With such a mandate, we believe that few agencies will make their electronic publications available to depository libraries. The depository library program was developed to ensure widespread access to government information and the accountability of the government to its citizens. In that way, we believe that the Depository Library Program and the Freedom of Information Act are complementary. FOIA ensures that certain agency records be made available to the public, whether in print or electronic form. The program of government publication and dissemination through the depository library program allows agencies to operate more efficiently by anticipating a general public need for access to some of their information and to transfer that information into publications for general distribution.
Libraries then facilitate making the information available to end users.
Today, as indicated in Mr. Hodsoll's testimony above, because of the economies of electronic publication, agencies may well choose to put their information into electronic, rather than print form. We see no reason why that information should be excluded from the depository library program merely because of that fact. We urge the Office of Management and Budget to rewrite its interpretation of government publication to include government publications in any form, including electronic, and thereby to make this important information available to depository libraries. If the conversion to electronic form means that an agency does not disseminate the information to depository libraries and that the information is therefore less available to the general public, we believe that Section 9 will be counterproductive. However, the interpretation of this section appears to create a troublesome double standard.