Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 19, no. 03 GP 3.16/3-2:19/03 January 25, 1998 

Building upon the Depository Library System Model 

Remarks by Francis J. Buckley, Jr. 

Superintendent of Documents 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Saturday, January 10, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

Welcome 

Good morning! I am pleased to be here this morning, speaking to you as the Superintendent of 

Documents. It is a position I never anticipated in my career, but I am grateful Mr. DiMario 

called on me because it certainly fulfills my longstanding professional interest to ensure 

effective, efficient and equitable public access to Government information. It is very interesting 

to be talking from “inside” GPO. I am still learning much about the agency and the U.S. 

Government. So far, it has been quite a fascinating journey. In my first two weeks, I have had 

the opportunity to sign Interagency Agreements (IAs) with the Department of Energy (DOE) and 

the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). 

Our agreement with the DOE will enable their technical reports to be accessed by depository 

libraries via GPO Access. The NTIS agreement is for the continuation of the pilot on-demand 

digital image distribution program. 

Sandy Schwalb will discuss both of these projects in more detail, but I also wanted to mention a 

joint marketing pilot project that is in the works between GPO and NTIS. Each agency will 

supply to the other a list of 20 information products that are not available in the other’s sales 

program. The concept is that GPO and NTIS will take orders for these materials and then pass 

those orders on to the other agency for fulfillment. 

As Superintendent of Documents I oversee, as you know, three main programs for public access 

to Government information; the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), GPO Access and 

the Sales Service. I want to ensure that these complementary programs are coordinated to 

provide effective public access to information in tangible and electronic media, to provide for 

permanent public access to the information, and to enable individuals to purchase popular 

materials for personal use at low cost. I am pleased to note that the Federal Depository Library 

Program is now supplying 1366 libraries across the country with nearly 13 million copies of 

approximately 30,000 titles per year. Those of you who know my background may remember I 
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was the regional depository librarian at the Detroit Public Library. I am reliving those days 

again as I have made myself a regional depository to see all the print products we are distributing 

to depository libraries. 

GPO Access continues to grow by leaps and bounds. T.C. Evans will provide more details about 

the program, but I did want to mention that in October, 1997 we saw record use of the system. 

Over 8 million documents were downloaded from GPO Access. Just recently, the Biennial 

Report to Congress on the Status of GPO Access was completed. It is a depository item and you 

will be receiving it in the near future. 

The Sales Program is functioning well, although the volume of new titles being published is 

diminishing. The program includes about 10,000 titles, about half of which are individual issues 

of dated periodicals of some 400 subscription items. The program operated in the black in 1997. 

Approximately 69% of the customers in FY 1997 were businesses, 24% were private individuals, 

and 9% were government and academic users [adds up to more than 100% because some 

customers are counted in more than one category]. The Program handled 447,000 orders and 

generated $70,490,000 in revenue. The order desks answered 326,000 telephone calls. 

In addition to touring the telephone and mail order sections at Main GPO, I’ve toured the what 

seemed like miles of shelves of publications at the Laurel warehouse, attended the opening of a 

relocated bookstore in Denver and had the chance to visit the Pueblo bookstore and the 

Consumer Information Center in Pueblo that we manage for the General Services 

Administration. 

All in all, it has been quite a learning curve. I am most pleased, however, to be able to continue 

being a spokesperson for comprehensive, equitable public access to Government information, 

something I have advocated throughout my library career. In my new role, I expect to work 

closely with the depository community, with which I have very strong ties, to ensure that the 

Federal Depository Library Program will be strong and viable into the next century. 

FDLP Partners 

A guiding principle in our planning for an electronic future is the assumption that partners, 

libraries, agencies, non-profits, and consortia will share the tasks of building, storing, 

disseminating and preserving the collection of FDLP electronic resources, building upon the 

depository library system model. Several partnerships have been forged in recent years that will 

help to ensure permanent online accessibility for electronic Government information products. 

FDLP partnerships are official agreements between GPO and one or more individuals, 

depository libraries and/or U.S. Government agencies in joint projects which benefit the public 

and the depository program. 

There are three types of partnerships: 

1. Content Partnerships -- In Content Partnerships a partner institution hosts part of the FDLP 

Electronic Collection for free use by the public. One of the first content partnerships 

established was between the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) and the Department of 

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State. UIC provides permanent access for files removed from the active main web pages of 

the State Department. 

2. Service Partnerships -- These partners offer services which assist documents librarians and 

GPO in the administration of the depository program. In this case, the State University of 

New York at Buffalo and the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries are working together 

on the enhanced shipping list service through which one can: 

 View and print shipping lists in item number, SuDocs number, or title order 

 Search Shipping lists for title keywords, items and SuDocs numbers 

 Automatically check the inclusion list against shipping lists and print call number labels 

for your library 

 Obtain information and instructions pertaining to the Label service 

3. GPO Access Gateways -- Gateways provide expanded accessibility to the information 

available in GPO with interpretive and instructional content developed by Gateway partners 

for their specific clienteles, a variety of alternatives for structuring searches and viewing 

results, and local low- or no-cost connections for dial-up users. In addition, Gateways assist 

GPO by providing input in development and refinement of electronic products and services. 

 

Over the next two days, Sandy Schwalb and George Barnum of the Electronic Transition Staff 

will provide more details about other partnerships in which GPO has become involved. 

Letter to Library Directors 

As for that electronic future, in late November, the Public Printer sent a letter to the directors of 

all of the depository libraries. I was pleased that he took the opportunity, at that time, to 

introduce me as the new Superintendent. But what was key in the letter was that he addressed 

concerns that have been raised in the depository community about how fast the transition to a 

more electronic FDLP was taking place. Mr. DiMario made it clear that for the foreseeable 

future, a significant amount of print products would continue to be distributed to depositories. 

When a Federal publishing agency produces a title in paper and it is available to GPO in paper, 

we will acquire copies for library distribution even if an alternative electronic version available. 

Under law, this is what GPO is authorized to do, and we plan to continue in this manner until 

Congress provides another direction. In most cases, we are also making the electronic version 

available. 

We believe that the electronic transition should proceed based on: 

 the actions of the publishing agency 

 cost-effectiveness 

 usability of the information 

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The entire text of the Public Printer’s letter appears in the December 15, 1997 issue of 

Administrative Notes (Vol. 18, no. 16). 

IPS 

At the Fall Depository Library Council meeting, Jay Young talked about the Integrated 

Processing System (IPS) that has been in the works for many years in our Sales Program. IPS 

will replace over 20 mainframe legacy systems, dating back to the 1970s, and put in place a 

state-of-the-art, customer-oriented business system. IPS should greatly improve customer 

service and document delivery by using one central database for transactions to streamline the 

ordering process. It will utilize scanning and imaging technology to record orders. It will 

improve research, inventory management and forecasting tools, and it will have state-of-the-art 

warehouse management technology. We foresee this will enhance marketing opportunities for 

the Sales Program. We are anxious to get it underway. 

We had thought that it would go live this past November, but are now looking at implementation 

in late March. This will give the Sales staff adequate time for testing, training and eventually, 

implementation. We want to be sure that all phases of IPS are ready for use before hitting that 

button that says, “Go.” 

Although the system will initially focus on the ordering process and GPO bookstores we expect 

to go beyond the Sales Service to other areas. A year or so after implementation we will 

evaluate the possible integration of other existing legacy systems in Library Programs Service 

and move them off the mainframe and into an integrated client-server environment. Stay tuned! 

NCLIS assessment 

Another project I had been watching from the sidelines is now one in which I will be closely 

involved. As many of you know from previous updates, the National Commission on Libraries 

and Information Science (NCLIS) entered into an IA with GPO to conduct an “Assessment of 

Electronic Government Information Products.” We are seeking information about the standards 

and mediums being used or which agencies plan to use for electronic dissemination. NCLIS is in 

the process of signing an agreement with a contractor to undertake research and data collection 

from Federal agencies in all three branches as well as solicit opinions from selected 

knowledgeable experts. The contractor will also be required to complete an analysis of the data 

and opinions and produce a final report. We are planning for a draft of that report to be available 

to the Depository Library Council in advance of the October 1998 meeting. 

Expansion of Collection Management Concept 

I am very pleased with the development of the collection management concept now underway. It 

is analogous to a collection development plan found in your libraries. I understand this concept 

originated with Duncan Aldrich while he was working at GPO. The original idea for a GPO 

“Collection Plan” began with a focus on the electronic products residing on GPO Access. After 

much internal discussion about the plan, we have expanded the idea of the “FDLP Collection” to 

encompass not only those products residing on GPO Access, but also those electronic products 

residing with partner institutions and the tangible products that are housed in depository libraries. 

Gil Baldwin will discuss the FDLP Electronic Collection concepts in more detail. 

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In the future, I would like to take this idea a step further and expand the concept to consider 

those titles that are selected for the sales program, but of course with permanent access to this 

material provided through the FDLP. 

Indeed, I envision at some point collection management responsibilities will be in all areas of 

Documents; EIDS, LPS and the Sales Service. I would also like to look at broadening the sales 

collection beyond its traditional borders, but recognizing that the program must continue to be 

self-sustaining. 

Conclusion 

I am pleased to have had this opportunity to talk to you this morning. This is but the start of my 

dialog with you on how we can work together to improve our systems for public access to 

Government information speaking from my new position as Superintendent of Documents. I am 

looking forward to exciting future developments in the program. 

The FDLP in Transition 

Remarks by Gil Baldwin 

Chief, Library Division, Library Programs Service 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Saturday, January 10, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

Good morning, everyone. On behalf of all my colleagues from the Library Programs Service 

(LPS), I want to tell you how much we appreciate the opportunity to bring you up to date on 

what’s been going on in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). There are five of us 

from LPS here and we look forward to talking with you. With me on the program today is Sandy 

Schwalb from our Electronic Transition Staff, as well as T.C. Evans from the Office of 

Electronic Information Dissemination Services (EIDS). In addition, Robin Haun-Mohamed, Tad 

Downing and George Barnum from LPS are here in the audience, and they’ll back us up during 

the question and answer period later this morning. Robin and George will be updating you 

during tomorrow morning’s FedDocs’ working group meeting, and Tad will be at the GODORT 

Cataloging Committee meeting. We’ve brought a rainbow array of handouts with us, and you 

can pick up copies here or at the GPO Exhibit, Booth # 927. In addition to the EIDS team, one 

of us from LPS will also be at the booth at any time, and we welcome you to stop by and visit 

with us. 

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Poised for Change 

We are now just over two years into the electronic transition, and a lot of progress has been 

made. It hasn’t always been pretty or comfortable, and all of the motion may not have been 

forward. But that’s how it works when you’re blazing a new trail. I feel good about the ability 

of LPS to continue this evolutionary process. I believe that LPS is doing a responsible job of 

balancing the complex issues attending the transition to electronic information dissemination and 

our ongoing traditional services. Every area of LPS has benefited from the planning process and 

has made real strides toward incorporating electronic Government information products into the 

FDLP, bringing the results of our transition projects into the regular day-to-day life of the 

operation. 

In recent years, while there has been increasing dissemination of information to depositories in 

tangible electronic formats such as CD-ROMs, print products, including paper and microfiche, 

still predominate. However, since 1994, there has been increased utilization of the GPO Access 

online service as the principal delivery vehicle for online Government information to depository 

libraries and the public. The FDLP is in the midst of a multi-year transition from an exclusively 

print environment to a mixed environment. The transition to a more electronic FDLP includes 

tangible Government information products disseminated to depository libraries and online 

databases and locator services provided via the Internet from GPO Access.

We are all working in an environment where the changes in technology and information 

dissemination practice have outstripped some portions of our legislative and policy foundations. 

You’ve already heard this morning about the prospects for Title 44 reform in the next session of 

Congress. But my take on it is that whether or not Title 44 is amended this year, LPS is in good 

shape to administer the FDLP into the next millenium. 

During the coming years we will continue the transition of the FDLP from paper to electronic 

formats, consistent with the needs of users and the intended usage. We will further develop the 

suite of locator services and cataloging initiatives to enable the public to locate Government 

information regardless of format. And we will develop, coordinate, and implement a 

management plan for the FDLP Electronic Collection, in order to ensure permanent, future 

public access to Government information products at or through depository libraries. 

LPS Transition Highlights 

First, though, some highlights of LPS activities. This past year we began what we hope will be a 

growing number of partnerships between GPO, other Government agencies, and depository 

libraries, for permanently storing and making available certain electronic Government 

information products. These initial projects are the foundation on which future partnerships will 

be based. We are indebted to our pioneering partners at the University of Illinois-Chicago and 

the University of North Texas, and the Departments of State, Education, and Energy, and at 

OCLC. We have begun building the relationships and the distributed FDLP Electronic 

Collection through which we will ensure permanent public access to Government information. 

George Barnum's remarks tomorrow will include more information on these partnerships, 

including the GPO Access Gateways. 

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Some of our other 1997 highlights include: 

 Permanent access initiatives, including the "collection management" concept for GPO 

Access and the FDLP Electronic Collection; 

 Expanded continuing education activities, including sponsoring the Regional Librarians 

Conference; 

 Developing new GPO Access Web applications and services for depository librarians, 

such as: 

 Adding the Council Web pages to the FDLP Administration Web page; 

 Creating "Core Documents of U.S. Democracy: An Electronic Collection;" 

 Using the Web to conduct the Biennial Survey and the Item Selection Update Cycle; 

 Developing the Item Lister, putting up the electronic version of the Shipping List, and 

partnering with the creators of the Shipping List label service. 

 Raising awareness of the serious issues surrounding the privatization of important 

Government information products, and the copyright-like restrictions that often 

accompany these deals. 

If you would like even more detail on LPS’ activities, I invite you to check out our 1997 annual 

report. It’s available on the Web at the FDLP Administration page 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/97lpsar.html>, and was printed in the January 15, 

1998 issue of Administrative Notes (Vol. 19, no. 2). 

Electronic Transition Staff 

This marks the third year of LPS’ Electronic Transition Staff, or ETS. ETS has done a 

tremendous amount to advance the transition of the FDLP to a more electronically based 

program. ETS is a four-person outfit; two permanent LPS employees – Lee Morey and Joe 

Paskoski, and two visiting experts on one year appointments. You all know George Barnum, of 

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who is concentrating on the issue of permanent 

public access, partnerships, and Gateways. Among other things, George continues the work 

started by the other people from the library community who have joined us on temporary 

appointments. You may know that our other visiting expert, Sandy Schwalb, was reappointed 

for a second year, and we are very pleased that we were able to do that. We feel that bringing 

the library community people into LPS has been good for the program, and we know that they’ve 

been a lot of help to us. So we’re starting the search again, looking for two more “transition 

experts” who would like to work with us in LPS for a year. So if you’re ready for a challenge 

and a year in DC, please get in touch with us. 

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Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection 

We are putting a great deal of emphasis on permanent public access. One of our key 

developments of FY 1997 is the "collection management" concept for GPO Access, which 

establishes that GPO will manage the various electronic Government information products made 

permanently accessible via GPO Access as a library-like collection. Permanent public access 

will be provided under the authority of the Government Printing Office Electronic Information 

Access Enhancement Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-40), via "a facility for storage of electronic 

information made available on the system of access by the Superintendent of Documents." Once 

we established the GPO Access databases, we assumed practical responsibility for permanent 

access to those Government information products. In the traditional FDLP, tangible products 

world, this responsibility was shared by GPO and the regional depository libraries. 

We are building the FDLP Electronic Collection using GPO resources, and coordinating 

permanent access through a distributed networked system of GPO and partner institution 

resources. Government electronic information products in the FDLP Electronic Collection will 

be managed using many familiar library collection management policies and techniques, such as 

selection, acquisition, bibliographic control, access, organization, maintenance, deselection, and 

preservation for access. The Collection consists of remotely accessible electronic Government 

information products, including core legislative and regulatory GPO Access products which will 

reside permanently on GPO servers, and other products either maintained by GPO or other 

institutions with which GPO has established formal agreements. 

I hope you’ve all taken the opportunity to read our basic position paper on this which appeared in 

the November 25 issue of Administrative Notes (Vol. 18, no. 15), and of course is available 

under the Publications button on the FDLP Administration page on our Web site at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/wpaper.html>. 

At the October Council meeting George Barnum and I did a program on this topic, and we 

outlined our vision for a Collection Management Plan which is analogous to a library’s 

collection development plan. We had some excellent discussion of these issues, and we got 

some good feedback from Council and the audience which enabled us to refine our draft plan. I 

hope to soon put out a draft Collection Plan for public review and comment, but for now I’ll 

have to walk you through some of main points. 

We believe the Collection Management Plan will enable GPO to accomplish the permanent 

access mission. The Plan provides a policy framework through which the collection of resources 

is developed and maintained, and defines the parameters and requirements for the electronic 

products and services that constitute the Collection. 

Underlying Assumptions

Here are some of the core values which guided our development of the Plan: 

 The Plan should facilitate partnerships between the Government and FDLP libraries: a 

system of shared responsibility for building, storing, disseminating, and preserving the 

Collection will produce the greatest benefit for resources invested. 

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 Planning and the effective use of GPO's appropriated funds, as well as the belief that the 

value added by depository libraries is key to the FDLP, require that Collection activities 

focus on depository access and depository users as a definable and known entity. 

 The cost of permanent access to electronic Government information products should be 

borne by the Government and not by the end user. 

FDLP Electronic Collection 

The Collection Plan will guide GPO in executing its permanent access responsibility for 

Government information products such as the Federal Register and Congressional Record. For 

such products, GPO has assumed the role traditionally taken by regional depository libraries as 

provided in 44 U.S.C. §1911. A fundamental assumption outlined in GPO's 1996 "Study" is that 

FDLP dissemination of remotely accessible electronic information products will be through "a 

distributed system that provides continuous, permanent public access, involving the publishing 

agencies, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and regional and other 

depository libraries." 

Scope 

The Collection Plan defines the parameters and requirements for the electronic products and 

services that constitute the Collection. The Collection will facilitate permanent access to 

Government electronic information products "except those determined by their issuing 

components to be required for official use only or for strictly administrative or operational 

purposes which have no public interest or educational value and publications classified for 

reasons of national security" (44 U.S.C. §1902). Such products will not be considered to be 

record copies, but rather as permanent access reference copies. 

Storage 

By sharing the burden of storage and maintenance, GPO safeguards the continuing availability 

and accessibility of electronic Government information products included in the Collection. In 

the context of this plan, storage of digital information will be accomplished through various 

mechanisms: 

 Legislative and regulatory material that has been managed by GPO in GPO Access (e.g., 

Congressional Record, Bills, Federal Register) will reside on GPO servers, including the 

GPO Access remote site in Kentucky. 

 Agency material may be resident on GPO servers, on agency servers, or be included in 

partnership arrangements whereby storage and access are managed cooperatively by 

partner institutions in the FDLP and GPO. 

Although this Plan may eventually be extended to provide for the preservation of and permanent 

access to information dissemination via the FDLP in CD-ROM and other tangible electronic 

mediums, the near-term scope of the Plan is focused upon Government information disseminated 

via the Internet. 

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User Community 

The primary user community for the Collection are those end users gaining access to the 

Collection through the facilities and resources of the FDLP. The public will routinely use the 

Collection directly, without the depository library as intermediary. GPO will strive to 

accommodate the needs of as broad a range of users as possible within the constraints of time 

and resources. However, the belief that the value added by depository libraries is key to the 

program, require that Collection activities focus on depository access and depository users. 

Selecting Products for the Collection 

Products in the Collection will be selected and acquired under policies and procedures that 

encourage and facilitate the sharing of resources. Three major questions will guide the 

evaluation phase of the selection process for the Collection: 

 Does the product meet the criteria of 44 U.S.C. §1901-1902? 

 What is the value and importance of the product to the user community (i.e., depository 

libraries and their clientele)? 

 What priority does the product have in relation to other resources in the FDLP? 

In addition to these basic questions, we are working on a checklist to assist in the evaluation of 

products for the Collection. 

Outreach to Agencies 

Outreach to Federal agencies concerning the issue of permanent access and the role of the 

Collection, including partnerships, will be integrated into a larger GPO effort now underway to 

increase agencies' awareness of the scope and value of GPO information replication and 

dissemination services. Agencies will be encouraged to participate proactively by 

recommending products for inclusion in the Collection, by notifying GPO about significant 

changes, initiation or termination of products, or by identifying possible partners for their 

dissemination efforts. 

Locator Services 

GPO is responsible for providing various locator services for a broad range of Government 

information products. Since data, text, and description are inextricably linked in the electronic 

world, the Collection will employ appropriate technology and practices to assure a level of 

control and access that meets or exceeds traditional expectations. Techniques and standards 

change, but we expect to use a combination of traditional cataloging records; GILS records; 

persistent naming using OCLC’s PURLs; indexers and robots; and Pathway Indexer browser 

applications. 

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User Access and Retrieval 

One of GPO's primary goals is to assure that access to and retrieval of Government information 

products is available to a broad spectrum of users who possess a wide range of technical 

capabilities. GPO is committed to providing unlimited access to both high-end and low-end 

users interested in searching and retrieving Government information products. In the context of 

the FDLP, accessibility includes the degree to which Government information is accurately 

identified and described bibliographically, the information's availability is made known to the 

public, and technological, social, economic, political, and physical barriers to gaining access are 

minimized. Information products will be made available using the latest, most timely electronic 

means, but will also be available through basic modem and assistive technologies. GPO will 

utilize the Internet, as well as telephone and modem technology, to provide access to 

Government information products. 

Users must also be able to access and retrieve Government information products through public 

access workstations available at Federal depository libraries. All depositories are expected to 

offer public users access to workstations with a graphical user interface, CD-ROM capability, 

Internet connections, and the ability to access Government information via the World Wide Web. 

Media and Formats of Products Included in the Collection 

Government information products may be included as part of the Collection and maintained for 

permanent access at GPO or through FDLP partners in a variety of media and formats. 

Whenever possible, GPO will encourage the use of open-system standards and formats for 

Government information products that compose the GPO Access collection. 

Whenever feasible and cost-effective, GPO will provide a text-only interface for Government 

information products made available through its on-site servers. This will allow GPO to comply 

with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and will also ensure access to users with limited 

technological and communication capability. GPO will also encourage partnering institutions to 

comply with ADA requirements, but is not in a position to mandate this action by partners. 

As an agency, GPO has already identified a limited range of product formats that are in general 

use in the Government. These include ASCII, PDF, SGML, and HTML for text, and TIFF for 

images. In order to get a better handle on where these products, standards, and formats are 

heading, GPO commissioned the study by the National Commission on Libraries and 

Information Science (NCLIS), which you'll be hearing more about in Sandy’s remarks. This 

assessment will help determine the range of formats publishing agencies plan to use in the 

creation and dissemination of Government information products, so we can better advise you on 

what kind of products to expect. 

Partnerships 

The partnerships concept is one of the cornerstones of the Collection Plan. We envision partner 

institutions as agents that will share the tasks of building, storing, disseminating, and preserving 

the Collection. The partnership concept builds upon the successful model of the distributed 

collection of tangible FDLP products made permanently accessible through the regional 

depository libraries. 

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Most relevant to permanent access initiatives are electronic product content partnerships, in 

which agencies and depository libraries enter GPO-brokered agreements to provide the 

environment and resources for permanent access to agency products not previously managed via 

GPO Access. We encourage your involvement in the identification and selection process for 

products to be considered for inclusion in the Collection. This is an area that the agency liaison 

program can help with, so keep your antennas up when talking to agencies about products that 

might be the basis for future partnerships. 

Core Documents Electronic Collection 

One manifestation of the collection concept is a digital collection on GPO Access known as the 

"Core Documents of U.S. Democracy: An Electronic Collection." This Web-based collection 

went live last June. As you know, we’ve been asking for suggestions for important titles to 

augment this Collection. Last week, based on suggestions from the library community, we 

added two new resources to this Collection: The Weekly Compilation of Presidential 

Documents and the Congressional Pictorial Directory. 

Recently we were pleased that the Core Documents collection was chosen as a selection for the 

Scout Report for Social Sciences. The Scout Report for Social Sciences is a publication of the 

Internet Scout Project, a project of the InterNIC, based at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. 

It’s billed as the premier bi-weekly collection of useful Internet sites for discerning Internauts in 

the social sciences. Basic selection criteria for the selection of items in the Scout Report include 

depth of content, author, information maintenance, and presentation. 

U.S. Supreme Court Data Base 

GPO is developing a searchable WAIS database for Supreme Court opinions that are part of the 

Project Hermes initiative. Project Hermes encompasses the time period from 1992 to present. 

Until now, this information has only been available through a browsable index on the Federal 

Bulletin Board (FBB), in either Word Perfect 5.1 or ASCII text format. Beginning in the 

1997/98 term, these files will be available on the FBB in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document 

Format (PDF) and tagged ASCII format. 

We are also working on a WAIS application, so users will be able to perform full-text searches 

and retrievals of this information, including multiple field searching. GPO expects to be able to 

provide some specific features for this application, including a field for conducting a full-text 

search and the ability to search by case name, citation number, year, justice's name, and docket 

number. 

As a future add-on application, we would like to provide users with the ability to search by court 

name. Search results will be displayed with an ASCII, PDF or Summary option. It is anticipated 

that this database will be available to users this spring. 

Interactions with Depository Libraries

Over the last year, our Depository Services Staff (DSS) inspected 55 depository libraries. In 

addition, self-studies submitted by 125 depositories were evaluated and brief reports 

summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of the depository operation were sent to the libraries. 

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Our two new inspectors, Tom Oertel and Cindy Etkin, have completed their basic training and 

they’re out inspecting now. The legal basis for inspections is specified in 44 U.S.C. §1909, 

which requires us to “make firsthand investigation of conditions [in depository libraries] for 

which need is indicated...." So we will be picking up the pace of getting out to those libraries 

which warrant the on-site inspection. LPS will concentrate on on-site compliance inspections of 

those libraries which submit unsatisfactory self-studies, have major changes in staffing or 

facilities, have prior records of non-compliance, or if complaints are received from the public 

concerning depository library services. The LPS Depository Services Staff (DSS) will also be 

available to visit, consult with, and assist a depository library upon request. The use of the 

depository self-studies has allowed our Depository Services Staff to devote resources to our two 

major continuing education programs, the April Federal Depository Library Conference and 

Council meeting, and the May Interagency Seminar. We’ve published the draft agenda for the 

April meetings in Administrative Notes (Vol. 18, no. 16), and it’s also on the FDLP 

Administration page on GPO Access. 

As you know, we just finished conducting the 1997 Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries via 

our new Web application, and we are pretty pleased with the process. We are still very early in 

the data analysis and review phase, but I want to call your attention to some “quick and dirty” 

highlights which are available on one of the handouts in the back. Overall it looks like 

depository libraries are making good progress to offering public Web access system-wide; over 

90% of depositories offer GPO Access services to the public via the Web. 

Official Communications with LPS 

Those of you who attended the fall Council meeting heard me introduce a prototype of AskLPS, 

a Web application to send inquiries and get answers and news from us about the FDLP. Doing 

this right turns out to be a complex bundle of snakes, because it brought to light all sorts of 

things we can do to improve inquiry processing in general. We are developing the bits and 

pieces now, and Julia Wallace is giving us a hand with the testing. We expect to have this 

operational in February, and we hope once it’s up you will use AskLPS as your preferred 

channel to get in touch with us, and help to migrate some of those technical questions that only 

LPS can really answer off of the listservs. Robin will give you some additional details about 

AskLPS in her remarks at the Federal Documents Task Force work groups tomorrow morning. 

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Recent Activities of the Electronic Transition Staff 

Remarks by Sandy Schwalb 

Electronic Transition Staff, Library Programs Service 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Saturday, January 10, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here in the land of etouffe and beignets. I appreciate this 

opportunity to report to you on the activities of the Electronic Transition Staff. As Gil has 

already mentioned, those of us in ETS, Lee Morey, Joe Paskoski, George Barnum and I, are 

involved in numerous projects and related activities that will ensure a more electronically-based 

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). 

FDLP PARTNERS

Since George came on board this past July, he has been concentrating on forging new 

partnerships and strengthening those already in existence between depository libraries and 

Federal agencies. I will briefly describe some of the recent partnerships that have been 

established. For more information and background on the partnership program, you will find a 

sheet in the back of the room detailing the different types of partnerships and requirements. 

[Also available in Administrative Notes, vol. 18, no. 16 (12/15/97) and on GPO Access at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/depos/adnotes.html.] 

FDLP/ERIC Digital Library Pilot Project 

I am pleased to report that after months of negotiations, GPO, the National Library of Education 

(NLE) and OCLC will be working together to make public domain reports from the Education 

Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) available online through the FDLP. The 

FDLP/ERIC Digital Library Pilot Project is initially scheduled to run through 1998 and will 

provide the participants with valuable information on managing a large, high demand collection 

in electronic format. Reports from January 1997 forward will be converted to TIFF image 

format and stored at OCLC, with access available through OCLC ‘s First Search. Up to 250 new 

reports are expected to be added each month. 

This project should help us to gain insights on user behavior, different interfaces, and possibly on 

the impact on sales of products when there is a no-fee electronic dissemination channel. 

Documents Data Miner 

Wichita State University is partnering with LPS to make the Documents Data Miner (DDM), a 

collection management tool, available for use by depositories. The DDM search engine features 

a field searchable current List of Classes and Discontinued List, complete depository profiles and 

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union lists, an electronic rolodex for all depository libraries, and support for creation of in-house 

relational databases. When the testing of this site is complete, it will be linked off the FDLP 

Tools page. 

UIC/OTA 

George Barnum is currently working with the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) on a draft 

memorandum of understanding on a partnership arrangement to make the electronic Government 

information products from the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) legacy collection 

permanently accessible under the auspices of the FDLP. Although the OTA files have been 

available from various sites, GPO and UIC will now assure permanent accessibility under this 

agreement. 

Future Partnership 

ETS staff has other irons in the fire in the partnership arena, but at the moment most of them are 

in the preliminary stages. We are especially interested in one possible project in which a 

significant historical collection from a U.S. Government agency may be digitized and made 

available over the Web. 

We have also started very preliminary conversations with STAT-USA about permanent 

accessibility issues for some of the data in their product, and have a potential university partner 

waiting in the wings. We will certainly keep the depository community up-to-date on these and 

related activities. 

Web activities

Joe Paskoski continues to work with other staff in LPS, including Robin Haun-Mohamed and 

Sheila McGarr, on a number of web-based projects, such as AskLPS, which Gil touched on 

briefly. Robin will be discussing AskLPS in greater detail tomorrow at the Federal Documents 

Task Force Work Groups meeting. The web projects, including the item selection update 

process, are designed to make life easier for the depository community as well as for the 

depository distribution and acquisitions staff at GPO. 

Another project on which Joe is working is an LPS Virtual Web tour. A rough prototype of the 

tour is ready, and the next step will be to load photos onto the site. An announcement will be 

made as soon as it is ready for public viewing. 

Browse Topics 

The Pathway Browse Topics service is being enhanced and expanded with the assistance of 

many of you. Currently, 33 topic areas have been developed and kept up-to-date by 29 

volunteers. This project is being coordinated by Lee Morey. In order to keep this project viable, 

we ask that those individuals who adopt a topic provide quarterly reviews of that topic to Lee. If 

an individual is, for any reason, unable to contribute time to this effort, Lee would like to be 

notified. We would appreciate a long-term commitment, but understand that there are many 

factors that could prevent that. If you find, therefore, that you are unable to work on the project 

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for a while, please let us know so we can make arrangements with other individuals to ensure 

that the topic continues to receive attention. 

The main Browse Topics page is now getting about 5000 visits per month. This number does not 

count individual bookmarked topics. You can visit this site at: 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/topics/invite.html. 

Foreign Affairs On-Line 

The U.S. Information Agency (USIA) is working with the Corporation for National Research 

Initiatives (CNRI) to provide access and authentication to online foreign affairs documents 

Governmentwide; currently referred to as the Foreign Affairs Documentation Center (FADC). 

Lee and George have been attending planning meetings and providing input and expertise while 

looking at ways in which this centralized registry could benefit the FDLP. 

We have been able to make some useful contributions to this discussion on the collection 

management and permanent public access fronts. 

NTIS/FDLP Interagency Agreement 

In December, an historic Interagency Agreement (IA) was signed between the National 

Technical Information Service (NTIS) and GPO’s Library Programs Service (LPS) to establish a 

pilot project through which NTIS will furnish U.S. Government information products in 

electronic image format to the FDLP. 

In order to assure free public access to these products, the GPO, as the administrator of the 

depository program, and NTIS have agreed that products delivered under this agreement will be 

subject to the rules surrounding the use and accessibility of material in the depository program. 

This pilot project should provide both GPO and NTIS with practical experience in the delivery of 

documents in electronic image format to depository libraries. Under the agreement, FDLP 

libraries and users will identify and request documents in image format using NTIS’ OrderNow 

Online and NTIS’ 10-year title file. The range of documents included in the project is expanding 

now that NTIS has begun to scan incoming documents or as documents in electronic image 

format are received by NTIS from the originating agencies. The additional products available 

through the project will be documents from a variety of agencies numbered in the “PB” series. 

As many of you know from previous update sessions, NTIS has been working with Linda 

Kennedy and her staff at the University of California - Davis on the initial phase of this pilot 

project. Now that an agreement has been officially struck, NTIS would like to work with one 

additional high-end library for the short term. Duncan Aldrich of the University of Nevada-Reno 

has graciously agreed to be the next test site for NTIS. This next phase should begin after we 

return from the ALA meeting. 

What we envision as the long-term pilot will eventually include up to 20 libraries, ranging from 

higher-end academic/research institutions to small libraries that have an interest in this material, 

but might not have high-tech equipment. This will help NTIS determine what technical 

specifications libraries should have in order to access these electronic image files. 

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I am working with Kristin Vajs, of NTIS, to work out a timetable for adding more institutions 

this coming spring. We are aware that a number of you have informally volunteered to 

participate in this pilot. Now that we have a signed agreement with NTIS, I am sure that we will 

be choosing additional participants very soon. We certainly appreciate your continued interest in 

this project. Should you have any questions about the project, I would be pleased to discuss it 

with you here at the conference and when we return to our duty stations back home (I love that 

government-speak!) 

Department of Energy 

Last, but far from least, I am pleased to be able to announce that GPO has signed an Interagency 

Agreement (IA) with the Department of Energy (DOE) that will provide GPO, depository 

libraries and the public with access to DOE reports in electronic image format. Under this IA, 

FDLP libraries and users will enter the DOE electronic dissemination system, called, 

“Information Bridge,” through GPO Access. This gateway will provide a public view to the 

DOE reports. 

My colleagues and I in ETS and LPS are very excited about this project. It has been in the works 

for most of the 16 months I have been with GPO. As many of you know, the DOE microfiche 

program was eliminated at the end of fiscal year 1996. There was much back and forth between 

us at GPO and the staff of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) on how we 

could get the massive amount of the DOE electronic image files into the depository program as 

easily and cost-effectively as possible. As it turned out, the new director of OSTI, Walter 

Warnick, who took the helm about a year ago, wanted to forge partnerships as well, so we had 

much common ground. 

As Fran mentioned, he had the opportunity to sign the IA with the director of OSTI about a 

month ago and now my colleagues in ETS and technical staff at OSTI are working together to 

ensure that the DOE/OSTI web site will be user-friendly for the depository community. 

A number of your colleagues from institutions that have selected the DOE material in microfiche 

were asked to informally examine the DOE site and provide feedback, which they all did, I might 

add, right before the holiday rush. We really appreciate the time they took to provide meaningful 

comments that we can share with the OSTI staff. 

We expect a roll-out of the depository library version of “Information Bridge” to occur during 

the April Federal Depository Library Conference to be held in Washington, DC. 

Thank you for this opportunity to share some recent ETS activities with you. 

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Depository Administration Branch Update 

Remarks by Robin Haun-Mohamed 

Chief, Depository Administration Branch, Library Programs Service 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Sunday, January 11, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

Good morning! It’s nice to be here in New Orleans. I will try to keep this presentation short, as 

very little time has passed since the Fall Council meeting and update session and everyone has 

much to do in this city! But even though it has only been 11 weeks since Council, there are a 

number of new products available through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), 

either on the horizon or just delivered. 

Environmental Health Information Service 

Let me start with a new subscription service, the Environmental Health Information Service 

(EHIS), established by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). 

Federal depository libraries are being provided one free subscription to this new service. 

Resources accessible via the EHIS include online access to Environmental Health Perspectives, 

Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, National Toxicology Technical Reports, and 

access to the Historical Control Database. 

Libraries will access the EHIS using your Library Programs Service (LPS) depository number 

and password. This is the same password that was recently used for the 1997 Biennial Survey 

and for the last Annual Selection Update Cycle. It will also be used in future new item surveys. 

If you do not have your password, please contact the Information Processing Unit at (202) 512-

1062. 

U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook, 1998

Copies of the U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook, 1998 were sent to libraries in November. This 

title replaces the Industrial Outlook, last published in 1994. Over 1100 libraries received copies 

of this title, provided to LPS by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). If your 

library has not received this title, please check for a separates mailing under shipping list 98-

0006-S, dated Nov. 21, 1997. 

North American Industry Classification System

LPS has received several inquiries concerning the North American Industry Classification 

System (NAICS). In July, I posted a notice to GOVDOC-L advising the libraries the NAICS 

manual was slated to be distributed to depository libraries when it becomes available. At this 

time the product is not yet complete. Any commercial version advertised for sale at this time is 

not the complete NAICS manual. And after speaking with an agency official at OMB, I’d like to 

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remind the libraries to retain the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual. Many of the 

non-statistical areas--administrative, taxes, etc.--will not switch to the new system for several 

years. Patrons will need to use the older manual for these areas. 

LandView III CD-ROMs 

LPS has also received several inquiries about the status of the LandView III CD-ROMs. The 

Census Bureau is expecting these this month and copies will be provided for distribution to the 

libraries. LandView III is a desktop mapping system that includes database extracts from the 

Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of the Census, the U.S. Geological Survey, the 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency. These databases are presented in a geographic context on maps that show 

jurisdictional boundaries, detailed networks of roads, rivers, and railroads, census block group 

and tract polygons, schools, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, airports, dams, and other landmark 

features. Advance information on LandView III was provided to LPS by the Census Bureau. 

LPS in turn shared the information with the Government Information Technology Committee 

(GITCO) and included it in the January 15, 1998 issue of the Administrative Notes (v. 19, no. 2). 

I want to thank John Kavaliunas and the folks at the Census Bureau for working with us to make 

this information available before the products are released. 

USAMARK: Facsimile Images of Registered United States Trademarks

USAMARK: Facsimile Images of Registered United States Trademarks is a new Cassis CDROM product with facsimile images of U.S. registered trademarks from 1884 to the present. It 

will be distributed in multiple discs as a back file with monthly updates. Retrieval is by 

document number only from a cumulative index that covers all issued discs. A survey will be 

done in early February via GPO’s Web site, but if the products begin coming in before the 

survey is completed, they will be sent to all libraries currently selecting any of the Cassis 

products. Once the survey has been completed, this title will only be distributed to those 

libraries responding to the survey. Remember, all libraries must complete all surveys, including 

the regional libraries. And all surveys are now done on GPO’s Web site. 

Daily Treasury Statements

The Daily Treasury Statements (DTS) are now being uploaded by the printing contractor on a 

daily basis to the Federal Bulletin Board (FBB). This is an important step in electronic 

conversion, as GPO has the responsibility for determining what will happen to current electronic 

files under a contract arrangement with another agency. It shows what can be done to ensure 

future access commitments for electronic products for executive agency products produced under 

a GPO contract. 

Please take a look at the Daily Treasury Statements on the FBB. The address is 

<http://fedbbs.access.gpo.gov/libs/tres_rpt.htm>. As this is a new resource and we are still 

learning about how the files are used, we recently modified the postings to include a monthly 

breakout of all DTS beginning with January 1998. Although the electronic files first became 

available in late October 1997, we will not be going back to have the other 1997 issues scanned. 

At this time, libraries will continue to receive the Daily Treasury Statements in paper format. 

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Guidelines for Discontinuation of Microfiche Products 

In the October 15 , 1997 issue of the Administrative Notes (v. 18, no. 13), libraries were advised 

of some microfiche titles that were to be distributed to libraries only via an online web site. 

Thanks to all who took the time to respond to this listing. After discussion at the October 

Council meeting, LPS has postponed the discontinuation of any microfiche products pending 

further development of guidelines for such action. A set of guidelines utilized in identifying 

candidates for electronic only dissemination was described in Administrative Notes, (v.18, no. 

10, 7/15/97, p. 22). Anyone wishing to assist in the further development of these guidelines 

please contact me at (202) 512-1071. 

LPS Electronic Products 

It seems as if we are focusing on electronic applications via GPO Access for the FDLP. I think it 

is exciting, intimidating, and impressive-- all at the same time. When I address Mr. Joe 

Paskoski, a most diligent member of the Electronic Transition Service (ETS), I have to frame my 

questions in terms of “WEB APPLICATIONS.” Despite this enthusiasm I have to temper 

suggestions with reality, as you do in the libraries. We all have to deal with staffing levels, 

programming support, and new technology changes each time we approach a change in 

administrative service. We want to be sure that when we begin a new service that we can sustain 

it. So today, I am excited to announce a new service product that we have placed on the FBB, 

the Union List of Item Selections. 

In the past, the Union List was produced in microfiche format and distributed to all libraries 

annually. The December 1997 issue will be the last one produced in this format. It is now 

available for download in an ASCII comma delimited form and the location is 

<http://fedbbs.access.gpo.gov/libs/unionl.htm>. It will be uploaded to the FBB on a monthly 

basis on the same time frame as the List of Classes and Item Lister, the first Friday of each 

month. 

Other products we hope to have available on the FBB in the near future include the Alphabetic 

Listing of Government Authors (Appendix I of the List of Classes) and the Inactive or 

Discontinued Items From the 1950 Revision of the Classified List. We have also submitted 

requests to load both on an annual basis (in May), to coordinate with the Annual Selection 

Update Cycle. I will update the depository community on availability when I have more 

information. 

Documents Data Miner 

Another exciting electronic service is the developing partnership with Wichita State University 

for the Documents Data Miner (DDM). The Data Miner is a collection management tool which 

features a field searchable current List of Classes, a field searchable Discontinued List, complete 

depository profiles and union lists, an electronic rolodex for all depository libraries, and support 

for creation of in-house relational databases. DDM will be linked off the FDLP Tools page 

when the testing is complete.

DDM is a very sophisticated tool. For example, users will be able to do a Union List search for 

libraries selecting a specific item number within a 50 mile radius of a particular library. This 

partnership will be similar to our service partnership for the enhanced shipping list service we 

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have in place with the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the University of Texas at 

Arlington. We are very excited about the prospect of having similar enhanced services 

associated with the List of Classes, the Union List of Item Numbers, and the Discontinued List. 

AskLPS 

At the October Council meeting in Florida, Gil Baldwin announced the development of 

AskLPS, an automated inquiry service to make filing of inquiries and directing of e-mail to the 

appropriate LPS contact easier for those in the depository community. Several people in LPS 

have been working to make this new service a reality. There are five components to AskLPS: 

1) the electronic inquiry form 

2) WEBTech Notes, a searchable database for postings made in the Administrative Notes 

and Administrative Notes Technical Supplement, dating back to 1991. 

3) FAQs and News 

4) the FDLP Contacts Page and 

5) the Federal Depository Library Directory. 

WEBTech Notes is searchable via GPO’s Web site and available for download from the FBB. 

The data is from the four major categories of Administrative Notes and Administrative Notes 

Technical Supplement. These categories are: Classification/Cataloging Update; Update to the 

List of Classes, Miscellaneous; Update to the List of Classes, New Item Numbers; and Whatever 

Happened To...? The FBB version will be available in dBase format for those libraries wishing 

to import the information into their own databases. Both formats will be updated on a weekly 

basis. 

The exact date AskLPS will be ready is not known as we are still in a testing phase, but it should 

be ready in the very near future. Once AskLPS is ready for use, we will ask you to send your 

depository inquires to LPS via AskLPS, and to not send duplicate inquiries to individual LPS 

staff members. This should help to minimize the duplication of effort by staff throughout LPS. 

Bound U.S. Congressional Serial Set

In September 1997, Congress directed GPO to discontinue distribution of the bound U.S. 

Congressional Serial Set to all depositories, except the regional libraries, and one library in each 

state without a regional library. This reduces the distribution counts for the bound Serial Set 

from over 400 libraries to only 62 libraries, plus the State Libraries, and 14 International 

Exchange Service (IES) Libraries. I have had many questions from libraries asking when this 

change will take effect. It will begin with the House and Senate Documents and Reports from 

the 105th Congress. We are still distributing copies of the bound Serial Set to all libraries 

profiled to receive them through the 104th Congress. And please remember, all libraries profiled 

to receive the slip distribution of House and Senate Documents and Reports will continue to 

receive them as they are produced. 

LPS was also directed by Congress to distribute the Serial Set Title Pages and/or Table of 

Contents pages to those libraries wishing to bind their own Serial Set volumes. In coordination 

with GPO’s Congressional Printing Management Division, LPS will conduct a survey to 

determine which libraries need the Title Pages. Look for this survey to be done in coordination 

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with the Patent and Trademark Office CD-ROM in February. Libraries will then be supplied 

with the Title Pages and/or Table of Contents on acid free paper as soon as possible after the 

completion of that Congress. There is often a lag time between the end of the Congress and 

preparation of the Title Pages, because GPO does not always receive the material from the 

Congressional committees in a timely manner. Incidentally, for the past four years, the 

Documents and Reports have been printed on acid-free paper. 

Libraries that submitted a letter of intent to the GPO Sales Program to purchase the Serial Set for 

$15,400 for the 105th Congress will be receiving a follow-up letter and an order form to confirm 

the purchase of the Serial Set. If there are any additional parties interested in purchasing the 

bound Serial Set, please contact Alan Ptak, Chief, Sales Management Division, at (202) 512-

1709 as soon as possible. 

U.S. Fax Watch 

In late November, the U.S. Fax Watch system developed major hardware problems and crashed. 

The hardware has been repaired, but the information on the system has been lost. Staff are 

working on rebuilding the system and we hope to have it available again soon. 

Archive for the Shipping List Files 

In October, 1997, LPS, in coordination with our partners at UTA and SUNY--Buffalo, took steps 

to develop an archive for the shipping list files loaded onto the FBB for all formats of 

publications. Current listings for the paper, electronic, microfiche, and separates shipments have 

been loaded on a regular basis. And we will soon be adding the USGS Sending Lists to the files 

posted to the FBB. 

Maps 

The Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) maps on CD-ROM are no longer being produced and 

replicated through a GPO contract; therefore GPO is not able to ride a replication contract for 

distribution to the depository libraries. The DRGs are digital files of the 7.5’ topographic maps 

already received by depository libraries. The USGS does not have plans at this time to update 

the DRGs. 

There are still some Digital Orthophotoquad (DOQ) maps being sent to the libraries, as USGS is 

still producing and replicating some DOQs under a GPO contract. But the number of titles has 

decreased dramatically in the last year for the DOQs. And as Hedy Rossmeissl, Senior Program 

Administrator for the U.S. Geological Survey indicated at the FedDocs Update Session, USGS is 

working with Microsoft to make geospatial data available to the general public through the 

Internet. Under a CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement), Microsoft 

plans to make compressed, browsable images of USGS DOQs available on the Internet as JPEG 

image files. The site is not yet available, but we will notify the depository community of the 

location when we are advised by USGS. 

We will not be including the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) shipping list 

information on the FBB as a separate listing because we are working with NIMA to bring the 

products back into GPO for distribution to the libraries via the lighted bin system. Thus, they 

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will be listed on the regular paper and separates shipping lists and placed on the FBB under the 

appropriate designation. We are still working with NIMA to obtain sufficient copies of the 

Vector Map Level 0 CD-ROMs to fill the outstanding rain checks. 

Microfiche 

Over 90% of the microfiche distributed to the depository libraries is done via one of the 15 fullservice microfiche contracts. And while it generally works pretty well, we continue to have 

problems with specific contractors. LPS continues to work with the Term Contracts and 

Contract Compliance sections of GPO in association with the conversion of material from paper 

to microfiche format for distribution to the libraries. Please advise Michele Harris at (202) 512-

1060 when you are experiencing problems with microfiche deliveries. At the present time, we 

have one contractor, Wilkins Systems, who continues to have complaints associated with their 

shipments and shipping lists. 

LPS has also been experiencing problems with the contractor supplied shipping list information 

that is loaded to the FBB. We do postings on almost a daily basis, but when the diskettes are 

sent in and are not correct, we must send them to Contract Compliance section for action. We 

realize the inconvenience caused by this delay, but we have to follow the procedures under the 

terms of the contract. 

One further issue with micrographics, LPS has a new microfiche contractor, Lake George 

Industries, Ltd. of Bohemia, New York, that will be doing the conversion for the Official 

Gazettes, the Tax Court Memoranda and the SEC News Digest. We will be reviewing their 

submissions quite carefully, but again, please let us know if you see a problem begin to surface. 

World Factbook

And they say confession is good for the soul, so here goes. The 1996 World Factbook was 

supposed to be ordered for the Federal depository libraries in paper format; it was not. Both the 

paper and CD-ROM versions of the 1997 World Factbook have been ordered for distribution to 

the libraries and they are expected in late January. As the libraries have the 1996 Factbook in 

CD-ROM format, and there are not sufficient copies of the 1996 Factbook still available in paper 

format that we could purchase from the Sales Program, LPS will not distribute the 1996 World 

Factbook in paper format to the depository libraries. 

URL Changes 

LPS has been looking at establishing a PURL server for some time. PURL stands for Persistent 

Uniform Resource Locator. A PURL is essentially a URL that is maintained in a directory 

structure and when a URL changes, and GPO has noted the change, the user is directed to the 

new URL in an essentially seamless transaction by the server. Tad Downing is the project 

manager for this new service, and he will be covering it in more detail at the Cataloging 

Committee. But I bring up the PURL server because of DAB’s role in searching and researching 

URLs for inclusion of online products in the FDLP. 

DAB runs a link checker on the Browse Electronic Titles (BET) pages on a weekly basis. It 

takes several hours to run all the pages, usually between 4-5 hours and we generally find 

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between 200-300 bad URLs. Not all the findings are truly bad links. Many of the returns are 

associated with time-outs, some are changes with referrals to the new sites, but many are changes 

in directory structure at the agency or Government administered site. There are some products 

we are not able to locate again--these are the most worrisome--but for most resources, we are 

able to identify the new site. The information is then updated on the BET pages and sent to 

cataloging for updating of the cataloging records. 

My most recent concern is the URL checking of the changes we have already identified. On a 

recent check, with 367 links checked, 213 were invalid links. This indicates that often when a 

URL is changed, it is not necessarily a final change. 

There has been one highlight dealing with URLs and Internet sites: LPS has had its first 

electronic notification of a new electronic product available on the Internet. We developed an 

Internet Notification form over a year ago, and until December, had seen only general questions 

posed from other agency web masters and project directors. But the National Institutes of Health 

sent us notification with a product name, location, and contact name. This is truly exciting and 

the reason why PURLS will be of use throughout the information community. 

EEOC Decisions 

And as I always like to leave on a positive note, I saved one of the best for last. In the summer 

of 1996, the contractor doing the EEOC Decisions in microfiche format, on a non-GPO contract, 

stopped sending the decisions to GPO in any format. In April 1997, I was advised the decisions 

were no longer being sent, and we began at that time to work with staff at the EEOC and the 

contractor to obtain EEOC decisions in a format suitable to develop a web accessible database of 

EEOC decisions. With many thanks to the EEOC, GPO Production, and the contractor, the 

decisions should be available soon, via a no-charge database, utilizing the new Open Text, 

SGML software. Future decisions may have to be placed into a WAIS database, but we hope to 

see this as a transition product. 

As always, I thank you for your time. If you need to contact me, or anyone in the Depository 

Administration Branch, until AskLPS is available, please use the addresses in the Administrative 

Notes, or if you are online, go to the FDLP Administration page and use addresses on the 

Contacts page. Thank you again. 

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Current and Future State of GPO Access 

Remarks by T.C. Evans 

Assistant Director, Office of Electronic Information Dissemination, GPO 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Saturday, January 10, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

Introduction 

It is a pleasure to have another opportunity to update the library community on the current and 

future state of GPO Access. As always, I want to thank you for the quality feedback that plays a 

vital role in the continuing development of GPO Access. I also want to express my appreciation 

to our Production Department for their hard work in implementing these improvements. 

As required in the GPO Access legislation, we recently completed and sent the Biennial Report 

to Congress on the Status of GPO Access. Copies are being printed for distribution to all Federal 

depository libraries and it will be mounted electronically on our Web site in the near future. It 

will be available in ASCII, WordPerfect 5.2, and PDF. The report emphasizes the growth in the 

amount of content available on GPO Access, the improved access to this content, and the 

dramatic increase in usage over the past two years. 

Usage 

Over the 22-month period from January 1996 through October 1997, searches on GPO Access 

have increased by almost 1,200 percent, and document retrievals have grown by more than 300 

percent. I proudly reported in San Francisco that monthly retrievals had just gone over 4 million. 

In October 1997, more than 8 million documents were downloaded from GPO Access. As a 

result of the beginning of the holiday season, retrievals in November, dropped to 7.3 million and 

to just over 7 million in December. While I would not characterize 7 million as a low number, 

traffic on the system increased dramatically on January 5, 1998, so we fully expect our numbers 

for January to increase. Planning efforts are well underway to continue increasing system 

capacity to provide proper response times to users as this growth continues. 

The Code of Federal Regulations has now become our most popular database, averaging 

approximately 3 million retrievals per month. Work is nearing completion to make the full set of 

1996 editions available and we have begun adding the 1997 versions that have been updated 

through the normal cycle. 

Usage of the Federal Register remains strong as our second most popular database, averaging 

approximately 2.5 million retrievals. Commerce Business Daily (CBDNet) continues as a strong 

third at about 750,000 retrievals per month. 

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GPO Access Survey 

A survey of Federal depository libraries was conducted recently to gather information about 

several critical areas of the GPO Access service, including functionality and user support. The 

results of this survey reflected positively on the progress that we are making and provided insight 

into areas that deserve increased attention. 

The results revealed strong positive ratings in several areas. Approximately 87 percent of the 

respondents indicated that GPO Access provided users with the information that they were 

looking for. Over 98 percent indicated satisfaction with the timeliness of the information they 

were seeking from GPO Access. 

Ratings for GPO Access user support were also encouraging. Decidedly favorable results were 

obtained in the areas of the product knowledge of the GPO Access User Support Team, the 

timeliness and accuracy of their responses to user inquiries, and their ability to resolve 

complaints. 

A similar survey is now underway for all users. This survey is accessible on the GPO Access 

home page and will continue through the end of January. We plan to continue conducting these 

surveys on a regular basis. 

What’s new on GPO Access 

There are a number of recent changes to GPO Access that should be noted. The most important 

are: 

 The 1997 Statistical Abstract is now available online through GPO Access. Each section 

is available as a separate PDF file. 

 An online edition of the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is now available 

through GPO Access. In addition to the current documents, several prior years are being 

added to the database. These additional years should be available in a few weeks. 

 Browseable indexes have been added for a number of important databases on GPO 

Access. Additional indexes will be provided in the future. One such index that has 

received substantial use is provided in the GILS application. Agency GILS records can 

be located and retrieved by browsing the index for each of the agency GILS databases 

maintained by GPO. 

 Several new brochures have been prepared to highlight specific areas of GPO Access. 

These include the important databases published by the Office of the Federal Register 

and another focusing on the congressional materials available through GPO Access. 

 Two new agency Web pages are hosted by GPO Access. They are for the National 

Bankruptcy Review Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Review 

Commission. 

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What’s on the Horizon for GPO Access 

As always, work is under way to add more content to GPO Access and to refine access to the 

materials already provided. Some key examples of current efforts are: 

 An increasing number of congressional committees are requesting that their hearings be 

posted on GPO Access. A study is underway to determine the best user interface to 

provide a central means of accessing these important documents. 

 Work is proceeding on creating a site search application for the GPO Access Web site. 

When ready, it will be prominently displayed on the GPO Access home page. 

 Development is ongoing to utilize OpenText for GPO Access. The first application to 

make use of this will be a new database of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 

decisions. This new application should be released sometime in the spring. 

I would like to close by issuing an invitation to stop by our booth at the Convention Center while 

you are here. We will be happy to demonstrate any part of GPO Access. We can also provide 

you with promotional materials on what is available in the Sales Program, and as an added 

bonus, LPS personnel will be available to answer questions related to the Federal Depository 

Library Program. So please stop by Booth Number 927. A flyer is available in the back of the 

room to keep as a reminder. 

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Partnerships in Transition 

or, We Know It's a Transition, Because We Keep Changing It! 

Remarks by George Barnum 

Electronic Transition Staff, Library Programs Service 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force Working Groups 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Sunday, January 11, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

The Superintendent of Documents has said: "Partnership is the key to stable, long-term access to 

electronic government information." 

One of the guiding principles in GPO's planning is the assumption that the greatest benefit 

returned for resources invested will come from the development of partnerships that share the 

tasks of building, storing, disseminating, and preserving the collection of Federal Depository 

Library Program (FDLP) electronic resources. The partnership concept builds upon the 

successful model of the distributed collection of tangible FDLP products made permanently 

accessible through the regional depository libraries. Partnerships can develop along various 

lines, with varying degrees of formality, and at various points in the information life cycle. 

One of the principal challenges in our commitment to providing permanent accessibility to 

electronic government information products is the issue of the capacity required for storage of 

the data and the expertise required for making it available, both of which are formidable. 

Partnerships are a way for us to model various strategies for redefining the FDLP taking 

advantage of the possibilities of the electronic environment. 

Our partnership activities at the moment fall into several broad categories: 

 Content 

 Service 

 Gateway 

Content Partnerships 

Content partnership focuses on our commitment to permanence. In content partnerships, 

agencies and depository libraries enter GPO-brokered agreements to provide the environment 

and resources for permanent access. GPO is assuming responsibility for permanent access, in a 

way that we see as analogous to our role in continuing accessibility for paper documents 

distributed to depositories. We delegate the specific tasks and responsibilities to a partner, via a 

written agreement. 

In general, a content partnership requires that an institution or organization can provide storage 

capacity and is willing to cooperate with the agency and GPO in providing user access to the 

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product or products. The agency will provide the electronic content without restrictions on 

redissemination. GPO will act as broker of the agreements and will agree to receive custody of 

data and software in the event that the partner institution withdraws from the arrangement. Other 

provisions may be negotiated into individual agreements. 

At this point, we have in place agreements with The University of Illinois-Chicago/Department 

of State, University of North Texas/Advisory Council on Intergovernmental Relations, and the 

FDLP/ERIC Digital Library Pilot, with OCLC, Inc. 

We're now identifying a slight variation on the content partnership theme, in which we make 

arrangements directly with agencies for their content, but rely on their own resources for storage 

and delivery. In this realm, the NTIS agreement and the DOE Information Bridge project which 

Sandy has worked on are now underway. 

Coming very soon, UIC will be expanding its partnership with the OTA Legacy collection, 

which has been available on the net for some time, but for which we've been unable up to now to 

guarantee permanent access through an agreement. 

We can identify a number of potential benefits in these arrangements: 

 Permanent accessibility 

 Assured bibliographic control 

 Distributed workload 

 Increased involvement of libraries 

 Strengthened relationships between agencies, GPO, and libraries 

We're now at the stage of each agreement being a "work of art." Each one is very specific and 

very painstakingly cast. One of our goals is to begin identifying what about the process of 

establishing the partnerships is common to all, so that we can streamline the process if possible. 

We're ever-conscious of the extent to which we're playing catch-up with the material already on 

the net. 

Service Partnerships 

In service partnerships depository libraries develop services and tools which enhance the use of 

FDLP administrative information. Upon determination that a service developed for depository 

operations or administration has a broad appeal and utility, GPO will enter an understanding with 

the creating library to offer the service across the FDLP. Examples: 

Shipping List (SUNY Buffalo & University of Texas-Arlington) 

Browse Agencies (Louisiana State University) 

And coming soon, Documents Data Miner (Wichita State University) 

In all these cases, we're seeing the ingenuity and creativity of depository librarians in creating 

tools that make everyone's life easier. In these cases there is a documented understanding 

between GPO and the partner, but the agreement is less formal. 

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Gateways 

We began taking a close look at Gateways late in the summer as libraries continued to express 

interest in having Gateway status. In the process of updating our 1995 policy, which we found to 

be hopelessly outdated, one of the conclusions we reached is that Gateways are really another 

flavor of partnership, related to but not exactly the same as what we have defined as service 

partnerships. Here, rather than providing a tool specifically for other librarians and documents 

staff, the partner libraries are actually providing an alternative avenue of accessibility to online 

resources in GPO Access. 

Our goals for the Gateway initiative are: 

1. Provide expanded accessibility to GPO Access. 

2. Promote and enable the provision of low-end access (dial-up and telnet connections to a 

local server or SWAIS). 

3. Provide an environment conducive to high quality service, innovation, and 

experimentation in local libraries. 

4. Provide users with significant locally tailored instructional, navigational, and interpretive 

content. 

5. Encourage and facilitate consistency of search strategy and search results for end users. 

From these we have developed a list of seven specific objectives. We hope to have this new 

policy published very soon in Administrative Notes, so that the libraries currently expressing 

interest in becoming Gateways may move forward. 

Each of these categories, and any that develop over the days ahead, is nothing more or less than 

GPOs best effort at redefining (reinventing if you will) the FDLP in electronic terms. Each one 

that we're working on comes directly from the labors, brainstorms, initiative, and follow-through 

of depository librarians. I mention this for two reasons: they deserve our gratitude and 

recognition for their work; and, they need to be recognized as seeds in the fertile garden of the 

combined brainpower in this room. 

If you have ideas for partnerships, or questions about what we're doing, contact Sandy Schwalb, 

Gil Baldwin, or me. No reasonable offer refused! 

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Cataloging Branch Update 

Remarks by Thomas A. Downing 

Chief, Cataloging Branch, Library Programs Service 

Before the Cataloging Committee 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

Sunday, January 11, 1998 

New Orleans, LA 

Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here with you to provide an update to recent Library 

Programs Service Cataloging Branch operations. Topics to be addressed today include: recent 

staff changes, cataloging of Browse Electronic Titles, work waiting to be cataloged, cataloging 

production during FY 1997, Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLS), and the web site 

edition of the Catalog of United States Government Publications. 

Recent Staff Changes

Two experienced catalogers, Jennifer Davis (serials cataloger) and Regina Koo (monograph 

cataloger) joined us in October, 1997. Both are undergoing training and are beginning to 

produce records, primarily for resources related to cataloging electronic government information 

products. Our branch now includes sixteen catalogers. We have interviewed two people for the 

position of Administrative Librarian (Electronic Services). We hope to soon select someone for 

this new position. An initial assignment for the person selected will be to participate in 

development of Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs) related services. 

Cataloging of Browse Electronic Titles (BET)

We began cataloging many Browse Electronic Titles soon after BET entries became an 

application at our web site: <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/index.html>. The 

Depository Administration Branch deserves much credit for initiating and maintaining this 

service. 

Until recently, the few BET entries that represented errata sheets and transmittal notices, etc., 

were not cataloged. We have begun to catalog such resources as shortform cataloging. 

Shortform cataloging for these resources is consistent with our practice for physical forms. At 

present, shortform cataloging is available only in the paper and CD-ROM editions of the 

Monthly Catalog. BET related shortform records began to appear in the CD-ROM edition 

beginning in January, 1997. In the future, we hope to develop a web application associated with 

the Catalog of United States Government Publications that will include shortform cataloging 

records. 

BET serials "issued" more than twice each year will continue to be represented by collective 

records published within the Periodicals Supplement. The 1998 Periodicals Supplement will 

soon appear within the CD-ROM edition of the Monthly Catalog and at our web site. 

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Many BETs serve as "group entries" that direct users to titles associated with monographic 

series, multi-part sets, technical and research report groups, and resources related by topics. One 

BET may lead users to many individual titles that require cataloging. 

A survey of our cataloging of BETs was recently conducted to determine the relationship 

between BET entries and cataloging workloads. This survey was conducted during a two-week 

moratorium on posting "New Additions" to BETs during the month of December. Posting of 

new BETs resumed on December 22, 1997. The results of our cataloging survey are as follows: 

From June, 1996, through the present, the Depository Administration Branch has posted 

approximately 2,300 Browse Electronic Title entries at the web site. As of 12/30/97, 

approximately 3,700 works have been identified as suitable for cataloging. Approximately 3,000 

of these titles are monographs and 700 are related to serials. Approximately 1,700, or nearly 

46% of these 3,700 works have been cataloged as of the last week of December, 1997. 

Approximately 1,350 records represent monographs and approximately 350 records represent 

serials. It appears that most of the approximately 2,000 works not yet cataloged may require 

original cataloging. 

Approximately thirty "New Additions" entries are added to BET each week. Many, but not all of 

these entries may contain titles that lead users to several dozen or more related resources that are 

suitable for cataloging. The mix of resources means that a one-to-one correspondence does not 

exist between many of the BET entries and a cataloging record. We are collecting data to help 

us estimate the ratio of BET entries to cataloging workload on a weekly basis and will report 

more information as it becomes available. 

Our objective is to catalog works related to each week's "New Additions" BET entries within one 

week after posting without compromising efforts to quickly catalog physical formats. We are 

working through the backlog of approximately 2,000 uncataloged BET related resources by 

cataloging the most recent titles and working back to the oldest. We anticipate that several 

months may be required to work through this backlog. 

Total Cataloging Backlog 

An inventory of uncataloged physical formats (paper, microfiche, CD-ROMs, etc.) undertaken 

on January 5, 1998 was combined with a review of our cataloging of BET related works to 

produce the following information: 

Approximately 7,600 pieces of work await processing. This work includes the approximately 

2,000 works related to BET entries and approximately 5,600 physical formats. Approximately 

3,000 pieces of work related to physical formats relate to serials. We hope to reduce much of 

this backlog, particularly serials, within the next six months. Our current backlog count is much 

less than the more than 20,000 titles that had been carried several years ago, but certainly is 

higher than any of us are comfortable with. 

Several factors have contributed to our current backlog. Our temporary move from and back to 

our permanent worksite during renovations resulted in an estimated loss of approximately 1,000 

records that otherwise would have been produced. Another contributing factor has been those 

BET entries that lead to large numbers of "group entries" that require more cataloging records 

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than might at first appear to be associated with a single BET entry. As we gain experience with 

cataloging BET related works, we become better at recognizing work loads and are improving 

methods for assigning and accounting for work. But regardless of how we catalog the BET 

resources, this is a large new workload that we have undertaken with only a very modest increase 

in personnel resources. 

Cataloging Production for FY 1997

More than 25,000 pieces of work were processed by the Branch during FY 1997. As in previous 

years, more than 90% of our cataloging is original. 

Our FY 1997 CONSER related work included CONSER level cataloging for 149 serials and 

authentication of 118 titles, for a total of 267 records that were added to CONSER. We 

maintained a total of 1,487 CONSER records during FY 1997. More than one third, or 596 of 

these transactions, were associated with electronic serials or with physical formats with 

electronic versions. Staff also created 57 series authority records for the NACO program and 

logged 81 NACO related maintenance transactions during the fiscal year.

Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs)

Given the ever increasing number of electronic titles, establishment of PURLs services for 

Monthly Catalog and Browse Electronic Titles applications is a high priority within the Library 

Programs Service. PURLs provide a seamless means for redirecting users who use an outdated 

URL to the most recent URL via a server. 

Personnel from LPS and GPO's Production Department are working to establish PURLs services 

using OCLC's PURLs software. To date, we have downloaded, installed, and tested PURLs 

software. 

In response to our request, OCLC will soon release a new version of PURLs for public use. This 

version will enable server administrators to generate an accession number as a unique identifying 

component of each PURL. Our PURLs syntax will take full advantage of PURLs software 

capabilities by combining a simple syntax e.g., PURL.GPO.GOV/1, with a unique machinegenerated accession number. 

This new version also will contain a PURL checker application needed for checking PURLs 

within the server environment. A checker application is an essential component for large scale 

use of PURLs. We appreciate OCLC's impending software upgrades and hope to establish 

PURLs services soon after these upgrades are publicly available. 

When PURLs services are established, BET entries and associated works will be associated with 

PURLs, instead of URLs; and the PURLs, not current URLs, will be input into the 856 field of 

appropriate Monthly Catalog records. 

Understandably, each PURL is only as good as its related URL, and we shall do our best to 

update URLs in the PURLs server to maintain hot links. We hope to establish PURLs services 

for accessing new BET entries and for access to most of these titles via the Catalog of United 

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States Government Publications records during the early part of this year. We shall work 

towards a retrospective conversion of URLs to PURLs as time permits. 

Web Edition of the Catalog of United States Government Publications 

The Catalog of United States Government Publications contains records produced from 1994 

through the present. During this period, more than 94,000 records have been added to this 

application. More than 2,800 of these records contain URL data. Most URL data are associated 

with records for titles in physical formats with electronic versions, but an increasing number are 

being produced for electronic versions only. 

In conjunction with our permanent access responsibilities, we anticipate maintaining an ever 

increasing number of cataloging records at our web site, without restriction as to the number of 

years of cataloging represented by these records. We also look forward to the opportunity to use 

PURLs software to assist in maintaining hot links for the increasing number of records offering 

access to Internet related resources.

The Fall, 1997 Depository Library Council recommended that we modify the display of entries 

in the web site edition of the Catalog to produce a more user friendly labeled format and that 

underlying MARC tags should remain available as an alternative display. We will investigate 

modifying the record displays at the web site to display a user friendly labeled format in addition 

to the current MARC tagged display. Work on this enhancement was postponed pending 

progress on the PURLs application that is required for maintaining records with hot-linked 

URLS. 

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36 

Table of Contents

Building upon the Depository Library System Model / Buckley, ALA, 2/98.............................. 1 

The FDLP in Transition / Baldwin, ALA, 2/98............................................................................ 5 

Recent Activities of the Electronic Transition Staff / Schwalb, ALA, 2/98............................... 14 

Depository Administration Branch Update / Haun-Mohamed, ALA, 2/98................................ 18 

Current and Future State of GPO Access / Evans, ALA, 2/98 ................................................... 25 

Partnerships in Transition / Barnum, ALA, 2/98........................................................................ 28 

Cataloging Branch Update / Remarks by Thomas A. Downing................................................. 31 

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 via World Wide Web at URL: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/adnotes.html 

Editor: Marian W. MacGilvray (202) 512-1119 mmacgilvray@gpo.gov