Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 27, no. 03-04 GP 3.16/3-2:27/03-04 March 15/April 15, 2006 

HIGHLIGHTS 

New Council 

Members 1 

STAT-USA 3 

Nominations for 

2006 FDL of 

the Year 3 

Shipping 

Problems 4 

Duplicate 

Shipments 4 

Duplicate 

Publications 5 

Rebuilding 

Collections 5 

Selection 

Mechanisms 6 

Web 

Harvesting 6 

New Online 

Bookstore 9 

Additions to 

GPO Access 10 

GPO Update 11 

Readers 

Exchange: 

Centennial 

Remarks 21 

New Members To Advise On 

Depository Library Council 

Sudduth Named Council Chair 

The Public Printer of the United States Bruce James announced a new 

chair and the appointment of five new members to the Depository Library 

Council during the 2005 spring meeting of the Council in Seattle, 

Washington. The Depository Library Council, composed of 15 members, 

each of whom serve three year terms, advises the Public Printer on policy 

matters relating to the Federal Depository Library Program. The FDLP, 

which traces its roots to 1813, provides access across America to the 

published information of all three Branches of the United States 

Government through partnerships with more than 1,250 libraries ranging 

from public libraries to research universities. “Our Founding Fathers felt 

that one of the most important underpinnings of our new Republic was to 

have citizens informed about the work of the Government,” said James. 

“Today, as the Government moves from exclusively printed information to 

more and more digital documents available over the Internet, the FDLP is 

changing to meet the new needs of our citizens. I am especially grateful to 

the members of the library and information community who are willing to 

lend their expertise to us as members of the Depository Library Council. It 

is an important act of public service on their part, and our country will be 

stronger as a result of their advice and counsel to the Government Printing 

Office.” 

William “Bill” Sudduth, who currently serves on the Council, will take 

the helm as Chair of the Council. Sudduth heads the Government 

Information, Microforms, Newspapers, and Maps Departments at the 

University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library. He has instructed 

at the Catholic University of America and the University of South 

Carolina, and is a former Chair of the American Library Association’s 

Government Documents Roundtable. 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

The five new DLC members are: 

Richard Akeroyd is currently the State 

Librarian of New Mexico. As a member of 

the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, 

he serves as the Liaison to the GPO. Under 

Akeroyd’s leadership, New Mexico’s State 

Library received the 2005 winner of the 

Federal Depository Library of the Year 

award. Prior to his appointment as New 

Mexico’s State Librarian, Akeroyd was the 

Library Program Director of the Gates 

Foundation and the Connecticut’s State 

Librarian. 

Timothy Byrne has led the Government 

Publications Library at the University of 

Colorado since 1985. Byrne has written many 

chapters, articles, publications, and co-written 

a book for the National Information 

Standards Organization’s Press. He has 

organized workshops on depository 

librarianship and he has been a member of 

ALA’s Government Documents Roundtable 

since 1978. 

Denise Davis directs the Office for Research 

& Statistics at ALA. Davis has worked in 

academic, public, and special libraries, and 

her current focus is library administration. 

She has instructed at the Catholic University 

of America and Syracuse University, and 

served as a consultant on a variety of IMLS 

funded projects and research activities with 

the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Denise Stephens is Vice Provost for 

Information Services and CIO at the 

University of Kansas. She is the former head 

of the University of Kansas Anschutz Library 

and was a leader in implementing its first 

wireless instructional facility in 2001. 

Stephens was the Associate University 

Librarian of Public Services at Syracuse 

University, and later served as acting 

librarian. She is also the Former Director of 

the Geographic Information Center at the 

University of Virginia. 

Katrina Stierholz manages the Research 

Library and Electronic Information Services 

at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 

Missouri. She is a former Government 

Documents Librarian and lecturer at the 

School of Law at Washington University in 

St. Louis. She has also worked as a 

Government Documents Librarian at the 

Saint Louis University of Law and as a 

Government Documents and Reference 

Librarian at Pius XII Memorial Library. 

The United States Government Printing 

Office, headquartered in Washington, D.C., 

with offices in 16 cities across the country, is 

the Federal Government’s primary 

centralized resource for gathering, 

authenticating, cataloging, producing, 

providing, and preserving published U.S. 

Government information in all its forms. 

Individual publications may be purchased or 

viewed without charge at GPO Access 

(www.gpoaccess.gov). For more information, 

please visit www.gpo.gov or call (202) 512-

0000. 

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STAT-USA Offers Depositories 

IP Authentication Access 

STAT-USA (http://www.stat-usa.gov/), a 

service of the Department of Commerce, 

Economics and Statistics Administration, is 

the online source for current and historical 

business, trade and global economic 

information produced by the U.S. 

Government. Free access to STATUSA/Internet and USA Trade Online has 

been available by password at up to twoworkstations in federal depository libraries. 

Now STAT-USA is also offering IP 

authentication for each depository library's 

two STAT-USA designated workstations. 

The IP authentication automatically logs in 

the two terminals without the need for user 

IDs or passwords. 

IP authentication access requires a depository 

library to have unique dedicated IP addresses 

for the two workstations from which access is 

provided. These IP addresses must be fixed 

(not dynamically assigned) and cannot be 

shared by other terminals. NOTE: Choosing 

this option will eliminate any depository 

access to these services by a password. 

To register for IP authentication access to 

STAT-USA, depository libraries should print 

and fill out the form at 

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

l-dev/statusar.html or 

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

l-dev/statusar.pdf. The completed form 

should be faxed to GPO at 202-512-2300. 

Nominate a Library for 2006 Federal Depository 

Library of the Year Award 

Nominations are now being accepted for the 

2006 Federal Depository Library of the Year 

Award. The chosen library will be announced 

at an award ceremony during the fall 2006 

Federal Depository Library Conference and 

meeting of the Depository Library Council. 

The conference, the largest gathering of 

government documents librarians in the 

country, will be held in October in 

Washington, D.C. GPO will provide travel 

and lodging to the Conference for the 

depository coordinator and the library 

director from the winning library. 

You are invited to nominate any Federal 

Depository Library, regardless of its size or 

type. (Past winners, libraries of current 

Depository Library Council members, and 

libraries on probation are ineligible for 

consideration.) 

The nomination deadline is June 1, 2006. The 

selection committee will be comprised of the 

Superintendent of Documents, the Director of 

Library Services & Content Management, 

and Chair of the Depository Library Council 

to the Public Printer. The winning library will 

be notified by the end of July, 2006. 

Applications may be submitted online, by fax 

to (202) 512-0016, or by email to: 

tcummins@gpo.gov. For submission by fax 

or email, contact tcummins@gpo.gov for a 

copy of the nomination form. Nomination 

information and form are available at: 

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

ofyear/application.html#nominate_form

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Depositories Asked to Notify GPO 

of Shipping Problems 

GPO would like to know when you are 

experiencing problems with box deliveries 

and other issues with depository shipments. 

By utilizing the GPO electronic inquiry 

service to submit your question, it allows 

your inquiry to be routed to the correct area 

for review and resolution. GPO has the ability 

to track wayward boxes so we strongly 

encourage you to submit your problem 

directly to GPO, rather than relying on the 

discussion list. Please send questions to 

askGPO at askgpo@gpo.gov or call the 

GPO Contact Center at 1-866-512-1800. 

What To Do When You Receive a Duplicate 

Shipment Box from GPO 

GPO apologizes for the rash of misdirected 

shipments to depository libraries in recent 

months. We are investigating to determine 

causes and find remedies. 

You can help us by providing some vital 

information when you receive a misdirected 

shipment box: 

• What shipping lists are included in the 

box. 

• What library number is written under 

the Fed Ex or UPS mailing label. 

• What number is written on the inside 

lid/flap. 

• What is the box weight, as shown on 

the Fed-Ex or UPS shipping label. 

E-mail this information to: 

cjackson@gpo.gov. GPO will send you a 

pre-paid label for the correct addressee by 

return mail. 

These instructions are only for paper 

shipment boxes and not for separates or 

microfiche. 

Again we apologize for the inconvenience 

and hope to solve this problem as soon as 

possible. Thank you for your cooperation. 

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GPO Will Provide Mailing Labels for Return of 

Significant Duplicate Publications 

Recently, several substantial publications 

have been offered on discussion lists as part 

of a Needs & Offers service. Examples of 

these publications include case bound and 

large or oversize volumes, such as the 

Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, and the 

President's Budget. GPO will provide 

libraries with a return label for these 

publications, and libraries should contact 

GPO to make arrangements for the labels to 

be sent to the correct area of the library. 

While it is helpful for many duplicate or 

secondary copies to be posted on the Needs & 

Offers service, expensive and highly used 

publications are better utilized to fill claims 

and other needs through GPO's Depository 

Distribution service. Please work with us to 

provide these publications to the libraries 

entitled to receive them. 

Special Needs List Can Help Depository 

Libraries Rebuild Their Collection 

After a Disaster 

In an effort to assist all depository libraries 

affected by a disaster, GPO has developed a 

special section of the National Needs and 

Offers List to help with efforts to rebuild a 

collection. The section entitled Disaster 

Recovery, available at 

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

ols/needs_of/index.html, highlights 

rebuilding efforts as a new feature of the 

National Needs and Offers List. 

Libraries rebuilding their collection after a 

disaster may submit needs using the modified 

Web form available at 

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

ols/needs_of/form.html which allows 

Disaster Recovery to be specified and asks 

for a description of the disaster. Depositories 

should consider posting a needs list even if 

they are only able to list general collection 

needs. For example, general collection needs 

might be phrased as: 

SUDOC: I 19 

Publications from U.S.G.S. 

SUDOC: 

Microfiche from all agencies 

SUDOC: C 3.223 

Census of population reports for Missouri and 

neighboring states 

As more detailed needs are determined, 

updates to the library's needs list can be 

submitted. The needs posted by libraries 

rebuilding after a disaster will remain on the 

Disaster Recovery List until GPO is notified 

that the list should be removed. 

GPO encourages all depository coordinators 

and regional librarians with materials to offer 

to review the needs posted under Disaster 

Recovery. 

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Depository Feedback Asked on 

Selection Mechanisms 

As part of its ongoing efforts to increase 

flexibility for depository libraries, GPO is 

continuing to review the item number system 

used to select publications. During the Spring 

Depository Library Conference, Judy Russell, 

the Superintendent of Documents, explained 

the proposed new models for the selection of 

online and tangible publications, and asked 

conference participants for feedback. 

The presentation and briefing papers on the 

proposed models are available at 

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

ection/index.html. 

GPO wants to give those in the depository 

community who were unable to attend the 

conference the opportunity to provide 

comments. Please fill out the selection 

mechanisms questionnaire, which is available 

at 

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

ection/questionnaire.pdf, and fax it to (202) 

512-2300 by Friday, April 28, 2006. 

GPO Launches Web Harvesting Pilot Projects 

With the advent of the Internet and other 

electronic dissemination methods, the trend in 

recent years is that Federal Government 

publications are posted directly to the web. 

To ensure these digital publications are 

included in the Federal Depository Library 

Program (FDLP) and the Cataloging and 

Indexing Program, GPO has launched two 

simultaneous web harvesting pilot projects. 

During the pilots, each contractor will 

conduct a series of crawls on the 

Environmental Protection Agency's websites 

using technologies and other harvesting tools 

to identify and harvest publications that fall 

within the scope of the FDLP that are not yet 

included in GPO's electronic collection. 

The web harvesting pilots will test different 

technologies and methodologies as a first step 

in developing long-term harvesting capability 

for GPO, which will be built in conjunction 

with the implementation of GPO's Future 

Digital System. 

Work is scheduled to begin in early March 

2006, and GPO will share the results of the 

pilot projects periodically during the sixmonth period. 

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New GPO Online Bookstore Launched 

On Thursday, February 23, 2006, GPO 

launched its new Online Government 

Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov. 

This new system has many distinct features 

not previously offered to our consumers. 

Some of these include: 

• Improved search capabilities; 

• The ability to process International 

orders & GPO Deposit Accounts 

online; 

• Speedier delivery options; and 

• The ability to save your "Shopping 

Cart" for up to 72 hours. 

These are just some of the many great new 

features you will discover when you place 

your next order online with the new and 

improved U.S. Government Online 

Bookstore. We hope you enjoy your next 

online visit with us! 

Recent Additions to GPO Access 

Economic Report of the President, 2006 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/

Issued by the Executive Office of the 

President and the Council of Economic 

Advisers. It includes: 

• Current and foreseeable trends and 

annual numerical goals concerning 

topics such as employment, 

production, real income, and Federal 

budget outlays; 

• Employment objectives for 

significant groups of the labor force; 

• Annual numeric goals; 

• And a program for carrying out 

program objectives. 

Also included is the Annual Report of the 

Council of Economic Advisers. 

Distributed to Federal depository libraries in 

paper. 

TITLE: Economic Report of the President, 

Transmitted to the Congress, February 2006 

CLASS NUMBER: PR 43.9:2006 

ITEM NUMBER: 0848-F 

TITLE: 109-2 Hs. Doc., Economic Report of 

the President, Transmitted to the Congress, 

February 2006 

CLASS NUMBER: Y 1.1/7:109-78 

ITEM NUMBER: 0996-A 

Available for purchase from the U.S. 

Government Online Bookstore at: 

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/erp.ht

ml. 

Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina, 

Lessons Learned 

Distributed to all Federal depository libraries 

in paper. 

228 pages, full color 

OCLC #64226525 

PURL: 

http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS67263

$27.00 at the GPO Online Bookstore 

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/katrin

a2.jsp

H.R. 3199 - USA PATRIOT Improvement 

and Reauthorization Act of 2005 

Public law: 109-177 

Full-text of the law using the enrolled version 

of that bill: 

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&d

oc id=f:h3199enr.pdf 

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H. Rpt 109-377- A Failure of Initiative: 

Final Report of the Select Bipartisan 

Committee to Investigate the Preparation 

for and Response to Hurricane Katrina 

Distributed to all Federal depository libraries 

in paper. 

CLASS NUMBER: Y 1.1/8:109-377 

ITEM NUMBER: 0556-C; 1008-C; 1008-D 

SHIPPING LIST NUMBER: 2006-0164-P 

OCLC NUMBER: 65429420 

PURL: 

http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS68393

Available for purchase from the U.S. 

Government Online Bookstore at: 

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/katrin

a.jsp

United States Statutes at Large (Volume 

117, 108th Congress)

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/statutes/index.ht

ml

Available for purchase from the U.S. 

Government Online Bookstore at 

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/

[Handout] 

GPO Depository Library Council Update 

April 2006 

INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM 

On Wednesday, March 8, 2006, GPO 

launched the enhanced version of the Catalog 

of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) 

(http://catalog.gpo.gov/). This version of the 

CGP is the online public access catalog 

(OPAC) module of GPO’s new integrated 

library system. With the availability of the 

new CGP, Phase 1 of a larger modernization 

plan to replace older legacy systems is 

complete. 

The new and improved CGP currently offers 

more than 500,000 records to both historical 

and current Government publications. These 

records have been created or updated since 

July 1976. Plans are underway to include 

records for publications dating back to the 

late 1800s. There is an advanced search 

function for professionals as well as a more 

basic search function for the general public. 

“Locate Libraries” is incorporated into the 

enhanced CGP. If a user needs a paper copy, 

CD-ROM, or a librarians’ expert assistance, 

clicking on the “Locate in a Library” feature 

within the displayed record will find a 

Federal depository library that has the 

particular publication if it is in the current 

item selection profile. New features of the 

CGP include “Other Catalogs to Search” that 

provide access to the U.S. Congressional 

Serial Set, periodicals, and Internet 

publications. 

Additional information about the new CGP 

can be found at: 

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

ex.html

A plenary session on the CGP/OPAC will be 

held on Tuesday from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 

a.m. 

AUTHENTICATION 

GPO is engaged in a major authentication 

initiative designed to assure users that the 

information made available by GPO is 

official and authentic and that trust 

relationships exist between all participants in 

electronic transactions. This authentication 

initiative, which employs Public Key 

Infrastructure (PKI) technology, will allow 

users to determine that the files are 

unchanged since GPO authenticated them. 

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AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

GPO is procuring the necessary tools and 

capabilities to automate the application of 

digital signatures on Adobe Acrobat Portable 

Document Format (PDF) files. A Request for 

Proposal (RFP) was issued in late 2005 and 

bids have been received. These bids are being 

evaluated, and GPO expects to complete the 

process by late spring. This procurement will 

enable application of digital signatures in a 

more timely, efficient and cost-effective 

manner than can be achieved manually. The 

authenticated files will allow users to easily 

view authentication information for digitally 

signed PDF documents. 

DISASTER RECOVERY 

GPO has completed the first phase of the DR 

project, which includes a full global offsite 

backup of GPO Access data, static content 

delivery of the gpo.gov and 

bookstore.gpo.gov domains, and a Proof of 

Concept for five GPO Access applications 

(Federal Register, Code of Federal 

Regulations, Congressional Record, 

Congressional Bills, and Congressional 

Hearings) that emulate the current search 

system while providing faster performance 

and improved search results. The remaining 

GPO Access applications are available on the 

site in case of disaster, but have not been 

reformatted for optimum use. A second phase 

of the DR project will result in the migration 

of the remaining WAIS applications, at which 

time GPO will have a complete backup 

system that will offer assured availability to 

all of GPO’s Web services and also maintain 

an archival copy of GPO’s data for 

redundant, offsite storage. 

FUTURE DIGITAL SYSTEM 

GPO’s FDsys Program Management Office is 

managing the development of GPO’s Future 

Digital System (FDsys). FDsys will manage, 

preserve, provide version control and access 

to, and disseminate authentic Government 

information. Recent key developments 

involve the Master Integrator (MI) contract 

and Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) 

approval of two FDsys funding requests. 

The Master Integrator will function much like 

a general contractor in a remodeling job and 

will work collaboratively with GPO to 

identify solutions for the FDsys functions and 

to integrate the various components, 

technology and applications. GPO’s draft 

Request for Proposal (RFP) garnered 

comments on the Master Integrator process 

and tasks, which were used to refine the RFP. 

An independent validation and verification 

(IV&V) vendor and GPO’s Acquisition Staff 

have reviewed the procurement 

documentation and strategy. Final review of 

the RFP by the Mitre Corporation, a not for 

profit organization, is underway, and the final 

RFP is scheduled for release in the next few 

weeks. 

In early March the JCP approved two FDsys 

spending requests. The first covers FDsys 

Release 0, a pilot development effort to test 

an essential design concept for getting 

information into FDsys in the form of digital 

information packages consisting of content 

and associated metadata. JCP also approved 

ongoing funding for the Program 

Management Office, which GPO established 

in October 2005. 

More information on FDsys is available at: 

http://www.gpo.gov/projects/fdsys.htm

FDsys will be discussed during Tuesday’s 

plenary session, GPO Digital Content Forum, 

from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

DIGITIZATION OF THE LEGACY 

COLLECTION 

GPO is working with the Library of Congress 

and the National Archives and Records 

Administration to outline roles and 

responsibilities in the provision of public 

access to digitized legacy Federal 

Government publications. Once these 

agencies sign a Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU) and the Joint 

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AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

Committee on Printing approves it, GPO will 

begin to implement the plan for digitizing 

Federal publications. Priorities for 

Digitization of Legacy Collection, GPO’s 

planned approach to digitizing the tangible 

collections of historical documents in Federal 

depository libraries, is located at: 

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

GPO will first focus on digitizing legislative 

and regulatory material that expands the 

coverage of the most popular GPO Access

databases. 

GPO’s Digitization Specification 3.2 has 

been drafted. Version 3.2 is a result of 

multiple internal reviews and two focused 

external reviews by Federal agencies and 

universities involved in preservation quality 

digitization. This Specification will be used 

to support GPO’s plan to convert legacy 

documents into preservation masters that 

subsequently will be used to create derivative 

“access” files that support user requirements. 

The Specification will continue to evolve as 

technological advancements and digitization 

requirements occur in the digital imaging 

industry. 

GPO has launched the Registry of U.S. 

Government Publication Digitization 

Projects: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/registry

The Registry is a locator tool for publicly 

accessible collections of digitized U.S. 

Government publications. Volunteer 

contributors can input records about their 

institution’s projects that include digitized 

copies of publications originating from the 

U.S. Government. Nearly 50 entries are 

currently included in the Registry. If your 

institution is involved in digitization of U.S. 

Government publications, we encourage you 

to submit to the Registry. 

Additional information about the legacy 

digitization project, including links to 

Specification 3.0 (final) and Specification 3.2 

(draft), are available at: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy

ESSENTIAL TITLES 

GPO’s Essential Titles List was developed to 

be fluid, so that titles could be added or 

removed when an agency no longer publishes 

a title in a tangible form, or when FDLP 

requirements change. In spring 2005, GPO 

conducted a survey of the depository 

community to identify additional essential 

titles for public use that should remain in 

paper and other tangible formats. The 

Depository Library Council established a task 

force to recommend a methodology for a new 

survey. After further discussion, GPO and the 

Council decided to develop an alternative 

proposal. The proposal takes into account the 

overall item selection rates and selection rates 

by type of library as a means to determine 

what is essential to the community. 

The proposal will be discussed in Judy 

Russell’s update during the plenary session 

on Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

BIENNIAL SURVEY 

The 2005 Biennial Survey of Depository 

Libraries ran from December 2, 2005 through 

the end of December 2005. Since then, GPO 

has been adding libraries that were late 

responders. As of March 13, 2006, 1,214 

libraries have responded.

Questions 65 and 66, dealing with digital 

publications files, generated a healthy 

exchange of ideas for the discussion lists. 

65: My library systematically 

downloads, stores online publications 

identified from GPO Access or 

through GPO-created PURLS, and 

makes them accessible to the general 

public from local servers. This past 

year my library downloaded the 

following number of digital publication 

files (this does not include shipping 

lists, Web pages, or datasets): 

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AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

Percentage of tabulated responses: 

0 81.06%

1-25 10.91%

26-100 3.05%

101-500 3.53%

501-1000 0.64%

1001-5000 0.80%

More than 5000 0.00%

66. My library is willing to receive 

Federal digital publication files on 

deposit from GPO, store them, and 

make the accessible to the general 

public from local servers. My library is 

willing to receive the following number 

of digital publication files per year (this 

does not include shipping lists, Web 

pages, or databases): 

Percentage of tabulated responses: 

0 72.52%

1-25 15.31%

26-100 4.77%

101-500 3.25%

501-1000 1.93%

1001-5000 1.12%

More than 5000 1.12%

Libraries also were queried about their 

training needs. The surveyed training topics 

are listed below, in descending order, with 

the topics with the most tabulated responses 

of “extremely interested” listed first. 

TRAINING NEEDS 

1. Census materials 

2. Geographic Information System (GIS) 

3. OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog - Franklin) 

4. How to conduct user surveys 

5. STAT-USA/USA Trade Online 

6. GPO Access 

7. Grant opportunities/how to apply for grants 

8. FDLP Desktop 

9. GPO Online Help 

10. Ben's Guide 

11. Marketing/promotion by GPO 

12. Marketing your depository library at the local level 

13. Depository operations 

14. Depository Anniversary Celebrations 

15. Disaster planning 

16. Library of the Year 

For virtual reference, another area of high 

interest in recent Council meeting 

discussions, the survey showed that 48 % of 

tabulated responders provide virtual reference 

service, but that a slightly higher percentage 

of libraries, 55% of tabulated responses, were 

not interested in participating in a virtual 

reference service if it was administered by or 

through GPO. 

The Federal Depository Library Program 

continues to be well known in the library 

community as an active, vital program, but it 

may not be so well known in local 

communities and service areas. According to 

the tabulated survey responses, 15% of 

libraries are doing active promotion of the 

depository program to the general public, 

62% of libraries promote the depository 

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program infrequently, and 23% of libraries 

reported no depository promotion. 

The complete survey results will be 

summarized and made available in the near 

future. The raw survey responses will also be 

available for libraries to use in comparison 

with their information needs to do 

comparisons against past survey results. 

Previous biennial surveys in electronic 

formats are located at: 

http://access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/bisurvey/ind

ex.html

NEW INFORMATION 

DISSEMINATION COMMUNICATION 

POLICY (ID 76) 

Information Dissemination (ID) recently 

undertook a review of how its information is 

communicated to depository libraries and 

other interested parties. Its communications 

survey was one part of this review. 

Subsequently, a new policy was issued, 

effective February 6, 2006: "Use of 

Electronic Postings to Communicate 

Administrative Information and 

Announcements to the Federal Depository 

Library Community and Others" (ID 76). 

This internal policy is accessible through the 

FDLP Desktop at: 

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

olicies/id76_02-06-06.pdf 

ID will use various electronic mechanisms to 

communicate with the depository community 

and others interested in GPO services and 

products. The policy covers ID's use of GPOFDLP-L, askGPO, Really Simple Syndication 

(RSS) feeds, FDL-Directors-L, and 

Community-administered Electronic 

Discussion Lists. 

All communications will be posted to GPOFDLP-L and reformatted for inclusion in the 

knowledge base of questions and answers. 

Cross-posting of operational communications 

to other electronic discussion lists will be 

minimal, although there will continue to be 

many general interest postings, and the 

specific circumstances under which they will 

be used are described in ID 76. 

GPO-FDLP-L is now GPO's primary vehicle 

for communicating with depository library 

staff, and is the exclusive place for 

communication of operational and 

administrative matters. As such, all 

depository libraries should have at least one 

staff member subscribed to this 

announcement service. To join the list, point 

your browser to: 

http://listserv.access.gpo.gov/archives/gpofdlp-l.html

Click on "Join or leave the list" and follow 

the on-screen instructions. 

Effective with this policy, GPO's online help 

service and knowledge base of questions and 

answers was officially named askGPO. There 

are several components to askGPO: the 

knowledge base where questions and answers 

can be searched or browsed; the Ask a 

Question feature where users submit 

questions for ID staff to address; the My 

Account area that is specific to each end-user 

of the system; and the staff side that is used to 

answer questions as well as manage and 

maintain the various components. Learn the 

Ins and Outs of askGPO at a session on 

Monday, April 3, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

NEW GPO askGPO/CONTACT CENTER 

HOURS 

Based on the results of a recent study, 

effective March 20, the askGPO/Contact 

Center will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Eastern Time. The new hours reflect current 

customer usage patterns and a more efficient 

allocation of staff resources to ensure 

coverage during peak traffic hours. askGPO 

can be reached at askgpo@gpo.gov or 1-866-

512-1800. 

12 
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ANNUAL INTERAGENCY SEMINAR 

The 19th Annual Interagency Depository 

Seminar will be held in Washington, DC 

from July 31, 2006 through August 4, 2006. 

During the weeklong seminar, representatives 

from various Federal agencies will present an 

overview of their information products and 

activities as they relate to Federal depository 

libraries. The seminar is open to all 

depository library staff who would like to 

attend, but is limited to 60 participants. It will 

provide an opportunity for both new and 

experienced documents staff to review basic 

materials and learn about major Federal 

information products and services. 

Scheduling details, including participating 

agencies and tours, will be announced during 

the coming months. There are no registration 

fees; however, attendees are responsible for 

their own travel expenses. 

Prospective attendees should complete the 

online registration form by May 31, 2006 at: 

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

ation/interagency_reg.html

Questions about the seminar should be 

directed to the Education and Outreach Staff 

by telephone on (202) 512-1119; by fax on 

(202) 512-0016; or by e-mail at 

ylouden@gpo.gov. 

A block of 40 rooms has been set aside for 

seminar participants at the Red Roof Inn, 

located at 500 H St., NW, Washington DC 

20001. Reservations should be made by 

calling the hotel at 202-289-5959 and 

providing the block code of B254AIDLS to 

receive the rate of $104.99 per night plus 

14.5% tax. Reservations must be made by 

July 17, 2006 to insure the quoted rate and 

will be on a first come, first served basis. 

FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY 

HANDBOOK

GPO has been working with teams of 

volunteers from the Federal depository 

library community to develop the next 

generation Federal Depository Library 

Manual and Instructions to Depository 

Libraries. The resulting new publication will 

combine the Manual, its supplements, and the 

Instructions into a single online publication 

that will be updated as necessary. Each 

chapter will include requirements and 

performance examples. 

The first five chapters of the Handbook, 

chapters 1, 4, 10, 11, and 14, have been 

released for public comment. These chapters 

are available for review at: 

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

andbook.html

Please use the Web form provided at the 

Handbook Web site to submit comments. The 

deadline for comments is Monday, May 8, 

2006. 

Additional chapters will be posted on the 

Web site as they become available. We 

expect two or more chapters to be ready for 

public comment in early April 2006. We 

anticipate that all chapters will be reviewed, 

released for comment, and finalized during 

the summer of 2006. 

LOCKSS 

The GPO LOCKSS Pilot Project was 

launched in June 2005. To date, GPO has 

made the current volumes of seven 

Government e-journals available to the 21 

libraries that are participating in the twelvemonth pilot. The Treasury Bulletin, the Social 

Security Bulletin, Journal of Research of the 

National Institute of Standards and 

Technology, Humanities, Survey of Current 

Business, Monthly Labor Review, and 

Monthly Energy Review are already available. 

The final three titles, Amber Waves, FBI Law 

Enforcement Bulletin, and Environmental 

Health Perspectives, will be released shortly. 

The next phase of the pilot will include the 

development and execution of three “real 

world scenarios” designed to test the response 

13 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

of the pilot LOCKSS implementations in 

various situations. The first scenario will test 

how LOCKSS responds when a server is no 

longer available. This test is scheduled to take 

place in April 2006. 

Measures of success for LOCKSS include 

harvesting 10 e-journals from Federal 

Government Web sites, providing access to 

those e-journals via LOCKSS, and collecting 

information from pilot partners about their 

experiences with LOCKSS. 

Additional information and news about the 

GPO LOCKSS Pilot Project is available at: 

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

index.html

CD-ROM DATA MIGRATION 

STRATEGY 

GPO is working to devise a data migration 

strategy to ensure that information on the 

CD-ROMs that have been distributed to 

depository libraries remains accessible. After 

an initial review of CD-ROMs that have been 

distributed to depositories, GPO selected 

three agencies to use as case studies: The 

Department of Education, the Department of 

Justice, and the United States Geological 

Survey. These agencies were selected 

because the number of discs produced 

appeared to be a manageable sample, yet 

varied enough to cover a good cross section 

of considerations for migration. GPO wanted 

a sample that would include: 

• Serials and monographic discs 

• A variety of file formats and system 

requirements 

• Databases and discs containing static 

documents 

A list of depository CD-ROMs from these 

agencies was prepared and reviewed to see 

which ones were available via the Internet. 

GPO will soon release a list of the discs 

reviewed, indicating which are available 

online and which are considered migration 

candidates. Titles available online will be 

considered for migration at a later date, but 

GPO is placing a higher priority on the titles 

not found online because those titles are at 

greater risk of loss of content. Discs 

considered as migration candidates will be 

tested, and the results will be used to devise a 

migration strategy for other depository discs. 

Additionally, GPO has been working with the 

National Institute for Standards and 

Technology (NIST) to test potential 

application of emulation technology to make 

selected discs accessible over the Internet. 

The test included: 

• Applying virtual machines to host 

GPO legacy applications (30 CDROM titles) 

• Applying virtual drives to emulate 

multiple CDs 

• Providing access to the emulated CDROM titles via the internet/Web 

Future analysis will include testing the 

scalability of this application, as well as 

cost/benefit analysis of virtualization vs. 

migration. Next steps will include applying 

ISO/IEC MPEG-21 standard implementation 

and collaboration with other agencies to 

compile and understand general data 

preservation and migration requirements via 

the Government Information Preservation 

Working Group (GIPWoG) meetings and 

working with other stakeholders. 

A presentation will be made during the 

Council session on Digital Content on 

Monday from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

WEB DISCOVERY AND HARVESTING 

GPO is currently involved in a pilot project 

with two vendors, Information International 

Associates, Inc. and Blue Angel 

Technologies, Inc., to use automated Web 

crawler and other technologies to discover, 

assess, and harvest publications from the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

public Web sites. This pilot supports GPO’s 

14 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

goal to discover and retrieve publications 

from Federal agency Web sites that fall 

within the scope of the FDLP and the 

National Bibliography Program. The two 

vendor contracts, which began in early March 

and will run for six months, will be executed 

separately but simultaneously by each 

vendor. 

The goal of the pilot is to learn about 

available methodologies and technologies for 

automated Web discovery and harvesting, 

including what GPO has identified as 

discovery, assessment, and harvesting tools. 

Discovery tools will locate electronic content 

from Federal agency Web sites and provide 

information to the assessment tool. 

Assessment tools will determine if the 

discovered content is within the scope of 

GPO dissemination programs and whether 

other versions of the content already exist in 

the system to establish appropriate 

relationships between versions. Harvesting 

tools will gather content and available 

metadata. 

GPO has the cooperation of EPA on this 

project and is working with the EPA 

Webmaster to schedule the crawls. EPA 

estimates that only 20 percent of its 

publications have been cataloged by GPO and 

sees the pilot as very advantageous to EPA, 

since its remaining agency publications will 

be identified, brought under bibliographic 

control, and given permanent public access 

via GPO. 

Each of the vendors will conduct three crawls 

of the EPA Web site. The first crawl by each 

vendor is schedule for the first or second 

week in April. GPO personnel will evaluate 

how successfully the crawls identify and 

harvest publications and will provide 

information back to the vendors further to 

refine the parameters of the next two crawls. 

The publications found by the automated 

tools will be compared with the publications 

GPO catalogers have identified through 

systematic manual review of the EPA Web 

site over the past year and a half. The final 

deliverable in this project is a comparison of 

the results of the third crawl with the EPA 

publications included in GPO’s catalog. After 

the end of the pilot, GPO will catalog any 

EPA publications not already cataloged. 

Once the pilot is complete, GPO expects to 

leverage the knowledge acquired to develop 

detailed requirements and specifications for a 

long-term discovery and harvesting capability 

in conjunction with the Future Digital System 

(FDsys). Harvested content is one of the four 

types of content to be ingested into the Future 

Digital System. GPO also is investigating 

various options to create cataloging records 

and metadata for the documents harvested 

from the EPA Pilot project, including 

contracted cataloging services 

A discussion of the pilot’s technical rules will 

occur during Monday’s GPO Digital Content 

Forum from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

ANNUAL ITEM SELECTION UPDATE 

The annual update cycle affords depository 

libraries the opportunity to add items to their 

selection profile. Items can also be dropped 

during the update cycle, or at any time during 

the year. The drops are effective immediately. 

During the December-January update cycle, 

there were a total of 31,031 adds and 32,206 

drops. Of the 560 participating libraries, 480 

added items and 346 dropped items. 

Approximately 50 percent of the adds and 51 

percent of the drops were electronic titles, 

indicating that libraries continued to use the 

update cycle to refine their collection profiles 

in light of the transition to a more 

electronically-based FDLP. The next item 

selection update is scheduled for June 2006. 

REVIEW OF ITEM NUMBER SYSTEM/ 

DEPOSITORY SELECTION 

MECHANISMS 

As part of its ongoing planning efforts, GPO 

undertook a review of the item number 

15 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

system used by libraries in the Federal 

Depository Library Program (FDLP) to select 

tangible and electronic titles. As a result of 

this review, GPO released three briefing 

papers and solicited comments from the 

depository library community. 

GPO received more than 90 comments on the 

briefing papers. GPO received a mix of 

comments on the proposed model for 

selection of online titles. The majority of 

comments GPO received found the proposed 

model for tangible selection to be a workable 

solution. All questions, comments, and 

suggestions received were considered as we 

revised the briefing papers. 

The original briefing papers, summarized 

comments, and the revised briefing papers are 

all available at: 

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

on/index.html

A plenary session on item selection will be 

held on Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

NEW AND ON THE HORIZON 

Retrospective Shelflist Conversion Project 

A Statement of Work (SOW) for cataloging 

services to convert the historic shelflist and to 

catalog a small backlog of materials was 

posted to FedBizOpps On February 2, 2006 

and will close in early April. 

GPOExpress 

GPOExpress, based on a contractual 

agreement between GPO and FedEx Kinko’s, 

is now supplying printing services to Federal 

agencies. Under this agreement, agencies are 

issued credit cards that allow them to 

purchase printing at a local FedEx Kinko’s 

store. Part of the agreement includes the 

delivery of a press optimized PDF version of 

documents printed through this service to an 

FTP site so that GPO can review/acquire 

titles for the National Bibliography of U.S. 

Government Publications and the FDLP. 

Sales of GPO Cataloging Records 

GPO has begun selling the GPO Cataloging 

Records previously available as a monthly 

subscription service from the Library of 

Congress. The cataloging records are 

available in MARC format via ftp. The cost 

for the monthly service is $1,920. For more 

information, contact the GPO Contact Center: 

contactcenter@gpo.gov. 

Statutes at Large 

The United States Statutes at Large for 2003-

2004 (Volume 117, 108th Congress) is now 

available online from the U.S. Government 

Printing Office at: 

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

Future volumes will follow as they become 

available. 

The United States Statutes at Large, typically 

referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the 

permanent collection of all laws and 

resolutions enacted during each session of 

Congress. Documents are available as ASCII 

text and Adobe Portable Document Format 

(PDF) files. 

Partnerships 

GPO currently has 15 partnerships with 

depository libraries and Federal agencies. A 

complete list is available at: 

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

rs/index.html

GPO is currently developing a partnership 

with the United States Commission on Civil 

Rights and the Thurgood Marshall Law 

Library at the University of Maryland School 

of Law to ensure permanent public access to 

material in the Library's Historical 

Publications of the United States Commission 

on Civil Rights. 

DISTRIBUTION AND OTHER 

STATISTICS 

While more than 92 percent of the new titles 

available through the FDLP are available in 

16 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

electronic form, whether or not they are also 

available in tangible form, GPO continues to 

distribute a large volume of tangible 

publications to Federal depository libraries. 

During the first five months of FY 2006 

(October 2005-February 2006) GPO 

distributed a total of 2,779,778 tangible 

copies of 4,340 titles (this includes print, 

microfiche, CD’s, DVD’s and maps). During 

the same time period, GPO produced 5,500 

bibliographic records, 5,060 of which 

represented publications that were available 

online, with 1,963 of these available as online 

only. The remaining 3,097 titles were 

available online and distributed in one or 

more tangible formats. GPO produced 15,194 

bibliographic records (including 2,094 ONIX 

records) in FY 2005. Through February of 

FY 2006, approximately 4,938 bibliographic 

records have been created. 

At the beginning of FY06, GPO reevaluated 

the way it counts cumulative titles available 

through GPO Access services so as to 

provide a more comprehensive report. This 

resulted in a recalculation of both titles 

“available on GPO Access” and titles “linked 

from GPO Access.” Due to the large volume 

of GPO Partner titles, titles that reside on 

GPO Partner sites were separated from the 

titles “linked from GPO Access” count and 

placed in a new category to better illustrate 

the number of cumulative titles available 

through GPO Access services. These Partner 

titles will now be calculated separately on a 

quarterly basis in this new category. In 

February 2006, as calculated using this new 

methodology, GPO provided online access to 

more than 236,000 cumulative titles on or 

linked from GPO Access services. In 

addition, GPO Partner sites make more than 

515,000 additional titles accessible to the 

public. 

GPO ACCESS USAGE STATISTICS 

Since its inception in 1994, GPO Access 

retrievals have amounted to approximately 

2.57 billion. June 2005 was the busiest month 

ever, with more than 39 million retrievals. 

The total number of retrievals in FY2005 was 

431 million. Through February, an estimated 

180.42 million documents have been 

retrieved in FY2006. 

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP 

OPPORTUNITY IN PUBLISHING 

SERVICES (Sales Program) 

GPO is exploring opportunities to outsource 

all or parts of its sales and agency distribution 

programs. GPO is looking for vendors to 

recommend an entirely new "model" for 

publications sales and distribution operation. 

Rather than paying the vendor, GPO wants to 

find an arrangement where the vendor will 

share the revenue with GPO, improve service 

to our customers, and continue to fulfill our 

mission to keep America informed through 

the sale of public documents. GPO expects to 

release its RFP in the near future. 

Improved Online Government Bookstore 

GPO has launched an improved U.S. 

Government Online Bookstore that adds 

additional services for sales customers. The 

Online Bookstore now uses Pay.gov, a secure 

Government-wide financial management 

transaction portal available 24 hours a day, 

seven days a week, for more timely and 

efficient processing of GPO credit card and 

deposit account orders. The improved Online 

Bookstore also provides customers with the 

option of expedited shipping via USPS 

Priority and Express Mail, new and improved 

shopping cart and order confirmation emails, 

expanded ordering options for international 

customers, and the capability to save 

shopping carts. 

17 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

Readers Exchange 

Remarks Marking the Centennial of the 

Government Document Depository at 

Washington University 

By 

Wayne Fields 

Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor in English 

February 15, 2006 

St. Louis, MO 

While I appreciate the opportunity to be a 

part of this celebration, my presence at the 

podium, given my conspicuous lack of 

professional expertise in any field relevant to 

the occasion, you may mistake as a mere 

matter of curatorial whimsy, or worse, a case 

of mis-shelving by a staff that is rarely ever 

guilty of such error. What have I, whose 

library experience has always been dependent 

on the kindness of professionals and whose 

scholarship has always been more 

happenstance than thorough, always based on 

the book I tripped over rather than the one I 

was seeking but could never locate--what 

have I to contribute to a serious celebration of 

a most serious event at a highly serious 

institution? Perhaps I was invited to speak in 

recognition that over my nearly 40 years at 

Washington University I have pestered the 

Olin staff, especially Bill Olbrich when he 

oversaw the government documents 

collection, for materials I could not find, in 

some cases was not sure existed, and nearly 

always requested under the wrong title and at 

the last possible moment--the instant when I 

realized I could not get through the next class 

without the Senate subcommittee transcripts 

of Bobby Kennedy interrogating Jimmy 

Hoffa or the House of Representatives' 

official conclusions concerning the evil 

influence of comic books. Once, preparing 

for a talk to an alumni group, I desperately 

needed to find out--two hours before 

departure--if President Eisenhower had 

actually ever said "never before have things 

been so much the way they are as today." No 

doubt Dean Baker has decided that I should 

be required to say something simply in 

recognition of my being such a long-lived 

and persistent annoyance. 

I admit that I did agree to these remarks 

because of a long standing debt, a very large 

part of which is owed to librarians, but a 

significant portion of which is owed to the 

government documents themselves. This 

indebtedness began a long time ago, 

predating by decades any interest in 

presidential rhetoric or American Culture 

studies, began in fact when I was only six 

years old and was living with my family on 

my grandparents' farm. At that time of my 

life I was much attached to an uncle and on 

occasion accompanied him to meetings of 

progressive young farmers sponsored by the 

state agriculture office. The room in which 

these meetings were held, though otherwise 

Spartan, contained several racks of brochures, 

mostly produced under the authority of the 

United States Department of Agriculture and 

18 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

devoted to a variety of subjects pertinent to 

improving, scientifically, the productivity of 

rural America. This is where my experience 

with government documents actually began. 

The brochure which I picked up and stuck 

into a pocket was later recovered by my 

mother as she was sorting clothes for 

laundering. It bore the title, "The Advantages 

of Artificial Insemination to Cattle 

Production," a subject which (by listening to 

my mother as she berated her younger 

brother) I learned was likely to contribute to 

the corruption of a particular minor whose 

moral condition was already a matter of some 

worry. Since the only word of the document's 

title that I recognized was "cattle" and my 

assumption in pocketing the document in the 

first place was, based on the illustration it 

contained, that it had something to do with 

tadpoles, I was bewildered yet pleased at the 

kind of information my government was 

making available to its citizens. Few 

moments in my education have proven more 

important than this one with its revelation 

that a half dozen stapled pages could so 

threaten the authority of those who governed 

my existence, could so exasperate my 

mother--who surely was aware that, like all 

farm kids, I had already witnessed both the 

conception and the birth of calves--that she 

felt forced to destroy the offending material. 

This was irrefutable proof of the power of a 

thing which I knew in the particular being 

published in the abstract. Of course I rushed 

to the dictionary to look up the words whose 

significance I had not understood, struggled 

through many misspellings of both "artificial" 

and "insemination" ("production" I already 

understood had little application to me) until I 

arrived at Webster's explanations. Somewhat 

disappointed by the dictionary definitions, I 

nevertheless felt the thrill of what half a 

lifetime later I would learn to call 

"empowerment." Thus it was that, thanks to 

the United States Department of Agriculture 

and that most deserving of all federal 

agencies, the Government Printing Office, I 

was introduced to the inexhaustible source of 

pleasure--as well as information--to be found 

in our repositories of government documents, 

learned that good citizenship could be 

titillating as well as virtuous. All these 

decades later it seems to me likely that one 

small publication concerning the important 

role artificial insemination could play in 

making our country even greater, bears 

responsibility not only for my speaking to 

you on this occasion, but for my very 

presence at Washington University. What a 

wonder that an entire career could have 

grown from so small a thing, but a wonder no 

doubt I would have found explained had only 

my mother permitted me to read that seminal 

publication. 

Today we are celebrating the centennial of an 

important piece of America's democratic 

experiment, the designation of Washington 

University as a part of the system of 

depository libraries housing government 

documents, dramatic affirmation of a right to 

access that lies at the heart of a free society, a 

declaration in principle (if not always in fact) 

of our right to know and an implied 

opposition (not always victorious) to the 

refuge of secrecy and undisclosed locations 

that those in power are inclined to seek. And 

so, as a matter of ideals and high mindedness, 

we have opened our intellectual floodgates to 

a torrent of verbiage and paper--most of 

which will only be read by a few and some of 

which will go unread altogether--in one of the 

most dramatic assertions of political and 

social identity in human history. In these 

materials is democracy in all its redundancy, 

politics in its unsteady wanderings between 

the ridiculous and the sublime, the sum of our 

intellectual curiosity, our greed, our genius, 

and our stupidity; our search for facts, for 

justice, for advantage. Here, in short, is 

America; here are we. Merely mentioning the 

species of documents to be found swimming 

19 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

in these waters, will suggest the rich 

wordiness, the subtle fear of subtlety which 

defines our official views and opinions. 

Herein find records, manuals, bulletins, 

statutes, directions, journals, documents, 

records, debates, annuals, papers, handbooks, 

catalogues, compilations, surveys, 

descriptions, messages, narratives, orders, 

regulations, maps, laws, testimony, histories, 

introductions, guides, statistics, hearings, 

charges, updates, directives, information 

("historical," "statistical," "scientific," andinevitably-"official"), and reports ("annual," 

"preliminary," "final," sometimes even 

"complete"). It is a catalogue and a 

vocabulary only a democracy or a Borges 

could create, so rich and wonderful that just 

by reading an index of titles you can have a 

literary experience and get a post modern 

education. 

It is appropriate that Washington University's 

modern library, the library that grew up on 

this hilltop campus, should have come into 

existence virtually in the same moment as did 

its designation as a depository library, and 

significant that, young as our institution was, 

it should be given this responsibility. We 

were, after all, ourselves part of an 

experiment in republican--if not quite 

democratic--education, part of an 

Americanization of higher learning that went 

with our western movement, a testing of 

schooling and scholarship, out of focus if not 

quite out of sight of those elderly and 

haughtily provincial institutions somewhere 

behind and to the east of us. What enabled us 

to leave so much behind was the fact that, as 

a federal depository library, we could bring 

so much with us. In our continuing 

declaration of the right to think for ourselves, 

these materials provide ample opportunity to 

see not only what our government does, but 

also whom we have been, imagine ourselves 

to be, and are in the process of becoming. 

This distribution of government papers, of the 

vast array of specialized investigations and 

studies as well as the ongoing record of 

federal proceedings, symbolizes the way a 

democratic society asserts itself, provides an 

extraordinary accounting of the American 

experiment in self-discovery and selfgovernment. 

In his 1825 "Annual Message" John Quincy 

Adams reminded his countrymen that "the 

great object of the institution of civil 

government is the improvement of the 

condition of those who are parties to the 

social contract," and that "among the first, 

perhaps the very first, instruments for the 

improvement of the condition of men is 

knowledge." Like Washington and Jefferson, 

Adams favored the advancement of learning 

by the creation of colleges and universities 

and an expansive approach to public 

education. And, like them, he also understood 

that the United States had a unique 

opportunity to add to human knowledge as 

we physically studied the remarkable land we 

have come to occupy and as, politically and 

culturally, we explored the possibilities of a 

society that honored idiosyncrasy and yet 

remained a union, of a people committed to 

simultaneously serving individual interests 

and the common good. 

The Government Documents Depository at 

Washington University whose centennial we 

celebrate today is part of an effort as old as 

our democracy, the product of suspicion as 

well as optimism, an effort to inform the 

public, to expose the workings of 

government, to reveal our values and uncover 

the many ways in which we achieve and fail 

those ideals. In this collection are great 

writers--John Wesley Powell, Abraham 

Lincoln, and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to 

name but three--and even greater stories, the 

epic revelation of a marvelous land in the 

records of the United States Geological 

Survey, the tragic narration of secession to be 

20 
AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

read in the Congressional record, the 

biography of a new kind of executive office 

related in the Papers of the Presidents, the 

farcical exchanges that seem to have been 

ridiculously perfected in congressional 

subcommittees. Here are the stories of Aaron 

Burr's betrayal, of the investigation of the 

Three-Mile Island incident, the narratives of 

the American Society for Colonizing the Free 

People of Color and documentation of the 

great Civil Rights Movement. Here is Moses 

Austin's enthusiasm for getting rich by 

mining lead in Missouri, and the story of the 

1870 Gold Conspiracy that so inspired and 

amused Henry Adams. In these papers the 

romantic Prince Maximilian crosses paths 

with the prosaic Andrew Johnson. In them is 

charted Robert Oppenheimer's fall from 

official grace and the course of the 1918 flu 

pandemic. Here even are instructions for 

“restoring the apparently drowned.” The 

enormity of the collection embodies the 

excess that is democracy, an excess of selfimportance and self-service but even more an 

excess in longing, the enormous aspiration to 

be more, to do better that defines the human 

spirit in a free society. As Adams wrote in the 

early days of our national existence, "liberty 

is power." In the archives that we celebrate 

today we find the access, the information, the 

knowledge that both constrains and fuels that 

power. 

I want to close with a word of gratitude and 

indebtedness both to Washington University's 

Government Documents collection and to the 

generations of library staff whose diligence 

and good stewardship have served it and us 

so well. 

Thank you for making possible so much of 

the work of this university, our teaching and 

scholarship as well as the role we play 

together in the service of a free people 

struggling to exercise that freedom 

responsibly. 

[Reprinted by permission of the author.] 

Questions? 

If you have questions or comments on any of the content in Administrative Notes, please send them to askGPO, the 

online help service at: 

http://gpo.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/gpo.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

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AN-v27-#03-04-04/15/06 

Table of Contents 

New Members To Advise On Depository Library Council.......................................................... 1 

STAT-USA Offers Depositories IP Authentication Access ......................................................... 3 

Nominate a Library for 2006 Federal Depository Library of the Year Award............................. 3 

Depositories Asked to Notify GPO of Shipping Problems........................................................... 4 

What To Do when You Receive a Duplicate Shipment Box from GPO...................................... 4 

GPO Will Provide Mailing Labels for Return of Significant Duplicate Publications.................. 5 

Special Needs List Can Help Depository Libraries Rebuild Their Collection After a Disaster... 5 

Depository Feedback Asked on Selection Mechanisms ............................................................... 6 

GPO Launches Web Harvesting Pilot Projects............................................................................. 6 

New GPO Online Bookstore Launched........................................................................................ 7 

Recent Additions to GPO Access ................................................................................................. 7 

GPO Depository Library Council Update, April 2006 ................................................................. 8 

Readers Exchange: Remarks Marking the Centennial of the Government Document 

 Depository at Washington University / Wayne Fields ............................................................. 18 

Administrative Notes Cumulative Table of Contents 

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

Updated with each issue 

Searchable by keyword 

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

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

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

send address changes to: Administrative Notes 

U.S. Government Printing Office 

 Stop IDED 

Washington, DC 20401 

Internet access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/index.html 

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