Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 25, no. 08-09 GP 3.16/3-2:25/08-09 July 15, August 15, 2004 

HIGHLIGHTS 

Conference/ 

Council 

Registration 1 

Preliminary 

Agenda 

Planned for 

Late Aug. 2 

Comment Period 

Extended 3 

CEU Program 

at GPO 4 

Improvements 

To Shipping 

Lists 5 

Classification 6 

National 

Bibliography 7 

2004 

Workstation 

Recommended 

Specifications 15 

Council Responses: 

Digital 

Preservation 21 

Sales 

Program 23 

Regional 

Repositories 25 

Collection of 

Last Resort 27 

Registration Information for Fall 

2004 Federal Depository Library 

Conference & Council Meeting

The 2004 Federal Depository Library Conference and Fall Depository 

Library Council meeting will be held October 17 through October 20, 

2004, in Washington, DC. The meeting hotel is the Hyatt Regency 

Washington On Capitol Hill. 

A limited number of rooms are available for $145 (plus tax) per night 

single and $170 (plus tax) per night double. These rates will be honored 

only through September 16, 2004. The District of Columbia’s room tax 

is 14.5%. 

You can make reservations online at: 

http://washingtonregency.hyatt.com/ 

property/index.jhtml 

Type “USPO” in the box labeled “Group/Corporate #”to ensure receiving 

the special room rate. Reservations can also be made by calling 800-235-

1234 or the hotel directly at 202-737-1234. Please mention that you are 

attending GPO's Federal Depository Library Conference and Council 

meeting. 

The hotel offers daily, overnight and valet parking. The maximum daily 

parking rate is $30 per day. 

There is no charge for the conference. All participants should register at: 

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

fdlp/tools/04conreg.html 

Alternatively, the form on the next page may be faxed or e-mailed. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

2 

REGISTRATION FORM 

FALL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL MEETING 

& FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY CONFERENCE

Washington, DC - October 17-20, 2004

E-Mail or FAX to: 

Ms. Michele Worthington 

U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, DC 20401 

Email: mworthington@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

 I plan to attend the entire conference and would like to receive a CEU certificate for Continuing Education Units. 

Conference/Council Meeting Preliminary 

Agenda Being Prepared for Late August 

The planning committee for the Fall 2004 

Federal Depository Library Conference has 

received several dozen presentation proposals 

and is currently reviewing them. A 

preliminary agenda will be announced in the 

coming weeks on FDLP-L and will be posted 

to the desktop at: 

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

tools/calendar.html. 

The conference will begin with an 

educational program on Sunday morning, 

October 17. A Welcome to Council for new 

attendees and the GPO Update are planned 

for Sunday afternoon. The Depository 

Library Council meeting and the conference 

will continue with a full schedule of 

discussions and presentations on Monday and 

Tuesday, and will adjourn Wednesday 

afternoon, October 20. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

3 

Comment Period Extended for 3 Draft 

Reports of Critical Importance to the 

Future of the FDLP 

The comment period for the 3 draft 

reports listed below has been extended 

until September 17, 2004. 

These three draft planning documents 

are of critical importance to the future 

of access, dissemination, and 

preservation of U.S. Government 

information. The comments that GPO 

received on these and earlier drafts have 

been very helpful in refining these 

plans, and we welcome additional 

thoughts and comments. 

The comment period will end on 

September 17, 2004. It is important that 

these documents receive careful review 

and thoughtful comment since they will 

be the basis of new policies and 

procedures as we move forward. 

Please send your comments to Judy 

Russell, Superintendent of Documents, 

at <jrussell@gpo.gov> 

OR 

Use the comment area provided at the 

end of the HTML document; 

OR 

Use the comment form at: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/ 

comments.html

TITLE URL 

Collection of Last Resort Draft Plan http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/clr0604draft.pdf 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/clr0604draft.html 

Managing the FDLP Electronic 

Collection: A Policy and Planning 

Document, 2004 revised edition 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/ecplan2004rev1.pdf 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/ecplan2004rev.1.html

The National Bibliography of U.S. 

Government Publications: Initial 

Planning Statement

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/natbib0604.pdf 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/natbib0604.html 

(also see text on pp. 7-14) 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

4 

CEU Program at GPO 

GPO first provided certification for 

Continuing Education Units (CEU) for GPOsponsored programs at the Fall Federal 

Depository Library Conference in October 

2002. Depository library staff and other 

information professionals attending the 

annual Spring Depository Library Council 

meetings and the annual Interagency 

Depository Seminar also received CEU 

certificates. Also beginning in 2002, 

certificates for Continuing Education Units 

were provided to participants in GPO Access 

training sessions. 

Background 

CEU certificates may be used as 

evidence of professional development 

in many institutions. For some years, 

depository librarians had asked GPO 

library staff to award Continuing 

Education Units (CEU) for the 

Interagency Seminar, Federal 

Depository Library Conference, and 

Depository Library Council meetings. 

Awarding CEU for these GPO 

programs is consistent with the 

guidelines established by IACET 

(International Association for 

Continuing Education and Training). 

Though GPO has not sought IACET 

certification, its programs meet 

IACET’s conditions for awarding CEU: 

“quality training and instruction by 

responsible, qualified organizations.” 

One CEU is awarded for 10 hours of 

instruction. Instructional hours do not 

include time spent on breaks, meals, 

social activities or business and 

committee meetings. 

Procedures 

GPO prepares CEU certificates for 

individuals who register for GPO-sponsored 

programs. The number of units awarded is 

based on the total number of instructional 

hours in the program. CEU are awarded to 

participants in GPO-sponsored events as 

follows: 

• The 2 1⁄2 day fall Federal 

Depository Library 

Conference/Depository Library 

Council meeting and the spring 

Depository Library Council 

meeting, with its associated 

programs, will accrue 1.5 CEU. 

Council working sessions and 

the final Council plenary session 

are not included, as they are not 

instructional hours. 

• The annual six-day Interagency 

Seminar will accrue 3.8 CEU, 

based on the expected number of 

instructional hours. 

• GPO Access training sessions 

will accrue .5 CEU. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

5 

Shipping List Improvements Announced: 

Full Titles to Precede Series 

Beginning on August 1, 2004, all titles on 

GPO Depository Shipping Lists will be typed 

out in full, to include up to 10 key words. The 

series or report title and number, if given, will 

follow the title. This change applies to 

shipping lists produced by GPO in-house, not 

to contractor-produced lists for microfiche or 

maps. 

The changes will be especially apparent in 

listings for public laws and for Congressional 

materials, especially House and Senate 

documents and reports and committee 

hearings. Several depository librarians have 

reviewed the new style entries and have been 

enthusiastic about the changes, expecting that 

those libraries that use shipping list entries as 

preliminary records in online catalog systems 

will have enhanced access to individual titles. 

It will also be easier to match shipping list 

entries with the piece when checking-in 

depository shipments. 

Sample shipping list entries in the new format 

are shown below, together with the old 

format for comparison. 

New Style Depository Shipping List 

ITEM NO. CLASSIFICATION NO. TITLE 

0575 AE 2.110:18-229 An Act, To Provide for Expansion of Sleeping Bear 

Dunes National Lakeshore, May 28, 2004, Public 

Law No. 108-229 

0996-A Y 1.1/7:108-14 Reports to be Made to Congress, Communication 

from the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives ... 

January 7, 2003, 108-1 House Document No. 108-

14 

1008-C Y 1.1/5:108-281 Approving the Renewal of Import Restrictions 

Contained in the Burmese Freedom and 

Democracy Act of 2003, June 18, 2004, 108-2 

Senate Report No. 108-281 

1038-A Y 4.F 49:S. HRG.108-457 Rural Economy, Renewable Energy, and the Role 

of Our Cooperatives, S. Hrg. 108-457, August 26, 

2003, 108-1 Hearing 

Old Style Depository Shipping List 

ITEM NO. CLASSIFICATION NO. TITLE 

0575 AE 2.110:18-229 Public Law No. 108-229 

0996-A Y 1.1/7:108-14 108-1 House Document No. 108-14 

1008-C Y 1.1/5:108-281 108-2 Senate Report No. 108-281 

1038-A Y 4.F 49:S. HRG.108-457 108-1 Hearing: Rural Economy, Renewable 

Energy, and the Role of Our Cooperatives, S. Hrg. 

108-457, August 26, 2003, 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

6 

Classification of U.S. Government Publications 

This article addresses recent Government 

Documents Discussion List questions 

concerning the application of Superintendent 

of Documents (SuDocs) and other 

classification systems to U.S. Government 

publications. 

GPO understands the desirability of 

providing a full SuDocs classification number 

of each manifestation of the U.S. Government 

publications described in the National 

Bibliography. GPO is also investigating the 

implications of furnishing Library of 

Congress (LC) and possibly Dewey 

classification numbers in National 

Bibliography records as well. These ideas are 

long-term goals that have significant resource 

implications for GPO, as well as implications 

for local processes in depository libraries. 

Future changes to the application of various 

classification systems will take place based 

on broad discussions with the library 

community. 

In the nearer term, GPO expects to 

discontinue the use of the “accession 

number” based SuDocs classification that has 

been applied to online resources in favor of a 

fuller SuDocs number that is more readily 

applicable to physical manifestations of the 

same content. 

Classification issues are discussed in GPO’s 

draft paper, The National Bibliography of 

U.S. Government Publications: Initial 

Planning Statement, dated June 18, 2004, and 

located on GPO Access at <http://www.gpo 

access.gov/about/reports/natbib0604.pdf>. 

Comments on the application of 

classifications systems are valuable feedback 

for the planning process and will be used in 

revising this initial plan. Other comments on 

the draft document should be sent to Judy 

Russell, Superintendent of Documents, at 

<jrussell@gpo.gov>, by September 17, 2004. 

GPO appreciates comments and inquiries that 

assist us in refining our planning process and 

services. If you have any questions about this 

or other Federal depository library-related 

matters, please submit them through the "Ask 

a Question" feature of GPO's online help 

service at: <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/help/ 

index.html>. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

7 

The National Bibliography of U.S. Government 

Publications: Initial Planning Statement 

June 9, 2004 

This document is located on GPO Access at 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/natbib0604.pdf 

Comments on this document may be sent to: Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents, at 

jrussell@gpo.gov 

CONTENTS

I. PREFACE

II. BACKGROUND

III. WHAT IS THE NATIONAL 

BIBLIOGRAPHY? 

IV. SCOPE OF THE NATIONAL 

BIBLIOGRAPHY PROGRAM

V. ASSUMPTIONS

VI. PLANNING ISSUES FOR INVESTIGATION

VII. RELATED ISSUES

APPENDIX I: LEGAL BASIS FOR GPO’S 

CATALOGING PROGRAMS

APPENDIX II: REFERENCES AND RELATED 

DOCUMENTS

APPENDIX III: CATALOGING ACRONYMS USED 

IN THIS PAPER

I. PREFACE

By law1

 the U.S. Government Printing Office 

is charged with preparing and publishing a 

“comprehensive index of public documents,” 

including “every document issued or 

published ... not confidential in character.” 

Over time GPO’s Cataloging and Indexing 

Program has become a catalog of the 

publications distributed in the Federal 

Depository Library Program (FDLP). This 

erosion of comprehensiveness has resulted 

from several factors, including fugitive 

documents not available to GPO, the rise in 

digital publishing, and ongoing constraints on 

program fiscal, information technology, and 

human resources. 

 

 

1

 See Appendix 1. 

GPO intends to develop a comprehensive and 

authoritative National Bibliography of U.S. 

Government Publications that meets the full 

extent of the statutory requirements of 44 

U.S.C. 1710-1711. 

This document, GPO’s initial planning 

statement on the National Bibliography, will 

examine ways to improve the 

comprehensiveness of our cataloging and 

metadata programs, to enhance the usability 

of GPO’s bibliographic products and 

services, to operate a standards-based 

national library quality program, to 

demonstrate GPO leadership in the 

bibliographic services arena, and to enhance 

the public’s ability to identify and locate U.S. 

Government publications. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

8 

II. BACKGROUND

Typically a national bibliography covers 

works published in or about a specific 

country and generally is compiled and 

published by a country’s national library. 

GPO’s National Bibliography of U.S. 

Government Publications is narrower in 

scope than a full national bibliography, in that 

its focus is entirely upon U.S. Government 

unclassified publications in all formats. 

Many national bibliographies attempt to 

document a nation's published heritage, and 

in doing so makes that heritage known and 

accessible to present and future generations. 

This type of national bibliography lists and 

describes a wide variety of publications 

produced in a given country, or published 

elsewhere but of special interest or 

significance to that country. The country’s 

deposit law may form the most important 

acquisitions channel for the national 

bibliography. A full national bibliography 

may include books, periodicals, sound 

recordings, microforms, music scores, 

pamphlets, government documents, theses, 

educational kits, video recordings and 

electronic documents. It normally provides 

standard cataloging information for each item 

listed, and may include information on 

forthcoming publications to permit advance 

ordering of new products. 

Historically, in the United States, the Library 

of Congress (LC) was responsible for the 

traditional national bibliography. LC 

compiled cataloging records for all types of 

works from contributing libraries, ultimately 

resulting in the production of the National 

Union Catalog (NUC), which ceased 

publication in the 1980’s. Today the nearest 

approximation of a national bibliography for 

the United States is contained in OCLC’s 

WorldCat online catalog. WorldCat is a 

worldwide union catalog created and 

maintained collectively by more than 45,000 

member libraries in 84 countries. With 

millions of online records built from the 

bibliographic and ownership information of 

contributing libraries, it is the largest and 

most comprehensive database of its kind. 

WorldCat contains a significant number of 

non-U.S. imprints, and is therefore broader in 

coverage than a national bibliography. 

GPO has contributed in excess of 337,000 

records for U.S. Federal publications to 

WorldCat since 1976, and other OCLC 

member libraries have contributed many 

additional thousands, resulting in a de facto 

national bibliography for U.S. Government 

publications being embedded in WorldCat. 

However extensive WorldCat is as a 

resource, there are several concerns with it. 

Among these are lack of visibility of 

Government information to users, inability to 

focus only on U.S. Government publications, 

multiple records representing the same 

resource, a general lack of holding or location 

information from depository libraries for 

Government publications, variations in 

cataloging level and application that have 

occurred over time, and the lack of 

unrestricted, no-fee public access to 

WorldCat. 

III. WHAT IS THE NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 

OF U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS? 

GPO’s National Bibliography of U.S. 

Government Publications will be a 

comprehensive catalog containing 

descriptions and locations of U.S. 

Government unclassified publications in all 

formats. 

It is GPO’s goal to expand its cataloging 

initiatives to comply fully with statutory 

requirements, to increase the visibility and 

use of Government information products, and 

to develop a premier destination for 

information searchers. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

9 

This goal is consistent with, and enhances the 

ability to deliver on, GPO’s strategic 

direction of “Keeping America Informed.” It 

is also consistent with the more general 

Government goal to improve public-facing 

services to facilitate public interaction with 

the Government. 

Functionally, the National Bibliography will 

be the principal application of the Integrated 

Library System (ILS), once the ILS is 

procured and implemented. GPO will 

develop one or more relational databases of 

library cataloging and other metadata records 

that describe and link to U.S. Government 

publications in a variety of formats and 

locations. 

The National Bibliography will become a 

premier discovery tool for users searching for 

U.S. Government publications, and will 

utilize metadata resources created by GPO, 

by other agencies, and by partner institutions. 

The ILS’ metasearch function will provide 

the capability to search across a distributed 

set of non-homogeneous metadata resources 

from other institutions and display a 

combined result set. The public face of the 

ILS will be GPO’s Online Public Access 

Catalog. 

Initially GPO’s core National Bibliography 

database will consist of GPO-produced 

bibliographic records representing titles 

cataloged from 1976 to the present. Once the 

ILS initial implementation is completed, GPO 

plans to expand the National Bibliography 

database by adding pre-1976 records, records 

created by cooperative cataloging partners 

and other institutions, records converted from 

other bibliographic or metadata formats, etc. 

Building the National Bibliography legacy 

database is expected to be a multiyear 

project; adding records for new publications 

will be ongoing. 

IV. SCOPE OF THE NATIONAL 

BIBLIOGRAPHY PROGRAM

In order to facilitate public discovery of the 

body of U.S. Government public documents, 

the scope of the National Bibliography must 

comply with the full extent of the statutory 

requirements. The legal definition of the 

cataloging and indexing program, codified at 

44 U.S.C. 1710-1711, does not specially 

address digital publications. However, the 

changes in the Government information 

environment require that the National 

Bibliography address digital publications. 

GPO’s cataloging authority in the electronic 

arena is derived from 44 U.S.C. 4101(a), 

which directs the Superintendent of 

Documents to maintain an electronic 

directory of Federal electronic information. 

 

GPO considers that information in scope for 

the National Bibliography is any information 

product, regardless of form or format, that 

any U.S. Government agency discloses, 

publishes, disseminates, or makes available to 

the public, as well as information produced 

for administrative or operational purposes 

that is of public interest or educational value. 

Publications represented in the National 

Bibliography will be those acquired from 

official sources or sites, and not subject to 

official use or security classification 

restrictions. 

The National Bibliography will cover an 

expanded range of current and future Federal 

publications. In addition, the National 

Bibliography will also expand in historic 

depth, as GPO acts to include bibliographic 

data for legacy U.S. Government 

publications. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

10 

V. ASSUMPTIONS

1. The Integrated Library System 

enables GPO to build the National 

Bibliography. A 21st century National 

Bibliography cannot be operated on 

GPO’s legacy information technology 

(IT) platforms. 

2. GPO will continue its OCLC 

participation. 

3. GPO’s core National Bibliography 

database format will be AACR2 

cataloging records in MARC21 

format. 

4. Other bibliographic formats may be 

ILS/National Bibliography system 

outputs. Possible system output 

formats requiring crosswalks include: 

a) MARC 

b) ONIX 

c) GILS 

d) Preservation metadata 

e) Dublin Core 

f) COSATI 

5. The default level of cataloging 

applied to U.S. Government 

publications, regardless of format, 

will be equivalent to OCLC “Full” 

level. However, GPO will apply 

different levels of cataloging to 

different types of resources, following 

applicable standards. 

6. National Bibliography cataloging 

records will come from multiple 

sources, including: 

a) Original cataloging 

b) Record imports 

c) Conversion of pre-1976 GPO 

bibliographic records 

d) COSATI-MARC conversions 

e) Harvested metadata 

f) Metadata from printing 

contractors 

g) Records contributed by 

partners 

h) Preservation metadata from 

archiving projects 

7. The National Bibliography will 

provide public access and location 

information for items in The 

Collection of Last Resort (GPO’s 

distributed archival collections of 

tangible and digital publications). 

8. GPO cataloging policies and 

procedures will be documented and 

communicated proactively. 

 

9. GPO will continue its participation in 

the LC Program for Cooperative 

Cataloging (PCC) Programs. These 

include: 

a) NACO (name authorities) 

b) SACO (subject authorities) 

c) CONSER (serial cataloging) 

VI. PLANNING ISSUES FOR INVESTIGATION

This section enumerates issues that GPO will 

investigate, document, and develop policies 

and procedures to cover. 

1. The ILS is should produce outputs 

programmatically, with minimal 

reworking or modification. 

2. GPO is considering changing its 

cataloging practice for archived 

documents to set the persistent link to 

the archived version immediately 

instead of waiting for the agency 

version to disappear. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

11 

3. GPO will investigate the benefits and 

costs of producing additional or more 

detailed analytics. 

4. GPO’s application of the CONSER 

“single record option” varies with 

circumstances. GPO will investigate 

the benefits and costs of applying this 

option more consistently. 

5. GPO will investigate the benefits and 

costs of GPO participating in 

standards-setting bodies such as NISO 

or MARBI. 

6. GPO is investigating replacing its 

system of persistent identifiers. It is 

expected that Handles or DOIs will 

replace PURLs. Some issues that will 

be examined include to what extent 

are these solutions backwardly 

compatible with GPO’s installed base 

of nearly 50,000 PURLs, and whether 

GPO should continue to assign 

persistent identifiers to digital 

resources beyond its direct control. 

7. GPO is investigating the use of 

industry-standard unique identifiers, 

such as ISBNs or ISSNs in National 

Bibliography records. 

8. GPO is monitoring developments in 

the cataloging and metadata arenas in 

anticipation of potential impacts on 

the National Bibliography program. 

Some of the developments being 

monitored include: 

a) FRBR 

b) METS 

c) MODS 

d) PREMIS 

9. GPO is seeking the most efficient and 

cost-effective strategy for performing 

the cataloging work for the National 

Bibliography, including: 

a) GPO staff 

b) Cooperative partners 

c) Agencies 

d) Contractors 

10. GPO is investigating various means 

of providing bibliographic records to 

various users, including: 

 

a) Libraries 

a) Vendors 

b) OCLC 

c) Book industry partners 

VII. RELATED ISSUES

1. Determine how to best provide 

bibliographic access to documents, 

and full text in the case of electronic 

documents, including documents 

created “on the fly” from dynamic 

databases. 

2. Need to plan enhanced OPAC content 

design, including the possibility of 

providing specialized services to 

International Exchange Program 

libraries. 

3. GPO will develop a detailed 

Retrospective Cataloging Action Plan. 

4. Classification systems: 

a) Appropriate use of the 

Superintendent of Documents 

(SuDocs) Classification 

system, such as application to 

non-depository publications or 

non-Federal publications 

b) Determine the role of SuDocs 

Classification numbers not 

assigned by GPO. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

12 

c) Determine if SuDocs class 

numbers be assigned to 

intangible resources and by 

what method? 

d) Determine appropriate 

application of other 

classification systems, 

including LC Classification or 

Dewey. 

5. GPO will investigate Item number 

issues, including: 

a) Whether item numbers ideally 

have a one-to-one relationship 

with class stems or individual 

titles. 

b) Whether the item number 

system has utility in the digital 

publications environment. 

c) What alternative methods or 

data elements GPO and/or 

bibliographic record vendors 

might use to create library 

selection profiles. 

APPENDIX I - LEGAL BASIS FOR GPO’S 

CATALOGING PROGRAMS

44 USC 1710. Index of documents: number 

and distribution 

The Superintendent of Documents, at the 

close of each regular session of 

Congress, shall prepare and publish a 

comprehensive index of public 

documents, upon a plan approved by the 

Joint Committee on Printing. The Public 

Printer shall, immediately upon its 

publication, deliver to him a copy of 

every document printed by the 

Government Printing Office. The head of 

each executive department, independent 

agency and establishment of the 

Government shall deliver to him a copy 

of every document issued or published 

by the department, bureau, or office not 

confidential in character. He shall also 

prepare and print in one volume a 

consolidated index of Congressional 

documents, and shall index single 

volumes of documents as the Joint 

Committee on Printing directs. Two 

thousand copies each of the 

comprehensive index and of the 

consolidated index shall be printed and 

bound in addition to the usual number, 

two hundred for the Senate, eight 

hundred for the House of Representatives 

and one thousand for distribution by the 

Superintendent of Documents. 

44 USC 1711. Catalog of Government 

publications 

On the first day of each month the 

Superintendent of Documents shall 

prepare a catalog of Government 

publications which shall show the 

documents printed during the preceding 

month, where obtainable, and the price. 

Two thousand copies of the catalog shall 

be printed in pamphlet form for 

distribution. 

There is additional authority for a cataloging 

operation under Chapter 41--Access to 

Federal Electronic Information: 

 

44 USC 4101. Electronic directory; online 

access to publications; electronic storage 

facility 

 (a) In General.--The Superintendent of 

Documents, under the direction of the Public 

Printer, shall-- 

(1) maintain an electronic directory of 

Federal electronic information;
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

13 

APPENDIX II - REFERENCES: 

British National Bibliography (BNB) description. 

http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/natbib.html

Canadiana: The National Bibliography of Canada. 

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/canadiana/index-e.html

Defining What Government Information is to be Categorized: Statement of Requirements. (GPO, 

2004) (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgiwg/pdf/cgiwgroup/revMay2004.pdf

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: Final Report. (International Federation of 

Library Associations, Cataloging Section, FRBR Review Group, 2003)

http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/wgfrbr/finalreport.htm

[MARC Formats and Standards Description]. (MARC Standards Office, Library of Congress, 

2003) http://www.loc.gov/marc/

Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection, 2nd ed. (GPO, 2004) 

www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/ecplan2004rev1.html

Metadata Object Description Schema Official Web Site. (Library of Congress, 2004) 

http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/

METS: An Overview & Tutorial (Library of Congress, 2003) 

http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/METSOverview.html

Template for Standard NAL Metadata. (NAL Metadata Task Force, 2001) 

http://www.nal.usda.gov/cataloging/TEMPLATE2.pdf

United States Code, 2000 edition. Title 44, Public Printing and Documents, Chapter 17, Section 

1710, Index of documents: number and distribution, 

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

United States Code, 2000 edition. Title 44, Public Printing and Documents, Chapter 19, Section 

1711, Catalog of Government publications, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html 

United States Code, 2000 edition. Title 44, Public Printing and Documents, Chapter 19, Section 

1901, Definition of Government publication, available at 

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

United States Code, 2000 edition. Title 44, Public Printing and Documents, Chapter 19, Section 

1902, Availability of Government publications ..., available at 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

14 

APPENDIX III - CATALOGING ACRONYMS 

USED IN THIS PAPER

• AACR2 – Anglo-American 

Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition. 

• CDS – Cataloging Distribution 

Service, Library of Congress 

• CONSER – Cooperative program for 

serial cataloging. 

• COSATI – Cataloging format used by 

scientific and technical agencies. 

• DOI – Digital Object Identifier. 

• DC, or Dublin Core – Metadata 

format developed by OCLC. 

• FDLP - Federal Depository Library 

Program. 

• FLICC – Federal Library and 

Information Center Committee, LC. 

• FRBR - Functional Requirements for 

Bibliographic Records. 

• GILS – Government Information 

Locator Systems. 

• IT - Information technology. 

• ILS - Integrated Library System. 

• ISBNs – International Standard Book 

Numbers. 

• LC - Library of Congress. 

• MARBI - Machine-Readable 

Bibliographic Information Committee 

of ALA. 

• MARC – Machine-Readable 

Cataloging, a data encoding structure. 

• METS - Metadata Encoding and 

Transmission Standard. 

• MODS - Metadata Object Description 

Schema. 

• NACO – Cooperative program to 

establish name authorities. 

• NISO - National Information 

Standards Organization. 

• NUC - National Union Catalog. 

• OCLC – Online Computer Library 

Center, Dublin, OH. 

• ONIX – Online Information 

Exchange; book industry cataloging 

format. 

• OPAC - Online Public Access 

Catalog. 

• PCC - Program for Cooperative 

Cataloging, LC.

• PREMIS - PREservation Metadata: 

Implementation Strategies, an OCLC 

working group. 

• PURL – Persistent Uniform Resource 

Locator. 

• SACO – Cooperative program to 

establish subject authorities. 

• SuDocs - Superintendent of 

Documents, GPO. 

• U.S.C. – United States Code. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

15 

2004 Recommended Specifications for 

Public Access Workstations in 

Federal Depository Libraries

These recommended specifications (RS) are 

intended to assist depository librarians who 

are planning purchases of new personal 

computers (PCs) for public use in Federal 

depository libraries. This document 

supersedes the Federal Depository Library 

Program (FDLP) “2003 Recommended 

Specifications for Public Access 

Workstations in Federal Depository 

Libraries” (Administrative Notes, v. 24, no. 

7, June 15, 2003). 

In accordance with Depository Library 

Council action at its Spring 2000 meeting, 

these RS will become requirements October 

1, 2005. 

RECOMMENDED NEW WORKSTATION 

CONFIGURATION

COMPUTER 

Processor 

Intel chip, 3 GHz Pentium 4 or 

comparable AMD Athlon (Athlon XP 

2200 if using Windows XP as an 

operating system) processor minimum. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: 3.4 GHz processor minimum 

Memory (DDR SDRAM - Double Data 

Rate Synchronous Dynamic RAM) 

512 MB (expandable) minimum. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: 1 GB DDR SDRAM 

Ports 

One (1) Serial 

Two (2) Universal Serial Bus (USB), 

2.0 standard 

One (1) Universal Serial Bus (USB) 

located on computer’s front panel 

One (1) Parallel 

One (1) P/S-2 Mouse 

One (1) SVGA Video (If video is built 

into system board.) 

One (1) IEE1394 Firewire port 

One (1) Ethernet port if connecting the 

computer to a networked printer 

I/O bus 

PCI. Should have at least four 

available PCI or shared PCI/ISA slots 

after system is configured for delivery. 

Video 

64 or 128 bit PCI interface SVGA 

controller. Should come with 16MB 

Windows RAM (WRAM) or Video 

RAM (VRAM), and be expandable. 

Recommend the selected device 

provide MPEG hardware acceleration. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: 64 or 128 bit PCI interface 

SVGA controller with 128 MB 

DDR VRAM. 

Audio 

Sound Blaster PCI64 sound card or 

compatible 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

16 

DRIVES AND STORAGE 

Hard Disk Drive 

120 gigabytes (GB) capacity or 

greater, partitioned into smaller drives 

for quicker access time. EIDE 

(enhanced integrated drive electronics) 

interface that conforms to the 

ATA/100 specification. Rotational 

speed of 7,200 rpm. 4MB cache 

memory. Consider additional hard 

drive space (160GB) for online video 

use, to increase the number of CDs that 

can be installed or to allow for 

electronic files to be stored. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: 200 GB or greater capacity, 

or network connectivity that 

provides the same. 

Removable/External Storage 

Do not assume that new computers 

have 1.44 MB drives for 3.5" floppy 

disks. Many manufactures do not 

provide these drives unless specifically 

ordered. GPO still distributes this 

format and many library patrons still 

use these disks. 

See “Related Issues and 

Considerations” below for more 

information. 

DVD Drive 

8x minimum, 16x speed 

recommended. Ensure compatibility 

with CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVDROM, DVD-Rs. Alternatively, a 

DVD-CD combo: 16x DVD/48x CD 

ROM. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: 16x DVD. Single platter or 

changer design. Should support all 

available standard CD formats. 

Avoid proprietary I/O designs. 

CD-RW Drive 

Most new systems now come equipped 

with a CD-RW drive. Look for 

rotational speeds of 24x10x40 

(write/rewrite/read). Needed for 

downloading files too large to fit on a 

regular floppy or for larger scale 

backup. The average user is more 

likely to have a CD reader than a Zip 

or Jaz drive. Make sure the drive 

comes with some sort of MPEG-2 

encoding software. 

See “Related Issues and 

Considerations” below for more 

information. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC USE: 

48X24X48X 

PERIPHERALS 

Monitor 

17" Super VGA (SVGA) Multimedia 

monitor with a range between .22 to 

.27 mm dot pitch. Look for a high 

refresh rate of at least 60MHz. 

Consider flat panel (15" or larger) for 

staff or in public areas with limited 

space. With LCD monitors, look for a 

viewing angle of at least 140 degrees. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA USE: 

21" monitor, Super VGA (SVGA), 

with at least 85 MHz vertical refresh 

rate at 1024x768 resolution noninterlaced, 0.28 mm or smaller dot 

pitch; display card which supports 

1024x768 resolution at 70 MHz or 

faster. 

 Printer 

Ink Jet or laser printer. Must support 

PostScript. 16MB of memory, 

minimum. More is recommended if 

the printer is not host-based or if using 

color. Consider purchasing a color 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

17 

printer for clearer output of color maps 

and graphical representations. If the 

printer is shared among workstations 

look for a minimum of 32MB of 

memory. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: Color ink jet printer, 36", 600 

dpi, 80 MB or more memory, or 

access to a comparable networked 

printer 

 Keyboard and Pointing Device 

Microsoft-compatible keyboard, plus 

mouse or other compatible device. 

Strongly recommend ergonomicallydesigned products. 

 Internet Connectivity 

Local Area Network with TCP/IP. 

10/100 MB Ethernet network interface 

card (Strongly Recommended) 

or 

Broadband connections such as Digital 

Subscriber Line (DSL) or Cable 

SOFTWARE 

 Operating System 

Most new computers with a Windowsbased operating system come 

preinstalled with either Windows NT, 

2000 or Windows XP. XP Home and 

XP Professional have security and 

virus protection features well suited for 

public access workstations. 

Client Software 

World Wide Web graphical browser 

with forms support. Java-enabled 

browsers such as Internet Explorer 4 or 

Netscape Navigator 4 or greater are 

required for use of some online 

databases. IE 5.5 or Netscape 6.2 are 

recommended. 

It is recommended that workstations 

have virus protection software installed 

and regular updates scheduled. 

 Viewers 

WWW graphical browser (see above) 

that handles both GIF and JPEG 

graphics. Viewers for other formats 

such as tiff, wpd, doc, xls, dbf, mdb, 

and pdf should also be available. Later 

versions of pdf viewers have a search 

capability. Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 

supports assistive screen readers and 

older census files. Multimedia 

player(s) to access rm, mpeg, avi and 

mov formats. 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: GEOTIFF file viewer. 

DLGv32 Pro Version 5.10. Viewing 

software for raster data, such as 

Photo Shop Pro, Print Shop or 

MrSid Viewer. 

 Applications Software 

If the library offers services that 

require applications software, consider 

an integrated "office suite" product 

such as Microsoft Office, Corel 

WordPerfect Office or Lotus 

SmartSuite. Otherwise: 

Database 

dBASE file format compatible or 

dBASE and ASCII comma 

delimited file importing database 

management software; useful to 

have fixed field format (SDF) 

importability. 

Spreadsheet 

Lotus .WK1 file format compatible 

software; support for other formats 

such as Excel and Quattro Pro. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

18 

Word Processing 

Software (Microsoft Word, 

WordPerfect, WordPro, etc.) 

capable of importing major text file 

formats, e.g., ASCII text and RTF 

files. 

Mapping Software 

• FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA 

USE: Data manipulation 

package, such as ArcView 3.1 or 

higher, Landview, MapInfo 4.5 

or higher, or other similar 

package. 

RELATED ISSUES AND CONSIDERATIONS

These specifications are intended to assist 

depository staff in making informed 

purchases that will best achieve the goal of 

providing public access to Federal 

Government information in a variety of 

electronic formats. 

These guidelines are aimed at providing 

reasonably robust workstations that should 

provide years of service before they become 

obsolete, but GPO encourages the purchase 

of equipment that exceeds these 

specifications if at all economically feasible. 

The speed at which computer capabilities are 

evolving indicates that the higher the initial 

outlay, the longer the useful life for the 

equipment. If a higher end system is not 

affordable, look for flexibility and 

expandability in the system that will allow for 

enhancements and upgrades at a later date. 

As these guidelines address minimums, 

ensure compatibility among chosen 

components before purchasing. 

Depository libraries must have computer 

equipment sufficient to allow timely and 

equitable public access to Government 

electronic information products and should 

allow printing or downloading information 

selected by the user. 

Please note the addition this year of a USB 

port on the computer’s front panel. This is to 

accommodate the increasing number of 

library patrons who use removable storage 

devices instead of floppy disks or CDs. 

3.5 and 5.25 floppy drives: If your library 

still has depository materials on 3.5" and 

5.25" floppy disks, you must have the 

equipment for patrons to access these 

products. Alternatively, depository libraries 

may “substitute” floppies in their collection 

for online editions located at the CIC 

Government Publications Task Force Floppy 

Disk Project (FDP), hosted by Indiana 

University Library in partnership with GPO. 

The site is located at: <http://www.indiana. 

edu/~libgpd/mforms/floppy/floppy.html>. 

Check online holdings prior to substituting. 

If the FDP does not have the title you wish to 

substitute, you must provide access to the 

product by maintaining older equipment or 

converting these products to a new platform. 

GPO works with the Cartographic Users 

Advisory Council (CUAC) to develop any 

additional specifications that support GIS 

applications. These are included in the 

recommendations with the indicator: 

● FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DATA USE: 

All depositories are not required to meet the 

cartographic specifications. They are meant 

to assist with planning purchases for those 

libraries that support and provide data 

services using spatial data and GIS 

applications. The "regular" specifications 

will allow for basic mapping applications. 

Census maps will be available in multiple 

formats, including PDF, so large-scale 

equipment will not be necessary, though 

consideration should be given to purchasing a 

color printer. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

19 

Viewers versus full working versions of 

applications software: If viewers are 

available on computers to allow access to 

Government information in the various 

formats this is acceptable and the library will 

meet the minimum technical requirements. 

While providing applications software and/or 

staff support to help patrons manipulate data 

or create reports is desirable, it is optional. 

This position is consistent with Depository 

Library Public Service Guidelines For 

Government Information in Electronic 

Formats at: 

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

 mgt/pseguide.html. 

The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 

(August 7, 1998) amended §508 of the 

Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require 

“individuals with disabilities, who are 

members of the public seeking information or 

services from a Federal department or 

agency, have access to and use of information 

and data that is comparable to that provided 

to the public who are not individuals with 

disabilities.” Federal depository libraries 

must provide hardware and software to allow 

this or accommodate users in some other 

manner. Electronic and Information 

Technology Accessibility Standards; Final 

Rule was published in the December 21, 2000 

(pp. 80499-80528) issue of the Federal 

Register and became effective June 21, 2001. 

Further guidance on these issues is available 

from: 

http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm 

http://www.usability.gov/accessibility 

http://www.section508.gov 

http://www.rit.edu/~easi/index.htm 

CD-RW drives can be purchased as either 

internal or external drives. With a CD-RW 

the discs can be reused, unlike those of the 

CD-R that can only be used once. The other 

major difference between CD-Rs and CDRWs is that CDs created from a CD-R can 

sometimes be read in older CD-ROM drives 

while those created from a CD-RW can only 

be read from MultiRead drives. This is 

something to consider particularly if you are 

creating circulating copies and want to meet 

the needs of most of your users. Be sure to 

check compatibility with your operating 

system. 

GPO cannot anticipate or address every 

possible depository library computer 

scenario, and depository libraries are 

encouraged to adapt this menu of 

specifications to fit their local situations. 

Depositories may require multi-purpose 

single workstations, electronic access in 

networked environments, or a combination of 

both. Given the large variation in the size of 

Federal depository libraries and the numbers 

of users served, GPO cannot recommend a 

universal standard for the number of public 

access workstations in any given library. 

However, when assessing workstation needs, 

librarians should consider such local factors 

as: 

• the amount of information provided 

over the Internet compared with the 

amount from CD-ROM 

• whether and how the workstations are 

networked 

• to what extent users are permitted to 

perform additional information 

processing at the public access 

workstations 

• whether users are experiencing 

extended waiting times at library peak 

service hours, etc. 

When configuring workstations bear in mind 

that some government CD-ROM products 

link to the web to update information on the 

CD-ROM. This means that for the user to get 

the newer information and the full benefit of 

the product at least one workstation must 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

20 

have both CD-ROM capability and Internet 

accessibility with a graphical browser. 

Additional or different capabilities may be 

desirable for workstations used by library 

staff. Some libraries may elect to add 

applications software, such as spreadsheet, 

word processing, or database software, to 

their public access workstations, but this is a 

local resource management decision. 

Many depository libraries have existing 

computer equipment that is no longer "state 

of the art." These specifications should not 

be applied retrospectively to existing 

equipment, although they may assist in 

determining the appropriate time for 

replacement or upgrading. Libraries should 

also consider keeping this equipment in order 

to access electronic products that cannot be 

read with newer hardware and software. 

For additional information, or if you have any 

questions about these specifications, please 

contact Cynthia Etkin, Program Analyst, at 

cetkin@gpo.gov or by voice at 202.512.1114. 

Related guidelines: 

• “Depository Library Public Service 

Guidelines for Government 

Information in Electronic Formats,” 

Administrative Notes, v. 19, #11 

(September 15, 1998). Revised March 

2003. 

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

dlp/mgt/pseguide.html> 

• “FDLP Internet Use Policy 

Guidelines,” Administrative Notes, v. 

20, #2 (January 15, 1999). 

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

dlp/mgt/iupolicy.html> 

• “FDLP Guidelines on Substituting 

Electronic for Tangible Versions of 

Depository Publications,” 

Administrative Notes, v. 20, #09 (May 

15, 1999). 

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

fdlp/coll-dev/subguide.html> 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

21 

Council’s Response to Report on the Meeting of 

Experts on Digital Preservation 

Available as a PDF file on the Depository Library Council page on the FDLP Desktop at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/council/other_responses/MoEoDP_response_52004.pdf 

Council commends the Public Printer and the 

Managing Director of Information 

Dissemination/Superintendent of Documents 

for their leadership roles on this very 

important issue. 

With regard to selection for the legacy 

collection project, we recognize that there is 

an interest among library directors in 

identifying long runs of titles for which there 

is broad interest in the research community, 

occupy large amounts of shelf-space, and 

may be expensive to acquire in digital form 

from commercial vendors. 

Council is deeply concerned that the targets 

for digital preservation should include some 

evaluation of the print documents most at-risk 

of loss. Council suggests that GPO engage in 

a preservation assessment of both microform 

and print publications with emphasis on 20th 

to early 21st century materials. Further, 

Council encourages GPO to partner with the 

depository library community, the National 

Archives and Records Administration and 

other federal agencies in the pursuit of this 

effort. Print publications on onion-skin and 

other poor-quality paper should be given a 

high priority for the project. Microfiche titles 

that may have print equivalents available are 

also an appropriate early target for the legacy 

project. 

The intellectual content of the legacy 

collection is also a concern to the depository 

community. Council recommends GPO for 

soliciting input from those with subject 

expertise, including, for example, members of 

GODORT’s Rare and Endangered 

Government Publications Committee. 

Council further recommends that flexibility 

be affirmed as part of the GPO’s 

retrospective digitization strategy. The 

report’s language on page 5, paragraph 3 

acknowledges that some experts “expressed 

concern the GPO not set a bar so high that it 

would exclude smaller institutions from 

making contributions that they may be in a 

unique position to make.” While the GPO 

benchmark for the creation of digital 

preservation masters is based appropriately 

on the recommendations of digital 

preservation specialists, a dynamic program 

with maximum feasible participation should 

allow creation of digital access copies with a 

benchmark that is less rigorous. Many 

libraries have already completed, or initiated, 

projects in which the digital preservation 

master standard cannot be met. It does not 

seem reasonable to exclude the contribution 

of this content to the Legacy Collection. 

Council urges GPO to survey the depository 

community and evaluate the suitability of 

these projects for inclusion in the Legacy 

Collection. It is Council's belief that many of 

these projects would be worth inclusion thus 

allowing GPO to concentrate its efforts on 

other aspects of the Legacy Collection. 

Council believes it to be unreasonable to 

make the creation of the preservation master 

according to current standards a prerequisite 

for participation. While Council strongly 

supports a preservation master as the best 

means by which to achieve permanent public 

access, libraries that have created access 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

22 

copies without a preservation master should 

not be denied participation and GPO might 

wish to devote its expertise and appropriate 

resources to the creation of a preservation 

master in this scenario. At the local level each 

library may view a particular aspect of their 

collection as the best starting point for access. 

GPO should not deny that library the ability 

to participate simply because a preservation 

master wasn't developed in accordance to 

current stands; rather GPO might wish to 

create the preservation master itself. 

In addition, Council suggests that GPO note 

that technologies, standards and best practices 

in all areas are evolving. Council suggests 

that libraries who chose to create digital 

access copies (without a correlate 

preservation master) may be allowed to use 

cheaper and more efficient technology in the 

future to create high-quality preservation 

masters in a more expedient yet less costly 

manner than current technologies provide. 

Council strongly recommends that the same 

level of engagement for creating 

preservation-quality digital masters for 

retrospective material be applied to the 

establishment of preservation standards for 

born-digital content. A similar expert meeting 

should be convened that addresses issues 

related to the capture, processing, storage, 

and preservation of born digital content 

including tangible and non-tangible formats, 

databases, and dynamic pages (information 

generated on-the-fly). 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

23 

Council’s Remarks on 

The Summary Meeting on the Future of the 

GPO Sales Program 

Available as a PDF file on the Depository Library Council page on the FDLP Desktop at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/council/other_responses/FutureGPOSales_response_52004.pdf 

The Depository Library Council wishes to 

thank GPO for convening a meeting 

involving the various private and public 

stakeholders that have a compelling interest 

in any version of a Sales Program the GPO 

envisioned for the future. It was a wise 

decision to solicit advice from a diverse 

group of experts before pursuing a project 

that might not realize the success envisioned 

by the Public Printer. Further, Council wishes 

to thank GPO for sharing the results of the 

meeting with Council and the larger 

community. 

As was noted in Council’s response to the 

Public Printer in January 2004 and again 

reiterated at the Spring 2004 meeting, any 

type of Sales Program envisioned by GPO 

has a very narrow scope in which to operate. 

The fundamental principle acknowledged by 

all participants was that the inherent mission 

of GPO is to provide government information 

in all forms and formats to the American 

public at no-fee. To do anything less is a 

disservice to the American public and erodes 

the fundamental mission of the GPO. 

Whether a need continues to exist for a Sales 

Program can only be determined by further 

examination on the part of GPO. GPO may 

discover after all the market research and 

analysis that a viable Sales Program may or 

may not exist; and that it may or may not 

generate the type of revenue envisioned by 

the Public Printer. It is evident from the 

discussions at the meeting that many felt 

there may be niche markets GPO can pursue. 

Whether GPO engages in value-added 

services, web portal customization, pushing 

information to interested parties, or 

partnerships with other federal agencies or 

nonfederal entities are matters that should be 

pursued further. Again, Council wishes to 

emphasize that any content sold for a fee 

should also have a corresponding no-fee 

equivalent for the American public. 

Additionally Council applauds GPO for: 

• Recognizing that many of the services 

provided in the Sales Program have become 

obsolete in the electronic environment and 

discontinuing them to save costs. 

• Investigating whether GPO should re-locate 

its operations to another facility within the 

District of Columbia. Revenue realized from 

any sale or lease of the North Capitol 

property should be used primarily to ensure 

continued nofee access to government 

information products and services. 

• Recognizing that GPO should not engage in 

unfair competition with privately funded 

entities while exploring potential new 

business products and services. 

• Exploring potential new partnerships with 

other federal agencies, particularly outside of 

the legislative branch, that may provide their 

information via GPO Access. 

• Exploring potential partnerships that expand 

the access of federal government information 

to the American public via e-commerce sites 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

24 

such as Amazon.com, commercial database 

aggregators, and other such companies as 

long as no-fee access to similar services is 

continued to be made available.

Simultaneously Council cautions GPO to: 

• Maintain continued no-fee access to 

government information to libraries 

participating in the Federal Depository 

Library Program (FDLP). Council and the 

library community assign the highest priority 

to continued no-fee access to federal 

government information. 

• Ensure vendor partnerships do not undercut 

the no-fee access currently enjoyed by 

participants in the FDLP. 

• Provide accurate, consistent budget reports 

to Congress and the library community. 

• Ensure long-term, no-fee, permanent public 

access to information content that may be 

generated through partnerships with nonfederal sources. 

• Understand that the Sales Program may 

never generate the large-scale revenues 

envisioned by the Public Printer and continue 

to identify and implement cost-cutting and 

revenue-generating measures that can be 

accomplished by departments other than the 

Superintendent of Documents/Information 

Dissemination unit. 

• Understand that while arrangements or 

partnerships with private, commercial entities 

may be a source of potential revenue, any 

government information used in the 

production of these materials must remain in 

the public domain.
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

25 

Council’s Comments on the 

Draft Decision Framework for 

Federal Document Repositories 

May 13, 2004 

Available as a PDF file on the Depository Library Council page on the FDLP Desktop at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/council/other_responses/FDR_comments_051304.pdf 

The Federal Depository Library Council 

believes this report is a reasonable initial 

public draft for an assurance and decision 

framework for developing a system of 

regional repositories for tangible federal 

government documents. As Council 

understands from this draft and other 

planning discussions, the tangible federal 

government document system would 

tentatively be based on two dark archives 

(highest assurance level), a larger number of 

"light archives,” and designated depository 

libraries (lowest assurance level). Council 

generally supports this proposed 

configuration of dark and light archives as a 

reasonable strategy for providing preservation 

of the tangible FDLP collection, and as a 

backup for operational depository library 

collections. 

Council includes several suggestions and 

questions below that we recommend be 

clarified in the final version. 

Light archives: 

• it is not clear where light archives fall 

within the spectrum ranging from operating 

library to dark archive, e.g., whether they are 

more akin to archives or to operating 

libraries? 

• is the intent of light archives that they be 

used only in the event that efforts to locate 

items in operating depository libraries have 

been exhausted? 

• will materials held in light archives be 

available for physical use by researchers, or 

will only digital surrogates be made 

available? 

• other than staff, will there be "authenticated 

constituents" who have access to use light 

archive materials? Who? Why? 

• will light archives require reading rooms, or 

will researchers rather be directed to their 

local depository libraries to use digital 

surrogates delivered thereto? 

• should library consortiums be more likely 

candidates for governing light archives than 

individual institutions? 

• are collections in light archives 

“depository” collections, or are they a new 

intermediary status somewhere between 

archival (NARA affiliation) and depository 

(FDLP) collections? Will a new status require 

statutory definition? 

• would light archive materials circulate at 

all, even to branches within the parent 

institution? 

• with the addition of some provision for onsite, limited use of materials, is it possible 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

26 

that certain “high end” existing depository 

library remote storage facilities might be 

converted to light archives? 

Specific Factors in Draft Assurance and 

Decision Framework: 

In general, the "low" end of assurance is not 

adequate for any sort of archival facility. The 

low end is much more indicative of the 

current environment in many depository 

libraries. However, in the criteria for 

accessibility the “low” level of assurance 

(gov docs do not circulate) actually gives a 

higher level of confidence in the archival 

nature of the repository than the “high” level 

of assurance (unrestricted circulation). This 

confusion should probably be cleared up. 

• Disclosure of Holdings 

Cataloging/metadata Production - Every 

depository library is required to comply with 

the highest level of assurance (piece level 

holdings). It seems that the low level of 

assurance for this category - published GPO 

catalogs only - is setting the bar too low. 

• Ongoing Validation/Inventory 

Seems to assume a SuDoc arrangement of the 

repository. See under "Storage and 

Integration" that this might not be the ideal 

arrangement for an archival collection. 

• Storage and Integration 

Integration of Government Publication 

Collections Should not assume that a SuDoc 

arrangement of materials in repository is the 

best arrangement for an archival collection. 

• Proximity to Users 

The term "off-site" seems to assume that 

there is no public access at the storage facility 

itself. Many archival facilities make some 

provision for public reading space. A high 

assurance level might be “stored off-site and 

available only in surrogate copy.” 

• Physical Markings and Bibliographic 

Identifiers 

An RFID tag might not represent the highest 

level of assurance for an archival system 

which is designed to withstand a nuclear 

attack or other massive catastrophe. 

• User Assistance 

Would there be on-site users in the dark 

archive? 

• Accessibility - Access to Originals 

As stated above it appears that the high 

through low rankings are reversed in this 

section, by definition archival facilities 

restrict access to originals, whether on site, or 

via circulation or ILL. It should be made 

clear that a good archival repository should 

have a "low" assurance level on some of 

these measures. 

On site - The inclusion of the “medium” level 

– restricting who has access – is unacceptable 

since we are dealing with public information. 

Would any access be available, even by 

appointment, for use of dark archive 

materials? 

• Access to Reproductions – Digital What is 

meant in the middle category by the use of 

the word subscription in “digital surrogates or 

copies on the Web delivery on a subscription 

basis.”? 

• Governance 

Is state or federal funding and governance 

necessarily more stable than well established, 

well funded private institution or university.
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

27 

Council's Comments on the 

Collection of Last Resort Draft Dated April 6, 

2004 

Available as a PDF file on the Depository Library Council page on the FDLP Desktop at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/council/other_responses/CLR_comments_51804.pdf 

Council applauds GPO for developing the 

Collection of Last Resort draft plan. At this 

stage of the plan Council believes that the 

draft provides a clear vision for the future as 

it makes strong commitments to: 

• Collect and preserve all formats, including 

born-digital objects; 

• Reinforce the long standing principle of nofee public access; 

• Create cataloging and metadata records for 

access and preservation; 

• Safeguard government information in times 

of national emergency. 

The draft begins to articulate a new vision for 

long-term access to federal government 

information. For such a vision to become a 

reality, however, additional details must be 

provided to the library community and other 

stakeholders. The following 

recommendations suggest specific areas 

where additional details are needed. 

1. In Spring 2003, Council recommended the 

creation of the "United States Library of 

Public Information." The recommendation is 

as follows: 

United States Library of Public Information 

Council recommends that as the Government 

Printing Office pursues its initiative in 

creating a United States Library of Public 

Information, the Government Printing Office, 

along with members of the depository library 

community, develop a cogent, flexible 

collection that is: 

1. Comprehensive in scope and content 

2. Fully cataloged 

3. Widely accessible 

4. Permanently archived 

Rationale: In today’s increasingly electronic 

environment, the need for a United States 

Library of Public Information providing 

permanent public access, full cataloging 

records, widely accessible and 

comprehensive in scope, becomes more of a 

national need. GPO’s pursuit of this library 

will address the current and future needs of 

the new depository environment. 

Council conceptualized the United States 

Library of Public Information as a widely 

accessible collection including appropriate 

service to that collection. As articulated in the 

preliminary CLR plan, there does not appear 

to be a clear statement regarding how access 

and service will be provided. Council 

strongly recommends that a plan for the 

shared or “light” repositories be developed 

and vetted with all stakeholders as soon as 

possible so that the larger context within 

which the CLR functions will be clear. 

2. Council would like to see a more complete 

articulation of what GPO envisions regarding 

the roles of both FDLs and GPO in 

subsequent versions of the plan. 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

28 

3. Assumptions #11-13 provide estimates of 

the time and money needed to digitize the 

legacy FDLP collection. Although not 

explicit, these assumptions appear to allude to 

the agreement between GPO and the 

Association of Research Libraries to 

collaborate on this effort. Council 

recommends that GPO also encourage, 

support and include the efforts of smaller 

depository libraries and those who are not 

members of ARL to be partners in this 

worthwhile endeavor. 

The CLR plan includes the laudable goal of 

digitizing the tangible legacy collection so 

that all government information will be 

equally available in a standardized electronic 

format. Having an all-digital collection of 

current and retrospective U.S. government 

information serves the needs and preferences 

of many, if not most, users and potential users 

by providing electronic access to this 

collection. Much of the plan is devoted to 

framing the digitizing of a legacy collection. 

Council would again like to emphasize our 

belief that born-digital government 

information should be of the highest priority 

in the GPO strategic planning process. See 

Spring 2004 recommendation on Born 

Digital Information is at Risk. 

4. The CLR draft states that "Tangible copies 

of 'born digital' products will be produced for 

the dark archive." Council recommends that 

GPO devote appropriate resources to ensure 

the goal of creating and storing print copies 

of all electronic items, including those on 

floppy disks, CD-ROMs and DVDs. A 

tangible collection of current and 

retrospective U.S. government information 

would better ensure the preservation of the 

entire collection, particularly during and after 

a national emergency. Council suggests that 

GPO work with a variety of partners to print 

the digital collection, just as it is working 

with partners to digitize the print collection. 

For example GPO should begin to print 1 or 2 

copies of information currently being added 

to the FDLP Electronic Collection. Printing a 

set of the pre-existing born-digital collection 

could be achieved through the print-ondemand service envisioned by GPO. Such 

printing will require the establishment of 

standards. Council also wishes to emphasize 

the importance of establishing “light 

archives” as locations for the additional 

copies of printed items. “Light archives” 

could include equipment for onsite printing 

and might be able to serve as distribution 

centers for libraries requesting hard copy 

from digital images. 

5. Table 2 indicates that GPO will acquire 

fugitives to add to the CLR. Council 

recommends that GPO outline specific ways 

in which fugitives will be identified, added 

and preserved. Council further recommends 

that GPO partner with depository libraries 

and professional organizations in acquiring 

fugitive materials.

6. Table 2 also indicates that GPO will 

acquire tangible information products from 

depository 

library discards. Given that selective 

depository libraries already weed and in the 

future some 

may reduce their collections by acquiring or 

selecting electronic-only copies of 

documents, 

Council recommends that GPO prepare and 

distribute clear guidelines so that FDLs 

understand what, how, and when to offer 

discards to the CLR. 

7. The plan discusses access and preservation 

in two separate sections. Council 

recommends that the plan articulate the longstanding view among preservation librarians 

that preservation and access are inter-related. 

Preserving information, regardless of form or 
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

29 

format, helps ensure accessibility in the 

future, even though, as in the case of the dark 

archive, the physical items themselves are 

relatively inaccessible. 

8. Assumption #14 states: "After digitization 

copies of the original publication, even if 

disbound, will be retained and preserved in 

case the item must be digitized again in the 

future." Council recommends that GPO not 

disbind its only copy of a publication. 

9. Council recommends that a timeline for the 

development of the CLR, including a target 

date indicating when its existence begins, be 

included in subsequent versions of the plan. 

The timeline should include the preservation 

plan when the CLR comes into existence and 

should also include phases in the progress 

toward full digitization and 

cataloging/metadata creation. 

10. Council recommends that a detailed cost 

analysis and/or budget should be included in 

subsequent versions of the plan. 

11. Council recommends that GPO partner 

with OCLC and RLIN, perhaps through their 

respective members who are also in the 

FDLP, to acquire, use, and adapt pre-1976 

cataloging for legacy collection items. 

12. Council assumes that a “Dark Archive” 

containing master copies of the digital CLR 

will reside on digital storage devices that are 

not networked. 

13. The CLR plan should answer the 

following questions: 

• To what does Table 3's mention of GPO 

processing “CLR boxes” refer? 

• What is ONIX and how will its use be of 

benefit? 

• What does the statement "GPO is 

responsible for providing expertise in 

interpretation, access, and service for the 

publicly accessible portions of the CLR” 

mean in practice? 

• Does the GPO plan to try to collect two 

copies of every legacy publication, or only 

one? 

• Will the CRL be located in one facility or 

geographically distributed? 

• What are GPO’s contingency plans for 

access in to the CLR in times of a national 

emergency? 

• How will GPO authenticate digital masters? 

o How will this affect long-term 

preservation? 

• How can GPO guarantee that the digital 

masters are official and have not been 

tampered with?

• Will source files be made available to 

FDLs? 

o Will there be restrictions on FDLs' 

usage of such files? 

• Does GPO envision using LOCKSS (or 

similar technology) to safeguard the integrity 

of geographically distributed digital objects 

that are housed by partner institutions?
AN-v25-#08/09-7-8/15/04 

30 

Table of Contents 

Registration Information for Fall 2004 Federal Depository Library Conference......................... 1 

Conference/Council Meeting Preliminary Agenda Being Prepared for Late August................... 2 

Comment Period Extended for 3 Draft Reports of Critical Importance to the Future 

 of the FDLP................................................................................................................................ 3 

CEU Program at GPO................................................................................................................... 4 

Shipping List Improvements Announced: Full Titles to Precede Series ...................................... 5 

Classification of U.S. Government Publications .......................................................................... 6 

National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications: Initial Planning Statement................. 7 

2004 Recommended Specifications for Public Access Workstations ........................................ 15 

Council’s Response to Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation.................... 21 

Council’s Remarks on The Summary Meeting on the Future of the GPO Sales Program......... 23 

Council’s Comments on the Draft Decision Framework for Federal Document Repositories .. 25 

Council's Comments on the Collection of Last Resort Draft Dated April 6, 2004..................... 27 

Administrative Notes Cumulative Table of Contents 

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

Updated with each issue 

Searchable by keyword 

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

Government Printing Office, for the staffs of U.S. Federal Depository Libraries. 

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

Postmaster send address changes to: The Editor, Administrative Notes 

 U.S. Government Printing Office 

 Stop SLLD 

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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