U.S.

Printing

Government iMjliSlil Office December 1976

Number 19 GP 3:27:19

Retrospective Documents

Cataloging Feasibility

Study Proposed By GPO

The Government Printing Office

Depository Library collection of

Government documents at last count contained 2,107,051 individ- ual titles. The collection is presently

housed with the National Archives

and Records Service, although it re- mains the property of GPO. The col- lection has been gathered by the Li- brary Division staff since 1895 and

)the most complete collection of Government documents known to

exist today. The collection can only

be accessed through printed indexes

spanning 80 years in a variety of publications.

GPO has proposed the Council on

Library Resources undertake a feasibility study and economic analysis

to determine the cost and advisability of cataloging the entire collection, using the Ohio College Library

Center and the Anglo-American Cat- aloging Rules. Such a plan, if eco- nomically sound, would benefit the

nation's library community by pro- viding electronic search and the generation on demand of indexes and

bibliographies through computer

manipulation. In cooperation with

the Library of Congress, magnetic

output tapes could be made avail- able to other networking systems

throughout the country, thereby fa- cilitating bibliographic control of

)overnment documentation.

Assistant Public Printer (Superintendent of Documents)

Council Meeting

Well Attended

Meeting in Arlington, Virginia,

October 21-22, 1976, members of the Depository Library Council to the

Public Printer, GPO staff people,

and many attending documents li- brarians were welcomed by Thomas

F. McCormick (Public Printer), Carl

A. LaBarre (Superintendent of Documents), and Bernadine Hoduski

(representing the Staff Director of the Joint Committee on Printing).

Reports by GPO staff members

were given on: "Monthly Catalog

Status and OCLC," "Depository Li- brary Inspection," "Non-GPO Documentation Acquisitions," "New Surveys," "Depository Library Designations," "Status of GPO Micro-publishing Project," "Status of 'NS'

Project and Planned Automation of Item Books," "Depository Library

Use of Publications Reference File,"

"GPO Library Committee and Workshop Participation," and "Status of GPO Sales Service."

A time and place for the next Depository Library Council meeting were chosen: April 25-26, 1977, in Boulder, Colorado. Everyone inter- ested in documents is most welcome

to attend.

Standards & Guidelines

Move Forward At Council

The revised version of the "Pro- posed Standards & Guidelines" was

presented by Committee Chairper- son Catharine J. Reynolds (University of Colorado at Boulder) and the

Editor of HIGHLIGHTS to the Depository Library Council to the Public

Printer at the meeting in Arlington,

Virginia.

Enthusiastic comments and criti- cism had been received from documents librarians all over the country on the earlier version of this signifi- cant set of proposals. The Committee incorporated a great many of

these into the new version.

Council members examined this

draft point by point and made only

a few changes. Unanimous endorsement was then given to the "Standards & Guidelines."

The Superintendent of Documents accepted the draft and said

he would turn it over to GPO's legal

counsel for examination in the light

of existing laws. Council requested

that when the final version becomes

available it be published in HIGHLIGHTS and used by depository li- braries.
We Hear You! Special Needs

GPO recently put the searchlight on the area of handling customer

complaints. A nationally known consultant firm, Fenvessey Associates

of New York City, found considerable improvement in the customer

complaint handling service. They

stated: "On a scale of one to ten,

GPO would rate about 7.5 and is climbing fast." The Fenvessey study also re- vealed: (1) GPO ranks among the

top five mail order houses on the

basis of sales revenues; (2) GPO

processes more than 420 different

subscriptions, compared with a top

of about 50 by the largest fulfillHearing Horns.

Thete borne

are exactly the same a* t h o i e advert Ised by

many dealers at prlcei ranging Irom $8.00 to $15.00 each. These London HearIne Horns are constructed

of light metal upon an enl tirely new principle. They

I may be carried In the

I pocket and when in Use

' are easily concealed In the band.

Mid« in Two Siiet, with Black Oxidized Finiih. No. 20K3285 London Hetrlng Horn, medium ilze. 7^

ment firm in private industry; (3)

Despite its volume, GPO does not rank among the chief targets of complaints about the Federal Government.

NOW WE KNOW WHAT IT'S ALL

ABOUT! Library and Statutory Dis- tribution Service staff members who

participated in a recent course, "An

Introduction to the Superintendent

of Documents Classification System." Objectives of the course were:

(1) Developing a basic understanding of the System; (2) Recognizing

the relationship between the organizational structure of Government

Agencies and the System; (3) Learning how to classify numbered publications. The instructors for this course were Leonard Hodges and

Norman Barbee, both from the Li- brary Division.

If your depository library has some special needs of a general or

specific nature, let us know. Below

are some recent requests. If you can

offer discards, write the requesting

depository a letter (sending a copy

to your regional). The library accepting the material agrees to pay any

postage and packing costs that may

be necessary.

U.S. Statutes at Large, vols. 17 &

27.

Alan Edward Schorr

Government Publications Librarian

Elmer E. Rasmuson Library

University of Alaska

Fairbanks, Alaska 99701 (

Cumulated Index Medicus, vol. 9,

pts. 6 to end of vol.; 11, pts. 1-4.

Congressional Record, vol. 117, pt. 23; vol. 118, pts. 13-24, 32.

Ms. Jean M. Peters Documents Librarian

Charles A. Dana Library

Stetson University College of Law

1401—61st Street South

St. Petersburg, Florida 33707

Digest of International Law (Hackworth series), 1940—4, vols. 1, 3-8.

Digest of International Law (Whiteman series), 1963, vol. 2.

Ms. Victoria E. Hargrave, Librarian

Henry Pfeiffer Library

MacMurray College

Jacksonville, Illinois 62650

FCC Reports, vol. 42, 2nd seri

Treaties and Other International

Agreements of the U.S., 1776-

1949, vol. 1 (Dabney).

2
Questions and Answers

Mrs. Karen S. Curtis

Assistant Law Librarian

School of Law Library

Washburn University of Topeka

Topeka, Kansas 66621

Monthly Catalog, any complete

years before 1959.

Numerical List & Schedule of Vol- umes, all issues.

Serial Set, any volumes prior to number 12713 (89th Congress, 2nd

Session).

Ms. Jean Bell Documents Librarian

University of Maryland Law Library

500 West Baltimore Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201

U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. 9; vol. 18, pts. 2-3; vols. 26, 30; vol. 35,

pt. 1; vol. 36, pt. 1.

Paul Axel -Lute Federal Documents Librarian

Law School Library

Rutgers University

180 University Avenue

Newark, New Jersey 07102

Resources in Education, 1975, vol. 10, nos. 2, 10, 11, 12; 1976, vol. 11, no. 1.

Ms. Sherry Mosley

Documents Librarian

Dowling College Library

Idle Hour Boulevard

Oakdale, Long Island, New York

11769

U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. 84, pt.

1; and copies for the years 1960-

1969.

Continued on page 4

Q. The latest Information on the

progress of the new MONTHLY CATALOG has been requested by Kathleen Cohen at the University of

North Florida Library. She adds:

"We here at the University of North

Florida Library are very excited

about the MONTHLY CATALOG entries being placed In the OCLC data

base. Since we obtained depository

status In 1972 we have been cata- loging all our documents; hopefully,

OCLC will make this process faster

for us."

A. Reviews are coming in, and

most of them are quite favorable.

The changes in style and format are, however, causing problems for some

of our users. We are addressing

these problems and other critical comments on the Monthly Catalog.

Upcoming catalogs will include

month and year of publication, more

headers in the text, a list of Government authors, and the black dot. Cataloging inconsistencies and re- dundant data will be reduced or eliminated. Other changes that will improve GPO's cataloging and the

Monthly Catalog are in a package of

enhancements now under consideration. Included are computer pro- grams necessary for the cumulative

indexes, the appendix, the stock

number index, and various authority/cross-reference files.

We have requested that OCLC

provide GPO with the means to in- put the SuDocs number into all the

data base records. This "lock"

should be available to GPO in the near future. GPO is also seeking to have the Library of Congress dis- tribute our cataloging on magnetic

tape through its Cataloging Distri- bution Service.

Internally, the GPO Library is making the cataloging of most re- cently received documents its number one priority. The ideal is for the

depository libraries to be able to

retrieve cataloging via OCLC the same day they receive their shipments. This is our goal.

Q. Librarian M. Mashburn of the

Atlanta Public Library writes asking

"What Is the rationale of the current method of handling survey Items?"

A. More than 500 new Item Sur- veys have been completed so far this year. The pace of Surveys will con- tinue throughout 1977. Our build- ing does not have space available to

retain pallet upon pallet of Survey

material for an extended period of

time. We allow a full ten weeks from

the start of a Survey to its completion. During that period new pallets

arrive awaiting completion of the

Survey.

We have found that printing the

response cards on the Shipping List

is far more economical than having

to print, collate, insert and ship

2,400 individual cards on each Sur- vey Item. We have shipped complete new sets of Item Selection Cards to

all Depositories and will update

those cards on an annual basis. This

work was done on contract and re- lieved our Office of having to dedi- cate additional employees to the col- lation task.

3
r

Continued from page 3

Ms. Margaret G. Brenner

Documents Librarian

James M. Milne Library

State University College

Oneonta, New York 13820

U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. 78.

Tom Larson

Documents Librarian

Penfield Library

State University College

Oswego, New York 13126

1960 Census of Population, & 1960

Census of Housing, final volumes of

both only.

Ms. Judith Koopman

Documents Librarian State University of New York Library

Purchase, New York 10577

Congressional Record Index, vol. 121, nos. 7, 13 to end; vol. 122, no.

1 to end.

Mr. H. F. Dade, Chief

Documents Department

J. Y. Joyner Library East Carolina University

Greenville, North Carolina 27834

Congressional Record Index, vol. 58, pt. 9.

Earl Shumaker, Head

Government Documents Department

Ohio University Library

Athens, Ohio 45701

Research in Education, 1974, vol. 9, nos. 7-12.

Resources in Education, 1975, vol. 10, nos. 1-12.

Ms. Maribeth Petercsak

Government Documents Librarian

Otterbein College

Westerville, Ohio 43081

Numerical List & Schedule of Vol- umes, 86th through 90th Congress.

Mrs. Judith A. Blevins

Government Documents Assistant

Technical Services Division

Andrews Library

The College of Wooster

Wooster, Ohio 44691

Cumulated Index Medicus, vol. 13,

sections 1-4.

U.S. Reports, vols. 282-358, 361,

365-367.

U.S. Statutes at Large, vols. 31-49;

vol. 53, pt. 3; vol. 54, pt. 2; vol. 61,

pt. 3; vol. 64, pt. 2; vol. 65.

Miss Louisa Cartledge

Reference Librarian

Furman University Library

Greenville, South Carolina 29613

Monthly Checklist of State Publications, vol. 66, no. 5 (May 1975).

Mrs. Bang Kim

Documents Librarian

Lincoln Memorial Library

South Dakota State University

Brookings, South Dakota 57006

(

Public Documents Highlights, Li- brary and Statutory Distribution

Service, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20401. The

Superintendent of Documents,

however, retains the right to accept

such material, to edit it, and to as- sign priorities of circulation.

•if U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1976- 913-022^

Public Documents Highlights is circulated bi-monthly by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402, and is mailed at

first class postage 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,