Administrative Notes Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program Vol. 19, no. 03 GP 3.16/3-2:19/03 January 25, 1998 Depository Administration Branch Update Remarks by Robin Haun-Mohamed Chief, Depository Administration Branch, Library Programs Service Before the Federal Documents Task Force Government Documents Round Table American Library Association Sunday, January 11, 1998 New Orleans, LA Good morning! It's nice to be here in New Orleans. I will try to keep this presentation short, as very little time has passed since the Fall Council meeting and update session and everyone has much to do in this city! But even though it has only been 11 weeks since Council, there are a number of new products available through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), either on the horizon or just delivered. Environmental Health Information Service Let me start with a new subscription service, the Environmental Health Information Service (EHIS), established by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Federal depository libraries are being provided one free subscription to this new service. Resources accessible via the EHIS include online access to Environmental Health Perspectives, Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, National Toxicology Technical Reports, and access to the Historical Control Database. Libraries will access the EHIS using your Library Programs Service (LPS) depository number and password. This is the same password that was recently used for the 1997 Biennial Survey and for the last Annual Selection Update Cycle. It will also be used in future new item surveys. If you do not have your password, please contact the Information Processing Unit at (202) 512-1062. U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook, 1998 Copies of the U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook, 1998 were sent to libraries in November. This title replaces the Industrial Outlook, last published in 1994. Over 1100 libraries received copies of this title, provided to LPS by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). If your library has not received this title, please check for a separates mailing under shipping list 98-0006-S, dated Nov. 21, 1997. North American Industry Classification System LPS has received several inquiries concerning the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). In July, I posted a notice to GOVDOC-L advising the libraries the NAICS manual was slated to be distributed to depository libraries when it becomes available. At this time the product is not yet complete. Any commercial version advertised for sale at this time is not the complete NAICS manual. And after speaking with an agency official at OMB, I'd like to remind the libraries to retain the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual. Many of the non-statistical areas--administrative, taxes, etc.--will not switch to the new system for several years. Patrons will need to use the older manual for these areas. LandView III CD-ROMs LPS has also received several inquiries about the status of the LandView III CD-ROMs. The Census Bureau is expecting these this month and copies will be provided for distribution to the libraries. LandView III is a desktop mapping system that includes database extracts from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of the Census, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These databases are presented in a geographic context on maps that show jurisdictional boundaries, detailed networks of roads, rivers, and railroads, census block group and tract polygons, schools, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, airports, dams, and other landmark features. Advance information on LandView III was provided to LPS by the Census Bureau. LPS in turn shared the information with the Government Information Technology Committee (GITCO) and included it in the January 15, 1998 issue of the Administrative Notes (v. 19, no. 2). I want to thank John Kavaliunas and the folks at the Census Bureau for working with us to make this information available before the products are released. USAMARK: Facsimile Images of Registered United States Trademarks USAMARK: Facsimile Images of Registered United States Trademarks is a new Cassis CD-ROM product with facsimile images of U.S. registered trademarks from 1884 to the present. It will be distributed in multiple discs as a back file with monthly updates. Retrieval is by document number only from a cumulative index that covers all issued discs. A survey will be done in early February via GPO's Web site, but if the products begin coming in before the survey is completed, they will be sent to all libraries currently selecting any of the Cassis products. Once the survey has been completed, this title will only be distributed to those libraries responding to the survey. Remember, all libraries must complete all surveys, including the regional libraries. And all surveys are now done on GPO's Web site. Daily Treasury Statements The Daily Treasury Statements (DTS) are now being uploaded by the printing contractor on a daily basis to the Federal Bulletin Board (FBB). This is an important step in electronic conversion, as GPO has the responsibility for determining what will happen to current electronic files under a contract arrangement with another agency. It shows what can be done to ensure future access commitments for electronic products for executive agency products produced under a GPO contract. Please take a look at the Daily Treasury Statements on the FBB. The address is . As this is a new resource and we are still learning about how the files are used, we recently modified the postings to include a monthly breakout of all DTS beginning with January 1998. Although the electronic files first became available in late October 1997, we will not be going back to have the other 1997 issues scanned. At this time, libraries will continue to receive the Daily Treasury Statements in paper format. Guidelines for Discontinuation of Microfiche Products In the October 15 , 1997 issue of the Administrative Notes (v. 18, no. 13), libraries were advised of some microfiche titles that were to be distributed to libraries only via an online web site. Thanks to all who took the time to respond to this listing. After discussion at the October Council meeting, LPS has postponed the discontinuation of any microfiche products pending further development of guidelines for such action. A set of guidelines utilized in identifying candidates for electronic only dissemination was described in Administrative Notes, (v.18, no. 10, 7/15/97, p. 22). Anyone wishing to assist in the further development of these guidelines please contact me at (202) 512-1071. LPS Electronic Products It seems as if we are focusing on electronic applications via GPO Access for the FDLP. I think it is exciting, intimidating, and impressive-- all at the same time. When I address Mr. Joe Paskoski, a most diligent member of the Electronic Transition Service (ETS), I have to frame my questions in terms of "WEB APPLICATIONS." Despite this enthusiasm I have to temper suggestions with reality, as you do in the libraries. We all have to deal with staffing levels, programming support, and new technology changes each time we approach a change in administrative service. We want to be sure that when we begin a new service that we can sustain it. So today, I am excited to announce a new service product that we have placed on the FBB, the Union List of Item Selections. In the past, the Union List was produced in microfiche format and distributed to all libraries annually. The December 1997 issue will be the last one produced in this format. It is now available for download in an ASCII comma delimited form and the location is . It will be uploaded to the FBB on a monthly basis on the same time frame as the List of Classes and Item Lister, the first Friday of each month. Other products we hope to have available on the FBB in the near future include the Alphabetic Listing of Government Authors (Appendix I of the List of Classes) and the Inactive or Discontinued Items From the 1950 Revision of the Classified List. We have also submitted requests to load both on an annual basis (in May), to coordinate with the Annual Selection Update Cycle. I will update the depository community on availability when I have more information. Documents Data Miner Another exciting electronic service is the developing partnership with Wichita State University for the Documents Data Miner (DDM). The Data Miner is a collection management tool which features a field searchable current List of Classes, a field searchable Discontinued List, complete depository profiles and union lists, an electronic rolodex for all depository libraries, and support for creation of in-house relational databases. DDM will be linked off the FDLP Tools page when the testing is complete. DDM is a very sophisticated tool. For example, users will be able to do a Union List search for libraries selecting a specific item number within a 50 mile radius of a particular library. This partnership will be similar to our service partnership for the enhanced shipping list service we have in place with the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the University of Texas at Arlington. We are very excited about the prospect of having similar enhanced services associated with the List of Classes, the Union List of Item Numbers, and the Discontinued List. AskLPS At the October Council meeting in Florida, Gil Baldwin announced the development of AskLPS, an automated inquiry service to make filing of inquiries and directing of e-mail to the appropriate LPS contact easier for those in the depository community. Several people in LPS have been working to make this new service a reality. There are five components to AskLPS: 1) the electronic inquiry form 2) WEBTech Notes, a searchable database for postings made in the Administrative Notes and Administrative Notes Technical Supplement, dating back to 1991. 3) FAQs and News 4) the FDLP Contacts Page and 5) the Federal Depository Library Directory. WEBTech Notes is searchable via GPO's Web site and available for download from the FBB. The data is from the four major categories of Administrative Notes and Administrative Notes Technical Supplement. These categories are: Classification/Cataloging Update; Update to the List of Classes, Miscellaneous; Update to the List of Classes, New Item Numbers; and Whatever Happened To...? The FBB version will be available in dBase format for those libraries wishing to import the information into their own databases. Both formats will be updated on a weekly basis. The exact date AskLPS will be ready is not known as we are still in a testing phase, but it should be ready in the very near future. Once AskLPS is ready for use, we will ask you to send your depository inquires to LPS via AskLPS, and to not send duplicate inquiries to individual LPS staff members. This should help to minimize the duplication of effort by staff throughout LPS. Bound U.S. Congressional Serial Set In September 1997, Congress directed GPO to discontinue distribution of the bound U.S. Congressional Serial Set to all depositories, except the regional libraries, and one library in each state without a regional library. This reduces the distribution counts for the bound Serial Set from over 400 libraries to only 62 libraries, plus the State Libraries, and 14 International Exchange Service (IES) Libraries. I have had many questions from libraries asking when this change will take effect. It will begin with the House and Senate Documents and Reports from the 105th Congress. We are still distributing copies of the bound Serial Set to all libraries profiled to receive them through the 104th Congress. And please remember, all libraries profiled to receive the slip distribution of House and Senate Documents and Reports will continue to receive them as they are produced. LPS was also directed by Congress to distribute the Serial Set Title Pages and/or Table of Contents pages to those libraries wishing to bind their own Serial Set volumes. In coordination with GPO's Congressional Printing Management Division, LPS will conduct a survey to determine which libraries need the Title Pages. Look for this survey to be done in coordination with the Patent and Trademark Office CD-ROM in February. Libraries will then be supplied with the Title Pages and/or Table of Contents on acid free paper as soon as possible after the completion of that Congress. There is often a lag time between the end of the Congress and preparation of the Title Pages, because GPO does not always receive the material from the Congressional committees in a timely manner. Incidentally, for the past four years, the Documents and Reports have been printed on acid-free paper. Libraries that submitted a letter of intent to the GPO Sales Program to purchase the Serial Set for $15,400 for the 105th Congress will be receiving a follow-up letter and an order form to confirm the purchase of the Serial Set. If there are any additional parties interested in purchasing the bound Serial Set, please contact Alan Ptak, Chief, Sales Management Division, at (202) 512-1709 as soon as possible. U.S. Fax Watch In late November, the U.S. Fax Watch system developed major hardware problems and crashed. The hardware has been repaired, but the information on the system has been lost. Staff are working on rebuilding the system and we hope to have it available again soon. Archive for the Shipping List Files In October, 1997, LPS, in coordination with our partners at UTA and SUNY--Buffalo, took steps to develop an archive for the shipping list files loaded onto the FBB for all formats of publications. Current listings for the paper, electronic, microfiche, and separates shipments have been loaded on a regular basis. And we will soon be adding the USGS Sending Lists to the files posted to the FBB. Maps The Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) maps on CD-ROM are no longer being produced and replicated through a GPO contract; therefore GPO is not able to ride a replication contract for distribution to the depository libraries. The DRGs are digital files of the 7.5' topographic maps already received by depository libraries. The USGS does not have plans at this time to update the DRGs. There are still some Digital Orthophotoquad (DOQ) maps being sent to the libraries, as USGS is still producing and replicating some DOQs under a GPO contract. But the number of titles has decreased dramatically in the last year for the DOQs. And as Hedy Rossmeissl, Senior Program Administrator for the U.S. Geological Survey indicated at the FedDocs Update Session, USGS is working with Microsoft to make geospatial data available to the general public through the Internet. Under a CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement), Microsoft plans to make compressed, browsable images of USGS DOQs available on the Internet as JPEG image files. The site is not yet available, but we will notify the depository community of the location when we are advised by USGS. We will not be including the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) shipping list information on the FBB as a separate listing because we are working with NIMA to bring the products back into GPO for distribution to the libraries via the lighted bin system. Thus, they will be listed on the regular paper and separates shipping lists and placed on the FBB under the appropriate designation. We are still working with NIMA to obtain sufficient copies of the Vector Map Level 0 CD-ROMs to fill the outstanding rain checks. Microfiche Over 90% of the microfiche distributed to the depository libraries is done via one of the 15 full-service microfiche contracts. And while it generally works pretty well, we continue to have problems with specific contractors. LPS continues to work with the Term Contracts and Contract Compliance sections of GPO in association with the conversion of material from paper to microfiche format for distribution to the libraries. Please advise Michele Harris at (202) 512-1060 when you are experiencing problems with microfiche deliveries. At the present time, we have one contractor, Wilkins Systems, who continues to have complaints associated with their shipments and shipping lists. LPS has also been experiencing problems with the contractor supplied shipping list information that is loaded to the FBB. We do postings on almost a daily basis, but when the diskettes are sent in and are not correct, we must send them to Contract Compliance section for action. We realize the inconvenience caused by this delay, but we have to follow the procedures under the terms of the contract. One further issue with micrographics, LPS has a new microfiche contractor, Lake George Industries, Ltd. of Bohemia, New York, that will be doing the conversion for the Official Gazettes, the Tax Court Memoranda and the SEC News Digest. We will be reviewing their submissions quite carefully, but again, please let us know if you see a problem begin to surface. World Factbook And they say confession is good for the soul, so here goes. The 1996 World Factbook was supposed to be ordered for the Federal depository libraries in paper format; it was not. Both the paper and CD-ROM versions of the 1997 World Factbook have been ordered for distribution to the libraries and they are expected in late January. As the libraries have the 1996 Factbook in CD-ROM format, and there are not sufficient copies of the 1996 Factbook still available in paper format that we could purchase from the Sales Program, LPS will not distribute the 1996 World Factbook in paper format to the depository libraries. URL Changes LPS has been looking at establishing a PURL server for some time. PURL stands for Persistent Uniform Resource Locator. A PURL is essentially a URL that is maintained in a directory structure and when a URL changes, and GPO has noted the change, the user is directed to the new URL in an essentially seamless transaction by the server. Tad Downing is the project manager for this new service, and he will be covering it in more detail at the Cataloging Committee. But I bring up the PURL server because of DAB's role in searching and researching URLs for inclusion of online products in the FDLP. DAB runs a link checker on the Browse Electronic Titles (BET) pages on a weekly basis. It takes several hours to run all the pages, usually between 4-5 hours and we generally find between 200-300 bad URLs. Not all the findings are truly bad links. Many of the returns are associated with time-outs, some are changes with referrals to the new sites, but many are changes in directory structure at the agency or Government administered site. There are some products we are not able to locate again--these are the most worrisome--but for most resources, we are able to identify the new site. The information is then updated on the BET pages and sent to cataloging for updating of the cataloging records. My most recent concern is the URL checking of the changes we have already identified. On a recent check, with 367 links checked, 213 were invalid links. This indicates that often when a URL is changed, it is not necessarily a final change. There has been one highlight dealing with URLs and Internet sites: LPS has had its first electronic notification of a new electronic product available on the Internet. We developed an Internet Notification form over a year ago, and until December, had seen only general questions posed from other agency web masters and project directors. But the National Institutes of Health sent us notification with a product name, location, and contact name. This is truly exciting and the reason why PURLS will be of use throughout the information community. EEOC Decisions And as I always like to leave on a positive note, I saved one of the best for last. In the summer of 1996, the contractor doing the EEOC Decisions in microfiche format, on a non-GPO contract, stopped sending the decisions to GPO in any format. In April 1997, I was advised the decisions were no longer being sent, and we began at that time to work with staff at the EEOC and the contractor to obtain EEOC decisions in a format suitable to develop a web accessible database of EEOC decisions. With many thanks to the EEOC, GPO Production, and the contractor, the decisions should be available soon, via a no-charge database, utilizing the new Open Text, SGML software. Future decisions may have to be placed into a WAIS database, but we hope to see this as a transition product. As always, I thank you for your time. If you need to contact me, or anyone in the Depository Administration Branch, until AskLPS is available, please use the addresses in the Administrative Notes, or if you are online, go to the FDLP Administration page and use addresses on the Contacts page. Thank you again.