Public Documents

June 1981 Number 46 (GP 3.27:46) Assistant Public Printer (Superintendent of Documents) U.S. Government Printing Office

San Antonio

Council Meeting

Successful

[This is the second of two reports on

the Spring Meeting of the Depository

Library Council to the Public Printer,

April 13-15, 1981. The first report ap- peared in HIGHLIGHTS for April 1981.]

Gathering in historic San Antonio,

Texas, on April 13-15, 1981, were members of the Depository Library

Council to the Public Printer. In the audience were 74 people from 26

states and the District of Columbia.

20 Regional Depository Libraries were

represented.

Among the speakers were Carl A. LaBarre (Superintendent of Documents), J. D. Young (Director, Library

and Statutory Distribution Service), Kay

H. Baily (Chief, Library Division), staff members from the Government Printing

Office, Joint Committee on Printing,

Office of Management and Budget, Li- brary of Congress, National Technical

Information Service, and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

Mr. LaBarre led off the presentations from GPO and brought greetings

from Samuel L. Saylor (Acting Public

Printer). Some "highlights" from these remarks are as follows: "Severe budget

constraints could force us to convert to distribution in microform more rapidly than anticipated. Costs to issue in mi- croform are 80 to 90 percent less than

hardcopy; and savings in postage could be as much as 85 percent." Mr. La- Barre then went on to respond to Council resolutions passed at the Fall Meeting [see HIGHLIGHTS for April 1981]. Ms. Faye M. Padgett, Deputy Staff Director, Joint Committee on Printing,

discussed the implications of the new

Federal Government proposals and re- viewed recent activities of the JCP. She

noted: "The big problem in Washington

right now is money. I think that what

will happen is that depository librarians

will see a gradual reduction in the number of hardcover titles.

"The Joint Committee and GPO and

the Department of Energy have been

working on a cooperative project for the past several months to find a way

to reduce expenditures and at the same

time to continue to make all of these DOE publications available to depositories. What we are working toward is to have all the Department of Energy

publications, which are now microfilmed at the DOE center in Oak Ridge,

Tennessee, to have additional copies

microfilmed there for depository librar- ies and distributed from that center." Ms. Padgett went on to mention similar meetings with USGS, USDA, and DOD:

all designed to coordinate their publi- cation and distribution programs with those of GPO.

A high point followed in the panel on "New Directions for Documents."

Featured speakers were: J. D. Young

(Director, Library and Statutory Distri- bution Service, GPO), Kenyon C. Rosenberg (Chief, Policy and Planning Office, National Technical information Service), Robert A. Davis (Assistant to the

Director for Acquisitions and Overseas

Development, Library of Congress), and

Toni C. Bearman (Executive Director, National Commission on Libraries and

Information Science). Mr. Young spotlighted four major de- velopments which he saw as influencing Federal documents at this time: (1) Federal agencies are now actively seeking ways to cooperate in bibliographic

control and distribution of documents;

(2) this cooperation is being spurred

by current budget constraints; (3) Gov- ernment publications, which may be

said to constitute a particular subset of

library information sources, lend themselves to pilot projects in cataloging,

networking, distribution methods, col- lection management, as well as format

and media of collection; and (4) the current emphasis on information re- source management at Federal and pri- vate levels promises to so manage

information as to avoid duplication of

effort, establish cost/benefit for infor- mation, as well as to standardize data and input across information systems.
"The greatest change," said Mr. Young, "one that's already been al- luded to, being driven by budget and

cost effective requirements, is in the format of the publications themselves. The media information of the future

will either be machine readable, or mi- croform, or a combination of both. In considering these two approaches, the question is: With the ultimate information media being machine-readable

data, on line, will there have to be a massive change from paper to micro- form in the meantime? I am convinced now that there will have to be, and that the switch is going to have to be made

very soon."

Mr. Rosenberg presented some back- ground information on his agency:

"NTIS operates under legislation which

mandates, since 1970, that it has to be a cost-recovery agency; and, in order

to do so, we charge for our products.

We have a one million three hundred

thousand document collection, not all of which is in our data base. This data base reflects about 800,000 items; and, we add approximately 70,000

items a year. NTIS is both a publishing

house, in effect, and an archive. Once

something enters our system, it never

leaves. Frequently, it's never even sold, which is unfortunate. The archives are

retained in microfiche. Everything we

get, we put into microfiche if we haven't

received it in microfiche." Mr. Rosenberg went on to point out

that: (1) NTIS and GPO have made a cooperative agreement for NTIS to make available for sale de-stocked GPO

materials and to allow for customers

to charge to their NTIS accounts GPO

sales items and vice versa; (2) NTIS is exploring the possibility of bar coding

documents for acquisition, location,

and circulation as in the Integrated Li- brary System (ILS) developed by the

National Library of Medicine for the Pentagon's Army Library; (3) NTIS is implementing an electronic phone or- dering system which should result in faster and more accurate service; (4) NTIS is working with other Federal agencies to develop a standardized common data elements dictionary to

allow for all records to be input according to MARC format; and (5) NTIS does

not plan to store maps but does plan

video disc full text storage to allow for printing on demand.

Mr. Davis spoke of some of the documents-related problems being

grappled with by the Library of Congress; many of which are touched upon

in the "LC/GPO Federal Documents

Policy Recommendations" (LC Information Bulletin of 4/10/81). "We have

been cooperating for some time with GPO in terms of bibliographic control

of Government documents. The Library

of Congress has, on an annual basis,

'cataloged only about 3,000 Govern- ment publications per year, which then go into its collections and/or are avail- able through its catalogs, whether they

be manual or automated.

"As of January 1st, after long

months of planning, the Library of Congress has finally decided to accept

completely, without change, the descriptive cataloging that is done by

GPO. This includes authority information. As a matter of fact, the thing that we hope very shortly, is to be able to accept GPO subject headings, so that

basically, the record that is produced

by GPO would be the record that LC

would, itself, use. This would give us, then, considerable access to 27,000

items which we do not now catalog.

The Library of Congress, because of severe space problems would very, very much like to see the availability of Gov- ernment documents in microform in- crease as dramatically as possible. As

a matter of fact, from LC's point of view, we would very much like to see

the entire depository set available in microform with additional hardcopies

for some selected items which simply

must be serviced in hardcopy.

"What we want to do and are working on doing right now, is to take GPO

tapes, which contain about 30,000

items a year, and make that data base

available on line to the Library of Congress, as well as the Congress of the United States, and to have access to the 27,000 titles per year that are not cataloged currently by LC. We would

add to the GPO information, once we've

achieved this, only the classification number for a very few items which we

elect to add to the collections in hard- copy. We would depend largely, both for microform and papercopy, on SuDocs

organization." Ms. Bearman explained the role of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science established by

Public Law in 1970, and charged with advising the President and Congress on

everything relating to libraries and in- formation science service. It has fifteen commissioners across the country and

nine staff members. They are presently

tapping the expertise of 61 volunteers working on four task forces: "One is looking at community and information

services within public libraries; a sec- ond task force is looking at special
needs of cultural minorities in the li- brary information area; a third task

force is looking at the role of special

libraries, a nationwide network, and

other resource sharing; the fourth one

is looking at what the role of the Federal sector should be versus that of the pri- vate sector, specifically in the dissemination of Federal information." Another high point of the Council

Meeting was to be found in the remarks

of Mr. Kenneth B. Allen, Office of in- formation and Regulatory Affairs, Office

of Management and Budget. He set

forth to the audience the implications

of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, which expands the responsibilities given to 0MB by the Federal Re- ports Act of 1942 and the Privacy Act

of 1974. 0MB is now responsible for integrating these Acts and "managing

the total information life cycle, from

collection to management to dissemination." The new Act requires: (1) Each agency to have an information resource manager who will report to the head of the agency; (2) 0MB to review totally

all Federal record forms and give each

approved form an 0MB number; and

(3) the Government to reduce paper- work by twenty-five percent within three

years.

He went on to state: "There are a number of policy goals we intend to pursue over the next few years. We will, of course, be evolving these goals as we go along. At the moment, among

these are better information for deci- sion makers; efficient and effective management of information and regulatory resources; reduce the Federal burden on the private sector; an in- formed public and Congress; the pro- tection of societal values, including the

right to privacy; the assurance of a strong marketplace with minimum Gov- ernment intervention in competition;

the protection of national security; and

the protection of the United States in the international arena. As you will rec- ognize, sometimes these goals will be in conflict with one another and it will be

difficult to select from among them; so

that's part of the challenge in implementing this Bill." A central focus of the Spring Meeting was on Regional Depositories and their problems. Six major areas of concern emerged: (1) Lack of space or storage

facilities; (2) inability to provide re- quired services; (3) inability to keep up

with processing and maintaining materials received; (4) inadequacy of

"Guidelines" or "Instructions" con- cerning Regional status; (5) inability to attend national meetings relating to Regional status; (6) loss of infor- mation of possible historical interest due to increased purging of superseded

material. Possible solutions were also suggested. These appear in the "Summary

of the Meeting" going out to all depositories in June. So significant was the Spring Meeting of the Depository Li- brary Council to the Public Printer, that

for the very first time the entire "Transcript of Proceedings" will be going out

to all depositories on microfiche in July.

These are only a few of the "highlights" of a landmark Council Meeting.

For greater detail, see both the sum- mary made by Council Secretary, Ms.

Roberta Scull, and the transcript on

microfiche. Council will meet again during the Fall in Alexandria, Virginia, at Holiday Inn /Old Town, with registration

and Regional Depository session on

Sunday, September 27th, and meetings

on the 28th, 29th, and 30th.
Moving Toward

Microfiche

[The following are remarks from a talk given to the American Association of Law Libraries, meeting in Washington,

D.C., 6/30/81, by Mr. William J. Barrett (Deputy Assistant Public Printer,

Superintendent of Documents).]

"Severe budget constraints are forc- ing the Government Printing Office to accelerate conversion of publications

from expensive paper format to less expensive microform publication. Costs

to issue in microfiche are 80 to 90 per- cent less than hardcopy; and savings on postage can be as much as 85

percent.

"GPO has been working closely with the Joint Committee on Printing to en- courage Federal agencies to publish in microfiche. To this end, we have had

meetings in recent weeks with the De- partments of Energy, Defense, Agriculture, and the U.S. Geological Survey,

among others. "Within GPO's Library and Statutory

Distribution Service, steps have been

taken to identify both series and serials which lend themselves to conversion to microfiche. Individual monographs are

also being examined on a case by case

basis. At present, most periodicals are

not being considered for conversion. An

exception to this is in the replacement

of shortages with a microfiche complement. However, should a periodical be

chosen for conversion, this would be

done with the first issue of the volume,

or the beginning of the year. "There is a great concern by the Gov- ernment Printing Office, the Joint Committee on Printing, and the librarian members of our Depository Library

Council, to maintain usable access to Government documents. We fully rec- ognize that certain publications are im- portant reference tools which receive wide use (the U.S. Government ManuaJ

and the Zip Code Directory come immediately to mind). Other publications

form a browsing collection (such as the Area l^andbooks found in most public

libraries) and could not be effectively

used in microfiche.

"Recognizing this, we have devel- oped criteria which will be useful in determining the most effective formats

for distribution. Physical characteristics and intended use are the primary

considerations. Let's look at the types

of publications which lend themselves

to microfiche conversion.

"First of all, these would include statistical publications (excepting stand- ard reference works). These would

involve statistical monographs and serials, such as: Statistical Analysis of the World's Merchant Fleet, and Fish Kills Caused by Pollution. "Secondly, scientific, technical, and

research publications are included. This involves specialized series, such

as the 'Smithsonian Contributions to Marine Sciences,' and 'Environmental

Protection Series.' Basically, these have a limited audience which is likely to have ready access to fiche readers and reader-printers.

"Thirdly, conference publications are candidates. These are the proceedings and papers from conferences and

meetings with a limited, specialized au- dience. Whenever possible, we will convert them to microfiche.

"Fourthly, annual reports are to be

microfiched. These will include both the annual reports of Government agencies, as well as some annual reports on specific topics (such as the Annual Report

on the Adn)inistration of the Marine

Mammal Protection Act of 1972).

"Fifth, and last, highly specialized reference works. This will involve some

directories, indexes, and manuals on

very specific topics. We have also de- cided to place on microfiche all Federal telephone directories which are not widely used outside of the agency itself. "Special consideration will be given

to the physical characteristics of publications. For example, one containing

colored anatomical plates would be a poor candidate for black and white

fiche—and would be exempt. A doctor might have trouble finding your appendix using just black and white illus- trations! Which brings us to criteria for not placing publications on microfiche.

These would include:

"First, publications whose physical characteristics would diminish their use

to a very high degree. The example

just given highlights the importance of color plates in some publications. This

would also embrace colored maps,

charts, posters, brochures, and flyers.

It includes loose-leaf publications needing frequent inserts for updating pur- poses. And, publications of very few pages would prove uneconomical to

fiche. Whereas, oversize publications

would prove awkward to fiche if pages

had to be broken into a number of frames. "Second, popular publications de- signed to promote such things as health or consumer information. This would

include "Home and Garden Bulletins," or such a work as Medicine for the Layman.

"Third, standard reference works,

like the ones earlier cited, or the Congressional Directory. We would exempt

here most legal materials, as well as

bibliographies and publication catalogs.

"Fourth, and last, periodicals which

are important for browsing, such as American Education, or Soldiers. This

will also embrace most newsletters and

many bulletins. "In all cases, the professional judgment of librarians on GPO's staff, as

well as the wise guidance of librarians on the Depository Library Council, with

input from working depository librar- ians, including the ones in law libraries,

will help us make the best decisions in the interest of both citizen use of de- pository materials and economy in the operation of the depository program."

4
Questions and

Answers

Q. What type of material comprises the Congressional Serial Set?

A. The Congressional Serial Set as we

know it today is comprised of the House

and Senate Documents and House and

Senate Reports. The Senate Executive Documents and Senate Executive Re- ports were also included in the Serial

Set, at the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, beginning with the 96th Congress in 1979.

Senate Executive Documents and

Senate Executive Reports as we know

them today are indigenous to the U.S. Senate and relate to Treaties and

Nominations: the former being ratified and the latter being confirmed by the

U.S. Senate. At one time, all material

relating to Treaties was considered

confidential in character and copies were not printed for public distribution. The material is now considered confi- dential in nature only until the injunction of secrecy is removed by the U.S. Senate, which in most cases is almost

immediately. Senate Executive Docu- ments and Reports were made available

to Depository Libraries under the Depository Library Program for the f/rst t/me during August 1977, or well into the 95th Congress.

Beginning with the 97th Congress,

Senate Executive Documents will no

longer be identified by letters of the

alphabet. They will be assigned numbers and be known as "Senate Treaty Documents." The "Senate Treaty Docu- ments" will also be included in the Serial Set. They will be bound in a separate volume, or volumes, and will be

identified by an assigned serial number

and/or their respective title. Some librarians have commented,

"Oh, but the Senate Executive Docu- ments used to be part of the Serial Set years ago, then they were discontinued

in the series." Yes, this is true. Be- ginning with the 30th Congress in 1848, there were volumes identified as Senate Executive Documents. There were also volumes labeled as House

Executive Documents. However, if one examines the contents of these vol- umes one will find that the material contained therein consists of communications from the President and various Executive Departments of the Govern- ment. These Executive Documents

must not be confused with the current

series of Senate Executive Documents. The provisions of the Printing Act of 1895 provided only for the printing and

binding of House Documents and Re- ports and Senate Documents and Reports. As a result, beginning with the 54th Congress, 1895-96, communications from the President and Executive Departments were no longer printed

and bound as Executive Documents.

Journals of both Houses of Congress were numbered in the Serial Set series because they too were distributed to State and Territorial Libraries. This

practice was discontinued beginning

with the 83rd Congress in 1953 be- cause the Journals are not actually

documents or reports.

It is true that in the past Hearings

and portions of testimony have been in- cluded in the Serial Set. The criteria used for selecting material to be bound

in the Congressional Serial Set in earlier years is not known. Perhaps some

of them were included because the Serial Numbering Plan proved to be an

orderly and convenient manner by

which to identify, and preserve for posterity, the vast amount of Congressional material.

An amendment to the Printing Act

of 1895, enacted in 1908, gave the

Joint Committee on Printing the authority to direct the manner in which numbered Congressional Documents and

Reports are to be arranged and bound.

Although the laws relating to "Printing

and Binding" have been amended, re- vised, and codified, this provision of the law is still in effect. New things are happening to the Congressional Serial Set. Librarians

will have to "keep on their toes" and familiarize themselves with the changes.

5
(

Document Review

[HIGHLIGHTS welcomes short reviews

by depository librarians of significant recent documents. Just send them

typed double spaced to the Editor. Our

most recent contribution is by Earl Shumaker, Head Librarian, Government

Publications Department, Northern Il- linois University Libraries.]

Reflections of America: Commemorating ttie Statistical Abstract Centennial. Norman Cousins, Honorary Editor. Es- says by Sylvan H. Wittwer, et al. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing

Office, 1980.) Pp. 212. Paper. $6.50. C 3.2: Am 3/5. Item No. 146. (Avail- able through GPO Bookstores, Stock

Number 003-024-02921-9.) A basic reference tool which one will find in both academic and public librar- ies is the Statistical Abstract of the United States. Published by GPO since 1879, it continues to reflect the changing concerns of American society and

the evolving activities of the U.S. Government. The essays in this volume attempt to appraise some of the principal changes

which have taken place in America

since the Statistical Abstract first ap- peared. Twenty-six authors were asked

to interpret the Abstract and comment

on the relevance of statistical changes

in their particular fields. Among the topics discussed are: agriculture, arts, attitudes, business,

cities, classes, communities, conservation, crime, economy, education, employment and income, health, housing,

international relations, international

trade, minorities, population, poverty,

quality of life, transportation, voting,

and women. Photos and illustrations enhance the volume which will be of

interest toa wide audience.
[ WORKSHOPS ]

Most Costly Book

Received by 541

Depository Libraries

The lives of depository librarians hold daily surprises. Take for example

the 541 depository libraries where a decision had been made to select Item Number 429-V-5, which appears in the

List of Classes under the Federal En- ergy Regulatory Commission as "Maps

and Charts." Little did librarians guess

that they would be receiving Hydropower Sites of the United States, De- veloped and Undeveloped: River Basin

Maps Sliowing Site Locations (Conventional, Pumped, Storage, Retired), a publication receiving national publicity

at a June conference of hydropower

officials and engineers held in Washington, D.C. News of this publication is appearing

in 300 newspapers and on 50 major

radio stations. It also happens to be

the most costly book distributed and

sold by the Superintendent of Docu- ments (SuDocs E 2.15: H 99; Stock

Number 061-002-00072-3; appearing on Shipping List 15,953 for 5/7/81; price $127.00).

SPRING PARTICIPANTS IN GPO's Library and Statutory Distribution Workshops.

WORKSHOPS ,
Our Best Effort!

[Keep those "Best Efforts" coming to the Editor for HIGHLIGHTS readers!]

Making posters is a traditional li- brary pastime. Sandy Faull, Documents

Librarian, has wanted a depository map

poster for seven years! Now, in her present position, and with a little help

from her good friends at the New Mexico State Library, a real prize-winner has been created that spotlights loca- tions of Federal and State depositories.

It is done with black ink on orange

paper and measures 171/2" x 23".

This depository map poster is a fine model for other states. To help you

further depository library service, the New Mexico State Library will honor

requests for one free copy (folded) from any depository which provides a self- addressed manila envelope (9" x 12")

with 36 cents postage on it. Just write

to:

Ms. Sandra K. Faull Documents Librarian New Mexico State Library

Box 1629

Sar)ta Fe, New Mexico 87503

Public Documents Highlights is cir- culated bi-monthly by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402, and is mailed at first class post- age rates. Public Documents Highlights

is intended primarily for librarians of the Federal Depository Library Program.

Material proposed for circulation may

be submitted to the Editor, Public Documents Highlights, Library and

Statutory Distribution Service, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20401. The Superintendent of Documents, however, retains the right to accept such material, to edit it, and

to assign priorities of circulation.

NEW MEXICO

DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES

N£M HEX I

INIOH COIIEGE

FAIE LIBRAIIY

fAiE supfiyiE counr l

fATE UHlrtfiSirY NEW HEXICO

WESTERN m mm university

STATE DEPOSIICRV I im^rf. AUWMBDO WJBLIC mm lOMHSON MEHORIfi IRflTONl CtOVIS-MfiVER miK

EASTERN NEW MEXICO UNWERSHY fmm,m public GALLUP PUBLIC

NESA PUBLIC (LOS AUWS)

NEW HEXICO WIGHLflN&S UNIVEfiSIK

NEW mKr. mm collese

NEW mKO STATE IJNIVEflSITY NEM MEXICO STATE (JNIVEfiSITY-imAHTS

flOSVELt mLIC

THOMAS amim imtRiAL ilas cbucesj UNIVERISIY OF NEM MEXICO

WESTERN HEW MEXICo'uNlVERSITV

FEBFRAT Awn %uif nffn.urna t ljbrarifs

EASTERN NEW JttXICO UNIVERSITY m MEKICO HIGHLANDS DNIVfRSIIY fmm nfW!iinitiF<L O STATE UFPOSIinRl ES

NEW MEXICO

STATE LIBRARY 1981

8 spo aa2-05<