Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 20, no. 13 GP 3.16/3-2:20/13 August 15, 1999 

Register for Fall 1999 Depository Library Council Meeting 

The fall 1999 meeting of the Depository Library Council will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, 

from Monday, October 18 through Thursday morning, October 21. A one-half day Regional 

librarians’ meeting is scheduled on Tuesday afternoon, October 19. The Hotel Phillips, formerly 

the Radisson Suite Hotel, is the meeting site. A block of rooms at $88 per night single, $98 

double, $108 triple, and $118 quad is being held for Council attendees. This rate is guaranteed 

for guests arriving three (3) days prior to the meeting and for the three (3) days following the 

meeting. To receive this rate, you must register with the hotel no later than September 17, 

1999. After the cut-off date, rooms will be subject to space availability at the prevailing rate. 

Please specify the Government Printing Office (GPO) when you contact the hotel. 

To register, call the reservation desk at (816) 221-7000. The hotel address is: 

Hotel Phillips 

106 West 12th Street 

Kansas City, MO 64105 

Nonsmoking rooms are available on request. Indoor valet parking in the hotel garage is $10 per 

day with unlimited access. An alternative is the city garage, one (1) block away. That daily fee 

is $7 with one in and one out. 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

Register via the Web 

www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/counreg.html 

If you are unable to register via the Web, please fill out the form below. 

. 

REGISTRATION FORM FALL 1999 COUNCIL MEETING 

Kansas City, MO October 18 - 21, 1999 

Please type or print clearly: 

_______________________________________ 

Name 

_______________________________________ 

Preferred first name or nickname for badge:

_______________________________________ 

Institution 

_______________________________________ 

Library Name 

_______________________________________ 

Address 

_______________________________________ 

City/State/Zip Code

_______________________________________ 

Phone

_______________________________________ 

E-mail

_______________________________________ 

Fax 

GPO will seek to make accommodations for attendees with disabilities. Please specify 

needs when registering. 

E-mail, fax or mail to: 

Mr. William Thompson Fax: (202) 512-1432 

Library Programs Service (SL) E-mail: wthompson@gpo.gov 

U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, DC 20401 

2 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

Preliminary Agenda 

Fall 1999 Depository Library Council Meeting 

October 18-21, 1999 

Hotel Phillips (formerly Radisson Suite Hotel) 

106 West 12th Street 

Kansas City, MO 

Sunday, October 17

Afternoon 

Location

4:00-5:00 Orientation to the Depository Library Council 

 This session is designed to acquaint first time attendees with how 

the Council works and to preview Council activities over the next 

3 1⁄2 days 

 Anne Watts, St. Louis Public Library, Former Council Chair, 

Facilitator 

Midland

6:00 Informal pre-dinner get-together to network by food preference Hotel Lobby

Monday, October 18

Morning

8:00 Registration and Coffee with Council and GPO Staff 

8:30 Welcome and Remarks 

 Duncan M. Aldrich, Council Chair 

 Michael F. DiMario, Public Printer 

Phillips

9:00 GPO Update 

 Francis J. Buckley, Jr., Superintendent of Documents 

 Gil Baldwin, Director, Library Programs Service 

10:00 Break 

10:30 GPO Update (continued) 

 T.C. Evans, Acting Director, Office of Electronic Information 

Dissemination Services (EIDS) 

 Thomas A. Downing, Chief, Cataloging Branch, LPS 

 Robin Haun-Mohamed, Chief, Depository Administration 

Branch, LPS 

Phillips

11:30 GPO Information Exchange: Council and Audience Q&A 

12:00 Lunch 

3 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

Afternoon 

2:00 Depository Library Council – Plenary Session 

 GPO Information Exchange: Council and Audience Q&A 

(continued) 

 Chauncey E. Epps, Manager, U.S. Government Bookstore, 

Kansas City 

 Committee Reports and Recommendations for Council Action 

 Election of Officers 

Crystal 

3:15 Break 

3:45 New Documents Staff 

Informal session to answer questions about depository issues 

 Sheila M. McGarr, Chief, Library Division, LPS, Facilitator 

 Vicki A. Barber, Chief, Depository Distribution Division, LPS, 

Facilitator 

New Yorker 

3:45 Getting the Word Out: Using Continuing Education Programs to 

Promote Government Information 

 Pamela K. Drayson, Director, Kansas City Community College 

Library 

 Speaker TBA 

Crystal 

3:45 Depository Library Council Working Session Midland 

5:00 Adjourn 

7:00 – 9:00 Reception Truman Library

Tuesday, October 19

Morning 

8:00 Coffee with Council and GPO Staff 

8:30 Depository Library Council – Plenary Session 

Diskettes, CD-ROMs, Online: Basic Issues Concerning Digital 

Preservation 

 Gregory Lawrence, Council Member 

 Alan Perry, Archivist and Regional Preservation Officer, 

National Archives and Records Administration, Kansas City 

Phillips 

10:00 Break 

10:30 Depository Library Council – Plenary Session 

Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC) Project 

 Shirley Hyatt, Manager, Product Marketing Department, OCLC 

 Speaker TBA 

Phillips 

12:00 Lunch 

4 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

Afternoon 

2:00 Regional Librarians: Part I - Substitution of Formats Issues 

 Daniel C. Barkley, Interim Head, Government Information 

Department, University of New Mexico, Facilitator 

Part II: Role of the Regional in a Web Environment 

 TBA, Facilitator 

New Yorker 

2:00-5:00 Depository Library Council Working Session Midland 

2:00 The Ins and Outs (Literally) of LPS Processing 

 Vicki A. Barber, Chief, Depository Distribution Division 

 Thomas A. Downing, Chief, Cataloging Branch 

 Robin Haun-Mohamed, Chief, Depository Administration 

Branch 

Crystal 

3:15 Break 

3:45 Regional Librarians: Open Discussion 

 Sheila M. McGarr, Chief, Library Division, LPS, Facilitator 

New Yorker 

3:45 Update on the FDLP Electronic Collection 

 George D. Barnum, Electronic Collection Manager, LPS 

Crystal 

5:00 Adjourn 

Wednesday, October 20

Morning 

8:00 Coffee with Council and GPO Staff 

8:30-12:00 Depository Library Council Working Session Midland 

8:30-12:00 Federal Regulations: Rulemaking, Code of Federal Regulation, and 

Federal Register 

 Ann Maso, Writer/Editor, Office of the Federal Register 

Crystal 

8:30 Consortia Initiatives in Loading Documents Catalog Records Into 

OPACs 

 Jill B. Fatzer, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, 

University of New Orleans 

 John W. Conover, Documents Librarian, Nicholls State 

University 

 Jan Swanbeck, Head, Documents Department, University of 

Florida

New Yorker 

8:30-12:00 GPO Access “hands on” Introductory Training [limited seating, sign-up 

required] 

 Vicki R. Amey, Electronic Products and Services Specialist, 

EIDS 

University of 

Missouri 

Kansas City 

Law Library 

5 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

6 

10:00 Break 

10:30 GPO Access Open Forum 

 T.C. Evans, Acting Director, EIDS, Facilitator 

New Yorker 

12:00 Lunch

Afternoon 

2:00 Collection Management: What the Documents Data Miner Can Do For 

You 

 Nan L. Myers, Government Documents Librarian, Wichita State 

University 

 John M. Ellis, Senior Database Analyst, National Institute for 

Aviation Research, Wichita State University 

Crystal 

2:00 Federal Agency Update: Bureau of the Census 

 Matthew S. Milbrodt, Information Services Specialist, Bureau 

of the Census, Kansas City Regional Office 

New Yorker 

2:00-5:00 Depository Library Council Working Session Midland 

2:00-5:00 GPO Access “hands on” Advanced Training [limited seating, sign up 

required] 

 Vicki R. Amey, Electronic Products and Services Specialist, 

EIDS 

University of 

Missouri 

Kansas City 

Law Library 

3:15 Break 

3:45 Federal Agency Update 

 Speaker and agency TBA 

Crystal 

3:45 Writing the GPO Self-Study 

 Sheila M. McGarr, Chief, Library Division, LPS 

New Yorker 

5:00 Adjourn 

Thursday, October 21 

Morning 

8:00 Coffee with Council and GPO Staff 

8:30 Depository Library Council – Plenary Session 

Report of Draft Recommendations and Action Items (including 

audience response and comments) 

Phillips 

10:00 Adjourn 
Preliminary Agenda 

Fall 1999 Depository Library Council Meeting Kansas City, MO 

Phillips Midland New Yorker Crystal 

Sunday, October 17 4:00 Orientation 6:00 Monday, October 18 8:30 Council Plenary Session 2:00 Council Plenary Session 3:45 Council Working Session New Documents 

Librarians 

Continuing Education 

Tuesday, October 19 8:30 Council Plenary Session 2:00 LPS Processing Ins & Outs 3:45 

Council Working Session Regional Libraries 

FDLP Electronic Collection 

Wednesday, October 20 8:30 Council Working Session Consortia Initiatives Federal Regulations 10:30 GPO Access Open 

Forum 

2:00 Census Bureau Update Documents Data Miner 3:45 

Council Working Session 

Self-Study Federal Agency Update 

Thursday, October 21 8:30 Council Plenary Session 10:00 Adjourn 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

GPO Access Training Offered During Council Meeting 

Two “hands on” training sessions at individual computer workstations will be held for depository 

librarians attending the fall Depository Library Council meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. The 

morning session, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, is geared toward those with little familiarity with 

GPO Access. This basic class will introduce GPO Access including using PDF files and general 

search strategies for such databases as the Federal Register, Congressional Record, etc. 

The afternoon session, from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., is geared to those who already use GPO Access 

and will provide advanced search techniques on tracing legislation and regulations. Depository 

librarians may sign up for one but not both sessions. 

Date: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 

Location: University of Missouri, Kansas City 

 Leon E. Bloch Law Library 

 5100 Rockhill Road 

 Kansas City, MO 

The training site is 15-20 minutes away by taxi or trolley. Registrants are responsible for their 

own transportation. 

Seating is limited to 20 per session on a first come, first served basis. Registration must be 

received by October 1, 1999. To reserve a seat, contact Sheila McGarr by either: 

1. Fax: (202) 512-1432, or 

2. E-mail: smcgarr@gpo.gov 

GPO will verify the registration and maintain a waiting list in case of cancellations. 

PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT CLEARLY: 

Depository Library Number: 

Name: _________________________________________________________________________ 

Institution: _ _

Library Name: _ 

Address: _

City: State: Zip _ 

Phone: _______________________ 

Internet Address: 

_______ 8:30 a.m. session ______ 2:00 p.m. session 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

You Can Help Develop “Browse Topics” 

The Library Programs Service (LPS) is interested in increasing participation from depository 

librarians in developing and maintaining the Pathway Services "Browse Topics" page at: 

<www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/pathbrws.html>. 

If you are interested in developing a Topic, or have some other specific area of expertise on a 

Topic, please contact James Mauldin, who is now responsible for coordinating Pathway 

Services. Mr. Mauldin will explain what is involved in developing and maintaining a Topic, or 

in updating an existing Topic. Further information on contributing to Pathway's "Browse 

Topics" effort may be found under "An Invitation to Contribute" at: <www.access.gpo.gov/ 

su_docs/dpos/topics/invite.html>. 

Current contributors should submit their quarterly updates directly to James Mauldin for review 

and upload. 

James Mauldin can be contacted at <jmauldin@gpo.gov>. 

GPO Will Rebind Defective Depository Copies of the 

Bound Congressional Record 

GPO will rebind the recently distributed defective parts for volume 142 of the bound 

Congressional Record (item 0993-A-01, X 1.1:). The defective parts are 5, 7, 8, 11, and 13. 

To have their copies rebound, libraries must return the defective volumes to LPS by September 

15, 1999. LPS sent mailing labels to selecting depositories in August, along with instructions on 

returning the materials. The defective copies will be rebound and returned to the libraries by 

November 30, 1999.

9 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

Update on Government Information Dissemination Programs 

Remarks by Francis J. Buckley, Jr. 

Superintendent of Documents 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

New Orleans, LA 

June 26, 1999 

Greetings! I’m pleased to be here with such a large group of friends and colleagues to provide 

an update on the Superintendent of Documents government information dissemination programs. 

I’ll touch on a number of issues, but other GPO staff will be sharing additional reports with you 

today and tomorrow and interacting in various committee meetings. 

Personnel 

To start, I would like to highlight some important personnel changes that have occurred since I 

last spoke to you in Philadelphia. 

Sheila McGarr has been appointed to serve as Chief of the Library Division. Many of you know 

Sheila through her recent responsibilities, which have included organizing both the annual 

Federal Depository Conferences and the Interagency Depository Seminars in addition to 

supervising our team of library inspectors. Others of you, no doubt, met her when she served as 

a library inspector in the early to mid 1980’s. I’m sure you’ll want to wish Sheila well in this 

position. 

George Barnum from Case Western Reserve University will be completing a two year stint as a 

member of the Electronic Transition Staff (ETS) in mid-July. I would like to take this 

opportunity to thank George for his diligent efforts on behalf of the depository program and 

especially for his work on Managing the FDLP Electronic Collection: A Policy and Planning 

Document, that was released last October. 

Our other ETS member, Judy Andrews, from James Madison University has been reappointed 

for a second year. She will continue examining and evaluating electronic products for inclusion 

in the Electronic Collection. 

We have asked Steve Kerchoff from the Library of Congress’ Federal Library and Information 

Center Committee (FLICC) to join ETS for the coming year. There are, however, some 

procedural issues that need to be ironed out before we can bring him on board. Steve would 

bring a great deal of knowledge about Federal libraries and information resources and would be 

able to make a major contribution to the program. 

10 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

In addition, Sheila asked me to let you know that Library Programs Service (LPS) is seeking 

another library inspector. The job announcement can be found on the GPO and Office of 

Personnel Management Web sites and has also been posted on GOVDOC-L and LAWLIB. If 

you have specific questions about the position, feel free to check with Sheila or Gil Baldwin here 

at the conference. 

As many of you have heard, an Electronic Collection Manager is being sought within LPS. 

Applications for that position were due to GPO in mid-June. Advertised nationally, we expect to 

have a selection made later this year. The establishment of this position is an action item in our 

electronic collection plan and we are pleased to see this idea on the way to becoming a reality. 

What are all these people and the rest of the staff doing? Why are they needed? Well, we’re 

moving ahead on many fronts to make government information products available and as readily 

accessible as possible to all. We’re collecting, cataloging, classifying, distributing, providing 

training, support, and outreach. None of these processes is simple or easy. But we are 

accomplishing a lot in all these areas. 

LPS Highlights 

There are reports on various activities in Library Programs Service in the handout. I’d like to 

highlight some of the issues and supplement the report with comments on additional programs 

and projects. 

Those of you in depository libraries will know that we are fairly consistent with last year, at this 

same time, in distribution of materials. We do, however, continue to see a drop in the number of 

tangible publications as GPO and Federal agencies make the transition to a more electronic 

environment. At the end of May ’98, we had distributed more than 8,400 paper titles; as of May 

’99, that number was down over 1,000 to 7,300. CD-ROM distribution has decreased somewhat 

from close to 570 a year ago to 430 at the end of May, and microfiche titles are up from 

approximately 17,000 to close to 18,000. 

We are currently sending approximately 19 percent paper; 45% microfiche and 35% online. CDROMs constitute a little over 1% in distribution. We have begun distribution of National 

Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) maps directly from GPO to regularize that process. In 

addition, LPS staff went to Denver to meet with staff from the U.S. Geological Survey in order 

to improve their map distribution. 

We are working actively to capture publications in all formats for the FDLP and Sales Program. 

In the Depository Administration Branch update, Robin Haun-Mohamed comments on the 

process for follow-up on reports of fugitive documents. She also mentions the Inspector General 

audit of the publications program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH Research 

Institutes have a statutory waiver from printing through GPO, but not from depository library or 

cataloging and indexing requirements. 78% of the sampled publications which should have been 

provided to the FDLP were not. We plan to call this report to the attention of other agencies to 

encourage greater compliance. 

11 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

Outreach and Training 

I’d like to comment on our more active program of outreach and training. Of course we are 

continuing our program of inspection visits, which have a heavy consultative component. In the 

last 6 months, there have been 53 library inspections in a number of states, including Texas, 

Kentucky and Missouri. In addition, the inspection staff completed 117 self-study evaluations. 

Since January, we have exhibited at a variety of conferences: ALA Midwinter, Computers in 

Libraries in Arlington, VA, the American Bar Association Technology Show in Chicago, the 

Association of College and Research Libraries in Detroit, the National Online Meeting in New 

York and the Special Libraries Association, a few weeks ago, in Minneapolis. We are planning 

now for next year’s schedule and we would like to reach out to additional user groups. Staff 

from the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services (EIDS) have conducted 11 

GPO Access training sessions and demos in 6 cities: Washington, DC., Philadelphia, Seattle, 

Portland, Minneapolis and Bozeman, MT. And there is training scheduled for this coming 

Wednesday, June 30 at Tulane University. 

Personally, I have been on the road doing presentations about the program to various library 

groups in Michigan, at the University of Maryland, and the at Department of Energy in Oak 

Ridge, TN. Most recently, actually early last week, I traveled to Montana where I had the 

pleasure of appearing on a panel with Julie Wallace, from the University of Minnesota, at the 

Montana Library and the Mountain Plains Library Associations annual meeting. We discussed 

government information from perspectives inside and outside the Beltway. 

Back inside the Beltway, I’ve spoken to the District of Columbia Library Association, the DC 

Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, the Federal Publishers Committee and the 

Interagency Council on Printing and Publishing. 

An example of the networking benefits from these meetings was a contact with the Printing 

Officer from the Department of State from whom I learned of their plans to discontinue 

publishing the Background Notes on Countries of the World. They were planning only to put 

them on the Internet and were going to suggest that the National Technical Information Service 

(NTIS) reprint them on demand. I explained that we had the capability and desire to do that for 

items in demand in hard copy for the GPO Sales Program. As a result, we have developed an 

Interagency Agreement to download and print official copies of the Background Notes for both 

the Sales and Depository programs. 

In the last month I’ve had meetings with Ron Lawson, Director of NTIS, and Gary Bachula, 

Acting Undersecretary of the Department of Commerce for Technology Administration in order 

to discuss the role and relationships between GPO and NTIS. Thus far those discussions have 

been on a general, philosophical level in which I’ve been articulating public access concerns. 

I’ve used the NTIS/Northern Light Technology fee-based gov.search service proposal and the 

NTIS fee-based bibliographic database and report collection as examples of problems. 

My personal perspective is that the gov.search service was presented inappropriately and 

incorrectly as “the most comprehensive, useful, powerful, and incisive way to locate government 

12 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

information.” They claimed that the new Web site would provide one-stop shopping for all 

federal government resources. In reality, this should have been marketed as an added-value feebased service with enhanced searching capabilities, complementing many other sites for access 

to government information. And, in fact, it does not index all federal Web sites since a number, 

including GPO Access, do not permit Web-crawling robots which slow response times, into their 

sites. 

As I said to Mr. Lawson and Mr. Bachula, we need to coordinate, cooperate, and communicate 

more, and present a complete picture of the various systems of free and fee-based access to 

electronic government information to users. In addition, the NTIS bibliographic database should 

be provided for free public access at depository libraries. Furthermore, depository libraries 

should have access to the fugitive documents in the NTIS collection. 

Electronic Collection 

In regard to our own electronic information services, we were quite pleased that the policy and 

planning document that will guide the Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection 

was named to the list of “Notable Government Documents” for 1998. The article in the May 15 

issue of Library Journal notes that “we are fortunate to have (the) Policy and Planning Document 

as one of our selections this year. It puts the (depository) program in context and clarifies its 

commitments...” The author goes on to say that: “It is a valuable tool for librarians facing 

collection of and service decisions for electronic products.” 

In furtherance of the permanent public access recommendations in the plan, Gil Baldwin, Don 

Ladd, GPO Production Manager, and I have just had a meeting with Dr. Lew Bellardo, Deputy 

Director of the National Archives and Records Administration, to discuss cooperative endeavors, 

and we will soon be expanding those discussions to encompass representatives of national 

libraries, federal agencies, and others. 

GPO Access 

In that same Notable Government Documents article there were some very kind words about our 

Web site: 

“GPO Access is the veritable yellow brick road to official electronic information, 

making available online some 140,000 titles in plain text and PDF if possible. Over 

two-thirds of the titles are on GPO servers and the other third are linked sites. 

Downloading statistics are in the tens of thousands.” 

The author goes on to say that “GPO Access is promoted by training nationwide and at 

depository libraries and also by the Access User Support Team (yes, real people).” T.C. Evans 

will talk about GPO Access in more detail shortly. 

Sales Program 

13 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

I must mention the GPO Sales Program, where there is much happening due to changing 

government publishing practices, both in quantity and format, changing customer purchasing 

patterns, and increasing competition for products and markets from other government sales 

programs and the private sector. The fact that we and other government agencies put some of the 

sales publications on the Web for free access, including our traditional best sellers such as the 

Federal Register, Congressional Record, Code of Federal Regulations and Commerce Business 

Daily, is undercutting the market, especially for people who have only occasional reference use 

of the publications. In addition we are seeing even more republishing of government 

information products by the private sector. By law GPO is required to make its printing plates, 

negatives or tapes available for purchase by private publishers at cost to encourage the further 

dissemination and reuse of government information. We are experiencing a 16% decline in 

orders and a decrease of over 20% in the number of individual publications and subscription 

copies sold. As a result our prices will be increasing to recover expenses. 

Having said that, let me tell you about a few new popular interest titles in the program that 

illustrate the efforts we are undertaking in the sales program: 

Microsoft Antitrust Materials -- At the request of the Justice Department and the court, we are 

publishing the depositions taken in the Microsoft antitrust case on CD-ROM for $52. In 

addition, they will be available in print on demand and on videotape. 

The Cox Report -- This report on Chinese intelligence activities and American nuclear secrets 

was so popular we sold out of our initial printing. We are reprinting in black and white rather 

than the original 4-color process to control costs, to ensure that this important document is 

available for sale. 

NIMH Publications -- Two new publications from the National institute of Mental Health; a 

booklet on schizophrenia and Science on Our Minds, a kit containing brief articles on various 

mental health topics are both being purchased directly from NIMH’s printers for the Sales 

Program at NIMH’s request.

NOAA Diving Manual -- The GPO Sales Program will purchase a limited number of this 

publication from NTIS. NTIS, NOAA and Best Publishers, a private firm, are publishing the 

Manual as a joint venture. 

Federal Aviation Regulations -- To provide their continued availability in print, Sales will 

assume the copy preparation and printing costs for 20 Federal Aviation Regulations subscriptions 

in cooperation with the FAA, which was discontinuing printing as an economy move and 

planned to rely only on Internet access. 

We’ve implemented our program for retention of Government Information Products of Historical 

Significance in the Sales Collection. Currently, there are close to 530 publications declared 

historical in content. The Sales Management staff will continue to review the current sales 

inventory to identify publications of long-term historical significance to add to this existing list. 

We’ve had input from members of the Depository Library Council and depository librarians in 

14 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

the development of the policy and procedures as well as the initial list of appropriate 

publications. 

I want to briefly report that the Integrated Processing System -- IPS -- is well along in terms of 

software readiness. We are in the process of obtaining printing software in order to produce 

mailing labels. Staff is also in the final stages of resolving functional issues with our contractor, 

Northrup Grumman. In other words, we want to ensure that they provide what they are supposed 

to under terms of the contract and that everything works the way it is supposed to before we go 

live, hopefully at the end of the summer. 

Conclusion 

I’d like to conclude by saying this is an exciting time to be at GPO as we develop and evolve our 

systems to ensure permanent public access to as comprehensive a collection of government 

information products in all formats as possible. We have a number of staff here who can listen 

to your ideas and concerns. Many of them will be at GODORT sponsored programs over the 

next few days. You can also track some of them down at our booth in the exhibit hall. Please 

come see us!

15 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

The Current and Future State of GPO Access 

Remarks by T.C. Evans 

Acting Director, Office of Electronic Information Dissemination 

Before the Federal Documents Task Force 

Government Documents Round Table 

American Library Association 

New Orleans, LA 

June 26, 1999 

Introduction 

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

future state of GPO Access. It seems incredible that five months have passed since we got 

together in Philadelphia, but far less so when you consider all that has changed on GPO Access 

since that time. The recovery periods between heart-pounding spurts on this electronic 

Government information roller-coaster seem to be shortening to the point that it is becoming one 

long bobsled run, racing at breathtaking speed without respite. Angus Grossart once stated that 

he had “a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.” That being the case, he 

would have loved GPO Access. 

This pace certainly cries for a word of thanks to all of the people at GPO who make GPO Access 

a reality and for you in the library community as well. The time and effort put in by documents 

librarians to help users find and use the resources of GPO Access and to let us know how to 

make it more useful is deeply appreciated. 

These efforts are paying off both in terms of utility to our users and attention for the site. We are 

proud to have been selected as the first recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries 

Public Access to Government Information Award. Darcy Kirk, AALL Government Relations 

Committee Chair stated that: “The GPO Access system meets and exceeds criteria established 

for this award in every respect.” In a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, GPO was 

one of the Web sites listed as having the highest percentage of visitors who are there for work 

reasons. This was particularly pleasing since GPO Access wasn’t listed in other articles 

describing research results on the most visited Government sites. It makes me wonder why users 

are visiting these other sites. 

There are now more than 1,200 official Government databases available on GPO Access. These 

databases contain over 100 gigabytes of data and the total is growing daily. In addition, 

thousands of other Government information products are accessible through GPO Access. In 

fact, the most recent count showed that over 143,000 electronic titles are available through the 

FDLP Electronic Collection, with some 97,000 on GPO servers and slightly more than 46,000 

linked to from GPO Access. 

16 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

This total is continuing evidence of the transition to a more electronic FDLP. The number of 

electronic titles has grown by almost 15,000 in the first eight months of FY 1999 and will 

continue to expand as more content is added to our servers, additional partnerships are achieved, 

and more titles on other sites are bibliographically controlled and linked from our site. This 

represents growth of more than 11 percent for two thirds of the year, or approximately 1.4 

percent per month.

Usage 

GPO Access usage continues to increase. The implementation and refinement of the BigIP 

server controller array has both balanced server load and improved response times. Over the past 

four months an average of more than 20 million documents have been downloaded per month. 

Over 335 million documents have been downloaded from GPO Access since it began operation 

in 1994. At the current rate, approximately 220 million documents will be downloaded this 

fiscal year alone. To place this in context, an average of 8 documents are downloaded from GPO 

Access every second of every day. 

Our busiest time of day is the hour from 11:00 a.m. EST to noon, but there is traffic around the 

clock on GPO Access. Traffic starts building at about 7:00 a.m., peaks just before noon, remains 

steady until just after 5:00 p.m., and then gradually tails off to midnight. The busiest days are 

Tuesday through Thursday, followed by slower Mondays and Fridays, and the slowest days, 

Saturday and Sunday. 

System performance has improved and should continue to improve as the implementation of our 

server controller array is completed. The size and complexity of the GPO Access system has 

presented some challenges to this implementation, but our Production department and F5 

Technologies have worked hard to get the job done while still providing systems access. It 

would be difficult to give you an exact date for completion of this effort, but I can assure you 

that it is receiving the highest possible priority. 

What’s New on GPO Access 

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

notable are: 

 The eagerly awaited Site Search capability prototype is available for examination at the 

booth. While further refinements will be made as we go along, this application will be 

available in some form when you return from this conference. [The completion of the site 

search mechanism has unfortunately been delayed by on-going efforts to provide the best 

possible index and by the demands of preparing for Y2K.—ed.] I would like to thank all of 

the people who are working long hours to edit the code in GPO Access pages with the 

tagging necessary to create the most effective index of the products and services available to 

users. For anyone who thought that it would be easy to create a useful index of the thousands 

of pages that make up GPO Access, let me just say that it isn’t. Please stop by Booth 1867 to 

get a demo of this exciting new feature and let us know what you think. When it is fully 

released, you will be searching an index of all of the HTML pages on GPO Access, 

augmented with metatagging designed to help focus your search, pinpointing the GPO 

17 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

Access pages pertaining to your area of interest. It is important to note that the index does 

not extend to the databases themselves. For applications with browse features the Site 

Search will produce results that link directly to items in the databases. One example of this 

would be the browseable daily table of contents from the Federal Register. If what you are 

searching for is listed in one or more day’s table of contents, those pages will be returned as 

relevant results. Since they contain live links to each of the notices listed for that day, you 

can then retrieve the actual notices. Another example would be the Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR). Because the CFR offers a browse titles feature, when using the site 

search for specific regulations within CFR titles, the actual html title, chapter or section page 

will appear in your results list, depending on your search terms. For example, if you are 

searching for "flectol h", using site search, the browseable html page containing a link 

directly to the CFR section titled "Flectol H", will be contained in the results list. Keep in 

mind, however, that site search will not search within the actual document titled Flectol H. 

 The enhanced and restructured pages for our Sales Program have been available since April. 

Now known as the Online Bookstore, this area of GPO Access has made it much easier to 

locate and purchase publications for sale. Software has been successfully implemented that 

provides an encrypted secure environment to enter payment information through GPO 

Access when purchasing sales products. This new enhancement and the redesigned Online 

Bookstore have resulted in an increase in the number of sales orders being submitted online, 

as well as the number of orders printed from the Online Bookstore and sent in through 

traditional channels. 

 A comprehensive Privacy and Security Notice has been completed and added to GPO 

Access. This notice is now available off of the main GPO Access page and will soon be 

linked from all high-level pages. 

 A browseable catalog of Congressional Bills was released in May. This new feature has 

proven popular with a vocal segment of our user community who wanted the ability to scan 

through Congressional Bills without having to perform a search. 

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: 

 A number of enhancements are being readied for the CFR and FR applications. For instance, 

a project is underway to add live links to FR notices as deemed appropriate by the agencies 

publishing notices. One example of this innovation will be to allow publishing agencies to 

include a live link to their sites so that the public can provide feedback on proposed rules 

electronically. 

 Browse features are being readied for both Congressional Reports and Documents. 

 A new GPO Access user survey is being prepared and details on participation will be 

released in the near future. 

18 
AN-20-#13-8/15/99 

Once again, I urge you to stop by the GPO booth and see the additions and changes to GPO 

Access. As always, I want to thank you for your feedback and I look forward to discussing your 

ideas for a better GPO Access during the conference. 

19 
AN-v20-#13-8/15/99 

20 

Table of Contents 

Register for Fall 1999 Depository Library Council Meeting........................................................ 1 

Depository Library Council Meeting, 1999, Fall, Preliminary Agenda ....................................... 3 

GPO Access Training Offered During Council Meeting.............................................................. 8 

You Can Help Develop “Browse Topics” .................................................................................... 9 

GPO Will Rebind Defective Depository Copies of the Bound Congressional Record ................ 9

Update on Government Information Dissemination Programs / Buckley, ALA, 6/99............... 10 

Current and Future State of GPO Access / Evans, ALA, 6/99 ................................................... 16 

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