Administrative Notes Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Vol. 19, no. 03 GP 3.16/3-2:19/03 January 25, 1998 The FDLP in Transition Remarks by Gil Baldwin Chief, Library Division, Library Programs Service Before the Federal Documents Task Force Government Documents Round Table American Library Association Saturday, January 10, 1998 New Orleans, LA Good morning, everyone. On behalf of all my colleagues from the Library Programs Service (LPS), I want to tell you how much we appreciate the opportunity to bring you up to date on what's been going on in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). There are five of us from LPS here and we look forward to talking with you. With me on the program today is Sandy Schwalb from our Electronic Transition Staff, as well as T.C. Evans from the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services (EIDS). In addition, Robin Haun-Mohamed, Tad Downing and George Barnum from LPS are here in the audience, and they'll back us up during the question and answer period later this morning. Robin and George will be updating you during tomorrow morning's FedDocs' working group meeting, and Tad will be at the GODORT Cataloging Committee meeting. We've brought a rainbow array of handouts with us, and you can pick up copies here or at the GPO Exhibit, Booth # 927. In addition to the EIDS team, one of us from LPS will also be at the booth at any time, and we welcome you to stop by and visit with us. Poised for Change We are now just over two years into the electronic transition, and a lot of progress has been made. It hasn't always been pretty or comfortable, and all of the motion may not have been forward. But that's how it works when you're blazing a new trail. I feel good about the ability of LPS to continue this evolutionary process. I believe that LPS is doing a responsible job of balancing the complex issues attending the transition to electronic information dissemination and our ongoing traditional services. Every area of LPS has benefited from the planning process and has made real strides toward incorporating electronic Government information products into the FDLP, bringing the results of our transition projects into the regular day-to-day life of the operation. In recent years, while there has been increasing dissemination of information to depositories in tangible electronic formats such as CD-ROMs, print products, including paper and microfiche, still predominate. However, since 1994, there has been increased utilization of the GPO Access online service as the principal delivery vehicle for online Government information to depository libraries and the public. The FDLP is in the midst of a multi-year transition from an exclusively print environment to a mixed environment. The transition to a more electronic FDLP includes tangible Government information products disseminated to depository libraries and online databases and locator services provided via the Internet from GPO Access. We are all working in an environment where the changes in technology and information dissemination practice have outstripped some portions of our legislative and policy foundations. You've already heard this morning about the prospects for Title 44 reform in the next session of Congress. But my take on it is that whether or not Title 44 is amended this year, LPS is in good shape to administer the FDLP into the next millenium. During the coming years we will continue the transition of the FDLP from paper to electronic formats, consistent with the needs of users and the intended usage. We will further develop the suite of locator services and cataloging initiatives to enable the public to locate Government information regardless of format. And we will develop, coordinate, and implement a management plan for the FDLP Electronic Collection, in order to ensure permanent, future public access to Government information products at or through depository libraries. LPS Transition Highlights First, though, some highlights of LPS activities. This past year we began what we hope will be a growing number of partnerships between GPO, other Government agencies, and depository libraries, for permanently storing and making available certain electronic Government information products. These initial projects are the foundation on which future partnerships will be based. We are indebted to our pioneering partners at the University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of North Texas, and the Departments of State, Education, and Energy, and at OCLC. We have begun building the relationships and the distributed FDLP Electronic Collection through which we will ensure permanent public access to Government information. George Barnum's remarks tomorrow will include more information on these partnerships, including the GPO Access Gateways. Some of our other 1997 highlights include: * Permanent access initiatives, including the "collection management" concept for GPO Access and the FDLP Electronic Collection; * Expanded continuing education activities, including sponsoring the Regional Librarians Conference; * Developing new GPO Access Web applications and services for depository librarians, such as: * Adding the Council Web pages to the FDLP Administration Web page; * Creating "Core Documents of U.S. Democracy: An Electronic Collection;" * Using the Web to conduct the Biennial Survey and the Item Selection Update Cycle; * Developing the Item Lister, putting up the electronic version of the Shipping List, and partnering with the creators of the Shipping List label service. * Raising awareness of the serious issues surrounding the privatization of important Government information products, and the copyright-like restrictions that often accompany these deals. If you would like even more detail on LPS' activities, I invite you to check out our 1997 annual report. It's available on the Web at the FDLP Administration page , and was printed in the January 15, 1998 issue of Administrative Notes (Vol. 19, no. 2). Electronic Transition Staff This marks the third year of LPS' Electronic Transition Staff, or ETS. ETS has done a tremendous amount to advance the transition of the FDLP to a more electronically based program. ETS is a four-person outfit; two permanent LPS employees - Lee Morey and Joe Paskoski, and two visiting experts on one year appointments. You all know George Barnum, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who is concentrating on the issue of permanent public access, partnerships, and Gateways. Among other things, George continues the work started by the other people from the library community who have joined us on temporary appointments. You may know that our other visiting expert, Sandy Schwalb, was reappointed for a second year, and we are very pleased that we were able to do that. We feel that bringing the library community people into LPS has been good for the program, and we know that they've been a lot of help to us. So we're starting the search again, looking for two more "transition experts" who would like to work with us in LPS for a year. So if you're ready for a challenge and a year in DC, please get in touch with us. Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection We are putting a great deal of emphasis on permanent public access. One of our key developments of FY 1997 is the "collection management" concept for GPO Access, which establishes that GPO will manage the various electronic Government information products made permanently accessible via GPO Access as a library-like collection. Permanent public access will be provided under the authority of the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-40), via "a facility for storage of electronic information made available on the system of access by the Superintendent of Documents." Once we established the GPO Access databases, we assumed practical responsibility for permanent access to those Government information products. In the traditional FDLP, tangible products world, this responsibility was shared by GPO and the regional depository libraries. We are building the FDLP Electronic Collection using GPO resources, and coordinating permanent access through a distributed networked system of GPO and partner institution resources. Government electronic information products in the FDLP Electronic Collection will be managed using many familiar library collection management policies and techniques, such as selection, acquisition, bibliographic control, access, organization, maintenance, deselection, and preservation for access. The Collection consists of remotely accessible electronic Government information products, including core legislative and regulatory GPO Access products which will reside permanently on GPO servers, and other products either maintained by GPO or other institutions with which GPO has established formal agreements. I hope you've all taken the opportunity to read our basic position paper on this which appeared in the November 25 issue of Administrative Notes (Vol. 18, no. 15), and of course is available under the Publications button on the FDLP Administration page on our Web site at . At the October Council meeting George Barnum and I did a program on this topic, and we outlined our vision for a Collection Management Plan which is analogous to a library's collection development plan. We had some excellent discussion of these issues, and we got some good feedback from Council and the audience which enabled us to refine our draft plan. I hope to soon put out a draft Collection Plan for public review and comment, but for now I'll have to walk you through some of main points. We believe the Collection Management Plan will enable GPO to accomplish the permanent access mission. The Plan provides a policy framework through which the collection of resources is developed and maintained, and defines the parameters and requirements for the electronic products and services that constitute the Collection. Underlying Assumptions Here are some of the core values which guided our development of the Plan: * The Plan should facilitate partnerships between the Government and FDLP libraries: a system of shared responsibility for building, storing, disseminating, and preserving the Collection will produce the greatest benefit for resources invested. * Planning and the effective use of GPO's appropriated funds, as well as the belief that the value added by depository libraries is key to the FDLP, require that Collection activities focus on depository access and depository users as a definable and known entity. * The cost of permanent access to electronic Government information products should be borne by the Government and not by the end user. FDLP Electronic Collection The Collection Plan will guide GPO in executing its permanent access responsibility for Government information products such as the Federal Register and Congressional Record. For such products, GPO has assumed the role traditionally taken by regional depository libraries as provided in 44 U.S.C. ?1911. A fundamental assumption outlined in GPO's 1996 "Study" is that FDLP dissemination of remotely accessible electronic information products will be through "a distributed system that provides continuous, permanent public access, involving the publishing agencies, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and regional and other depository libraries." Scope The Collection Plan defines the parameters and requirements for the electronic products and services that constitute the Collection. The Collection will facilitate permanent access to Government electronic information products "except those determined by their issuing components to be required for official use only or for strictly administrative or operational purposes which have no public interest or educational value and publications classified for reasons of national security" (44 U.S.C. ?1902). Such products will not be considered to be record copies, but rather as permanent access reference copies. Storage By sharing the burden of storage and maintenance, GPO safeguards the continuing availability and accessibility of electronic Government information products included in the Collection. In the context of this plan, storage of digital information will be accomplished through various mechanisms: * Legislative and regulatory material that has been managed by GPO in GPO Access (e.g., Congressional Record, Bills, Federal Register) will reside on GPO servers, including the GPO Access remote site in Kentucky. * Agency material may be resident on GPO servers, on agency servers, or be included in partnership arrangements whereby storage and access are managed cooperatively by partner institutions in the FDLP and GPO. Although this Plan may eventually be extended to provide for the preservation of and permanent access to information dissemination via the FDLP in CD-ROM and other tangible electronic mediums, the near-term scope of the Plan is focused upon Government information disseminated via the Internet. User Community The primary user community for the Collection are those end users gaining access to the Collection through the facilities and resources of the FDLP. The public will routinely use the Collection directly, without the depository library as intermediary. GPO will strive to accommodate the needs of as broad a range of users as possible within the constraints of time and resources. However, the belief that the value added by depository libraries is key to the program, require that Collection activities focus on depository access and depository users. Selecting Products for the Collection Products in the Collection will be selected and acquired under policies and procedures that encourage and facilitate the sharing of resources. Three major questions will guide the evaluation phase of the selection process for the Collection: * Does the product meet the criteria of 44 U.S.C. ?1901-1902? * What is the value and importance of the product to the user community (i.e., depository libraries and their clientele)? * What priority does the product have in relation to other resources in the FDLP? In addition to these basic questions, we are working on a checklist to assist in the evaluation of products for the Collection. Outreach to Agencies Outreach to Federal agencies concerning the issue of permanent access and the role of the Collection, including partnerships, will be integrated into a larger GPO effort now underway to increase agencies' awareness of the scope and value of GPO information replication and dissemination services. Agencies will be encouraged to participate proactively by recommending products for inclusion in the Collection, by notifying GPO about significant changes, initiation or termination of products, or by identifying possible partners for their dissemination efforts. Locator Services GPO is responsible for providing various locator services for a broad range of Government information products. Since data, text, and description are inextricably linked in the electronic world, the Collection will employ appropriate technology and practices to assure a level of control and access that meets or exceeds traditional expectations. Techniques and standards change, but we expect to use a combination of traditional cataloging records; GILS records; persistent naming using OCLC's PURLs; indexers and robots; and Pathway Indexer browser applications. User Access and Retrieval One of GPO's primary goals is to assure that access to and retrieval of Government information products is available to a broad spectrum of users who possess a wide range of technical capabilities. GPO is committed to providing unlimited access to both high-end and low-end users interested in searching and retrieving Government information products. In the context of the FDLP, accessibility includes the degree to which Government information is accurately identified and described bibliographically, the information's availability is made known to the public, and technological, social, economic, political, and physical barriers to gaining access are minimized. Information products will be made available using the latest, most timely electronic means, but will also be available through basic modem and assistive technologies. GPO will utilize the Internet, as well as telephone and modem technology, to provide access to Government information products. Users must also be able to access and retrieve Government information products through public access workstations available at Federal depository libraries. All depositories are expected to offer public users access to workstations with a graphical user interface, CD-ROM capability, Internet connections, and the ability to access Government information via the World Wide Web. Media and Formats of Products Included in the Collection Government information products may be included as part of the Collection and maintained for permanent access at GPO or through FDLP partners in a variety of media and formats. Whenever possible, GPO will encourage the use of open-system standards and formats for Government information products that compose the GPO Access collection. Whenever feasible and cost-effective, GPO will provide a text-only interface for Government information products made available through its on-site servers. This will allow GPO to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and will also ensure access to users with limited technological and communication capability. GPO will also encourage partnering institutions to comply with ADA requirements, but is not in a position to mandate this action by partners. As an agency, GPO has already identified a limited range of product formats that are in general use in the Government. These include ASCII, PDF, SGML, and HTML for text, and TIFF for images. In order to get a better handle on where these products, standards, and formats are heading, GPO commissioned the study by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), which you'll be hearing more about in Sandy's remarks. This assessment will help determine the range of formats publishing agencies plan to use in the creation and dissemination of Government information products, so we can better advise you on what kind of products to expect. Partnerships The partnerships concept is one of the cornerstones of the Collection Plan. We envision partner institutions as agents that will share the tasks of building, storing, disseminating, and preserving the Collection. The partnership concept builds upon the successful model of the distributed collection of tangible FDLP products made permanently accessible through the regional depository libraries. Most relevant to permanent access initiatives are electronic product content partnerships, in which agencies and depository libraries enter GPO-brokered agreements to provide the environment and resources for permanent access to agency products not previously managed via GPO Access. We encourage your involvement in the identification and selection process for products to be considered for inclusion in the Collection. This is an area that the agency liaison program can help with, so keep your antennas up when talking to agencies about products that might be the basis for future partnerships. Core Documents Electronic Collection One manifestation of the collection concept is a digital collection on GPO Access known as the "Core Documents of U.S. Democracy: An Electronic Collection." This Web-based collection went live last June. As you know, we've been asking for suggestions for important titles to augment this Collection. Last week, based on suggestions from the library community, we added two new resources to this Collection: The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Congressional Pictorial Directory. Recently we were pleased that the Core Documents collection was chosen as a selection for the Scout Report for Social Sciences. The Scout Report for Social Sciences is a publication of the Internet Scout Project, a project of the InterNIC, based at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. It's billed as the premier bi-weekly collection of useful Internet sites for discerning Internauts in the social sciences. Basic selection criteria for the selection of items in the Scout Report include depth of content, author, information maintenance, and presentation. U.S. Supreme Court Data Base GPO is developing a searchable WAIS database for Supreme Court opinions that are part of the Project Hermes initiative. Project Hermes encompasses the time period from 1992 to present. Until now, this information has only been available through a browsable index on the Federal Bulletin Board (FBB), in either Word Perfect 5.1 or ASCII text format. Beginning in the 1997/98 term, these files will be available on the FBB in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) and tagged ASCII format. We are also working on a WAIS application, so users will be able to perform full-text searches and retrievals of this information, including multiple field searching. GPO expects to be able to provide some specific features for this application, including a field for conducting a full-text search and the ability to search by case name, citation number, year, justice's name, and docket number. As a future add-on application, we would like to provide users with the ability to search by court name. Search results will be displayed with an ASCII, PDF or Summary option. It is anticipated that this database will be available to users this spring. Interactions with Depository Libraries Over the last year, our Depository Services Staff (DSS) inspected 55 depository libraries. In addition, self-studies submitted by 125 depositories were evaluated and brief reports summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of the depository operation were sent to the libraries. Our two new inspectors, Tom Oertel and Cindy Etkin, have completed their basic training and they're out inspecting now. The legal basis for inspections is specified in 44 U.S.C. ?1909, which requires us to "make firsthand investigation of conditions [in depository libraries] for which need is indicated...." So we will be picking up the pace of getting out to those libraries which warrant the on-site inspection. LPS will concentrate on on-site compliance inspections of those libraries which submit unsatisfactory self-studies, have major changes in staffing or facilities, have prior records of non-compliance, or if complaints are received from the public concerning depository library services. The LPS Depository Services Staff (DSS) will also be available to visit, consult with, and assist a depository library upon request. The use of the depository self-studies has allowed our Depository Services Staff to devote resources to our two major continuing education programs, the April Federal Depository Library Conference and Council meeting, and the May Interagency Seminar. We've published the draft agenda for the April meetings in Administrative Notes (Vol. 18, no. 16), and it's also on the FDLP Administration page on GPO Access. As you know, we just finished conducting the 1997 Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries via our new Web application, and we are pretty pleased with the process. We are still very early in the data analysis and review phase, but I want to call your attention to some "quick and dirty" highlights which are available on one of the handouts in the back. Overall it looks like depository libraries are making good progress to offering public Web access system-wide; over 90% of depositories offer GPO Access services to the public via the Web. Official Communications with LPS Those of you who attended the fall Council meeting heard me introduce a prototype of AskLPS, a Web application to send inquiries and get answers and news from us about the FDLP. Doing this right turns out to be a complex bundle of snakes, because it brought to light all sorts of things we can do to improve inquiry processing in general. We are developing the bits and pieces now, and Julia Wallace is giving us a hand with the testing. We expect to have this operational in February, and we hope once it's up you will use AskLPS as your preferred channel to get in touch with us, and help to migrate some of those technical questions that only LPS can really answer off of the listservs. Robin will give you some additional details about AskLPS in her remarks at the Federal Documents Task Force work groups tomorrow morning.