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Newsletter of the Public Documents Forum
of the Virginia Library Association
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Shipping List
Newsletter of the Public Documents Forum of the Virginia Library Association |
| vol. 26, no.4 | November 2001 |
The tragedies of September 11th reminded all of us how important it is to live in a free society and to have access to the information and actions of our government. Unfortunately a number of steps have been taken by the Bush Administration including, E.O. 13233 signed 11/01/01, which threaten continued access to information as basic and essential as the Presidential Papers. I'm certain this topic and others will be addressed at ALA's midwinter meeting in New Orleans, January 17-23, 2002. If you have comments please contact a member of the GODORT Legislation Committee so that your concerns can be shared.
On a more positive note, it's time to nominate notable federal, international and state/local documents for recognition in Library Journal's Notable Documents issue (final winners announced in the May 15th issue). Please take some time to nominate your favorite documents. It's a positive way to promote the depository program. Nomination forms are available on the GODORT website at: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/forms/godort-form.html The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2001. As a selector for state and local documents, I am totally impartial, but Virginia has a history of producing many winning publications.
Please send any comments, questions, suggestions, etc. to the editor.-- Janet Justis
In order to make the meeting as productive as possible, I would like
to have a working draft in hand ready for review and revision by the meeting
group. I know this won't be easy, and the time between now and May will
seem incredibly short. However, I think using the resources provided by
GPO and other state plans already in existence, we can meet this deadline.
See http://www.libofmich.lib.mi.us/services/plans.html.
As I have mentioned to a number of you already in private conversation, I feel very strongly that the State Plan for Virginia should not be a Regionally- written, Regionally-imposed plan. I firmly believe that since all FDLP libraries in Virginia will be expected to subscribe to the plan, the plan needs to be drawn up by representatives from all types of FDLP libraries in the Commonweath: large and small academic, law, and public. Obviously, the regional will have a role in the state plan, and I certainly expect to have strong input on this part of the plan. But the plan itself should come from group effort and with group consensus.
Toward this end I would like to ask for volunteers to serve as a State Plan Steering Committee. The Steering Committee would decide what should be in the Virginia Plan based on the menu provided at the very end of the SuDocs letter sent to library directors on August 17, 2001 (http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/mgt/sdltr8-17-01.html). The Steering Committee would also begin drafting appropriate language for each of the sections. The Plan need not be long, elaborate, nor make use of intricate legal language.
I would like to see a committee of at least five persons, but more would
be acceptable if more than five are willing to serve.
Update: Steering Committee Appointed:
The following individuals have volunteered to serve on the FDLP Virginia State Plan Drafting & Steering Committee:
GPO Updates
Robin Haun-Mohamed, Chief, Depository Services, Library Program Services
Ms. Haun-Mohamed announced that there have been no new self-studies requested since 1998 and that there is still a backlog of studies for review and inspection. No new studies will be requested until the current backlog is completed. Several Virginia libraries were recently inspected via telephone calls by Walter Zoeller (including VMI and Virginia Tech).
Michael DiMario, Public Printer
Mr. DiMario indicated that there has been no word from the Bush Administration regarding the appointment of a new Public Printer. Andy Sherman, Public Affairs, has been in touch with the new administration, however, the only candidate mentioned is B.M. Cave, South Carolina’s Printer.
The Joint Committee on Printing is not in place at this time. The House and Senate did not organize initially and when the switch in the majority changed in the Senate, Senator Dodd showed lack of interest in becoming the new chair. Senator Dodd did stay on the Rules Committee, and the JCP is normally comprised of the two chairs (House and Senate) and 4 members of the Rules Committee. A S. Con. Resolution is attempting to name some members to the committee. Senator Mark Dayton may be named as chair.
GPO was moving towards level funding with the Bush budget requesting
$29.6 million for S&E in FY2002. The House appropriations bill had
favorable language, however, the Senate bill suggested funding at last
year’s level. A conference committee will be necessary to resolve the S&E
appropriations which fund the FDLP. Other GPO operations have received
full funding. They are currently funded under a Continuing Resolution until
October 23, 2001.
Francis Buckley, Superintendent of Documents
Mr. Buckley addressed the changes in format distribution, noting that online titles make up 60% of titles distributed in FY 2001. GPO Access hosts 15,755 of these titles while another 5, 480 represent materials from other agency sites. There was a sharp decline (29%) in paper titles distributed with an even greater drop in microfiche. Total titles for 2001 are 36, 063.
Mr. Buckley also announced a new web-based service with the Dept. of Energy. The Energy Citations Database (www.osti.gov/energycitations) is a searchable index including publications from 1948 until the present.
Mr. Buckley also discussed policies regarding withdrawal of publications from the program citing the events surrounding the FRUS volume on Indonesia as an example. Theoretically, only the Public Printer or Superintendent of Documents can order the withdrawal of previously distributed publications from the program. The recall process has a number of steps some of which include:
The issue is even more pressing following the events of September 11th as some online information has been pulled off websites without any formal review by GPO. Agencies have taken down portions or entire sites (NRC) compromising permanent public access. A specific policy is needed for online resources. Title 44 USC 1902 specifically states that information of public interest or educational value shall be made available to depository libraries. GPO is trying to capture digital files of any information they catalog and then route a GPO copy to their PURL server for archival purposes.
Mr. Buckley mentioned that he hopes Regionals will take a leadership role in revising State Plans to reflect concerns of access in an increasingly electronic era. (Note: Virginia currently does not have a state plan and the Regional is suggesting that we meet in the spring of 2002 to discuss / draft a document. Any plan supported by UVA would need to focus heavily on digital formats.)
He commented that the Sales Program is still struggling with even fewer titles to sell. (note the Dept. of Education is no longer making the RIE available in print later this year) Many core titles that used to be staples in the Sales Program like the Code of Federal Regulations are now used online instead of being purchased. Four GPO bookstores have been closed and others may face a similar fate when their leases come up for renewal or opportunities present themselves for review. He predicted that over one-half of the bookstores may eventually be closed because they are not effectively recovering costs.
Buckley mentioned that there is new E-jargon that represents what the federal depository library program has done for years: “cross-agency citizen centric information portals”.
Mr. Baldwin explained that GPO has undergone serious personnel losses this year. Four catalogers transferred to LC, 2 LPS staff went to DITC, one to IRS and one to the Department of Education. Several of these individuals represented years of experience and leadership within the organization. One new inspector has been hired and one new program analyst.
Mr. Baldwin restated many of Mr. Buckley’s comments about the changes in online versus tangible formats and indicated that GPO is frequently selecting the online version for inclusion in the depository program even if the agency is still creating print. (this is a concern in the library community and many feel it exceeds the guidelines of the electronic transition).
Mr. Baldwin indicated that depository coordinators will be asked to complete a new Biennial Survey online in November.
Baldwin also mentioned that there is a volunteer project underway in which members of the library community assist GPO in identifying electronic publications to be included in the program. Fifty subject areas have been identified so far. Many of these are not the traditional fugitive types of publications.
He also commented on the OCLC/LPS Archiving Project which is just beginning.
The emphasis will be on products with no tangible equivalent. No single
electronic collection is adequate to capture all materials and the project
will attempt to select and profile unique materials. The software is CORC
driven.
Mr. Evans referred attendees to the GPO Access handouts for updates on statistics. GPO Access contains 128,229 electronic titles and points to 87,668 others. It provides access to 2,200 databases using over 80 applications. GPO Access averages 31 million documents retrievals per month.
He indicated that they continue to work on improving ways of downloading large files, e.g., the CFR. Staff are also working on creating a mirror site, but will need to replace the WAIS interface before this is possible. Although backup sites are provided they are too close physically to GPO and may in some cases be in the same building in Washington. This is definitely not an acceptable situation given the events of September 11th.
Staff continue to study successful hits of various search engines and have purchased positioning in some cases to improve hits of materials in GPO Access. Search Gov, FirstGov and Google continue to improve. About, Northern Lights, and AOL.com have decreased in effectiveness.
A new GPO Access Training Manual is available in print and online. Although the new manual will be distributed in print, updates will appear on the GPO Access help page and will need to be printed and inter-filed. Notices may appear on various listservs. It remains to be seen how effective this type of updating will be. The online version is available at http://www.gpo.gov/gpoaccess/help/trainingbk/trainingbk01.pdf
The Biennial Report to Congress is due in December and
will be posted.
Fran and others were asked to clarify how current backups for GPO Access are handled. There are multiple backups in main building and another complete backup in a nearby GPO building. This building is much too close given the recent events in DC. This reinforces the need for a mirror site in another part of the country.
FedBizOps will replace Commerce Business Daily (publication regarding procurement). CBD will continue to be published until January 2002. The GSA will take over FedBizOps and it is uncertain whether or not the FDLP will continue to have free access.
Fran Buckley confirmed that the print is still the only complete version of hearings. Some Congressional sites publish selected testimony online.
There was some discussion of a letter the Omaha Army Corps of Engineers recently sent to ARL libraries asking them to pull important studies on local archeology. They claim to be concerned that the materials may help looters identify artifacts. Fran Buckley clarified that these are not depository materials and libraries can make independent decisions as to whether or not they pull materials that they privately own.
Julia Wallace requested that GPO create catalog records for tangible products that agencies create even if GPO decides to distribute an electronic version.
There were several questions about how to handle superseded tangible
products when they have been superseded by electronic formats only.
No clear response was provided, however, it was suggested that the introduction
to the new revision of the Supersede List address this issue. Many librarians
are concerned that outdated materials are being left on the shelves which
could cause patrons to use incorrect and outdated information.
Earl Shumaker and Robert Gaines presented energetic and enthusiastic approaches to marketing the depository program and services to the general public. Many of their techniques were community-centric requiring the librarian to be active within the community by joining organizations and / or hosting meetings and materials that addressed hot local issues. Shumaker summed up the presentation by stating that “everything is PR.”
Program for Cooperative Cataloging:
Carolyn Sturtevant and Jean Hirons of the
Library of Congress discussed the activities of the PCC describing its
members, missions and outcomes. More information about the PCC can be located
at
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc
Ms. Sturtevant whose focus is NACO (name authority) stated that there are 350 member institutions providing timely access to bibliographic and authority records. These records are available for distribution via OCLC and RLIN. She stressed that the distribution of these records provides a cost effective way for persons who can no longer create full cataloging records within their own institutions to obtain quality records.
There are four parts which make up the PCC umbrella:
This year 43 libraries contributed approximately 73,000 bibliographic records. BIBCO records may be in several places (OCLC or RLIN). CONSER records are created and reside in the OCLC database.
For information about joining visit:
cast@loc.gov
Institutional memberships are for large well staffed organizations who can “go it alone”. Other smaller groups may be better suited for funnel projects (GP projects might fit into this area). Five days of training are provided by NACO and members must contribute and review records.
Partners include:
Jean Hirons, CONSER Coordinator and former GPO staffer, stressed the need for a clear mission statement and goals when creating and participating in any cooperative cataloging program. She discussed some of the efforts of GPO’s membership in CONSER and BIBCO using the single record standard as an example. There are 37,498 GP serial records in CONSER and approximately 950,000 records overall.
Hirons stressed that administration must buy into any consideration of entering cooperative cataloging projects. They must be committed to providing staff and training to do the necessary work. Some advantages of CONSER memberships include:
The CONSER model was defined by Linda Bartley as follows:
George Barnum, LPS; Janet Fisher, Arizona State Library; and Julie Schwartz, Connecticut State Library described various projects within their organizations that are contributing to the pilot project with OCLC.
Ms. Schwartz discussed the CORC (Cooperative
Online Resource Catalog) kit they are using to perform traditional cataloging
tasks in the online environment. She also briefly described the (OAIS)
Open Archival Architecture System which assists with archiving and retrieval.
Additional information can be viewed at:
http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas
Ms. Fisher stressed that the Arizona project is very new and much of the initial activity has been spent in establishing policies and standards. She stressed that they are not interested in saving every document and are attempting to distinguish between records and publications. State records may be saved for a specific amount of time ( 2 years) while publications may need permanent archiving. They may try to capture state electronic publications four times a year and are trying to work with webmasters to incorporate meta-tagging. They have a very strong stick in Arizona, paychecks can be withheld if publications are not provided as required by law.
Mr. Barnum discussed GPO’s plans for the OCLC web archiving project. He indicated that they want to include:
Phase 1:
Cindy Etkin and Walter Zoeller discussed GPO’s interpretations of item selection and collection development in a primarily electronic environment. Ms. Etkin stressed that item selection must reflect the information needs of the general public. While it is important to follow guidelines, e.g., appropriate level of selection should be at least one-half of the type and size of library; it is more important that the collection be suited to serving the needs of your clients. In the electronic environment, it is important to stress access over ownership. GPO must play a supporting role by providing cataloging and locator services.
Walter Zoeller indicated that during inspections he looks closely at the mission statement to see if it reflects the needs of the congressional district. In describing your community it is important to use Census demographics, determine who the large employers are, describe how the depository supports the institution’s primary and secondary clientele and then determine what resources will best serve these groups and the general public. He also stressed resource sharing.
A number of resources are available via the FDLP Desktop. Collection
Development information including the "suggested core collection" and selection
levels can be found at:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/coll-dev/
Etkin and Zoeller reprinted the "Review of LPS Position on Item
Selection Rates" (from Administrative Notes, v. 22,
# 5, March 15, 2001) for conference attendees. It can also be viewed on
the web at:
http:
www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/coll-dev/expl-ave.html
Baseline Electronic Proficiencies:
Robert Allen, University of Maryland, Loretta Spurling, University of Kansas, and Cindi Wolff, School of Information and Library Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison presented a discussion of electronic proficiencies necessary for documents librarians today and in the future.
Dr. Allen's presentation "Teaching E-Competencies: A University Perspective" focused on looking forward and addressing the issues surrounding "information studies". He stressed that the changes in the next 10 years will likely be greater than in the past 10 years. At Maryland this is represented in a basic way by a name change "College of Information Studies". He added that at Maryland they have begun to cut core technology requirements (assuming higher level skills by entering students) and are rapidly raising students' expectations. Two new programs reflect this approach: "Masters in Human Computer Interaction" (in conjunction with Computer Science and Education) and a "Masters in Egovernment."
Some technology trends include: Moore's Law going from 1 GHz to 2 GHz in 18 months, more elaborate mark-up (XML) and more multimedia including speech recognition. This technology should result in high-level services:
Ms. Spurling's presentation "Separating the Wheat from the chaffe" - E-Competencies at the Reference Desk" represented the challenges a new manager faces following an integration of traditional reference services and government documents. She stressed that she uses the 3 C's:
Ms. Wolff, current chair of GODORT, was assisted by John
Stevenson and Sherry DeDecker in describing a draft
document compiled by GODORT suggesting basic e-competencies needed. The
draft is available for review at:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/GODORT_ecomp.rtf
Some of the main headings include:
Tier 1: Must Skills or E-Competencies that every Depository Librarian
Must Have :
Federal Agency Updates: Selective
Energy Citations Database (new web-based service from the Dept. of Energy and GPO)
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations
Dr. Walter Warnick, Director of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), proudly announce the newest partnership between Energy and GPO. The Energy Citations Database will provide a searchable index to publications from 1948 to the present. Whenever possible the fulltext of publications from 1995 forward will be provided. The presentation provided some highlights from materials covered during the decades as follows:
From the 1940's there are 10,000+ records covering hot topics including:
Dr. Warnick also responded to questions regarding the funding of PubScience.
To date there has not been a conference committee to resolve differences
in the House and Senate bills. The House eliminated funding for PubScience
suggesting that it duplicates efforts in the private sector. Many library
organizations and publishers do not share that view and neither did the
language of the Senate bill although a 10% cut in funding was included.
If the House language eventually stands PubScience will likely come down.
National Center for Health Statistics
Mary Burgess, National Center for Health Statistics, indicated that major changes lie ahead for the "Rainbow Series". She also reported that Health United States 2001 and Healthy People 2000, the final review, have also been released and remain in the depository program.
A new Data Warehouse on Trends in Health and Aging is
now available at :
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/agingact.htm
National and state level data trend tables include the following types of information:
FirstGov.gov: Past, Present, Future (what a difference a year makes)
Patricia Wood gave a status report on FirstGov. She reminded the group that the original gift of the search engine by Eric Brewer in June of 2000 is only available for 3 years. After that time the government will have to pay to use the search engine or find a new product.
Quickly brought up in September of 2000, FirstGov is still described as a work in progress with a new emphasis on consulting federal agency webmasters and librarians to help in the redesign. The original plan included a number of access points including: by topic, by organization, and timely features. New emphasis is being placed on the creation of "subject based portals" such as citizens, government, federal employees, business, etc. Currently FirstGov is a portal to 35+ million federal and 16 million state government web pages.
John Kavaliunas, Census, discussed updates on Census releases and products. He reminded the audience that the Summary Files for 2000 replace the Summary Tape Files in 1990. Summary File 1 information is currently being released. While there will be some print products, they will be limited. After all Census releases are completed there will be 3 series of printed reports. These will include a national summary and state level reports. The first will reflect 100% population data. The second will reflect sample data. The third will combine population / housing totals and give tables going back to 1980 for comparison.
Census will begin to release sample data next spring 2002, and will continue into 2003. As in the past, Summary Files 1 and 2 will represent 100% data, while Summary Files 3 & 4 will reflect sample data.
The Redistricting Summary File will give race and ethnic detail at the block level and should be distributed on 3 DVDs.
Kavaliunas shared some technology tidbits for Census 2000: there are 9.2 million segments; 60 billion data cells, and we would need 900 CD-ROMs to capture Census 2000 if we were still using the technology from 1990. Fortunately, SRC's Allocate software on the latest CD-ROMs handles compression very well.
By 2010, Census hopes that the American Community Survey
will replace the long form. This will allow annual sampling in small areas
like the tract and block group.
Maps for Census 2000: Directions We Can Take:
Barbara Levergood, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presented an excellent overview of critical mapping issues related to Census 2000. Although Census continues to create print maps, no paper maps will be provided as depsitory products. If a library decided to buy all track and block print maps for the entire Untied States the total cost would be $533,375.00. Total costs for all redistricting tract and block maps for Virgina would be $10,470.00.
Given those sobering figures how will depository libraries deal with maps provided only in a digital environment? PDF maps can be printed on 8 1/2" x 11" paper, but you can't really see the detailed block numbers. Patrons will have to zoom to a subset for detailed projections. You can search for tract and block numbers, but not street names. At a minimum, libraries will need color ink jet printers that can handle 11" x 17" paper for basic quality maps. Those who want high quality maps may need to consider purchasing a plotter which can reproduce the standard 36" x 33" sheets we all have used in the past. Minimum plotter costs run around $10,000.
Levergood described how to make the most of printing fancy maps from
PDF FILES. Basically you must choose 2 control factors from map size, map
extent or zoom. You will need a color printer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Paint
(installed with Windows) and possibly Microsoft Word. For more information
about printing fancy maps you can visit
http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/govinfo/census/printpdf.html
Janet Justis, Old Dominion University
Oct. 31, 2001 (original date of presentation to staff)
Twenty-three librarians from western Virginia and Tennessee attended the hands-on training opportunity. The attendees were predominently public librarians, but also included an academic, community college, and a hospital librarian. There were twenty computers in the classroom, so almost everyone had his/her own workstation. Participants were knowledgeable about web navigating and computers so there was little need to look over their shoulders to be sure they were keeping up with the information-packed presentations.
Like the previous Government Information Sampler workshops, Mary, Carol and Barbie presented a variety of federal and state internet resources. These included: census, business, marketing, consumer information, Virginia resources, US and Virginia laws, and federal children's web sites. The last was particularly popular with both participants and presenters - afterall it was late on a Friday afternoon - what better to do than play math games on the computer? http://www.aplusmath.com/Games/index.html
The presenters worked from a specially posted web page on the VLA Public Documents Forum home page. See www.vla.org. Click on UNITS, then on Public Documents Forum. For easy access use the direct URL http://www.vla.org/PDF/Programs/Pdfwork1.htm. This link will allow the participants to return to this page as a starting point for further investigation.
Speaking as one of the presenters, we agreed that we would like to hold a workshop in Abingdon during the Virginia Highlands Festival every year. The Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center is a wonderful facility with excellent staff support. The Martha Washington Inn is a great place to stay, even three to a room. Abingdon seems to have an abundance of good restaurants. All in all, the latest in our regional workshop series was a success.
Barbie Selby
UVA Law Library
bselby@virginia.edu
Ms. Everrett discussed what a person can expect when they make a request and what a government body must do to respond to a request. For example, one does not have to invoke the FOIA law to make a request, any request must have an initial response within 5 days, a governmental agency can charge up to the actual cost of producing the records requested, and an agency does not have to create a record if it does not already exist.
Of particular interest to the audience were the provisions for open meetings. Under Virginia's FOIA law, boards and other entities doing the public's business are open to the public, and whenever "two or more are gathered" from a public governing body, it may be considered a meeting, with all the requirements for public notice and openness required by the law. She also reminded those attending that e-mail can be a record and must follow records retention guidelines established by the Library of Virginia and Virginia Public Records Act.
For more information see the FOIA Council's Website at http://dls.state.va.us/foiacouncil.htm and State and Local Government Records Retention Schedules at http://www.lva.lib.va.us/state/records/index.htm
Mary S. Clark, The Library of Virginia
MClark@lva.lib.va.us
I look back happily on my year as chair. Besides our conference program, we also offered another performance of our "road show" called "A Government Documents Sampler." This was our third outing, having given it first in Norfolk in 1999, then in Blacksburg in 2000. This year we did the "show" in Abingdon, where it was very well subscribed. The sampler format seems to work well for our audiences.
My successor, Mary Clark of the Library of Virginia, has "hit the ground running" for her term as chair! She is already planning a program on the census for the spring. Also being considered is another Sampler for the fall. Welcome, Mary! Also welcome, Keith Weimer of the University of Richmond! Keith is chair-elect, and will chair the PDF in 2003. Great to have you joining our hard-working group!
Besides the afore-mentioned programs, it seems the next task for our group will be to participate in the formation of our State Plan. All of us in federal depositories need to be thinking about what elements we want and need in a plan that will guide our program in Virginia for many years to come.
That seems to be about it for my term as chair. It's been fun! Everybody have wonderful Holidays, and I look forward to seeing you in the spring, if not before!
Peggy Burgess
Chair, PDF Forum 2001
Morel Fry, Old Dominion University is the new President Elect/President of the Virginia Library Association. Congratulations Morel.
Joy Suh, George Mason University, revised the library's
government documents homepage. If you haven't already done so please
take a look and let Joy know how much you enjoy the site:
http://library.gmu.edu/resources/govt/index.html
Walter Newsome, University of Virginia, reports that the
Directory of Virginia Depository Libraries is again posted on the Regional's
webpage. Visit the site at:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/govdocs/depos/directory/mstrlist.html
Please remember to let Walter know about changes in your directory
information. Thanks for bringing the site back up Walter!
Alan Zoellner, College of William and Mary, reports that
the transfer of the government documents collection to its new location
in the new building is completed. He also reports that the
2nd floor area in the vacated older section is available for depository
square dances so book your spot now for the holidays (ok, I'm paraphrasing).
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The editor is always happy to receive news from around
the state. Email notices are fine. Share agency personnel changes,
renovation projects, new collections, distinguised speakers, workshops,
and how government documents support your institution and community.