These new guidelines now allow depositories to weed some materials sooner than the previously required five years. As GPO looks for partnerships primarily in area of electronic archiving, this seems to open the door for eliminating retention requirements for tangible government documents. The University of Florida, which serves as our regional depository, has initiated an Electronic Depository Website of use to researchers and the administration of depositories in Florida. Formats for tangible electronic products are also in transition with the advent of DVDs being released from the Department of Commerce. While the government has mandated most current information to be electronically accessible, this is not yet a full-fledged reality.
Most older documents are unavailable on the web.
Depositories continue to provide unique and valuable access to information, and as part of next year's goals, a white paper that outlines the continued benefits of depository status is in the works. Clearly, the period of transition in which all current and historical government information is accessible electronically will be an extended one. Committee projects included re-issuing the Government Documents Bookmark, updating the Directory of Government Document Collections, and providing ongoing government information training to local librarians. In regard to training and outreach, Chris Marhenke gave an excellent workshop on Intellectual Property on August 17. Following the workshop, a vendor from Primary Source Media was also on hand to demonstrate the Declassified Documents database on the web.