Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 23, no. 14 GP 3.16/3-2:23/14 November 15, 2002 

HIGHLIGHTS

GPO-FDLP-L 1 

NAICS 2002 2 

USA Trade 

Online 2

JCP Chairman

Dayton 

Addresses 

Conference 3 

Fall Council 

Meeting: 

 Buckley 4 

 Baldwin 7 

 Evans 13 

GPO Access 17 

Readers 

Exchange: 

Electronic

Shelflist 20 

GPO-FDLP-L To Be the Exclusive 

Vehicle for Official FDLP 

Announcements 

At the recent Depository Library Council meeting in Virginia, it was 

agreed that GPO would no longer use multiple email services to announce 

time-sensitive news about the Federal Depository Library Program. As of 

January 1, 2003, LPS announcements will be posted exclusively to the 

GPO-FDLP-L listserv. LPS staff will no longer post FDLP news to other 

discussion groups, such as GOVDOC-L, DOCTECH-L, and LAWLIB. 

GPO-FDLP-L was inaugurated as the FDLP official announcement 

channel in July, 2002. Every depository should have at least one 

subscriber. 

GPO-FDLP-L is used only for time-sensitive news, i.e., reminders of 

approaching deadlines for item selection updates, electronic availability of 

publications such as Administrative Notes and the List of Classes, and 

notices on operational matters, such as claims. The list is not interactive;

all questions should still be sent to askLPS via email at 

<asklps@gpo.gov> or on the Web at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/tools/asklpsin.html>. 

To subscribe, go to <http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/>. Click on <Online 

Mailing List Archives>. Click on <GPO-FDLP-L>. Click on <Join or 

leave the list> and follow the instructions. 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

NAICS 2002 To Be Distributed to 

Depository Libraries 

NTIS will provide paper copies of NAICS 

2002 (North American Industry Classification 

System, PREX 2.6/2:IN 27/2002) for 

distribution to depository libraries. 

NAICS is on the list of Essential Titles for 

Public Use in Paper Format <http://www. 

access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/estitles. 

html>, ensuring that this title will be 

distributed in a paper format as long as it is 

published in paper. LPS expects to distribute 

NAICS 2002 to depository libraries selecting 

item number 0854-A in December 2002. A 

shipping list number will be announced on 

GPO-FDLP-L as soon as it is known. 

USA Trade Online Now Available to 

Depository Libraries 

As announced at the recent Federal 

Depository Library Conference in Arlington, 

Virginia, depository libraries now have 

access to the USA Trade Online subscription 

database that is located on the Web at 

<http://www.stat-usa.gov/usatrade.nsf>. 

To temporarily access the database, 

depository libraries are required to use the 

following login procedures: user id: fdl007; 

password: nibor. 

In the next few months, depository libraries 

will be issued a new userid and password that 

will replace both the temporary userid for 

USA Trade Online, as well as their current 

userid for STAT-USA. The new userid will 

work on both services. The previous login 

names will be phased out and eventually 

discarded altogether. 

There will be written notification of the new 

userids and passwords and a grace period for 

using the old userids and passwords. 

USA Trade Online is a service of STAT-USA 

and the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. 

Census Bureau. It provides monthly 

information on U.S. imports and exports on 

more than 18,000 commodities. For more 

information, contact STAT-USA’s Customer 

Support Center at 1-800-STAT-USA (800-

782-8872) or <statmail@mail.doc.gov>. 

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JCP Chairman Mark Dayton Addresses 

Delegates At 11th Annual Depository Library 

Conference 

Joint Committee on Printing Chairman Mark 

Dayton addressed the audience of more than 

400 Federal depository librarians and Federal 

agency representatives to open the 11th

annual Federal Depository Library 

Conference, held October 21-23 at the 

Holiday Inn Rosslyn. The conference is 

sponsored by GPO and was held concurrently 

with the 61st meeting of the Depository 

Library Council to the Public Printer.

In opening the conference, Sen. Dayton 

commended Public Printer Michael F.

DiMario for his “long, steadfast service” to 

the Nation, and said that the Federal 

Depository Library Program “speaks about 

what Government service means” and that 

“the business of providing Government 

information is one of the cornerstones of 

democracy.” Senator Dayton also spoke 

about the OMB memorandum that seeks to 

authorize printing outside of the GPO. He 

said that Congress had placed language 

prohibiting OMB from promulgating any rule 

counter to Title 44 in the 4 Continuing 

Resolutions that allowed the Government to 

temporarily operate without signed 

appropriations bills. Remarking on the fact 

that virtually no other qualifying language 

was incorporated into the Continuing

Resolutions, he said the language “is very 

unusual and shows the consensus of 

Democrats and Republicans that the law is 

the law.” 

Other highlights of the 3-day conference 

included discussions on electronic reference, 

genealogy resources in depository libraries, 

development of electronic competencies 

standards, Government sites for kids, and 

partnerships between academic and public 

libraries to improve service and public access 

to Federal information. The Census Bureau, 

Patent & Trademark Office, Centers for 

Disease Control, and the Food and Drug 

Administration were just a few of the many 

agencies that presented updates on their 

public information activities and products. 

Simultaneous technical and information 

sessions reviewed important historical 

resources available on the Web, remote 

storage options, and creation of training 

models for library staff. Attendees were also 

offered tours of the Department of Justice 

Library, Dibner Library of the History of 

Science and Technology, National Air & 

Space Museum Library, the U.S. Senate 

Library, and Library Programs Service at the 

Government Printing Office. Prior to the 

formal conference, librarians from the 

Nation's regional depositories attended an allday session on Sunday, October 20.

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Superintendent of Documents’ Perspective 

Remarks by 

Francis J. Buckley, Jr. 

Superintendent of Documents

U.S. Government Printing Office 

Before the Depository Library Council and 

Federal Depository Library Conference 

Arlington, VA 

Monday, October 21, 2002 

Introduction

Good morning, and welcome! 

These open meetings of the Depository 

Library Council and Federal Depository 

Library Conference are opportunities for 

participants in the Federal Depository Library 

Program (FDLP) and users of government 

information to give us advice, 

recommendations, and suggestions for the 

administration of the program. It’s your 

opportunity for input and interaction with 

Government Printing Office (GPO) staff and 

many agency representatives participating in 

the conference. We hope you make the most 

of it and we welcome your comments. 

Status of the Program 

First of all, I would like to say that the 

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) 

is healthy and dynamic. Currently, there are 

1296 libraries in the depository program. 

Last year we saw 19 libraries withdraw from

the program for various reasons, and two 

libraries joined. You all can attest to the 

volume of use of the program in your 

libraries, as well as attest to the importance of

that access to your users. New titles continue 

to be added to the program, in both tangible 

and electronic formats. In FY 2002, GPO 

distributed nearly 5 million copies of over 

14,000 tangible products in print, microform,

and CD-ROM formats to depository libraries. 

In addition, virtually every depository library 

and everyone with Internet capability also has 

access to the vast range of information made 

available online via GPO Access. In FY 

2002, over 10,000 online titles and about 

another 10,000 links to agency titles were 

added to GPO Access, for a total of over 

20,000 new online titles that year alone. 

As of September 2002, the GPO Access Web 

site provided access to more than 140,000 

titles on GPO servers and over 91,000 

additional titles through links to other Federal 

agency Web sites. GPO Access averaged 

close to 31 million document retrievals per 

month last year, for a total of approximately 

372 million document retrievals in FY 2002. 

Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have 

exceeded 1.5 billion. This is equivalent to 

over 36 billion typewritten pages. This is 

also an extremely cost effective service; we 

estimate the cost of delivering these 

electronic resources in FY 2002 averaged less 

than 1¢ per retrieval. 

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5 

Campaign to Promote the FDLP Now 

Underway 

As many of you already know, GPO has 

produced a new marketing plan featuring the 

theme "U.S. Government Information: Make 

the Connection at a Federal Depository 

Library." GPO’s efforts, while aimed 

primarily at the various constituencies in the 

library community (administrators, reference 

staff, and bibliographers), also are intended to 

reach out to the faculty, business, students, 

government, and the general public. 

In addition to developing new marketing 

materials for librarians to use, GPO is taking 

an active role in promoting the FDLP. We 

have contracted with the North American 

Precis Syndicate (NAPS) to provide 

information about the FDLP to daily and 

weekly newspapers and radio stations across 

the country. One- and two-column filler 

pieces and a radio spot were developed for 

distribution to these media outlets as Public 

Service Announcements. With the campaign 

still in its early stages, the pieces have 

already seen much use by the media with a 

wide-range of audiences. 

As of October 8, the radio spot has been 

broadcast at least 265 times on 162 radio 

stations in 46 different states, which 

cumulatively serve 4,623,720 listeners. 

During the same time frame, the one-column 

ad that uses the new campaign graphic has 

generated 308 known newspaper articles in 

22 different states with a readership of 

11,620,272. 

There is an online order form on the FDLP 

Desktop Web site so depository librarians can 

order copies of marketing materials to help 

them promote their collections. In addition to 

reprints of the PSA articles, we have also 

produced a poster, a bookmark, and a 

brochure, all with the theme "U.S. 

Government Information: Make the 

Connection at a Federal Depository Library." 

All of these can be ordered at no cost via the 

online order form, and already we have had a 

terrific response from depository librarians. 

Information Security Concerns 

As you know, the challenge for our program 

for many years has been to be as inclusive as 

possible, to identify public interest materials 

produced through GPO or agency publishing 

channels, to provide bibliographic control for 

the materials, and to provide the publications 

to depository libraries for public access. Post 

9-11 that mission has not changed, but 

agency sensitivity to what should be 

distributed to the public has been heightened. 

As a result of concerns about information 

security, as well as concerns regarding 

implementation of the new data quality 

guidelines, we have heard that agencies are 

publishing less and posting less on their own 

websites, but we have no way to quantify that 

yet. We have had no new requests to 

withdraw publications from the Depository 

Library Program. The Office of Management 

and Budget is apparently continuing to work 

on proposals in regard to sensitive but 

unclassified information. 

In another aspect of information security, as 

well as to improve performance, GPO is 

establishing a geographically separate mirror 

site and backup facility for GPO Access in 

Pueblo, Colorado. All of the data associated 

with GPO Access is currently backed up on 

equipment located in Washington, DC. 

Beginning with the most frequently used 

GPO Access resources, GPO will steadily add 

to the resources and data at this facility until 

it is a complete mirror site for GPO Access. 

This will include the portion of the FDLP 

Electronic Collection Archive maintained by 

GPO. T.C. Evans will speak to this process 

in more detail shortly. 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

Documents Sales Service (DSS) 

I want to make a few comments about our 

other major information dissemination 

program – the Document Sales Service 

(DSS). The sales program currently offers 

approximately 10,000 U.S. Government 

publications on a wide array of subjects for 

sale to the public. These are sold by mail, 

telephone, fax, electronic and e-mail orders, 

as well as through GPO Bookstores across 

the country. We also list our titles on 

Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and 

other online commercial bookselling sites. 

The program operates on a cost-recovery 

basis with no appropriated funds. Consumeroriented publications are also either sold or 

distributed at no charge through the 

Consumer Information Center, in Pueblo, 

Colorado, which we operate on behalf of the 

General Services Administration. 

In recent years, the volume of sales through 

GPO’s sales of publications program has 

been declining. The free availability of 

publications on GPO Access and other 

Government web sites has been the primary 

reason for this decline, although the reduction 

in the number of general interest publications 

produced by agencies as well as competition 

from other Government publications sales 

outlets has contributed to it. Various cost 

reduction measures have been undertaken 

including staff reduction through attrition, 

space consolidation, and reducing inventory. 

Prices have been increased and an ongoing 

effort is being made to identify and close 

GPO bookstores not able to recover their 

operating expenses. As a result, bookstores 

in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, 

Chicago, Birmingham and one of the two 

stores in Washington, D.C. were closed. We

are in the process of closing the bookstores in 

Cleveland and Columbus. 

Conclusion 

In the development of the FDLP and our 

distribution programs, we have seen many 

milestones and many changes. For more than 

150 years GPO has assured the public’s rightto-know. Through our tangible distribution 

programs and our (relatively) new electronic 

information dissemination component, GPO 

now delivers more content to users than ever 

before. The FDLP and other Superintendent 

of Documents programs, together with the 

help of depository libraries and librarians, 

will continue to provide the public with 

access to official, public Government

information. 

I want to thank all of you for being here today 

and I look forward to talking to many of you 

individually. Please enjoy the conference!

6 
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Where We Go from Here 

Remarks by 

Gil Baldwin 

Director, Library Programs Service 

U.S. Government Printing Office 

Before the Depository Library Council and 

Federal Depository Library Conference 

Arlington, VA 

Monday, October 21, 2002 

Good morning and welcome to homecoming 

for the depository library community. Our 

staff has worked intensively throughout the 

year to get together valuable and interesting 

programs, and we hope you will get a lot out 

of the sessions. But like homecoming, much 

of the real value of these meetings is the 

opportunity to catch up with your friends and 

colleagues from around the country, so we 

hope you’ll be able to mix and mingle. This 

morning I want to run through some of the 

most important highlights of LPS activities 

over the last year. But if you want more 

detail, including URL’s of interest, we have 

LPS’ FY 2002 annual report available as a 

handout. 

Our focus has been on critical program

infrastructure, rebuilding personnel and 

updating automated systems. But we have 

also made progress in publicizing the FDLP, 

communications with the community, and in 

digital archiving. 

LPS Staff Developments 

LPS has made significant progress in 

revamping its workforce to deal with the 

challenges of electronic information. LPS 

has experienced unprecedented personnel 

turnover in the last few years. Recently we 

restarted our LPS Orientation Program for 

new employees, and found that about 30% of 

our staff was new to LPS in the last three 

years. And that doesn’t even count the ones 

who are in different jobs in LPS. This year 

we made extraordinary efforts to fill 

vacancies and to rebuild the staff. Among 

LPS’ new hires were library inspectors, 

catalogers, program analysts, distribution 

staff, and replacement supervisory personnel. 

As attrition occurred in positions that deal 

primarily with processing physical products, 

some of those FTEs were reallocated to 

positions that emphasize the management of

electronic resources, services to libraries, 

collection development, cataloging, and 

digital archiving. 

In the electronic FDLP, the LPS cataloging 

staff has expanded the range of its efforts, 

and moved far beyond the traditional 

Monthly Catalog as its principal output. 

Cataloging now also functions as a gateway 

for bringing online titles into the FDLP 

Electronic Collection, and then for 

disseminating them under the program’s 

auspices. The Cataloging and Indexing 

Program provides access to online, as well as 

tangible, resources through bibliographic 

control. 

The loss of experienced cataloging staff in 

the past two years, coupled with the 

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AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

increasing complexity of the work, has had a 

severe impact on cataloging production. In 

fact, the personnel situation has acted as a 

brake on our ability to expand the Electronic 

Collection. 

During the past twelve months, nearly 50 

candidates have been considered for 

cataloging positions. Seven persons have 

been hired. Thirty-one candidates (as of 

9/19/02) have declined interviews, declined 

further consideration, or declined 

appointments that have been offered to them. 

Five cataloging vacancies remain to be filled, 

and the recruiting process continues. In 

addition, both of the first line supervisors 

were newly hired in FY2002. This created a 

need for training and orienting new staff. 

Training that was carried out in a one-on-one 

mode has been transformed to a combination 

of classroom instruction and practical 

application. We have never before trained so 

many new staff in so short a time. 

We also expanded recruiting, working 

through the ALA Placement Office at the 

Atlanta meeting, and advertising much more 

widely than before. While we worked to 

enhance and speed up our recruiting efforts, 

we also looked at ways to improve the 

retention of our cataloging staff. We 

obtained, for the first time, a green light to 

participate in the student loan repayment 

program, and to pay relocation expenses for 

new hires. In addition, we asked for a review 

of the cataloger’s position descriptions and 

classification, which in turn establishes their 

basic compensation rate. A personnel 

specialist from the Office of Personnel 

Management (OPM) conducted an in-depth 

examination of the catalogers’ positions. 

This review, which began in May, is expected 

to result in a non-binding advisory 

determination concerning the proper grade of 

the catalogers’ positions. However, to date 

no report has been received from OPM. 

We also succeeded in establishing an 

additional librarian position in the Depository 

Administration Branch. This job will focus 

on collection-building activities, and will be 

directly involved in classification and product 

format decisions. We have selected Lisa 

Russell, an experienced depository librarian 

from the University of Maryland, for this 

position, and we look forward to having Lisa 

on board early next month. 

Federal Depository Libraries 

The number of depository libraries continues 

to decline, with 19 selective depository 

libraries leaving the system in the last year. 

In most cases this occurred with no advance 

notification to LPS that relinquishing status 

was under consideration. LPS has conducted 

several discussions intended to identify the 

causes of libraries leaving the program. One 

of the principal reasons expressed is that so 

much information is now available on the 

Internet that the traditional program paradigm

of GPO providing free publications to 

libraries in a de facto exchange for 

maintaining the collections and serving the 

general public has broken down. 

Through an article in Administrative Notes,

we encouraged libraries that are thinking 

about leaving the program to contact LPS and 

their regional depository librarian well in 

advance of any final decision. When 

contacted early in the decision making 

process, LPS can often help the library by 

clarifying issues or discussing areas of 

concern that may have contributed to the 

library’s review of its depository status. 

In the future, the program must provide for 

electronic-only depository library collections, 

meaning that a depository may select only 

those items made available in online format 

and still maintain its status in the FDLP. 

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AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

9 

Nothing in the statute or practice 

categorically precludes such a selection 

profile once a depository library has been 

established. LPS is working with the 

University of Arizona to develop an 

evaluative framework to make sure that the 

needs of the immediate user community and 

the Congressional district are adequately met, 

and that a depository which establishes an allelectronic item selection is able to be 

evaluated in the Biennial Survey, self-study, 

and inspection on an equal and fair footing 

with a traditional depository. The pilot 

project has begun, with staff from the 

University of Arizona Library, the University 

of Arizona School of Information Resources 

and Library Science, and the Library 

Programs Service working together to 

implement and evaluate the one-year project. 

LPS has engaged the regional librarians in 

developing a plan for standardizing the 

termination process for depository libraries. 

In yesterday’s Regional Meeting there was a 

discussion of issues related to designation and 

termination of libraries in the FDLP. With 

feedback from the regional librarians and 

with additional assistance from library 

community volunteers, LPS intends to have 

an initial draft proposal on this issue for 

Council’s consideration at the spring 2003 

Council meeting. 

The library inspection program is currently 

undergoing a performance audit from GPO’s 

Inspector General’s office. Part of the audit 

process involves discussion with us and a 

review of existing documentation. The audit 

also involves fieldwork, so an IG auditor will 

probably accompany LPS staff on an 

upcoming inspection to see in person what 

happens. The IG staff may also make some 

surprise visits to depositories. We hope that 

the results will identify ways to improve the 

self-study and inspection process that will 

ease the administrative burdens on libraries, 

while still supporting the goal of protecting 

public access to depository information. 

Digital Archiving 

LPS is becoming a center of excellence in 

managing an electronic collection for 

permanent public access. Last year we 

expanded use of the GPO archive servers and 

our participation in the beta test phase of the 

OCLC Web Document Digital Archive 

initiative, and we entered into important new 

content partnerships. 

GPO guarantees the public will have 

permanent access to the online titles in the 

FDLP, in similar fashion to the assurance that 

physical products in the FDLP will be 

permanently accessible at the regional 

depository libraries. Permanent public access 

for online electronic files requires an 

organizational commitment to preserving and 

maintaining the data, beginning with 

capturing non-GPO Access content, 

managing files to prevent deterioration of 

storage media, creating metadata to facilitate 

preservation, migrating files to newer file 

formats to prevent technological 

obsolescence, managing backup and mirror 

sites, and other ongoing activities. GPO’s 

responsibilities for permanent public access 

are described in LPS’ 1998 report Managing 

the FDLP Electronic Collection: A Policy 

and Planning Document. 

At the macro level, LPS is using three 

approaches to provide permanent public 

access: 

1. Digital archiving using partner sites, 

through contractual partnership 

agreements with depository libraries 

and/or publishing agencies. 

2. Digital archiving on GPO servers. 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

3. Developing a processing “tool kit” of

software for archiving digital objects, 

and an off-site archival storage and 

preservation capability with OCLC. 

I call this the “three-horse race” and all three 

horses are off and running. LPS’ own 

archive of electronic publications provides a 

first level of security for agency publications 

that are primarily textual or images of text, 

and which have no tangible counterpart in the 

FDLP. 

LPS staff routinely downloads copies of 

online titles for which there are no analogous 

print versions in the FDLP. These files are 

eventually stored on GPO’s archive server, as 

a security measure. Their active use begins 

only when the original agency version is no 

longer available. As of August, there are 

approximately 4750 titles stored in the 

archive server, with 77 archived titles being 

served up to users. 

GPO and OCLC have completed the first 

phases of testing of a system to locate, 

identify, process, describe, store and preserve 

electronic publications. The Web Document 

Digital Archive Pilot Project includes several 

other partners, including the state libraries of 

Connecticut, Michigan, Arizona, and Ohio, 

and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. 

The system incorporates a mix of new and 

existing solutions in an effort to refine and 

integrate LPS workflow and routines for 

processing and storing e-titles for the long 

term. 

GPO is a full partner in this project, and staff 

has worked closely with OCLC, providing 

input in the development process. LPS’ 

Director and Electronic Collection Manager 

were instrumental in conceptualizing this 

project, convincing OCLC of the value and 

importance of digital archiving, and in 

prototyping the features and the user 

interface. The resulting product, while 

initially a reflection of GPO's high-level 

requirements for an archiving system, is 

making a significant contribution to the 

ability of libraries worldwide to manage and 

expand access to digital resources. 

As an outgrowth of the digital archive 

project, GPO is a charter member of the 

OCLC Digital and Preservation Cooperative, 

which will advance research and 

development of digital preservation and 

archiving solutions for libraries worldwide. 

Partnerships

Establishing partnerships with agencies, 

depository libraries, and other organizations 

builds on the successful model of the FDLP 

sharing responsibility for access and 

preservation. Partnerships have taken various 

forms. Six libraries provide services or tools 

for locating Government information or 

managing depository library collections. 

Currently, responsibility for one of GPO's 

original Pathway locators, Browse Topics, is 

passing to new management at Oklahoma 

State University. 

Nine partners manage content with specific 

permanent public access safeguards 

contractually defined. Among these are 

depository libraries including: the University 

of Illinois at Chicago, which hosts 

Department of State material; Indiana 

University, which hosts an online server of 

publications previously distributed in the 

FDLP on unstable floppy disk media, and the 

University of North Texas, which houses the 

Cybercemetery, a site which collects and 

preserves the web sites of Government 

agencies and commissions that have ceased 

operation. In the past year the 

Cybercemetery has averaged over half a 

million hits per month, and has received 

favorable media attention from the 

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AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

11 

Washington Post and the Associated Press. 

Several Government agencies, including the 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory and 

the National Library of Medicine, maintain 

agreements through which GPO is assured 

that web content will be maintained on 

agency servers permanently, thus relieving 

GPO of the burden of capturing and archiving 

their content. 

In late 2002, a content partnership between 

the U.S. Census Bureau, GPO, and the Case 

Western Reserve University Libraries 

(CWRU) began. Case Western will operate a 

site specifically geared to depository libraries 

offering the 2000 Census Summary Files for 

download by File Transfer Protocol (ftp). I 

want to thank CWRU Documents Librarian 

Karen Thornton for all her help in this 

project. 

Integrated Library System

The most exciting development for LPS’ 

future is our acquisition of an Integrated 

Library System (ILS). This will enable us to 

improve services to libraries and make a 

greater range of Government publications 

accessible to the public. 

In the fiscal year 2002 appropriation, GPO 

received general approval from Congress to 

acquire a commercial off-the-shelf ILS. Two 

other important milestones in the acquisition 

process have taken place this fiscal year: 

• LPS obtained spending approval from 

the Joint Committee on Printing for 

the ILS. 

• GPO has contracted and begun work 

with a library automation consulting 

firm, RMG, Inc., of Chicago, IL, to 

analyze functional requirements, 

review available systems for “fit” 

with those requirements, and 

recommend the best system to meet 

LPS’ needs. 

RMG’s principal is Mr. Rob McGee, who is 

working intensively with LPS to refine our 

needs, define appropriate systems 

architecture, and so on. McGee has 

performed similar work for many domestic 

and international libraries, and he has a welldeveloped process that we are going through. 

The next step is that RMG will issue a 

Request for Information (RFI) on GPO’s 

behalf to the top 5 system vendors. The RFI 

sets forth our requirements and asks the 

vendors to describe the offerings and to 

respond to a lengthy series of questions. We 

are working with other GPO offices to ensure 

that whatever we purchase is consistent with 

network security requirements and preferred 

network architecture. 

The vendors will be asked to respond by midDecember, and we will begin a very intense 

evaluation process, likely culminating in 

vendors’ presentations at GPO in mid-to-late 

January. We intend to have identified the 

system for us by the end of February, and 

then proceed to the acquisition stage. LPS 

will strive to have the ILS up and running in 

early 2004. 

Of course this means we will face many 

issues, like migrating data, populating the 

database, building programming interfaces 

with other systems, re-engineering our 

workflow, staff training, and much, much 

more. In order to meet this ambitious 

schedule, LPS will have to keep our nose to 

the grindstone, and try to avoid distractions. I 

think that those of you who have been 

through a major system implementation know 

what we will face. Recently we have had 

nearly 10 of our staff working exclusively on 

the ILS project, but of course all of this time 

comes out of the existing staff resource pie. 

In order to build the system for the future, we 
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are going to have to accept some constraints 

on making incremental changes to the 

existing systems. I trust that you will give us 

the breathing room to get the job done. The 

results, in improved service and expanded 

access, will be well worth it. 

The ILS implementation and system

installation is expected to take place in 

phases. Phase 1 features the replacement of 

the bibliographic functions currently 

supported by OCLC and the Catalog of 

Government Publications (GCP). These 

actions will take place by Day 1 of using the 

ILS: 

• The ILS’ public access catalog will 

replace the CGP. 

• Begin cataloging in ILS and export 

records to OCLC. 

• Perform serials check-in in ILS. 

• Utilize authority file functions in ILS. 

• Create output products through ILS, 

for printed products and for MARC 

record distribution. 

• Populate ILS modules with 

bibliographic and authority records 

produced by LPS from July 1976- 

present. 

We have a lot of work to do, and a lot of 

changes to go through. But we have a great 

team at work in LPS, and I’m confident that 

the results are going to be spectacular. 

Before I close, I want to acknowledge all of 

the support we have gotten from the Council 

for the ILS project. Thank you for your help, 

encouragement, and patience.

12 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

13 

GPO Access: Present and Future 

Remarks by 

T.C. Evans 

Director, Office of Electronic Information Services 

U.S. Government Printing Office 

Before the Depository Library Council and 

Federal Depository Library Conference 

Arlington, VA 

Monday, October 21, 2002 

Introduction 

I appreciate the opportunity to update the 

Depository Library Council and the library 

community on the current and future state of 

GPO Access. Hopefully, you have a copy of 

our printed GPO Access update. It contains a 

variety of statistical information on GPO 

Access, as well as what is new and on the 

horizon. 

While there are a number of exciting changes 

on the way for GPO Access, system 

performance problems continue to frustrate 

users. Time-outs due to slow system 

response and other types of errors are far too 

common, particularly during the busiest hours 

of the workday. Even successful transactions 

take far too long on many of the most popular 

applications. I deeply regret this poor service 

and I assure you that steps are being taken to 

remedy the situation both now and for the 

future. 

We continue to use the Keynote performance 

measurement service to track performance 

from the user perspective in 10 major cities in 

the United States. Based on results from 

these measurements, our Production 

department is working to reconfigure some of 

the servers and the load balancing equipment 

to optimize their efficiency, and additional 

servers are being prepared to provide 

additional capacity where needed. 

An effort is also underway to explore options 

to break up large files wherever possible and 

to look for more efficient ways to present 

them for download. One of the methods 

being examined is to akamaize as many of the 

static offerings as possible so that they can be 

delivered through the Akamai content 

delivery network, which would spread the 

load out to local servers and lessen the burden 

on the main GPO Access system. This would 

potentially ease the load on other resources so 

that searching would show an improved 

response time. 

While these adjustments should help 

performance in the short run, a new platform 

to replace the aging WAIS system is essential 

to resolve our performance problems in the 

long run. Work on this important effort is 

well underway and a procurement of the next 

generation software for GPO Access should 

begin in the near future. Users should see the 

initial benefits of the new software by the end 

of FY 2003. 

This new XML platform should afford users 

both enhanced performance and usability. 

The most popular GPO Access resources will 

be switched to the new platform first and 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

work will continue until all products and 

services have been updated. 

These improvement efforts also include work 

towards establishing a geographically 

separate mirror site and backup facility for 

GPO Access in Pueblo, Colorado. Plans are 

being finalized and construction on the 

facility should begin very soon, with backup 

data storage being the initial goal and

progressing to a complete mirror site that 

shares the load with the systems in 

Washington as well as providing safe backup. 

In addition to striving towards better 

performance, work continues to translate 

what we learn from our users into more 

usable GPO Access pages. Many of you have 

worked along with us on this effort and this 

hard work is about to pay dividends. The 

feedback provided through user support 

contacts, open forums, focus groups, and 

usability studies has paved the way for a new 

look and feel for GPO Access. 

As this process is finalized, you will once 

again have a chance to play a vital role in the 

outcome. There will be numerous 

opportunities during this conference for you 

to contribute to the new look of GPO Access

by providing feedback on what has been done 

so far. Some of you have been invited to 

explore specific aspects of the new design in 

a focus group. Others will contribute in the 

open forum to be held this afternoon. And 

for those who cannot participate in either of 

those sessions, there will be a computer set 

up out in the Promenade area throughout the 

conference. EIDS staff will be available to 

show you what has been done so far and get 

your suggestions on how to make it even 

better. I will not be able to give you a precise 

date for the release of the new pages, because 

your comments will determine how much 

more work is needed before they can go live, 

but we hope to make them available in the 

very near future. 

Online Survey Results

The analysis of the results from our annual 

online survey was recently completed and 

some of the results proved quite interesting. 

The number of responses received was 

roughly equivalent to last year, but the 

configuration of respondents changed a fair 

amount. There were far fewer depository 

library responses and an increase in the 

number of respondents who identified 

themselves as part of the general public. 

After learning this, it was not surprising to 

see the reported usage frequency decline this 

year. 

A general decline in the stated use of GPO 

Access finding aids was reported, including 

the Catalog of Government Publications and 

the Sales Product Catalog. The only two that 

showed increases in the survey were New 

Electronic Titles and Browse a Topic. 

Product performance drew the expected poor 

ratings, with particular emphasis on the 

problems encountered when using the CFR 

and FR. As it turned out, the less popular the 

resource, the better the performance rating it 

received. 

On the plus side, ratings for the GPO Access

User Support Team rose significantly in the 

areas of product knowledge, technical 

knowledge, complaint resolution, courtesy, 

accessibility, and response time. On the 

down side, even though the number of 

responses rating complaint resolution as 

excellent increased significantly, the number 

of respondents rating our complaint 

resolution as poor also went up. I can assure 

you that we will be working hard to make 

that number go down in the next survey. The 

planned procurement of a customer 

14 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

relationship management (CRM) software 

package in the coming months will go a long 

way towards accomplishing this, as well as 

strengthening the areas of support that 

already receive strong ratings. In addition to 

supporting the generation of a knowledgebase 

that can serve to speed the resolution of

frequently asked questions, it will also 

provide a web chat capability so that our 

support specialists can help users directly 

from the page they are on in GPO Access. 

The number of respondents who stated that 

they found GPO Access through a search 

engine increased by almost a third over last 

year. Approximately 30% reported finding 

us through a search engine compared to about 

20% last year. This finding supports our 

continued efforts to maximize our visibility 

on major search engines. 

Search Engine Results 

We have continued our work on the search 

engine project, and the just completed 8th

evaluation found an overall increase in 

successful returns. This included gains in 

Top-5, Top-10, and Top-30 returns, with 

Top-5 returns increasing to a new high of 

26% of the test searches. 

Some of these Top-5 increases came from

interesting players, with Hotbot, iWon, and 

Alltheweb recording huge increases. AOL 

showed the most dramatic increase, with its 

Top-5 returns increasing by more than 300%. 

Unfortunately, FirstGov fell dramatically, 

dropping from second ranked search engine 

in the last evaluation to tenth this time. My 

staff will work with the FirstGov folks to 

attempt and reverse this decline. 

Based on what we have learned from paid 

keyword positioning for the U.S. Government 

Online Bookstore, testing a revised plan for 

promoting both the Online Bookstore and the 

CFR portions of GPO Access is nearing 

completion. It builds on what we learned 

ourselves and through the advice of a 

consultant to produce a flexible and 

economical strategy designed to place top 

bids on a variety of keywords shown to be 

popular with Internet searchers. 

Joint effort with STAT-USA 

My staff has continued working hand-in-hand 

with STAT-USA to improve the availability 

and usability of their information products at 

depository libraries. The use of the STATUSA module in GPO Access training classes 

has proven to be a success, and STAT-USA 

is conducting training sessions of their own 

using the materials we prepared for inclusion 

in the GPO Access manual. STAT-USA 

representatives have also participated in the 

GPO Access training classes held in Mobile, 

Alabama and helped out in the GPO Access

booth at the Florida EdTech Conference. 

The cooperative efforts between GPO and 

STAT-USA have led to an expansion of the 

partnership to include free depository access 

to USA Trade Online. EIDS will be 

incorporating USA Trade Online into existing 

GPO Access training classes and information 

on USA Trade Online will be added to the 

STAT-USA/Internet insert of the GPO 

Access Training Manual. We have enjoyed 

the opportunity to team up with STAT-USA 

to provide public access to and awareness of 

STAT-USA products. In the future, we hope 

the partnership between GPO and STATUSA will make it possible to provide

additional public access benefits through the 

Federal Depository Library Program. 

New Booth for GPO Access 

A new booth was acquired for use at trade 

shows and conferences to promote the 

products and services of GPO Access, as well 

15 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

as the Federal Depository Library and Sales 

programs. The new booth debuted at the 

American Library Association Annual 

Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, along with a 

new set of flyers to promote the various 

components of GPO Access. These flyers are 

available for your use and can be ordered 

along with the other promotional materials 

for the FDLP. 

What’s new on GPO Access

 

There are a number of recent changes to GPO 

Access that should be mentioned. The most 

notable are: 

3⁄4 A clickable map of the United States is 

now available for locating Federal 

depository libraries. 

3⁄4 The Public Papers of the Presidents of 

the United States (George H.W. Bush, 

1992-1993, Vol. 1) is now available.

3⁄4 The new edition of the United States 

Government Manual (FY2002/2003) is 

also available. 

3⁄4 The May 2002 revision of the 

Congressional Pictorial Directory is 

now available on GPO Access.

3⁄4 Two more chapters of the DeschlerBrown Precedents of the United States 

House of Representatives are available. 

They are:

• Volume 16, Chapter 32 (House 

Document No. 94-661). 

• Volume 16, Chapter 33 (House 

Document No. 94-661).

3⁄4 A listserve for those who wish to be 

notified of FDLP electronic-only items 

available for sale is available. It is

called GPO-ELSALE-L and there are 

already 130 subscribers. 

3⁄4 Three new Federal Web sites are now 

hosted on GPO Access:

• The United States Capitol Police, 

<http://www.uscapitolpolice.gov>. 

• The Millenial Housing 

Commission, 

<http://www.mhc.gov>.

• Office of Independent Counsel, 

Donald C. Smaltz - In Re: 

Secretary of Agriculture Alphonso 

Michael Espy, 

<http://www.oic.gov>.

What’s on the Horizon 

As always, work is under way to add more 

content to GPO Access and to refine access to 

the materials already provided. Some key 

examples of current efforts are:

3⁄4 The use of Public Key Infrastructure 

(PKI) to authenticate the PDF versions 

of congressional bills will begin at the 

start of the new Congress (108th). Users 

with a free software reader will be able 

to confirm that a bill was approved for 

submission to GPO by the appropriate 

congressional authority and that it has 

not been altered since it was signed. 

We will post information about the free 

reader on library community listserves 

and publish it in Administrative Notes 

before this takes effect. 

3⁄4 A new listserv that will enable 

subscribers to be notified when a new 

Public Law is put up on the system

should be made available in the near 

future. 

16 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

As you can tell, change is a constant with 

GPO Access. As its offerings and popularity 

continue to grow, our efforts to provide the 

best possible service will make every effort to 

keep pace. Once again I remind you that 

your feedback plays a vital role in this 

development process. Participation in this 

afternoon’s open forum is an excellent 

opportunity to add your voice to the process, 

but a comment or suggestion sent to the GPO 

Access User Support Team serves well at any 

time. Thank you, and I look forward to 

talking with you during the conference. 

3⁄4 An adult version of Ben’s Guide to U.S. 

Government is being designed in 

response to intense user feedback. 

3⁄4 Future enhancements for the U.S. 

Government Online Bookstore include 

improved online ordering for foreign 

customers and providing the ability to 

hand off an order created by a user to 

another person for approval and/or 

completion. This is being pursued in 

direct response to feedback from users 

who are unable to directly purchase 

from the U.S. Government Online 

Bookstore, but must go through others 

in their organization to make purchases. 

[Handout] 

GPO Access Update 

Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services 

2002 Federal Depository Library Conference and 

Fall Depository Library Council Meeting

October 20 - 23, 2002, Arlington, VA

GPO Access Statistical Measures 

3⁄4 Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have exceeded 1.5 billion, which is equivalent to over 36 billion 

typewritten pages. 

3⁄4 The average number of monthly retrievals from GPO Access is currently 31 million and the average 

size of these documents is currently about 49Kb. With 2Kb equaling roughly one typewritten page, 

the average size of a document retrieved from GPO Access equates to some 24.5 typewritten pages and 

costs less than a penny per retrieval.

3⁄4 GPO Access contains nearly 140,000 electronic titles and points to over 91,000 others for a total of 

about 231,000 titles.

3⁄4 GPO Access provides use of over 2,400 databases through more than 80 applications. 

GPO Access Redesign 

3⁄4 Since the redesign of GPO Access in April 1999, EIDS has been collecting user feedback from a 

variety of sources, such as usability testing (many thanks to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for letting 

us use their lab), focus groups, surveys, and comments received by the GPO Access User Support 

Team. This effort to improve the site’s design and usability of GPO Access will culminate in the 

release of a new design in the near future. A preview of the new redesign will be given at the GPO 

17 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

Access Open Forum on Monday, October 21, 2002 at 2:00 p.m. You may also preview this redesign 

with EIDS staff in the promenade of the hotel anytime during the conference.

GPO Access Performance Measurement and Improvement

3⁄4 Through the use of Keynote Systems Inc., a performance measurement service, we are continuing to 

monitor system performance from 10 cities around the country. Daily monitoring is conducted on the 

GPO Access homepage, the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, and a transaction in the Code of 

Federal Regulations database. The information gained is being used to work toward improved 

performance.

What’s New on GPO Access

3⁄4 House Report 107-594: In The Matter of Representative James A. Trafficant, Jr., Report of the 

Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is now available on GPO Access at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house/house16cr107.html>.

3⁄4 A clickable map for locating Federal depository libraries throughout the United States is now available 

on GPO Access at <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators/findlibs/index.html>.

3⁄4 The new edition of the Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 107th Congress is available at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/107_pictorial/>. 

3⁄4 The FY 2002 – FY 2003 U.S. Government Manual is now available on GPO Access at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/nara001.html>. 

3⁄4 Volume I of the 1992 - 1993 Public Papers for George H.W. Bush is now available online at 

<http://www.gpo.gov/nara/pubpaps/srchpaps.html>. 

3⁄4 Volume 16, Chapters 32 and 33 of the Deschler – Brown Precedents of the United States House of 

Representatives (House Document No. 94-661) are now available on GPO Access at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house/precedents/deschler.html>.

3⁄4 Receive notification when depository items that are going from paper to electronic in the FDLP are 

available for sale through the Superintendent of Documents Sales Program. Sign up for the new GPOELSALE-L Listserv at <http://listserv.access.gpo.gov>.

3⁄4 Three new Federal Web sites are now hosted on GPO Access:

• The United States Capitol Police, <http://www.uscapitolpolice.gov>.

• The Millenial Housing Commission, <http://www.mhc.gov>.

• Office of Independent Counsel, Donald C. Smaltz - In Re: Secretary of Agriculture Alphonso

Michael Espy, <http://www.oic.gov>. 

Online Bookstore Enhancements 

Several features have been added to the U.S. Government Online Bookstore in order to enhance usability

and expedite orders: 

18 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

3⁄4 The various browse features on the Online Bookstore have been enhanced so that price and status 

information is updated daily. In addition, customers may now use the search and browse features to 

add publications to their shopping cart for a fully integrated shopping experience. 

3⁄4 While the Online Bookstore has safeguarded a customer's personal information through online 

encryption since 1999, the service was recently changed so users do not have to enter the secure 

environment until they have finished shopping and need to enter personal information when 

completing the order. 

New Booth for GPO Access 

A new GPO Access booth was acquired to be used at trade shows and conferences. The new booth 

debuted at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA. 

Under Development 

3⁄4 Future enhancements for the U.S. Government Online Bookstore include improved online ordering for 

international customers and providing third-party hand off of orders for those who are unable to 

directly purchase from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore. 

3⁄4 Work toward building the GPO Access mirror site in Pueblo, CO is proceeding. As this work 

progresses, normal data backup will continue with the addition of the temporary storage of key data at 

a GPO facility near Washington, DC. 

3⁄4 GPO is working in partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration's Office of the 

Federal Register on a participatory rule-making site, to be known as Regulations.gov. This site will 

provide a mechanism for the public to submit comments electronically on proposed rules and to view 

comments submitted by others. 

3⁄4 The cooperative efforts between GPO and STAT-USA have led to an expansion of the partnership to 

include free depository access to USA Trade Online. EIDS will be incorporating USA Trade Online

into existing GPO Access training classes, and information on USA Trade Online will be added to the 

STAT-USA/Internet insert of the GPO Access Training Manual. 

Upcoming Outreach 

EIDS personnel will be attending and displaying the GPO booth at the following shows:

Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Documents Association of New Jersey Fall Conference New Brunswick, NJ 

Nov. 4-6 Internet Librarian 2002 Palm Springs, CA 

Dec. 5-6 National League of Cities Salt Lake City, UT 

19 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

Readers Exchange 

Electronic Shelflist Using Microsoft Access 

Kim Fournier 

Learning Resources Assistant 

Bradner Library, Schoolcraft College 

Livonia, MI 48152 

In April 2000, we launched our electronic 

shelflist using Microsoft Access. We’ve been 

using it exclusively since then to create and 

maintain new U. S. Government Documents 

records. 

The following is a general description of the 

procedures involved in setting up this system. 

It is first necessary to download your item

selection list, <http://www.access.gpo.gov/ 

su_docs/fdlp/tools/itemlist.html>, in a singlecolumn, yes-no format. Eliminate the nonselections, and make a table in which you 

may want to include fields of instructive 

information pertaining to the item numbers. 

After downloading shipping lists from the 

Federal Bulletin Board shipping list site, 

<http://fedbbs.access.gpo.gov/fdlp01.htm>, 

new fields can be added to each that contain 

information such as receive date, internal 

notes, format, hyperlink, and memo. Each 

altered list is then run through an update 

query that adds the date and produces the 

records that are common to the shipping list 

and your item selections. A make-table query 

is run, and the end result is a table that 

includes the documents on each shipping list 

that are your selections. Appending one 

table’s records to another after labels are 

printed will start your shelflist. 

The Reports feature has a setting for labels 

and a label wizard. Unfortunately, there is no 

setting for placement of text within a laser 

label page. We have a dot-matrix printer that 

is used to print a continuous single column of 

labels. 

The shelflist is used as the default table so 

each query doesn’t have to be re-created and 

the label wizard doesn’t have to be run every 

time a shipping list is processed. 

We are currently adding superseded 

information to our item list table as well as 

our shelflist table. Hyperlinks are added 

monthly, using information from

Administrative Notes Technical Supplement 

and links that we copy from the GPO Access 

New Electronic Titles site, 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators

/net/index.html>, in anticipation of adding

our document collection to our online 

catalog. Our shelflist table is formatted to be 

compatible with our withdrawal format. 

We have shared our database with five other 

depository libraries. By copying our 

database, and eliminating all but a few 

representative records from the shelflist, we 

can email the copied database and the 

instructions (with illustrations) as well. 

If you are interested in obtaining a copy or 

would like further information, please contact 

me by email:

<kfournie@schoolcraft.cc.mi.us>.

20 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

21 

Sign Up for the 

FDLP 

Announcement 

Service! 

 Free! 

 Fast! 

 Timely! 

 Official! 

To subscribe, go to <http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/>. Click on <Online 

Mailing List Archives>. Click on <GPO-FDLP-L>. Click on <Join or 

leave the list> and follow the instructions. 
AN-v23-#14-11/15/02 

Table of Contents 

GPO-FDLP-L To Be the Exclusive Vehicle for Official FDLP Announcements........................ 1 

NAICS 2002 To Be Distributed to Depository Libraries ............................................................. 2 

USA Trade Online Now Available to Depository Libraries......................................................... 2 

JCP Chairman Mark Dayton Addresses Delegates At 11th Annual Depository 

 Library Conference .................................................................................................................... 3 

Superintendent of Documents’ Perspective / Buckley, Council Meeting, 10/02 ......................... 4 

Where We Go from Here / Baldwin, Council Meeting, 10/02 ..................................................... 7 

GPO Access: Present and Future / Evans, Council Meeting, 10/02 ........................................... 13 

GPO Access Update.................................................................................................................... 17 

Readers Exchange: Electronic Shelflist Using Microsoft Access / Fournier ............................. 20 

Administrative Notes is published in Washington, DC by the Superintendent of Documents, 

Library Programs Service, Government Printing Office, for the staffs of U.S. Federal 

Depository Libraries. 

It is published on the 15th day of each month; some months have additional issues. 

Postmaster send address changes to: The Editor, Administrative Notes 

U.S. Government Printing Office

Library Programs Service, SLLD 

Washington, DC 20401 

Internet access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/index.html 

Editor: Marian W. MacGilvray (202) 512-1119 mmacgilvray@gpo.gov

22