Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 24, no. 09 GP 3.16/3-2:24/09 July 15, 2003

HIGHLIGHTS

d’Arcy Joins 

SuDocs 1

Reorganization 

Plan Approved 2 

Fall Conference,

Council Meeting 

Planned 4

Preliminary 

Agenda 5

Special Sales 8 

Bookstore 

Closings 8

Selecting 

E-Pubs 9

DVDs 11 

ALA Remarks

 Russell 15 

 McGarr 19 

LPS Update 24 

GPO Access 

Update 26 

Michelle d’Arcy Joins 

SuDocs Organization 

Michelle E. d’Arcy joined the Superintendent of Documents organization 

effective June 30, 2003. She will serve as expert consultant in the new 

Program Planning and Coordination area. This organization is responsible 

for all aspects of planning the strategic direction of Superintendent of 

Documents dissemination programs and working in collaboration with 

SuDocs operational areas to establish the policies necessary to reach those 

goals and objectives. 

Ms. d’Arcy’s prior professional positions include Director of Marketing: 

Indirect Channel at Law Office Information Systems (Loislaw.com). She 

was responsible for the creation and successful implementation of 

Loislaw.com’s sales and marketing initiatives for the Indirect Channel 

(IC). This included both print and online/web-based presence for all law 

publishing IC marketing programs, advertising, collateral development, 

direct mail, and tradeshow initiatives. 

Before that, she worked at LEXIS-NEXIS over a nineteen-year period in a 

variety of positions and functions addressing the Computer Assisted Legal 

Research (CALR) needs of law firms, corporate markets, libraries, law 

schools, and the government sector. Her most recent position at LN was 

as Senior Director, Legal Education. 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

Superintendent of Documents 

Reorganization Plan Approved 

[Message from Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents]

The Superintendent of Documents 

reorganization that was discussed at the 

Depository Library Council meeting in Reno 

in April has now been approved by the Public 

Printer. 

The new organization is based on functional 

areas. In a series of meetings over several 

months, the staff identified the functions we 

currently perform or expect to perform in the 

near future and aggregated those functions 

into logical groupings. Deputy 

Superintendent of Documents TC Evans and I 

then developed an organization chart and 

took it back to the group which met several 

more times to refine the plan and make sure 

that key activities were identified and 

properly placed. The new organization was 

approved by the Public Printer and Deputy 

Public Printer and will be implemented 

gradually over the next few months. 

There are four major areas, and one program

support group in the new organization. 

(1) Program Development: This 

organization is responsible for planning and 

coordinating the execution of any new 

programs assigned to, or initiated by the 

Superintendent of Documents, by GPO, or 

under newly established legal mandates and 

for collaborating with the GPO Office of 

Innovations and New Technology and 

coordinating the completion of projects 

handed off to Documents by that office. 

(2) Program Planning and Coordination: 

This organization is responsible for all 

aspects of planning the strategic direction of 

Superintendent of Documents dissemination 

programs and working in collaboration with 

SuDocs operational areas to establish the 

policies necessary to reach those goals and 

objectives. These responsibilities extend to 

funding requests, pricing, collection 

development, market planning and strategic 

planning. 

The three program areas are the Federal 

Depository Library Program, the National 

Bibliography Program, and the Cost 

Recovery Programs. Each program area will 

have its own manager and staff. 

(3) Library and Customer Relations: This 

organization is responsible for all aspects 

carrying out the day-to-day contacts that 

Superintendent of Documents has with its 

library partners and various customers in 

accordance with established policies, goals, 

and objectives. 

The three components are the contact center, 

marketing, and education and development. 

(4) Collections Management: This 

organization is responsible for the day-to-day 

acquisition, bibliographic control, collection 

management, and dissemination of tangible 

and electronic federal information from the 

Superintendent of Documents collections in 

accordance with established policies, goals, 

and objectives. 

The four components are acquisition and 

development, bibliographic services, 

permanent collections, and product storage 

and distribution. 

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(5) Program Support: This organization is 

responsible for performing the activities 

necessary to support the Superintendent of 

Documents operational organizations, 

including performance measurement and 

administrative and analytical services. 

Next Steps: Position descriptions are being 

developed now for the directors of the four 

major areas. These positions will be posted 

within a few weeks and we will be seeking 

candidates from within GPO, from the library 

community and from other sources. We will 

post notices to a variety of lists as each 

position is opened for applications. 

As soon as the descriptions for the directors 

have been completed, we will begin 

preparing position descriptions for the 11 new 

managers required to staff the new 

organization. As with the directors, we will 

be seeking candidates for the manager 

positions from within GPO, from the library 

community and from other sources and we 

will post notices to a variety of lists as each 

position becomes available. 

We believe that this new organizational 

structure will allow us to bring new talent 

into GPO and provide promotional 

opportunities and new challenges for current 

staff at all levels. It will also enable us to 

better serve our mission in light of changing 

requirements and financial pressures.

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2003 Federal Depository Library Conference 

and Fall Depository Library Council Meeting 

Planned for October 

The 2003 Federal Depository Library 

Conference and Fall Depository Library 

Council meeting will be held October 19 

through October 22, 2003, in Arlington, VA. 

The Conference is the largest gathering in the 

country designed specifically for depository 

library staff. It will have programs for the 

beginning depository librarian or technician 

as well as for experienced staff. Federal 

publishing agency representatives will 

discuss their electronic information initiatives 

and preview those still in the planning stages. 

The meeting hotel is the Doubletree Hotel 

Crystal City National Airport, 300 Army 

Navy Drive, Arlington, 22202. A limited 

number of rooms are available for $150 (plus 

tax) per night single and $170 (plus tax) per 

night double. These rates will be honored 

only through September 28, 2003. Virginia 

room tax is 9.75%. 

You can make reservations by calling 800-

222-8733 or the hotel directly at 703-416-

4100. (A Private Online Group Page will be 

available soon to make booking your 

reservation easier). Please mention that you 

are attending GPO's Federal Depository 

Library Conference and Council meeting. 

The hotel offers daily, overnight and valet 

parking. At present, the maximum daily 

parking rate is $12 per day and $12 for 

overnight guests. Free shuttle transportation 

is offered from the Ronald Reagan 

Washington National Airport and the 

Pentagon City Metro Station. 

There is no charge for the conference. All 

participants should register at <http://www. 

access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/tools/03conreg. 

html>. Alternatively, the form below may be 

faxed or e-mailed. 

REGISTRATION FORM

FALL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL MEETING 

& FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY CONFERENCE

Arlington, VA - October 19-22, 2003

E-Mail or FAX to: 

Ms. Robin Haun-Mohamed 

Library Programs Service (SLLD) 

U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, DC 20401 

Email: rhaun-mohamed@gpo.gov Fax: (202) 512-1432 

Name 

Institution 

Library/Office 

Address 

City/State/Zip Code 

Telephone (include area code) Fax

E-mail Address 

GPO will seek to make accommodations for attendees with disabilities. Please specify needs when returning this registration. 

Further, if you have a medical condition, you may want to list someone to contact in case of an emergency.

Special Needs

Emergency Contact Name/Phone

4 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

5 

Preliminary Agenda 

Federal Depository Library Conference & 

Depository Library Council Meeting 

Fall 2003 Arlington, VA 

Sunday October 19 

1:00 – 3:00 Council Session 

4:00 – 5:00 Welcome to Council for New Attendees 

5:00 – 7:00 Dinner Break 

7:00 – 9:00 Council Session 

Monday October 20

8:30 GPO Updates 

10:00 GPO Question & Answer Session 

10:30 Break 

11:00 Breakout Session: Public Libraries 

11:00 Breakout Session: Large Academic Libraries 

11:00 Breakout Session: Med/Small Academic Libraries 

11:00 Breakout Session: Law/State/Other 

12:00 Lunch 

2:00 Council Working Session 

2:00 Agency Update: 

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency 

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Richard Huffine, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory 

Speaker TBA 

2:00 Tribal College Libraries 

Charles Bernholz, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 

Speaker TBA 

2:00 GPO/New Documents Librarians Questions & Answers 

2:00 National Air & Space Museum Library Tour—Limit 25 

2:00 GPO Tour 

3:15 Break 

3:30 Council Working Session 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

3:30 Agency Update: 

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office 

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Speaker TBA

3:30 Southern Oregon Digital Archives 

Deborah Hollins, Southern Oregon University

Teresa Montgomery, Southern Oregon University

Jim Rible, Southern Oregon University

Speaker TBA

3:30 GPO Access Open Forum

Ric Davis, GPO

Tuesday October 21

8:30 Public Printer Remarks and Information Exchange/Discussion with Council and 

Audience 

10:00 Break

10:30 Continuation of Information Exchange/Discussion with Council and Audience 

Presentation of Federal Depository Library of the Year Award 

12:00 Lunch

2:00 Council Working Session 

2:00 Open

2:00 Partnership Updates

DDM2 

Nan Myers, Wichita State University

Browse Topics 

Speaker TBA

2:00 How to Develop & Write Library Policies and Procedures 

Stephen Henson, BE&K Engineering 

2:00 Senate Library Tour—Limit 30 

2:00 GPO Tour

3:15 Break

3:30 Council Working Session 

3:30 Agency Update:

U.S. Census Bureau 

John C. Kavaliunas, Census Bureau 

FirstGov Portal 

Speaker TBA

3:30 Maps—Present and Future Trends: Geodata.gov 

Speaker TBA 

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3:30 When the Serial Set Isn’t REALLY the Serial Set: How Selectives Cope with 

Congressional Reports and Documents: Panel Presentation 

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Kathleen L. Amen, St. Mary’s University

Robin Arney, University of Texas at El Paso 

Mary S. Clark, Library of Virginia 

Patricia Keogh, Goucher College 

Anna Korhonen, Cornell University

Lori Smith, Southeastern Louisiana University

Sandra Q. Williams, St. Cloud State University

5:00 Adjourn

7:00 – 9:00 Council Working Session 

Wednesday October 22

8:30 Council Working Session 

8:30 Agency Update:

STAT-USA: 

Dee Long, STAT-USA 

Regulations.gov 

Oscar Morales, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

8:30 Depository Promotion: Building for Successful Local Events 

Paula R. Singleton, Xavier University

Dicksy Howe-Noyes, Southwest State University

8:30 Open

10:00 Break

10:30 Council Working Session 

10:30 Agency Update:

NCJRS 

Bill Ballweber, National Criminal Justice Reference Service 

FEMA 

Speaker TBA

10:30 Managing Your Electronic Depository Resources 

Valerie Glenn, University of North Texas 

Arlene Weible, University of North Texas 

10:30 Web Tutorials

Speaker TBA

12:00 Lunch

2:00 Council Wrap up 

3:00 Adjourn

7 
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Special Values Now Available at GPO 

Bookstores 

GPO is pleased to inform Federal depository 

libraries of a unique opportunity offered by 

the closing of the remaining GPO Bookstores 

to purchase a broad spectrum of repriced 

current GPO sales titles. These repriced titles 

are available at 75 percent below their 

original prices. These special values apply to 

in-store stock only. 

The following stores will close on August 1, 

2003: Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO; Pueblo, 

CO; Detroit, MI; Milwaukee, WI. The 

following stores will close on August 29, 

2003: Atlanta, GA; Jacksonville, FL; 

Houston, TX; Pittsburgh, PA. 

Bookstores to Close by October 2003 

Inserted below is part of the text of a GPO 

press release announcing the closure of the 

GPO Bookstores, other than the main 

bookstore at the GPO headquarters on North 

Capitol Street in Washington, DC. The full 

text is available at 

http://www.gpo.gov/publicaffairs/news/03news29.html. This does not 

affect the Federal Citizen Information Center 

(FCIC) in Pueblo, Colorado. 

As GPO's Online Services Surge in 

Popularity, Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores 

to Close: Available Stock Now Offered at 

Close Out Prices 

With nearly a quarter of a million titles 

available online and free of charge, and with 

public retrievals exceeding 32 million every 

month, GPO Access <www.gpoaccess.gov>, 

a service of the U.S. Government Printing 

Office (GPO), has become one of the 

principal tools for providing public access to 

official U.S. Government information. As a 

result, by September 30, 2003, the GPO will 

close all of its brick-and-mortar bookstore 

operations outside Washington, DC. 

Before closing, bookstore customers can take 

advantage of low prices on remaining store 

stocks. These items are being repriced at 

25% of the original price. 

"The GPO is remaking itself as an agency 

committed to using new technologies to meet 

the information demands of the 21st century," 

said Public Printer of the United States Bruce 

R. James. "In the past our bookstores 

provided a great service, but the business of 

Government information production and 

delivery is changing, and we are not only 

changing with it, we will help lead that 

change." 

The closings mark the latest in a series of

developments marking the GPO's 

transformation into a primarily electronic 

information disseminating agency. In 

addition to providing online access to 

Government information via GPO Access, 

GPO is actively transitioning its Federal 

Depository Library Program, serving 1,200 

libraries nationwide, to a predominately 

electronic basis. 

GPO offers an online bookstore at 

<http://bookstore.gpo.gov>. The online 

bookstore's sales catalog includes all titles 

available for sale and can be searched by 

publication title, subject, or keywords. All 

8 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

titles can be ordered securely online using 

Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and 

Discover/Novus credit cards, and customers 

have a rapid delivery option via FedEx. 

Customers can also order Government 

publications from the GPO toll free by 

telephone from 866-512-1800, 7:30 a.m. to 

4:30 p.m. Eastern time; by fax from 202-512-

2250; or by mail from Superintendent of 

Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 

15250-7954. 

Slated for closure are the GPO bookstores in 

Kansas City, Portland, OR, Seattle, New 

York (these four will close July 1); Los 

Angeles, Denver, Pueblo, CO, Detroit, 

Milwaukee (August 1); and Atlanta, 

Jacksonville, FL, Pittsburgh, and Houston 

(August 29). The store at the GPO 

headquarters in Washington, DC, will be 

reconfigured. Since 2001, the GPO has 

closed bookstores in San Francisco, Boston, 

Philadelphia, Chicago, Birmingham,

Cleveland, and Columbus, as well as a store 

in the Washington, DC, area. 

In addition to being able to access Federal 

information and buy Government 

publications online, citizens can continue to 

locate and use Government information 

through any Federal depository library 

located near them. To locate the Federal 

depository library nearest you, go to 

<www.gpo.gov/libraries>. 

Considerations in Selecting Online Publications 

With the continuing transition to a more 

electronic Federal Depository Library 

Program (FDLP), several questions have been 

raised about selection of publications 

distributed in online format. The following 

discussion attempts to provide depository 

library staff with additional information on 

which to base their selection decisions. 

Where are online only publications found 

in the List of Classes? 

Online publications that are assigned a unique 

SuDocs class stem are listed in the List of 

Classes and designated (EL). Other online 

publications are included in general category 

classes (i.e., General Publications and 

Handbooks, Manuals, and Guides) and in 

other classes that represent more than one 

title. These SuDocs classes do not have a 

specific format designation and generally 

include both online and tangible publications. 

Libraries are advised to review item numbers 

associated with these classes very carefully 

before processing a deselection to assure that 

9 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

desired tangible publications are not 

deselected. 

The List of Classes reflects decisions made 

about format designations for class numbers. 

However, all decisions are subject to change, 

as Federal agencies change their publishing 

practices and make alternative formats 

available for the public and the FDLP. 

What are the advantages to libraries of 

selecting item numbers for EL 

publications? 

Depository libraries benefit in several ways 

when they include EL publications in their 

item selection profiles:

• 

• 

• 

• 

Receipt of new agency publications, in 

any format, from their inception. 

Occasionally, LPS adds new item

numbers representing new publications to 

depository library profiles based on the 

libraries’ current item selection profiles. 

This process avoids the wait until the next 

item selection update cycle for adding 

new item numbers. LPS makes the 

assumption that libraries will want 

publications similar to those they already 

select. Libraries that do not want the new 

publications may drop them at any time. 

Libraries will receive these automatic 

additions, which might be in tangible 

format, only if they already select the 

original item number, which might be 

associated with an EL publication. 

Receipt of publications in tangible 

formats when their designation changes 

from EL, without missing any issues. An 

agency may change a publication’s 

format from online to tangible, or LPS 

may change the format designation from

EL to a tangible format if the agency

discontinues posting the complete 

publication online. Libraries will receive 

the new format only if they select the item

number for the online publication. 

Free use of online subscription services 

that are otherwise fee-based. 

For libraries which subscribe to 

cataloging records (and/or record updates) 

from third-party vendors (i.e., 

MARCIVE, AutoGraphics, OCLC), 

receipt of records for online publications. 

These subscription services may base 

their library profiles on the libraries’ item

number selections. Libraries that don’t 

select the items for EL publications may 

not receive the cataloging records for 

them unless they specifically profile with 

the vendors to receive these. 

What are the advantages to researchers 

when the library selects item numbers for 

EL publications? 

The selection of item numbers for online 

publications assists those researchers using 

locator services such as the Catalog of U.S. 

Government Publications, which link to 

libraries that select the item numbers for 

these publications. This “locate libraries” 

function can serve as a referral service of 

sorts for people who want related materials. 

For example, if a library selects Condition of 

Education (EL), they know this is a subject 

area in which the library collects materials, 

and they may come into the library seeking 

related materials that are not available online. 

Implications for collection development 

Libraries that choose not to select items for 

online publications should revise their 

collection development policy to reflect this 

decision. Library staff should consider how 

the library will provide bibliographic access 

to online publications so the public and the 

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library’s primary clientele know about these 

titles. (One way to do this is by reviewing 

New Electronic Titles and cataloging or 

linking to those matching the library’s 

collection parameters.) 

The true measure of a library's collection 

development success is no longer the actual 

number of item selections and relationship to 

the average selection rate for similar size and 

type of library, but whether the depository 

library is meeting the Federal government 

information needs of its community. 

Resources 

Documents Data Miner (DDM) databases, 

developed and operated through a 

GPO/Wichita State University partnership, 

and the Federal Bulletin Board (FBB) List of 

Classes are very useful tools for searching 

and developing a list of item selections by 

format. Several in the depository community 

have extracted data from a DDM or FBB 

database and sorted it in various ways, such 

as SuDocs class number, in order to have 

another tool for item selection review and 

collection development. Recent postings to 

documents discussion lists have included 

step-by-step instructions for achieving these 

results. Currently in DDM, one can simply 

search in the List of Classes by format

"Electronic Library" and retrieve all online 

documents, including those online only and 

those associated with other formats.

As always, if you have any questions, please 

continue to utilize the askLPS service. 

GPO will soon install its first Integrated 

Library System (ILS), which will allow LPS 

to provide new services related to item

selection to depository libraries. Notices 

about new developments and services will be 

posted on FDLP-L and published in 

Administrative Notes. 

Related information 

Collection Development (FDLP Desktop) 

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

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Review of LPS positions on item selection 

rates 

Administrative Notes v. 22, # 5, 3/15/01 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/colldev/expl-ave.html

Depository access to online subscription 

services 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/colldev/pw-serv.html

Item numbers added to Essential Titles 

Administrative Notes, v. 24, # 6, 5/15/03 

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

/adnotes/ad051503.html#5

GPO Guidelines for online processing of

depository documents 

Administrative Notes, v. 16, # 17, 12/15/95 

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

online-proc.html

DVD & the 3 P's: Preservation, Policy, and 

Public Access 

Presentation by Judy Russell 

Superintendent of Documents 

DVD 2003 International Conference 

June 11, 2003 

It is a great pleasure to be here with you 

today to talk about the exciting new 

opportunities for improving public access to 

government information using DVD 

technology. 

I am sure that many of you are familiar with 

the Federal Depository Library Program

(FDLP). It is one of several programs 

administered by GPO to ensure broad public 

access to Federal government information. 

James Madison's vision for the success of this 

nation rested on the ability of an informed 

citizenry to participate in the democratic 

process and to hold government accountable 

for its actions. He believed that for 

democracy to flourish there had to be a free 

flow of information to the people, with access 

to government information as a fundamental 

right. 

In 1813, Congress took steps to implement 

that vision by passing the initial law requiring 

the deposit of Federal government 

information throughout the country for free 

public access. The program was originally 

administered by the Department of the 

Interior and later transferred to the 

Government Printing Office, which was not 

established until 1861. 

In their wisdom, our Founding Fathers 

created a system that has lasted almost 200 

years and has served this nation very well. 

Today it is the public's primary source of free 

access to the published information of the 

Federal Government, and that is why the 

enabling legislation is sometimes called 

"America's first freedom of information act." 

More than 1,200 Federal depository libraries 

nationwide provide free public access to 

Government information in both print and 

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electronic formats. Federal depository 

libraries are designated by Members of 

Congress or by law. Many are college, 

university, and academic law libraries, 

making the FDLP a key component of the 

Nation's education system. 

Because the system distributes information to 

libraries throughout the country, there is no 

way that any natural disaster or terrorist act 

could ever wipe out the history of this nation 

and deprive the people of the information 

generated by their government over time. 

However, the system was created before 

modern means of transportation and 

communication – before automobiles, trains, 

and airplanes changed our ability to move 

rapidly from one part of the country to 

another; before radio, television and the 

Internet transformed the way we obtain and 

share information instantaneously. And long 

before anyone conceived of small shiny DVD 

discs that could hold vast amounts of 

information, be replicated and disseminated 

cheaply, and protect valuable public data 

from hardware crashes, viruses, and 

unauthorized changes. 

Initially the depository program was based on 

capturing documents as they flowed through 

the printing process and obtaining additional 

copies for dissemination to depository 

libraries. Once the documents were shipped 

to the libraries, the responsibility for 

preserving the documents and providing 

public access resided with the libraries. 

Today we have a vastly different program. 

This year only 40% of the titles selected for 

inclusion in the FDLP will be shipped in 

paper, microfiche or some other tangible 

format such as CD-ROM or DVD. 60% of 

the titles will be made available on GPO 

Access or through links to electronic 

publications on agency or other websites. 

The trend is clear and the change is 

accelerating.

With the change from paper and microfiche 

to electronic formats, the responsibility for 

preservation and permanent public access of 

the information has moved from the libraries 

back to the government. 

As we examine the next generation of 

software for GPO Access, we are also

preparing to migrate all of our databases 

forward, add the appropriate XML tags, and 

digitally sign the content to authenticate it. 

Simultaneously, we are examining the need 

to refresh hundreds, perhaps even thousands, 

of CD-ROM titles that were shipped to 

depository libraries in the past 10-12 years. 

On a recent visit to a regional depository 

library, I saw rack upon rack of CDs. Many 

of those titles are now aged and aging. Many 

run only on Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. 

They are not forward compatible with today’s 

operating systems and networks. The data is 

often embedded in proprietary formats. 

We are expecting our depository libraries to 

run museums, maintaining and operating 

obsolete technology in order to provide 

access to a wide array of government 

information stored on these aging CD-ROMs. 

GPO will work with the depository 

community and the publishing agencies to 

extract and preserve that data or we will lose

a generation of important government 

information. This is a lesson learned from

publishing CD-ROM titles that all of us 

should consider as we make decisions today 

and tomorrow about DVD publishing. 

As popular as it is, DVD publishing in the 

Government is still in its infancy. One of the 

earliest government applications of DVD 

technology that I am aware of was a 1998 

DVD published by the Navy for medical 

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training in the event of chemical warfare. It 

runs a trainee through a series of video 

scenarios, and the trainee must look at each 

video for clues to help determine if a 

chemical attack has occurred, the severity of 

the injuries, and the proper way to respond. 

The Air Force also published a DVD in 1998 

on the subject of government ethics. Other 

military titles have followed those pioneering 

efforts. 

The flow of DVDs into the depository library 

program accelerated in January 2000 when 

the Patent and Trademark Office switched 

from CD-ROM to DVD for its USAPat 

product. The advantages of DVD were 

obvious. PTO was able to produce one DVD 

per week instead of 5 CD-ROMs. PTO has 

subsequently expanded its DVD publishing to 

include a number of other patent and 

trademark titles, all of which are included in 

the FDLP. 

As a result of the PTO products and the 

announced plans of the Census Bureau to use 

DVD as a major part of its dissemination of 

the 2000 Census, GPO changed its minimum

technical requirements for workstations in 

Federal depository libraries to include a DVD 

drive effective in 2000. Now there are over 

1,200 libraries nationwide equipped with 

DVD players, ready to receive new titles as 

they are published. 

We don’t keep separate statistics on DVD 

titles versus CD titles, so I can’t tell you the 

exact number of the DVDs that have been 

shipped to depository libraries since 1998, 

but I can tell you that DVDs are being 

produced by a number of agencies and 

provide a wide variety of content. 

In addition to PTO, the Census Bureau and 

the military, we have distributed DVDs from

the National Center for Health Statistics and 

the National Center for Education Statistics. 

The North American Banding Council has 

issued a DVD on bird banding. We have 

DVD titles from US Geological Survey, EPA, 

and NASA. There is a training DVD for 

ambulance drivers issued jointly by the 

National Highway Traffic Safety 

Administration of the Department of 

Transportation and the Bureau of Maternal 

and Child Health of the Department of Health 

and Human Services, as well as a number of 

other Department of Transportation titles. 

A number of these titles capitalize on the 

ability of DVD to deliver audio-visual 

presentations. All of them take advantage of 

the expanded storage capacity of DVD. Most 

of them offer the data with embedded 

software for viewing and manipulation, but 

many of them have addressed the concerns I 

raised with respect to the early CD-ROM 

titles and have left the data accessible in 

standard, non-proprietary formats, so it can 

be exported and manipulated by a variety of 

software. 

The use of CD-ROM as a publishing media 

was accelerated in the early 1990s by the 

establishment of SIGCAT, now morphed into 

DVDA (the sponsor of this conference), 

which offered opportunities for government 

agencies and vendors of software and 

services to exchange information about best 

practices, successes and lessons learned. 

Jerry McFaul at USGS was the founder and 

host of SIGCAT and is still very active in 

DVDA. Another significant factor in the 

rapid adoption of CD-ROM as a publishing 

media was a series of classes that were 

offered by the GPO Institute for Federal 

Printing and Publishing. Jerry and I were 

part of the initial staff that taught those 

courses and they were extremely popular. 

Now, Jerry and I are joining together again, 

along with several other agencies to establish 

a DVDA working group on government 

14 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

information preservation, which can help all 

of us understand and utilize the DVD 

technology more effectively. The initial 

participants, in addition to USGS and GPO, 

are NIST, NARA, the Library of Congress, 

and Census. The purpose of the group will be 

to address the longevity of the DVD media, 

standardization of logical structures for DVD 

publishing, and guidelines for access

protocols to ensure that data published on 

DVD is accessible in the future. We

welcome other agencies to join with us and 

become active participants in the group. 

The first meeting of the working group will 

take place at NIST in late July. It will 

include a tour of the NIST DVD testing 

laboratory and provide an opportunity to 

discuss our goals and objectives. Working 

together, we can use this technology to 

facilitate government agencies' efforts to 

produce DVDs for internal agency use and, 

where appropriate, for public access.

I hope as the agencies represented here 

develop their DVD applications that they will 

work with GPO to make sure that as many as 

possible can be distributed through the 

Federal Depository Library Program. This is 

an inexpensive means to disseminate your 

agency's information and to place it in 

libraries with staff trained to assist users and 

collections of other materials to augment the 

content of your publications. GPO and our 

library partners are committed not just to 

current access to materials in the program,

but to permanent public access, so we will 

assume responsibility for migrating the data 

forward when that becomes necessary. 

As I said in the beginning, DVDs are ideal for 

dissemination of government information. 

They hold vast amounts of information, can 

be replicated and disseminated cheaply, and 

protect valuable public data from hardware 

crashes, viruses, and unauthorized changes. 

There are exciting possibilities for many 

types of government information to be 

published on DVD. If we are careful in our 

choices of software and data formats, we can 

ensure the availability of the content for 

current users and future generations. 

I look forward with you to seeing the range of 

DVD applications expand over the coming 

year and become an ever more important 

means by which the government fulfills 

Madison's vision for an informed citizenry. 

15 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

The Federal Depository Library Program: 

Current and Future Challenges of the Electronic 

Transition 

Presentation by Judith C. Russell 

Superintendent of Documents 

Canadian Library Association AGIIG and 

American Library Association GODORT Joint Program: 

How is Federal Government Information Reaching the Public 

in the 21st Century? 

Toronto, June 21, 2003 

Susan [Tulis’] history of the Federal 

Depository Library Program stopped short of 

the most recent legislative change for both 

GPO and the FDLP – the 1993 GPO Access

law,1

 which mandated that GPO establish an 

online service. In 1994, GPO offered its first 

databases, the Federal Register and the 

Congressional Record. By the end of the first 

year, GPO was offering a number of other 

titles and had added the PDF files so that 

users could view the equivalent of the printed 

pages. 

The train that left the station in 1994, moving 

toward a more electronic Federal Depository 

Library Program (as the 1996 GPO report 

was entitled) is gaining speed. GPO Access

now has over 2000 databases available for 

free public access and we provide 

approximately 32 million downloaded 

documents per month. We have had peak 

months with downloads in excess of 37 

million documents. 

All year we have been talking about the fact 

that this is the year that the FDLP crosses the 

Rubicon. We projected that more than half of 

the documents added to the Federal 

Depository Library Program this year would 

be electronic online titles, available through 

GPO Access or by links to electronic 

publications on agency or other websites. In 

fact, at the Depository Library Council 

meeting in Reno in April, we forecast that 

60% of the new titles added this year would 

be online electronic titles. 

 1 Public Law 103-40, known as the Government 

Printing Office Electronic Information Enhancement Act 

of 1993.

What is the reality? From October 1, 2002 

(the beginning of the fiscal year) through 

May 31, 2003, GPO has added 26,441 titles 

to the FDLP collection. 10,545 of those titles 

are available online through GPO and an 

additional 6,898 are links to publications on 

agency websites, for a total of 17,443 new 

online electronic titles. During the same

period, GPO distributed only 8,998 tangible 

titles: 4,582 paper titles, 3,037 microfiche 

titles, 265 CD-ROM/DVD titles and 1,114 

USGS maps. So far this year, 66% of the new 

titles added to the FDLP are electronic online 

titles, even more than we projected. 

16 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

17 

But there is more. In May 2003, 7,402 items, 

of which 86% were online electronic titles, 

were added to the program. The trend is clear 

and the speed of our transformation is 

accelerating. 

What does this mean for the Federal 

Depository Library Program? We are rapidly 

approaching a critical time in the program. 

The FDLP has always been a delicate balance 

between the self-interest of the library in 

obtaining publications without cost and the 

public interest in access to the information. 

The balance on the scales is tipping 

dangerously. Within a few years, perhaps as 

few as three or as many as five, there will be 

very few tangible products distributed to 

depository libraries, other than those that we 

collectively decide to preserve in paper or 

other tangible format. 

Practically from the moment GPO shipped 

the first CD-ROM to a depository library, the 

community has discussed and debated the 

future of the program and how we would 

meet the challenges of a more electronic 

FDLP. Susan listed a number of the reports 

and study groups that addressed this issue. 

We cannot delay any longer. Together we 

must re-examine the services that GPO 

provides to the public directly and through 

the depository libraries. We must define the 

services that are required, now and in the 

future, to support the mission. We must 

address the fundamental question that we 

have been asking each other since 1995: Why 

be a depository library when you can obtain 

"everything" (or virtually everything) free on 

the Internet without being part of the 

program? 

Recently we had some management training 

at GPO that described how successful 

businesses identify their “strategic anchors” – 

the fundamental, guiding principles that can 

be used to evaluate every option and make 

every decision, large and small. For example, 

Southwest Airlines strategic anchors include 

on time arrival and low cost fares. If a 

decision improves on time arrival or reduces 

airfares, it is a good decision. If an option is 

proposed that increases fares or delays on 

time arrivals, it is easy to make the decision 

to choose some other path. Together, we 

need to identify the strategic anchors of the 

Federal Depository Library Program. Then 

GPO can evaluate every decision we make to 

see how it affects the future of the program 

and the quality of services that we provide to 

the public, directly and through depository 

libraries. 

Bookstore Closures 

This spring we made the painful decision to 

close all of the bookstores, other than the 

main bookstore in Washington. By 

September they will all be closed. It was not 

an easy decision, but it was the right decision. 

The walk-in traffic in the bookstores has 

dwindled to a trickle. The public has already 

embraced online ordering of publications, as 

shown by the enormous popularity of 

Amazon.com. We project that 85% of our 

sales orders will come through the online 

bookstore by 2005. 

As the press release says: With nearly a 

quarter of a million titles available online and 

free of charge, and with public retrievals 

exceeding 32 million every month, GPO 

Access <www.gpoaccess.gov>, a service of 

the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), 

has become one of the principal tools for 

providing public access to official U.S. 

Government information. In part as a result 

of increased access through the Internet, the 

overall volume of sales has dropped 

dramatically, from 24.3 million copies sold in 

FY 1993 to 4.4 million copies sold in FY 

2002. Ten years ago we sold 35,000 

subscriptions to the Federal Register; today 

we sell 2,700. At the same time, we are now 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

downloading over 4 million Federal Register

documents each month from GPO Access. 

Revenue has plummeted as a result of these 

changes, while costs have dropped less 

rapidly, resulting in losses that must be 

stopped. 

Publications on Demand 

Even as we are closing the bookstores, we are 

seeking to restructure the sales program so 

that the costs are in line with the achievable 

revenues. We continue to make every effort 

to stabilize the sales program at a sustainable 

level and to expand the range of titles and 

services that are available to the public 

through the sales program. 

We know that we need to create less 

inventory and we have begun an experiment 

with print-on-demand services. We see two 

ways to use this technology. 

3⁄4 One way is to buy far fewer copies in 

the initial press run – just enough to 

meet the initial short term demand – and 

then print a small number of copies, 

perhaps 25 at a time, to keep a small 

inventory. If sales dry up, we have very 

little wasted inventory and we can 

reduce our warehouse space 

substantially. As sales volume

diminishes, we can allow the title to go 

out of stock, but not out of print, and 

print copies only when there is a sale. 

3⁄4 Secondly, we can take many, perhaps 

even most, of the titles that are selected 

for the Federal Depository Library 

Program that historically would not 

have been included in the sales program

and make them available strictly as 

print on demand titles. With minimal 

costs to add these titles to the database 

of items for sale, and no actual expense 

to produce the publication until 

someone orders a copy, we can 

significantly expand the titles we offer – 

and these titles will never go out of

print. 

We believe we can guarantee shipment of 

print on demand titles within 48 hours or less 

and that we can do some print on demand at 

the main bookstore within an hour after an 

order is received. 

This print on demand capability offers 

advantages to publishing agencies and to 

depository libraries as well as to sales 

program customers. Agencies will be able to 

keep their titles “in print” indefinitely without 

the usual guesswork about how many copies 

will be needed over the life of the 

publication. Depositories will be able to 

order paper versions of titles that are included 

in the FDLP only as electronic files if they 

need a tangible copy and don’t wish to print 

one locally.

One future benefit that we are considering for 

the FDLP is the ability to allow each library 

to define specific titles they wish to receive in 

paper, so each library may be allocated a 

certain number of pages or titles that can be 

received free through print on demand and 

then purchase additional titles once the 

allocation of free services has been used up. 

OMB/GPO Agreement 

GPO is working on a number of pilot projects 

to test various services that GPO may offer in 

the future. Perhaps the most exciting one, 

and certainly the one that has received the 

most press, is the agreement between the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 

and GPO. This agreement is truly a win for 

all concerned. It is an innovative approach to 

contracting for Executive Branch printing 

that is completely within GPO’s statutory 

responsibility under Title 44 of the US Code. 

Under the agreement an agency may choose 

its own commercial printers using standard 

contracts issued by GPO. The publishing 

agency will pay GPO, and GPO will pay the 

18 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

This is an example of the kind of innovation 

you will continue to see from GPO, and this 

agreement should give you every reason to be 

encouraged about our ability to work together 

to define a bright future for the Federal 

Depository Library Program and other 

services of the Government Printing Office. 

printer, less a modest 3% fee to cover GPO’s 

contracting and administrative costs. 

However, the printer will not be paid until my

office has received two print copies and one 

electronic copy (in a format that I specify). 

This will give GPO an electronic copy of

each publication for dissemination to the 

public, directly and through the FDLP. It will 

also give us two copies of last resort so GPO 

can, if necessary, create a new digital copy in 

the future if the electronic copy can no longer 

be used due to changes in technology or other 

problems. 

Planning for the Future of the FDLP 

I could spend hours talking with you about all 

of the initiatives that we are pursuing as we 

re-examine the mission of the Federal 

Depository Library Program and seek to 

ensure that there is a viable program for the 

next hundred years that acknowledges and 

utilizes new technologies to support 

democracy and inform our users. It is a lofty 

and ambitious, but achievable, goal and one 

that is well worth the effort that it will require 

to shape it. 

The agreement also preserves the right of the 

Superintendent of Documents to purchase 

from the printer, at its own expense, 

additional copies for sale or depository 

distribution. And, as if that wasn’t enough, 

OMB will limit agency use of in-house and 

other Executive Branch printing capability 

and seek to have all appropriate publications 

from such facilities provided to the 

Superintendent of Documents as required by 

Title 44. 

Each of your institutions has an important 

role to play in the process, even those of you 

who represent Canadian libraries. Each 

month, there are thousands of GPO Access

visitor sessions from Canada and referrals 

from websites using the country code for 

Canada. At present it is only about 1% of our 

total traffic, but it is growing – and obviously, 

there are very likely many more sessions and 

referrals that cannot be easily identified as 

Canadian in origin. We are very proud that 

GPO Access is a worldwide resource,

delivering an average 37 million government 

documents per month to its users. We 

welcome input from all of our users as we reexamine our services and plan for the future. 

This agreement will be tested with a single 

agency during FY 2004, which begins on 

October 1, 2003, and if it is successful, it will 

be extended to other agencies in FY 2005. 

The agency has not yet been designated, but 

we expect to know within the next few weeks 

what agency OMB has chosen for the pilot 

project. 

The agreement should go a long way toward 

eliminating the fugitive document problem

and bring many more titles into the FDLP. 

The Public Printer, Bruce James, deserves 

enormous credit for listening to the concerns 

of OMB and the Executive Branch agencies 

and making them an offer that addresses their 

concerns, stays within the legal requirements 

of Title 44, and improves public access to 

government information. 

We are not going to redesign the Federal 

Depository Library Program in Washington 

and impose a new structure on the depository 

library community. GPO administers the 

program on behalf of the participating 

libraries and the public we jointly serve. That 

community must drive the decisions about 

19 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

what the program should be in the future. We

cannot do it without you – and, even if we 

could, we do not want to, or intend to, do it 

without you. 

Together we must re-examine the services 

that GPO provides to the public directly and 

through the depository libraries. We must 

define the services that are required now and 

in the future to support the mission. We must 

address the fundamental question that we 

have been asking each other since 1995: Why 

be a depository library when you can obtain 

"everything" (or virtually everything) free on 

the Internet without being part of the 

program?

To do this well, we must be like the twoheaded Roman god Janus. We must look 

both forward and backwards. We must “get 

out of the box” and take a fresh look at the 

mission we share and determine the best 

means to accomplish it. We should not limit 

ourselves to incremental changes to the 

current system, but seek a new vision, which 

respects the foundation of the current 

program, but is not constrained by it, and that 

takes optimum advantage of the enormous 

volume of electronic resources that are, and 

will be, available. 

At the same time, we must find creative ways 

to reduce the burdens of the large historical 

collections on our regional depository 

libraries and other large selectives, without 

losing the value of having a distributed 

system that protects these assets and ensures 

permanent public access. We want to work 

with the library community on expanded 

digitization, preservation, retrospective 

cataloging, and other services to better mange 

the retrospective materials and make them

more accessible to users in and outside of 

your libraries. 

Library Programs Service Update 

Remarks by Sheila M. McGarr 

Chief, Library Division 

Before the 

Government Documents Round Table 

Federal Documents Task Force 

American Library Association 

Toronto, Canada 

June 21, 2003 

Good afternoon. I am pleased to be speaking 

before GODORT’s Federal Documents Task 

Force again. For those few in the audience 

who did not know, I left GPO in December 

2000 to become the Director of the National 

Library of Education at the Department of 

Education. I returned to GPO in mid-April 

for the exciting opportunity to be part of the 

team who will reshape the public products 

and services under the purview of the 

Superintendent of Documents. 

As T.C. Evans, Deputy Superintendent of 

Documents, will talk about the planned 

20 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

21 

reorganization, I will concentrate on activities 

in the Library Programs Service (LPS). I will 

touch on topics in the two handouts only as a 

reminder. [See handouts in this issue.] 

Contracting for an Integrated Library 

System 

GPO is evaluating a proposed solution to 

implement an integrated library system (ILS) 

in LPS. Contract development should be 

completed this month, depending upon the 

time required for reviews by our contracting 

office and the attorneys in the Office of 

General Counsel. Upon completion of this 

review, our statement of work will be sent to 

the likely provider, who will have about two 

weeks to respond in detail to our 

requirements. This is quite a complex 

contract, as it covers multiple service 

providers and software packages, each of 

which must be licensed for use in the ILS 

project. 

GPO still hopes to have initial 

implementation of some systems early in 

2004. We expect that GPO cataloging 

records back to 1976 will be available on the 

system on Day One. 

Collection 

Early this spring, Gil Baldwin convened a 

team to plan the collection component of 

what we’ve called the U.S. Library of Public 

Information. In conjunction with regional 

Federal depository library collections, this 

Library collection will serve as the collection 

of record for the FDLP. Through collection 

access and delivery, it will also serve as the 

collection of last resort for all Federal 

depository libraries. The purpose of the plan 

is to estimate the resources, in personnel, 

space, and dollars, to build a comprehensive 

collection, so that we request those resources 

in our FY2005 appropriation. At the 

moment, we have no space or staff to accept 

lots of “stuff” weeded from depository 

collections. However, if you are offering 

some unique materials, please contact us so 

we can evaluate it. 

The collection is comprehensive and includes 

publications of the Federal Government, 

which are of public interest and educational 

value, regardless of format. A 

comprehensive collection is defined to 

include, as far as reasonably possible, all 

official publications of the United States 

Government. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

From all three branches of Government 

Across the spectrum of subjects 

Disseminated to Federal depository 

libraries 

Cataloged but not disseminated through 

the FDLP 

Produced in English and other 

languages 

Formats 

Format in which the agency produced 

the publication 

Digitized copies 

Existing microfiche 

No new microfiche, unless it is the 

format produced by the agency 

Maps 

Tangible electronic products 

“Best edition” or “best available copy” 

for retrospective additions 

Some publications, such as those that cannot 

be adequately digitized, may be represented 

in the collection in multiple formats to 

support user need or preference for a specific 

format. 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

22 

NARA Memorandum of Understanding 

GPO is negotiating a Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU) with the National 

Archives and Records Administration 

(NARA). This contract will make GPO an 

official "archival affiliate" and all of the GPO 

Access databases will be considered the 

official archival copies, as if they had been 

physically transferred to NARA, but GPO 

will continue to maintain them for permanent 

public access. In terms of legal custody, the 

“records” will be transferred to NARA. 

Pilot Projects 

I just want to mention a few of the pilot 

projects that are underway: 

• 

• 

• 

The University of Arizona is engaged in 

a project to become the first allelectronic selective depository library. 

They are working with GPO to identify 

electronic counterparts for all of the 

items that they select and systematically 

substituting those items for tangible 

products. To date, the Cataloging 

Branch has cataloged 1849 titles. We 

anticipate cataloging many more as this 

project continues. 

For the University of North Texas 

(Cyber-Cemetery), GPO has cataloged 

890 monographs and 22 serials at the 

site. A newly deceased sub-agency has 

recently been added to the site and we 

are presently cataloging new additions. 

Other than this, the site has been 

completely cataloged. 

The regional depository libraries have 

been asked to develop proposals for 

pilot projects to test a new concept for 

inspections. In the past 30 years, the 

inspection process has been reinvented 

several times, from the 12-question 

checklist and unannounced visits in the 

early 1970’s to the self-studies with or 

without a follow-up inspection in the 

1990’s. Throughout this period, the 

GPO inspectors have worn two hats, 

that of a consultant passing along 

examples of best practices and that of 

an auditor reviewing for compliance 

with GPO policies. This role has been 

schizophrenic. Because of advanced 

scheduling, there has never been the 

flexibility to stay an extra day or visit 

multiple libraries in a day. 

In this new initiative, we would like to 

establish locally based "consultants," 

who would be assigned responsibility 

for approximately 40 to 60 depository 

libraries in a geographic area. Similar 

to your commercial vendor account 

representatives, these consultants would 

visit each of those libraries at least once 

per quarter, some for only a few hours 

and others for a day or more, depending 

on the need. 

Consultants will be most useful in states 

where official documents interest 

groups do not exist or regional library 

staff does not have the time or the 

resources for regular consultation or 

continuing education activities. During 

the pilot project, GPO will “hire” 

people as expert consultants much as 

we did with the electronic transition 

specialists not to exceed one year. To 

date, we have received two proposals, 

one from Michigan and one from a 

consortium of North Carolina, South 

Carolina and Georgia. GPO’s 

depository library inspectors will 

conduct formal inspections of at-risk 

depositories. 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

23 

ERIC Documents 

I have a vested interest in the project to make 

digitized versions of federally funded 

Educational Resources Information Center 

(ERIC) reports available on GPO Access. 

The National Library of Education’s ERIC 

Program Office, the ERIC Document 

Reproduction Service (EDRS), and GPO 

have worked together to provide electronic 

access to Government-funded educationrelated publications at no charge to the public 

through depository libraries. For many years, 

this dissemination was primarily in 

microfiche. GPO plans to migrate the FDLP 

dissemination of federally funded ERIC 

information completely into the electronic 

environment. GPO has ceased disseminating 

ERIC microfiche to depository libraries. 

EDRS has ceased providing microfiche 

reproducibles to GPO for replication and 

distribution. 

EDRS now provides GPO with a monthly file 

transfer of electronic files of TIFF images of 

ERIC documents eligible for the FDLP. GPO 

will make these files received since October 

2002 available free of charge through GPO 

Access and will assure that the Adobe 

Portable Document Format (PDF) files are 

permanently available. GPO’s cataloging and 

locator services will point to the GPO Wide 

Area Information Service (WAIS) database, 

or its successor technology, for ongoing 

access. GPO staff is reviewing test pages on 

GPO Access now. 

OMB/GPO Printing Compact 

Public Printer Bruce James and Office of 

Management and Budget Director Mitchell E. 

Daniels, Jr. recently announced an innovative 

agreement that will free executive branch 

agencies to choose their own printers while 

saving taxpayer dollars. The agreement will 

also empower GPO to maximize public 

access to all information produced by Federal 

agencies. Details are provided on the green 

handout. 

Tangible Titles in the FDLP 

Our pink handout shows that about 60% of 

the new titles made available through the 

FDLP are online. The program has been on 

this plateau now for a while, yet you heard 

Bruce James estimate that in 5 years, the 

FDLP will be 95% electronic. Reaching this 

level means that we will be aggressively 

pursuing opportunities to get online 

information into the FDLP, and looking for 

titles that are now disseminated in tangible 

and online versions. Just as you are 

reviewing your selections for the Annual Item 

Selection Update, we are reviewing and 

establishing our FDLP requirements for the 

coming year. As we work through, we will 

follow the policies set out in SoD 71, that the 

default choice of dissemination format for the 

FDLP is online. 

Tidbits 

• LPS will be sending a letter to those 

depositories that receive the bound 

Serial Set alerting them to a binding 

error that occurred in the production 

of volume 14337. Senate Document 

104-24 was inserted instead of Senate 

Treaty Document 104-24. 

Libraries that received this volume 

may return it to GPO for rebinding. 

GPO will send a prepaid shipping 

label for this purpose to each 

selecting library via first class mail. 

Additional instructions for those 

libraries will accompany the shipping 

labels. Don’t send the volume back 

until you receive GPO’s letter. 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

24 

The volume will be rebound with 

Senate Treaty Document 104-24 

substituted for Senate Document 104-

24 and returned. Due to the historical 

and permanent nature of this 

publication, GPO will correct, rebind, 

and redistribute the volumes at no 

expense to libraries. 

• Don’t forget the Annual Item 

Selection Update cycle concludes on 

July 31. Details are in the pink 

handout and on the FDLP Desktop. 

• The agenda for the Federal 

Depository Library Conference will 

appear in the July 15, 2003 issue of 

Administrative Notes. The dates are 

October 19-22 at the Doubletree Hotel 

in Arlington, VA. 

• The “Recommended Minimum 

Specifications for Public Access 

Workstations” appeared in the June 

15, 2003 issue of Administrative 

Notes. 

• So far, GPO has received only one 

nomination for the first Depository 

Library of the Year award. Win an all 

expenses paid trip for 2 to the fall 

Depository Library Conference! The 

deadline is June 30. See the pink 

handout for more details. 

• The 2003 Biennial Survey of 

Depository Libraries will have 

essentially the same content as 2001 

and will be conducted in November. 

Watch for the announcement! GPO 

anticipates using the results of the 

Biennial Survey to identify libraries 

that need extra attention. 

• GPO’s partner, Oklahoma State 

University, has contacted almost 80 

people who have been contributors to 

Browse Topics and has received 47 

updates to their pages. Over 30 files 

will be updated soon. OSU has a new 

list of topics for adoption and the list 

will be posted to the website soon. 

There is no representation from over 

40 states in developing this service 

and OSU hopes to expand the 

geographic distribution of the 

participants. 

• Before anyone asks, the DVD for the 

Bureau of the Census Summary File 

3, U.S. Summary, item number 0154-

F-01, has arrived in LPS. The 

National Summary is due soon.
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

Handout 

LPS Update, June 2003 

SUMMARY OF SPRING COUNCIL MEETING 

PUBLISHED, VIDEO OF FIRST DAY ON GPO 

ACCESS

LIBRARY OF THE YEAR AWARD

Depositories have a chance to win a trip for 2 

to the Depository Library Conference in 

Arlington, VA, through the new Library of 

the Year award. Libraries showing 

outstanding government information service, 

creativity, innovation, and leadership in 

developing community programs for use of 

Federal government information are invited 

to submit applications. 

“Visualizing the Depository Library of the 

Future” was the theme of the spring 2003 

meeting of the Depository Library Council to 

the Public Printer. A summary of the 

meeting appeared in the May 15 issue of 

Administrative Notes and is also available on 

the Council Web page at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/co

GPO will provide travel and lodging to the uncil/EnvisioningtheFuture.html>. 

fall 2003 Depository Library Conference and 

Council meeting for the depository 

coordinator and the library director from the 

winning library. 

For the first time, part of the Council meeting 

was videotaped, and the files are available at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/co

uncil/sp03dlc_videos.html>. 

Libraries should submit their entries to Gil 

Baldwin, Director, Library Programs Service, 

via email <ebaldwin@gpo.gov> or fax (202-

512-1432). Further details are available in 

Administrative Notes, vol. 24, # 3 (March 15, 

2003), or see 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pr/

lib-of-yr.html>. 

NEW “STAY WITH THE PROGRAM” WEB 

PAGE SHOWS BENEFITS OF FDLP TO 

LIBRARIES

To document the benefits to libraries of being 

in the Federal Depository Library Program, 

the Library Programs Service has launched a 

new "Stay With The Program" campaign. 

The campaign was coordinated with the 

Depository Library Council's Operations 

Committee, Subcommittee on Attrition and 

Retention (SOAR). A variety of materials are 

available on a new Web page, at 

<www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/staywitht

heprogram.html>. 

REGIONAL MEETING SCHEDULED FOR 

OCTOBER

A meeting of Regional depository library 

staff is planned for the three days before the 

start of the Depository Library Conference in 

Arlington, VA. The Regional meeting dates 

are Thursday, October 16 through Saturday, 

October 18. Regional depository staff will 

discuss issues affecting the role of Regional 

depositories, now and in the future. 

ITEM SELECTION UPDATE CYCLE ON 

THROUGH JULY

The Annual Selection Update Cycle Fiscal 

Year 2004 is underway through July 31, 

2003. Libraries may amend their selections 

on the Web form at <http://www.access.gpo. 

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AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

26 

gov/su_docs/fdlp/tools/amendment.html>. 

Complete details and instructions about the 

Update Cycle are at <http://www.access.gpo. 

gov/su_docs/fdlp/tools/updatein.html>. 

ACCELERATED SHIPPING OF FEDERAL 

REGISTER, CR, CFR ANNOUNCED

A change in procedures will ensure more 

timely receipt of the Federal Register, 

Congressional Record, and the Code of 

Federal Regulations products. Beginning 

with the May 1, 2003 issues, these products 

are being placed on shipping lists and shipped 

on the same day they are received in LPS. 

DISTRIBUTION STATISTICS FOR ONLINE AND 

TANGIBLE TITLES AVAILABLE THROUGH 

GPO 

For fiscal year 2003 through April, 9,262 

online titles and 1,831 links to agency titles 

were added to GPO Access, for a total of 

11,093 new online titles. During the same 

period, LPS distributed 7,946 tangible titles; 

this figure reflects a total of 4,091 paper 

titles, 2,574 microfiche titles, 234 CD-ROMs, 

and 1,047 USGS titles. The total number of 

titles added to the Federal Depository Library 

Program was 19,039, of which 58% were 

made available online. 

These additions bring the total number of 

titles on GPO Access to 148,422 and the total 

number of titles linked from GPO Access to 

93,317, for a grand total of 241,739 titles 

available through GPO Access. 

NEW TITLES

The Jordan Report, 20th Anniversary: 

Accelerated Development of Vaccines 2002. 

HE 20.3252:2003014931; item no. 0505-A01; PURL: 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS31660> 

The September 11 Detainees: A Review of 

the Treatment of Aliens Held on Immigration 

Charges in Connection with the Investigation 

of the September 11 Attacks. 

J 1.2:2003014823; item no. 0717; PURL: 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS31588> 

S. Prt. 107-84 -- Executive Sessions of the 

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on 

Investigations of the Committee on 

Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 

1953-54). Y 4.G 74/9:S.PRT.107-84/V.1-5; 

item nos. 1037-B (paper), 1037-C 

(microfiche) PURLs: 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS309

31> (V.1), 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS309

33> (V.2), 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS309

34> (V.3), 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS309

35> (V.4), 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS309

36> (V.5) 

Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen 

Preparedness. FEM 1.8/3:34/2002, item no. 

0556-C, PURL: 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS24673> 

“Open to ALL,” Title IX at Thirty: The 

Secretary of Education’s Commission on 

Opportunity in Athletics. ED 

1.2:2003007751; 0455-B-02; PURLs: 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS274

14> (PDF format), 

<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS274

15> (MSWord Document) 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

Handout 

GPO Access Update 

Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services 

2003 ALA/CLA Annual Conference 

GPO Access Statistical Measures 

3⁄4 Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have 

exceeded 1.6 billion, which is equivalent 

to over 39.2 billion typewritten pages, and 

reached an all-time monthly high of over 

36.8 million document retrievals in 

January 2003.

3⁄4 The average number of monthly retrievals 

from GPO Access is currently 32 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 over 149,000 

electronic titles and points to over 98,000 

others for a total of over 248,000 titles.

3⁄4 GPO Access provides use of almost 2,900 

databases through more than 80 

applications.

GPO Access Performance Measurement 

and Improvement

3⁄4 GPO is taking steps to “Akamaize” 

popular files on GPO Access so that they 

can be delivered through the Akamai 

content delivery network, effectively 

spreading the load to local servers and 

lessening the burden on the main GPO 

Access system. In addition to the Federal 

Register Table of Contents daily files, the 

browse feature beginning with the 2003 

Code of Federal Regulations now 

includes “Akamaized” Text and PDF 

files. 

3⁄4 Work continues towards procuring a new 

platform to replace the WAIS search and 

retrieval software for GPO Access in 

order to improve system performance and 

enhance customer usability. GPO has a 

specialized team that is currently working 

on the procurement details of the WAIS 

replacement project. 

3⁄4 Through the use of Keynote Systems Inc., 

a performance measurement service, we 

are continuing to monitor system

performance from 10 major cities in the 

United States. Daily monitoring is 

conducted on the GPO Access home 

page, the U.S. Government Online 

Bookstore, and a transaction in the Code 

of Federal Regulations database. 

Recently, Regulations.gov 

<http://www.regulations.gov> has been 

included among the pages monitored. 

The information gained is being used to 

work toward improved performance. 

Through this continued monitoring, GPO 

has increased its weekly rank on 

Keynote's Government 40 Index, 

<http://www.keynote.com/solutions/perfo

rmance_indices/government 

_index/government_40.html>. GPO 

Access is now one of the fastest-loading 

Government Web pages on Keynote's list 

of popular government sites, having 

moved up consistently in the rankings for 

27 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

the last few months. As part of our 

commitment to serving our user 

community, GPO is searching for ways to 

improve our load time even further. 

New Special Values Publications 

3⁄4 “Special Values” is a new program

offering selected publications at 

significantly lower prices from the 

Superintendent of Documents. 

Publications that are deemed excess to 

current sales program needs but still 

contain useful information are eligible for 

the Special Value category. This special 

collection is featured on the U.S. 

Government Online Bookstore at 

<http://bookstore.gpo.gov/values>. 

Currently, 19 publications are available at 

greatly reduced prices, but quantities are 

limited. These publications vary in 

subject matter and include popular titles, 

such as Crime in the United States, 1999: 

Uniform Crime Reports and Decisions 

and Orders of the National Labor 

Relations Board. Additional titles will be

added to the Special Values page as the 

Sales Program continues to review its 

inventory. No discounts are available for 

any Special Value publications.

What’s New on GPO Access

3⁄4 Selected Congressional Hearings and 

Reports from the Challenger Space 

Shuttle Accident are now available on 

GPO Access at 

<www.gpoaccess.gov/challenger>.

3⁄4 The Executive Sessions of the Senate 

Permanent Subcommittee on 

Investigations of the Committee on 

Government Operations (McCarthy 

Hearings 1953-54), Volumes 1-5 (S. Prt. 

107-84), are now available for direct 

download on GPO Access at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/sen

ate/senate12cp107.html>. The hearings 

are also searchable from the 

Congressional Committee Reports on

GPO Access at 

<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cprints/searc

h.html>.

3⁄4 Volume I of the 2001 Public Papers of the 

Presidents of the United States, George 

W. Bush is now available on GPO Access

at 

<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers>.

3⁄4 The May 2003 edition of the Unified 

Agenda is now available on GPO Access

at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/ua>.

3⁄4 The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief 

Reconciliation Act of 2003 (H.R. 2) is 

available on GPO Access at 

<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills>. It can

also be accessed as a Conference Report 

(H. Rept. 108-126) via GPO Access at

<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/crep

orts>.

Regulations.gov 

3⁄4 Regulations.gov was recognized with an 

E-Gov 2003 “Pioneer” award. This 

prestigious award is given to Government 

organizations that demonstrate exemplary 

achievements in e-Government. The 

Government Printing Office’s 

contributions to the Regulations.gov 

cross-agency initiative include: testing, 

hosting, and providing user support for 

the site via the GPO Access User Support 

Team. Regulations.gov received the 

award as a result of an E-Government 

Best Practice application that was 

submitted to the Government Solutions 

Center Selection Committee. The award 

was presented in conjunction with the 

Government Solutions Center portion of 

28 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

29 

the E-Gov 2003 Exposition. 

Regulations.gov was selected out of 253 

nominations for this top award category.

Regulations.gov was a recent Federal 

Leadership Council Award of Excellence 

winner. This award honors programs that 

best exemplify the Government’s efforts 

to improve delivery of services to 

citizens.

Online Advertising of New GPO Access 

Home Page on Google 

3⁄4 In an effort to further promote the new 

design of GPO Access, GPO has launched 

a three-month campaign to have the GPO 

Access home page appear at the top of the 

search results on Google (the most 

popular Internet search engine) for 

selected keywords through Google’s 

“Premium Sponsorships” program. A 

total of 40 keywords are being bid on, 

such as “gpo access” and “federal 

regulations.” Google has estimated that 

GPO Access will be seen by 1.5 million 

Google searchers over the three-month 

period.

RightNow eService Center 

3⁄4 Work has begun to implement the 

RightNow eService Center software 

package that will provide an electronic 

knowledge base to help answer frequently 

asked questions, and also will provide 

Web chat functionality in real-time. This 

is a CRM application that will help the 

GPO Access User Support Team and 

askLPS. Complete implementation is 

expected for FY 04. 

Online Bookstore Enhancements 

3⁄4 Over the past several years, GPO has 

made a number of enhancements to the 

U.S. Government Online Bookstore to 

improve the customer experience in 

regard to searching and ordering Federal 

Government publications. In order to 

move forward with the “next generation” 

of services that customers are expecting 

from the Online Bookstore, GPO recently 

placed a Request for Information (RFI) in 

FedBizOpps. The purpose is to procure 

the services of a consultant who can 

identify an e-commerce solution and 

make a recommendation on how GPO 

should proceed with a commercial ecommerce product solution. 

Under Development 

3⁄4 GPO plans to implement Public Key 

Infrastructure (PKI) technology that will 

include the use of digital signatures for 

congressional and other information made 

available through GPO Access. This will 

help ensure the protection of data against 

unauthorized modification or substitution 

of information. It will also enable GPO 

customers to verify the authenticity and 

integrity of the information they are using 

from GPO Access. Customers with a free 

software reader will be able to confirm 

that information was approved for 

submission to GPO by the appropriate 

Federal agency and that it has not been 

altered since it was signed.

Upcoming Outreach 

EIDS personnel will be attending and 

displaying the GPO booth and/or conducting 

training at the following venues:

July 12 – 16 American Association of Law Libraries – 2003 Seattle, WA 
AN-v24-#09-7/15/03

30 

Annual Meeting 

Sept. 9 & 11 Prince William Public Library, GPO Access

Training 

Prince William

County, VA 

GPO-FDLP-L - the Exclusive Vehicle for 

Official FDLP Announcements 

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-v24-#09-7/15/03

Table of Contents 

Michelle d’Arcy Joins SuDocs Organization ............................................................................... 1 

Superintendent of Documents Reorganization Plan Approved .................................................... 2 

2003 Federal Depository Library Conference and Fall Depository Library Council 

 Meeting Planned for October..................................................................................................... 4 

Preliminary Agenda, Federal Depository Library Conference & Depository Library 

 Council Meeting, Fall 2003 ....................................................................................................... 5 

Special Values Now Available at GPO Bookstores ..................................................................... 8 

Bookstores to Close by October 2003 .......................................................................................... 8 

Considerations in Selecting Online Publications.......................................................................... 9 

DVD & the 3 P's: Preservation, Policy, and Public Access / Russell......................................... 11 

Federal Depository Library Program: Current and Future Challenges of the 

 Electronic Transition / ALA, 6/03, Russell ............................................................................. 15 

Library Programs Service Update / ALA, 6/03, McGarr............................................................ 19 

LPS Update, June 2003............................................................................................................... 24 

GPO Access Update, June 2003 ................................................................................................. 26

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, 

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

31