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Recommendations from the DLC to GPO – including Digital Deposit!

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Happy holidays from FGI! Seeing as many are not at work or checking their email, you might have missed that Depository Library Council recently released their recommendations to GPO. Under the tree this year is a recommendation to create a digital deposit working group! We’ve been talking for over a decade about the need for digital deposit – whereby GPO would actually deposit digital files to libraries just as they do currently with paper documents. Digital deposit will ensure the preservation and access of digital government information disseminated by GPO and allow libraries to continue to build collections for their designated communities. This is a huge step forward!

Recommendation #3: Council recommends the creation of a working group to explore current and future needs related to digital deposit – both dissemination of content and acceptance of content by GPO. At a minimum, two appropriate members of GPO staff, two members of DLC, and two members of the FDLP community should be appointed to serve on the Digital Deposit Working Group for one year. Composition of the working group should be chosen by DLC in consultation with GPO staff. The Working Group should report findings and recommendations – either initial or final – at the Fall 2019 FDLP annual meeting.

Justification: Council believes that such a Digital Deposit Working Group is a critically important and inclusive step in reaching consensus on how federal information in digital forms should be disseminated to and amongst the FDLP community for the benefit of all our users.

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2 Comments

  1. And here is the GPO response to recommendation 3:

    GPO Response:

    The Superintendent of Documents agrees with Council that a working group to explore digital deposit is important and supports the establishment of such a working group. In response to this recommendation, LSCM submitted names of two key GPO staff members to serve on this cross-organizational working group, and in January 2019, the DLC approved the names of GPO staff to serve for one year. They are:

    • Library Services and Content Management’s Digital Preservation Librarian
    • Programs, Strategy, and Technology’s govinfo Program Manager

    As was shared in draft at the Fall 2018 Federal Depository Library Conference, Developing
    a Multi-State Comprehensive Collection | FDLP Preservation Services Pilot Strategies was
    released in its final version in December 2018. A project was proposed in order to “define a
    pilot project, including identification of needs and resources, in order to implement effective
    solutions for depositing digital content within the FDLP with respect to needs for content
    integrity, preservability, collection development, usability, and user community priorities.” As
    part of this effort, LSCM proposed the identification of a methodology for the collection of
    qualitative information from Federal depository libraries regarding the needs and expectations of “Digital Deposit” as a service of GPO. This methodology could take the form of focus group studies within the FDLP.

    LSCM’s plan melds nicely with the working group charge as described in the recommendation. LSCM supports the cross-collaborative effort between all members of this group in establishing common definitions and terms surrounding the topic of “digital deposit.” This working group may determine the priorities of digital deposit as a solution and or a service for the FDLP. The consensus of this group will inform GPO’s pilot project strategies and goals.

    Because the Superintendent of Documents believes that the charge of this working group is a complex assignment, we recommend that Council reconsider the timeframe or continue the terms of the working group members until the work comes to fruition, which could be longer than the one year timeframe. GPO looks forward to working with Council and the community on this important effort.

    Reply

  2. I am delighted to finally see a work group on digital deposit move forward. I agree with the SuDocs that there are complex questions which need to be resolved yet they should not slow down the work group. Instead let the work group’s deliberations move toward solving these complexities with the aim of content integrity, preservation, collection development & management, usability, and community priorities.

    I hope this work group is comprised of individuals from across the country and is as diverse as the FDLP itself.

    Reply

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