In June, one staff member was assigned full-time to working with the askLPS inquiries. Some of the inquiries can be dealt with in a straightforward manner, especially those dealing with direct mail claims, but many of the inquiries relate to fugitive or missing documents. This is an important but time consuming effort, and our highest priority is the processing of the material we have in hand for distribution to the libraries. As you can see, askLPS continues to be a challenge, but we making efforts to improve these services. I'd also like to review the publication shortage and rain check policies for Council.
Shortages can occur for any number of reasons.
Many of the publications distributed through the FDLP are acquired through a deal direct arrangement between the agency and a contractor under a GPO administered contract. This material tends to be serial in nature-serial publications or established monographs in a series. Once the process has been set up, GPO does not see the requisitions again until they are reviewed for the next fiscal year. Many times these contracts have more than one publication on them and the agencies are then instructed to contact LPS directly for the correct quantities for depository distribution. Well, you can probably guess how many times that happens.