Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 26, no. 07 GP 3.16/3-2:26/07 July 15, 2005

HIGHLIGHTS

Baldwin 

Receives

Award 1 

Preliminary 

Schedule, Fall

Conference &

Council 

Meeting 2 

Nominate the 

2005 Federal

Depository

Library of the 

Year 4

More Volunteers 

Needed for New 

Electronic

Depository

Manual 5

New Internal 

GPO Policy 

Document: Web 

Harvesting, 

ID 73 6 

GPO Releases 

Digitization 

Specification for 

Review and 

Comment 8 

GPO Update

for ALA, 

June 2005 9

GPO Director Honored With Prestigious 

Library Award 

U.S. Government Printing Office’s Gil Baldwin is

this year’s winner of the prestigious James 

Bennett Childs Award. The American Library 

Association’s Government Documents Round 

Table presented the annual award to Baldwin on 

Sunday for his lifetime achievements and 

significant contributions to the library field. 

Baldwin serves as Director of National 

Bibliography Planning at the GPO. “I am honored to receive this award 

and to be recognized by such a tremendous, dedicated group of my peers 

in the library community. I look forward to continuing the important work 

of contributing to the growth and essential development of government 

documents dissemination,” Baldwin said. 

Baldwin, who began his GPO career as a cataloger, is also part of the 

Office of Innovation and New Technology, which is planning and 

designing GPO’s Future Digital System, FDsys. FDsys will be a world 

class information life-cycle management system. Additionally, he is 

concentrating his efforts on the development of the Federal Depository 

Library Program (FDLP) Electronic Collection management concept and 

other permanent public access initiatives. 

Baldwin was presented with a plaque at the 2005 ALA Government 

Documents Round Table Reception Sunday at the Chicago-Kent College

of Law in Illinois. Bruce James, Public Printer of the United States, and 

Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents were on hand to watch as 

Baldwin received his award. 

This isn’t the first time the prestigious award has been presented to a GPO 

employee. Virginia F. Saunders, Program Operations and Evaluation 

Specialist, and former Superintendent of Documents Francis J. Buckley, 

Jr. have been honored in past years. 

The award is named for James Bennett Childs, a longtime documents 

bibliographer for the Library of Congress.
AN-v26-#07-7/15/05

Fall Federal Depository Library Conference 

& Depository Library Council Meeting 

October 16 - 19, 2005 

Hyatt Regency Washington Capitol Hill 

Washington, DC

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE

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The Depository Library Council and GPO are 

excited about the proposed schedule for the 

fall Depository Library Council (DLC) 

meeting and Conference. As we began to plan 

for our discussion of a vision for libraries and 

the FDLP in the future provision of 

government information, we came to the 

conclusion that most of the Fall DLC meeting 

should be devoted to this important topic. 

General information about the meeting is 

available at: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/even

ts/fall_conference.html. 

Advance registration is important because it 

provides us with the information necessary to 

ensure effective planning and make this 

meeting productive and enjoyable for you. 

Pre-registration is available at:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fall_reg.html

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Nominate the 2005 Federal Depository 

Library of the Year 

Deadline Extended to August 15, 2005 

What is the Award? 

The Federal Depository Library of the Year 

Award provides special recognition for a 

library that furthers the goal of the Federal 

Depository Library Program by ensuring that 

the American public has free access to its 

Government's information through: 

• Outstanding service to meet the 

Federal government information 

needs in the library's service area 

• Creativity and innovation in 

developing specific community 

programs for use of Federal 

government information or a dramatic 

increase in their community's usage of 

Federal government information 

• Leadership in creating public service 

programs that can be emulated by 

other Federal Depository Libraries 

What are the benefits of winning?

Here's what a past winner had to say: 

"Winning the Federal Depository Library of 

the Year award enabled us to increase 

awareness of our library in the community 

and among our colleagues. It also gave us the 

'bells and whistles' we needed to raise our 

profile with our library board. I think any 

depository library could greatly benefit from

winning." 

Suzanne Sears, Tulsa City-County 

Library 

The winner will be announced at an award 

ceremony during the fall 2005 Federal 

Depository Library Conference and meeting 

of the Depository Library Council. The 

conference will be held in Washington, DC 

on October 16-19, 2005. GPO will provide 

travel to and lodging during the Conference 

for the depository coordinator and library 

director from the winning library. 

How Do I Nominate A Library? 

You are invited to nominate any Federal 

Depository Library, regardless of its size or 

type. To apply, go to: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/fdlo

fyear/application05.html. (Past winners, 

libraries of current Depository Library 

Council members, and libraries on probation 

are ineligible for consideration.) 

The nomination deadline for the 2005 Federal 

Depository Library of the Year Award has 

been extended to August 15, 2005. 

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More Volunteers Needed for New Electronic 

Depository Manual 

GPO is seeking more volunteers to 

consolidate and update various FDLP 

instructions and manuals into a single online 

publication that will continue to be updated 

as necessary. The Electronic Depository 

Manual will be a living policy document 

written by and for the FDLP community. 

Within the manual will be best practices, tips, 

and hot links to additional information of 

interest to government documents librarians. 

Information about this project is available on 

GPO Access at: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs

/new_manual.ppt and 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs

/proceedings/05spring/depository_library301.

pdf. 

The publications to be consolidated and 

updated in the electronic manual include the 

Instructions to Depository Libraries available 

at: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs

/instructions/index.html, and the Federal 

Depository Library Manual and its 

supplements available at: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs

/fdlm/index.html. 

While GPO has many volunteers from 

depositories at academic libraries, we lack 

adequate representation from depositories at 

public, federal, and law libraries. All 

volunteers are welcome, but GPO is 

particularly eager to have depository 

librarians from these under-represented 

library types help create this new online 

publication. 

The tentative content of each chapter appears 

on the Volunteer Form. Each chapter will 

include requirements and performance 

examples, with an emphasis on the electronic 

FDLP. GPO anticipates the work will be 

accomplished in a combination of ways to 

include e-mail messages and conference calls 

with writing teams. Volunteers with expertise 

and knowledge of the content for each 

chapter and who have the time to complete 

the work by the timetables established for the 

effort are good candidates. 

If you are from a federal depository library 

and are interested in participating, you can 

obtain additional information and the 

Volunteer registration form at: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs

/im_volunteer_reg.html. Volunteers should 

submit their names as soon as possible. 

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GPO Posts New Internal Policy Document 

On Web Harvesting: ID 73 

Effective July 6, 2005, Information Dissemination (ID) staff will be operating under a new 

internal policy, ID 73: "Harvesting Federal Digital Publications for GPO's Information 

Dissemination (ID) Programs." This policy governs both manual and automated harvesting of 

publications from Federal agency web sites for inclusion in the Federal Depository Library and 

National Bibliography Programs. 

ID 73 is accessible from the FDLP Desktop, Information Dissemination Policies page at:

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/policies>. 

ID 73 

INFORMATION DISSEMINATION POLICY STATEMENT 

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 6, 2005 

Subject: Harvesting Federal Digital Publications for GPO’s Information Dissemination (ID) 

Programs 

This policy statement governs manual and automated harvesting of publications from Federal agency

Web sites for GPO’s Federal Depository Library and National Bibliography Programs, information 

dissemination programs administrated by the Managing Director, Information Dissemination 

(Superintendent of Documents). 

Background 

The Government Printing Office (GPO) has been the Government’s agent for providing public access to 

Government information for over a century. The mandates of Chapters 17, 19, and 41 of Title 44, United 

States Code establish GPO’s responsibility for providing permanent public access and comprehensive 

indexing to tangible and digital Government publications. 

GPO defines harvested content as digital content within the scope of dissemination programs that is 

gathered from Federal agency Web sites. Harvesting technologies are used by GPO to discover and 

capture publications that have not been cataloged by GPO but fall within the scope of the Federal 

Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the National Bibliography. 

Guided by 44 U.S.C. §§1901-1903, GPO’s FDLP and the National Bibliography are focused upon the 

final, published versions of agency publications, in this case, those that are published on the Web. 

Policy 

GPO will acquire online publications for inclusion in the National Bibliography and the Federal 

Depository Library Program through manual and automated harvesting. GPO will use automated 

harvesting programs only with the publishing agency’s advice and prior consent. Permission to manually

harvest publications from agency publicly accessible Web sites will not be sought. 

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7 

I. Advice and Consent from Publishing Agencies 

A. The Superintendent of Documents will contact, in writing (e-mail), the agency’s Chief 

Information Officer. The letter will: 

• Explain why GPO is harvesting agency Web sites; 

• Describe how the harvested files will be used; 

• Seek the agency’s advice and consent for GPO to employ an automated harvesting 

application to their Web site; ID 73 Page 1 of 3 

• Seek the agency’s advice for frequency and timing of harvests; 

• Convey to the agency that manual harvesting of individual publications that are on 

publicly available Web sites will be conducted if permission to use automated harvesting 

is denied; 

• Ask the agency to share with GPO a copy of any harvesting policies they have in place; 

and 

• Communicate that if, after 30 days, the target agency has not responded to the letter, the 

non-response will be considered consent to harvest. 

B. GPO will manually harvest individual publications that reside on publicly accessible Web sites. 

II. Harvesting 

A. GPO will follow security and industry best practices to ensure minimal impact on Federal agency 

(target) Web servers as automated and manual harvesting is employed. 

B. GPO will honor harvesting protocols established by the publishing agencies 

a. Notices on Web sites 

b. Robot exclusions 

C. Automated harvesting program will indicate that GPO is harvesting and contact information for 

the Acquisitions and Development Director will be included. 

D. Agency Web sites will be reharvested on a schedule determined by the Director, Acquisitions & 

Development and that is consistent with the advice of the publishing agency. 

E. Any automated tools or services used for harvesting by GPO must be approved by GPO’s Office 

of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). 

III. Harvested Files 

A. Among the metadata elements of harvested files will be language that indicates it is an 

authorized, captured, and archived file of the original. 

B. An automated or manually harvested publication may be determined to be out of scope at the time 

it is cataloged. If indicators such as “For Official Use Only” or “Restricted” appear on the 

publication, the agency will be contacted by Office of Bibliographic Services staff for verification 

of status. 

C. Out of scope files acquired via automated or manual harvesting will be deleted from GPO servers. 

The files will never have been accessible by the public through GPO. 

D. All harvested publications are subject to recall under ID 72, Withdrawal of Federal Information 

Products from GPO’s Information Dissemination (ID) Programs. 

Limitations 

This policy pertains to all U.S. Government information products and services subject to the jurisdiction 

of the Superintendent of Documents. However, the following limitations apply: 

• GPO harvests from official Web sites, the originating agency or its business partner(s). 

An example of an agency business partner is the University of Albany, School of 

Criminal Justice, which hosts the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ annual Sourcebook of 

Criminal Justice Statistics (http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/). 
AN-v26-#07-7/15/05

• GPO also will manually harvest in-scope publications from unofficial sources, such as 

institutions creating digital access copies or non-Governmental Internet archives, when 

they are no longer available from official Government Web sites and GPO does not have 

an archived copy. GPO provides digital content with varying levels of authentication 

dependant upon provenance, chain of custody, and level of quality assurance in or type of 

output from a legacy digitization process. Publications harvested from unofficial sources 

are considered low-confidence access copies. 

Application 

This policy applies to all appropriate elements of Information Dissemination. The Managing Director, 

Information Dissemination, Superintendent of Documents must authorize any exceptions to this policy.

Exceptions will be documented in writing to the Acquisitions & Development staff. 

Referenced Policies 

ID 72: Withdrawal of Federal Information Products from GPO’s Information Dissemination (ID) 

Programs 

Approved _______________________________________ 

Managing Director, Information Dissemination 

(Superintendent of Documents) 

GPO Releases Digitization Specification for 

Review and Comment 

GPO's Digitization Specification 3.0 is being 

distributed for review and comment. This 

specification, which is available at 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/FDsys_ccs

pecs.pdf, will be used to support GPO's plan 

to convert legacy U.S. government 

documents into preservation masters that will 

subsequently be used to creative derivative 

"access" files that support user requirements. 

Version 3.0 is a result of multiple internal 

reviews and two focused external reviews by 

federal agencies and universities involved in 

preservation quality digitization. 

The specification reflects proposed standards 

that were discussed at GPO's Meetings of 

Experts on Preservation, as well as the Digital 

Library Federation (DLF) and the National 

Archives and Records Administration 

(NARA) recommended standards. 

The specification will continue to evolve as 

technological advancements and digitization 

requirements occur in the digital imaging 

industry. 

GPO currently has a digitization pilot tasked 

with validating the specification. Scanning of 

the legacy documents cannot begin until 

design validation testing and beta testing have 

been completed. Additional information on 

the legacy digitization project is available at 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/index.html. 

Comments should be sent to Judy Russell, 

jrussell@gpo.gov, AND ALSO to Ted 

Priebe, tpriebe@gpo.gov, not later than 

Monday, August 8, 2005. 

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9 

Update for ALA, June 2005 Available Online 

The most recent GPO Update was released at 

the American Library Association annual 

conference in Chicago on June 26, 2005. The 

complete text is available on the FDLP 

Desktop on GPO Access at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs

/ala_update05.pdf. 

Topics include: 

Annual Item Selection Update Cycle 

Rescheduled 

Distribution and Other Statistics 

Follow-Up to Essential Titles Survey 

Revised Policy Statements 

Integrated Library System (ILS) 

Implementation 

Disaster Recovery 

Authentication and Version Control 

Future Digital System 

Information Dissemination Special Projects 

and Related Staffing 

Administrative Notes/Administrative Notes 

Technical Supplement 

LOCKSS 

Electronic Federal Depository Library Manual 

Under Development 

Web Discovery and Harvesting 

National Collection of U.S. Government 

Publications 

Holdings Symbols for Regional Depository 

Libraries 

Digitization of the Legacy Collection 

New and on the Horizon 

Depository Library of the Year Award 

Public-Private Partnership Opportunity in 

Publishing Services (Sales Program) 
AN-v26-#07-7/15/05

Table of Contents 

GPO Director Honored With Prestigious Library Award: Baldwin............................................. 1 

Federal Depository Library Conference & Depository Library Council Meeting, 2005, Fall, 

 Preliminary Schedule .................................................................................................................. 2 

Nominate the 2005 Federal Depository Library of the Year........................................................ 4 

More Volunteers Needed for New Electronic Depository Manual .............................................. 5 

GPO Posts New Internal Policy Document On Web Harvesting: ID 73...................................... 6 

GPO Releases Digitization Specification for Review and Comment........................................... 8 

GPO Update for ALA, June 2005................................................................................................. 9

Administrative Notes Cumulative Table of Contents 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/adnotes_toc.pdf 

Updated with each issue 

Searchable by keyword 

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

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: Administrative Notes 

U.S. Government Printing Office

 Stop IDED 

Washington, DC 20401 

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

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