ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES NEWSLETTER OF THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM Vol. 19, no. 07 GP 3.16/3-2:19/07 May 15, 1998 NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE SALES PROGRAM REMARKS BY J.D. YOUNG Director, Documents Sales Service Before the Depository Library Council and Federal Depository Conference Monday, April 20, 1998 Arlington, VA Good morning. As Fran has indicated, many things are happening throughout the Office of the Superintendent of Documents. Fran is bringing in new ideas and I think I speak for all of us that it's a real pleasure to have him with us. He has come in at a very crucial time when it is important to be proactive-not to sit back and do nothing. I just finished reading a novel by Nelson DeMille titled "Plum Island" where his lead character, on the first page, expressed a problem with "doing nothing." He says "It occurred to me that the problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished." This line struck me as special and I wonder how long DeMille had been waiting to use it. Unfortunately, should your patrons ask, the rest of the book did not quite measure up to that opening. But another problem with doing nothing is that you get left behind. We are working hard not to be in that position, as you will hear throughout this morning. What I'd like to do is update you on the Sales Program and mention a few of the things we are doing. Our Sales Program is required to recover all of its costs, therefore the bottom line is crucial. I'm pleased to report that we've shown a lot of improvement since the losses we sustained in Fiscal Year 1996. For fiscal year 1997, we had a surplus of about $1 million, putting us where we've been in all but one of the last 12 years--in the black. Through the first five months of FY 1998, we are showing a surplus, and right now we're projecting a small surplus for the entire fiscal year. This good financial news is in large part due to the hard work of Documents Sales Service personnel in controlling costs. Speaking of doing things, without question the single biggest thing that we have ever undertaken in the Sales Program is moving to our new Integrated Processing System, or IPS. Last October, I told the Council that we expected to have the new Integrated Processing System operational within a month or so. IPS is the acquisition of off-the-shelf software using client-server technology that will replace some 18 mainframe systems built over many years. One thing that we've learned in the past year, however, is not to underestimate how complicated it can be to modernize a long-established operation. This has proven even more complex than we or our contractor, Northrup-Grumman, ever anticipated, largely because we operate within such a restrictive legal environment with many rules that are different from the commercial sector. We knew that modifications to the software would be required, but underestimated the extent, due to being unique. We still have much work to be done, but we are now looking to go live this summer. An area of particular interest to you is our sales product bibliographic file on our Web site. When the time comes to "cut over" to the new system, the existing Publications Reference File will remain available for searching but records will be frozen in place. However, we will add new titles until a Sales Product Catalog can be generated from the new system which will replace the Publications Reference File. Notices on the Web site will keep you apprised of the situation during this transition period. One of the new ideas that Fran has brought to the Sales Program since he became Superintendent of Documents is a new way of looking at ourselves--as a Sales Collection that is part of an overall SuDocs Collection of Government information products, with the other two components being the Depository Library Program Print Collection and the Depository Library Program Electronic Collection. When we look at the Sales Program this way, the selection and retention of Sales titles becomes not just a marketing or financial decision, but a public policy decision as well. We're now taking a new look at what the scope of the Sales Collection ought to be, to ensure we're including enough of the tangible Government information products that business libraries, educational institutions, and the general public need and want to buy from us. We're also looking at how long we ought to keep products available for sale, particularly those of "historical significance" like Senator Byrd's books. Because we think libraries are the sales audience most likely to need older documents for replacement copies or earlier editions of certain products, we're going to solicit the views of a few of you in an interview in the next few days primarily concerning selection and duration. We expect this to be an ongoing process that will expand the dialogue between our Sales Program and the library community. One of our main concerns about the Sales Collection is our ability to enhance its content effectively. Like the depository program, we worry about missing items we should have for sale. We feel that good candidates for Sales are being printed out there and that for various reasons we aren't finding out about them in time. That's why Sales will be an enthusiastic participant in a cross-organizational Collection Development Team that we are putting together. In fact, I would like to see us all quietly forget about hunting for "fugitive documents" and instead speak of development of the collection. Another new initiative is a project to develop a real online book selling site on GPO Access. This site will be developed and managed by our Promotion and Advertising area. We want it to have the look and feel of Amazon.com and other attractive commercial bookselling sites. It should encourage frequent return visits, participation by agency publishers, and provide full-service search, ordering, inquiry, and announcement capabilities. A very important feature will be an opt-in e-mail notification system, so that anyone wanting to be notified when a new product of interest becomes available will receive that notification via e-mail. Customers must opt in voluntarily and will be given the opportunity to opt out whenever they want. This service will provide timely information to a very targeted audience on new products. It will also avoid the postage expense of paper-based notification services. We also expect to link with publishing agency pages, enabling us to take orders from agency sites--another way to better serve our customers. The Sales Program is working to improve product selection, modernize its order processing, fulfillment, and inventory management operations, and use the power of the Internet. This is to help us fulfill the mission of providing a means for anyone who wants their own copy of a tangible Government information product to be able to obtain it at a reasonable price, complementing the free access provided through the Federal Depository Library Program. And certainly, the Sales Program is deeply grateful to the Depository Program, through the Regional libraries, for shouldering the burden of ensuring permanent public access. I would like to mention that tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in the Dewey III conference room, several of our top Sales Program managers will talk about their areas and be available to hear your thoughts and answer questions about our activities. Please try to stop by--we'd like to hear from you. I thank you and I look forward to Council's deliberations and to the Conference sessions.