January 1997, Library Programs Service (LPS) instituted two new services that we hope have already made your life easier in the area of program administration. The new Item Lister service available off the FDLP Administration Web page creates a listing of active item selection numbers for a depository library. This listing can be viewed from the screen or downloaded for use off the Internet. Information on the screen also includes the total number of items selected by the profiled library and the library's item selection rate based on current active item numbers. This is a service which must be updated with information from the DDIS database on a regular basis. We are currently updating the files once a month, usually around the middle of the month. The second new service is a breakthrough for LPS. For years I've heard the requests to put shipping list information online for libraries to use before they receive their shipment boxes. Shipping list information for all formats of products distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is now available for the first time on the Federal Bulletin Board. LPS is also working with SUNY Buffalo and the University of Texas - Arlington to make shipping list information available in .html format. This site also provides depository libraries with a number of options to customize the shipping list to a library's item selection profile. We are very excited about this shared partnership and urge all who have not yet had a chance to look at this site to take a few minutes and see how your library can utilize and build on the work of these fine institutions. I have brought a handout with the URL for the FBB and WWW sites for shipping list information that I hope will prove helpful. If you have any recommendations for improvement or changes, please send these along to me and we will work with our partners to refine the services. Office Renovation Let me also update you on the status of the big move in the Depository Administration Branch (DAB). Since the second week of December, our staff have been located on three floors and in every nook and cranny while the office where the Acquisitions & Classification staff are generally located has been renovated. And the results are impressive. Thanks to all who have been putting up with our temporary quarters. Effective Monday, all classifiers will have a Pentium computer with a CD-ROM drive and access to the Internet, as well as e-mail and mainframe access. This is such an improvement over what we have had in the past. During the renovation, an Internet capable computer has been more dear than gold. We still have a time of adjustment for many of the Publication Management Specialists as they learn to mine the net and focus on their agencies' home pages and new resources. And beginning next week or so, the staff in the Micrographics Control Section, and the three Publication Management Specialists who have been focusing on fugitive documents and Internet products will also be moving to temporary locations while the other office room is repainted, recarpeted, and connected to the mainframe and the Internet. I will be joining the ranks of the displaced persons with this move, but my phone will be forwarded and the fax and e-mail will continue to operate. Once we move back into the room, I eagerly await introduction to that wonderful invention known as "voice mail." Just a timely reminder here for operational issues. The two fax numbers, (202) 512-1636 and 512-0877 for DAB will continue to operate during this time, both feeding into one machine. Please fax your claims to 512-1429. Since we had the problem with the claims fax machine early this fall, I continue to receive many claims over the machines in my area. It delays the filling of the claims as they must be batched and sent to claims for correct disposition. Claims Increasingly I have been asked for information on how to submit claims electronically for depository material. At this point we do not have a claims module in place. Each of the individual products we have brought up play a part in the overall ability to have an effective electronic claims process. Some libraries are sending claims over the fax machines from the shipping lists site of our partners at SUNY, Buffalo and UTA, but please do not do this. The shipping lists do not look the same, information is often missing, as is the case with many claims in October where title information was not included in the service. It is acceptable to submit a claim via fax from the U.S. FaxWatch Service. Just be sure to handwrite your library's name and address on each one submitted as that space is usually cut off on the FaxWatch copy. We intend to automate the claims process, but we are not prepared to receive, research, or fill claims as an electronic transaction at this time. Automated Item Selection One of the next processes we hope to automate via the Web is the item selection changes for the annual update cycle. Staff in Production along with staff on the Electronics Transition Staff in LPS are working on automating the green card changes via the Web. Libraries will be able to update their item selection profile by keying in their changes directly on the Web. These changes would then be batched and submitted to the Depository Distribution Information System (DDIS) to modify their library's profile. Additions to a library's profile would take effect after the beginning of the new fiscal year, but deletions would take effect essentially the next working day for paper, electronics and separates, and at the beginning of the next quarter for microfiche material. We are hoping to have this active for the 1998 update cycle, but are not yet sure if it will be ready in time. Look for further information on this in upcoming issues of the Administrative Notes and in the packet of material sent to each library in April for the annual update cycle. Electronic Transition As we continue the transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program, our staff continue to deal with policy issues and concerns as we identify them. I appreciate the time and effort you take to advise LPS of the problems you perceive and appreciate your patience as we work through these issues. Clarification of the differences between E, EL, and Online in the List of Classes and the Administrative Notes Technical Supplement is something we have been working on for a while. Essentially, "E" in the List of Classes and the Administrative Notes is being used to indicate the material is available in an electronic format. This means products will be available only in an electronic format-- either a tangible format or via an Internet site. When multiple formats are listed, as in the Open File Reports, material may be distributed in any of the formats listed. Recent issues of the Administrative Notes Technical Supplement have had a number of entries with format changes as we proceed through the clean-up of the List of Classes. We will soon have an article in the Administrative Notes providing further details on this topic. We have begun implementing discontinuance of serial publications in a tangible format when a reliable, official, online version is identified. These are mainly periodical titles distributed in microfiche format or titles with time sensitive deadlines. You will see these in upcoming issues of the Administrative Notes Technical Supplement under the "Update to the List of Classes, Miscellaneous" column. Before a title is discontinued we check the current Web site to be sure older issues are maintained and that the new issues are complete, and we advise the agency of the change. Other resources that are being discontinued are titles included on a tangible product, such as the Energy InfoDisc. Most of these titles on the CD-ROM were distributed in a microfiche format. There are approximately 180 titles on the EIA disc, and while we are not discontinuing all of them in paper or microfiche format at this time, we are beginning to identify and discontinue some. There are also a few paper titles being discontinued, where we have been able to stop the paper issues at the end of the year or the final issue for the current volume. Again, these are titles with lower item selection counts, and that are posted to the Internet in a much more timely manner than they have been sent to the libraries in the past. Please be assured, we are not discontinuing titles at this time with high item selection counts, popular interest topics, or where it appears the agency will not maintain the material for a significant period of time. If an agency is pulling the older issue when a new issue is put up, this title is not a candidate for conversion at this time. Some specific examples of titles distributed to FDLs in an electronic only format are Methyl Bromide Alternatives, STAT-USA: the Newsletter, BISNIS Bulletin, AFIP Letter, List of Serials Indexed for Online Users, Social Security Programs Throughout the World, Military Review, and the Postal Bulletin. Please note some of these have not been distributed through the program before; they are new and will only be distributed via the Internet, while others were distributed in microfiche and paper formats. And some of the changes to Internet only titles have been made by the agency, not by LPS, as in the case of the List of Serials Indexed for Online Users. Fugitive Documents and New Electronic Products I want to thank the depository community for continuing to provide information to LPS on fugitive products that should be considered for inclusion in the program. In the last year we have seen the impact depository librarians can have on helping to obtain specific products for the program. For example, Big Emerging Markets, need I say more? Shortly after we met in New York, LPS was given sufficient copies for full paper distribution to the depository libraries. Hispanics-Latinos: Diverse People in a Multicultural Society; Current Population Reports 1995 was distributed to the libraries on shipping list 97-0128-P dated Feb. 4, 1997. Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790 - 1990 was distributed in late July 1996. All three of these titles have been obtained for inclusion in the program because a depository librarian had an "inquiring" mind. Some of the outstanding titles we continue to work on obtaining for inclusion in the program include the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS, the new SIC Manual) and the Food Code from the Department of Agriculture. I am also pleased to note the progress that has been made with some agencies that in the past have not provided electronic resources for distribution to the libraries, including the Department of Transportation, the Library of Congress, and NASA. All have been working with LPS to identify new electronic products that are appropriate for distribution to the libraries. Some of these products include CCSDS, Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, Traffic Safety on CD-ROM, United States Waterway Data, Braille Book Review Talking Book Topics on floppy diskette, and the French Posters from World War I. There is one additional product I'd like to review with you today. LPS has been successful in obtaining source files of the Daily Treasury Statement for mounting on GPO Access as a test project. The product looks good and we are continuing to work with Treasury to develop a timeline for when the daily paper product can be discontinued. This is a significant achievement because GPO has obtained the source files and can control future retention and access policies for the electronic files. Libraries should have received the first issue of the FBIS on CD-ROM. We are very excited to have been given this opportunity to distribute this title to the libraries. But we are unsure if we will be able to continue this product as the software will be changing and at this time GPO does not have an agreement with the software vendor to pay for the royalties associated with this product. As Gil discussed earlier, the costs of software royalty fees are increasingly becoming stumbling blocks to obtaining the material for distribution to the libraries. One way agencies can assist with these costs is to establish agreements with software companies to have the depository libraries' copies included under the agency's overall acceptance of the software package. The costs for royalties would then be paid by the publishing agency, thus avoiding the software stumbling block. We are working with the CIA to have a change made to the existing program for the FBIS on CD-ROM. If you have tried this product and found it helpful, please relay this information back to the agency. This feedback may be instrumental in continuing distribution of the product through the Program. Of course, sometimes this feedback can prevent a product from disappearing and sometimes it cannot. The 1996 CIA World Factbook will not be issued in print format; the CD-ROM version should be out this spring. We had hopes until earlier this week that the agency would be producing a paper version for 1997, but were just advised that the agency will not be producing the 1997 edition in paper format either. As Mr. Kelley discussed, the increasing movement to privatize information continues to present special challenges for the Acquisitions and Classification Section. We saw this begin several years ago with the Cancer Grams, but lately I've had several other inquiries on products and services that in the past were depository, but have now been taken over by a private company, thus removing the information from the public domain. In December, LPS was advised that the Journal of the National Cancer Institute would no longer be available for distribution through the FDLP. Libraries wishing to continue to receive this title will need to contact the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and pay to become a member of the NCI Information Associates Program. This is being done under a CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement) between the NCI and Oxford University Press-USA, Inc. Census investigated producing a CD-ROM version of the Historical Statistics of the United States, under a CRADA between the Bureau of the Census and Cambridge University Press. In this agreement, copies were supposed to be made available for depository libraries. Cambridge University Press did not make these available. The CD-ROM version is not an official Census product and the plans for updating the resource to include current information is not being done under any agreement between Cambridge University Press and the Bureau of the Census. LPS is continuing to have discussions with staff from the USGS to about the Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) maps in CD-ROM format. Errors were discovered in the headers for the CD-ROM products last summer. GPO was advised of the errors and we decided to go back and replicate all the issues that had already been distributed. A second set of errors was then discovered and at that time GPO was advised by USGS the DRGs were on hold until a decision could be made as to their future for the replication program. Due to budget limitations, USGS advised LPS earlier this fall that they would not be replicating the DRGs through GPO. USGS will produce a Compact Disc-Recordable ( CD-R), or "one-off" themselves as needed for customers of their Sales database. The DRGs will not be coming through the program for replication. USGS advised LPS they would however provide a CD-R for LPS to make a master and replicate for distribution to the libraries. The economics of this decision are tremendous. There are approximately 945 CD-ROMs to be produced for this series. The cost of making a master of each CD-ROM is between $350 -$600 per master, with replication costs and distribution costs needing also to be factored into the equation. This is a big step backward for the transition to an electronic FDLP, and it is possibly the future trend for the DOQ's and other products from USGS databases. We will be meeting with staff from the National Mapping Division, USGS later this month in an attempt to keep this vast body of material in the program. One positive result to pass along concerns the Environmental Health Perspectives. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences advised GPO it was going to utilize its authority to have this product produced outside GPO by a private publisher. GPO was advised copies would no longer be available for distribution to the depository libraries or for inclusion in the Sales Program because of this change. LPS contacted the editor and verified that they did want to continue to provide copies for the FDLs if at all possible. We have confirmed paper copies will be provided for the Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) and the Supplement for distribution to the libraries. And sales copies will be obtained from the private publisher for continued inclusion in the Sales Program. As in the case of the JCNI, the EHP is being folded into a larger database service. At the time when the database is ready for release, staff from LPS and EHP will work together to provide depository access to the new database. I believe it is important to close on a positive note--with all of the changes and transition in progress its easy to think "my input can't mean much," but without the will to try we are already defeated. And as this last example shows, my very favorite response to librarians asking about fugitive documents is "it never hurts to ask!" The NOAA Tide Tables, the FBIS on CD-ROM, and now the Environmental Health Perspectives, have all continued to be distributed through the program because we asked!