Sears’ response to ARL statement points out inaccuracies #fdlp
We've been following with much interest and concern the ongoing and unfolding saga going on between the GPO, Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and Association of Southeast Research Libraries (ASERL) (under the heading "future of the federal depository library program"). This post to Govdoc-l from Suzanne Sears (AUL for public services at University of North Texas and former chair of Depository Library Council) on October 20, 2011 is in response to the ARL Statement on Recent USGPO Decisions Concerning the FDLP dated October 2011 (released October 12, 2011) and attempts to add context and correct some inaccuracies in the ARL statement.
From: Sears, Suzanne Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 2:00 AM To: Discussion of Government Document Issues Subject: RE: ARL Statement on Recent USGPO Decisions Concerning the FDLP I have been reading over and over the statement released by ARL that Larry so kindly posted for everyone on GOVDOCL and feel strongly that there are inaccuracies in some of the statements that need to be addressed. The following is solely my opinion and not meant in any way to offend anybody, just my concern that some things are not quite right and need to be cleared up. Point 1 refers to long standing precedent for the approval of multi-state regionals. In the meeting this week, Bernadine Abbott Hoduski spoke on this issue. Prior to 2008, there was no legal opinion on the multi-state regionals. In September 2007, then Acting Public Printer William Turri sent a letter to the JCP seeking approval of the Kansas-Nebraska proposal http://www.fdlp.gov/home/repository/doc_download/49-letter-from-acting-public-printer-william-turri-to-the-honorable-robert-brady. The response letter from the Honorable Robert Brady to Public Printer Robert Tapella in February 2008 http://www.fdlp.gov/home/repository/doc_download/50-letter-from-the-honorable-robert-brady, states that the JCP sought legal guidance on this issue from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). It further states "CRS concluded that neither the language nor legislative history of 44 U.S.C. 1914 supports GPO’s interpretation of the statute. After careful review, the Joint Committee finds the CRS analysis persuasive; if the Public Printer may not authorize shared regional depository libraries under 44 U.S.C.1914, the JCP cannot approve such action." Now that a legal opinion exists, GPO cannot simply ignore it. In point 2, there is a quote from Title 44 regarding the authority of Senators to designate regional libraries. Part of that quote is "within the areas served by them." I am no lawyer, but I do know that Senators serve states, so the areas served by them would be the state that elected them. To me this means that Senators are not authorized to choose a library from outside their state to serve as a regional for their state. This is my opinion. In point 3, the discussion of regionals and retrospective collections are brought up. The opening third paragraph makes it sound as though the requirement regarding comprehensive collections was decided within the last nine months. This is inaccurate. I served on the Depository Library Council from October 2008-July 2011. In a presentation given by Cindy Etkin at the Fall 2009 DLC meeting, she stated the following "regionals are required to retain what’s distributed to them and there is not an obligation to go back and collect materials prior to when they became a regional? As I’ve shown, it’s been in the guidelines and brought forward; and even as it is today, the regional itself does not have to hold the materials." She also discussed how the Depository Library Council developed guidelines around 1973 that recommended regionals collect retrospectively. After the meeting, the DLC asked Ric Davis to investigate this issue was it required or just a guideline. We were told during a phone conference call that the Legal Counsel's opinion was that it was a requirement. This was in 2009, not 2011. I have to admit that point 4 totally confuses me. I do not understand where the legal opinion that multi-state regionals are not supported in the language of Title 44 precludes collaboration across state lines. GPO encourages collaboration among depositories. The Digitization Projects Registry is just one of the many tools GPO has developed to help foster collaboration between depositories, both selectives and regionals. Although the FDLP community may not be used by everyone, it is an attempt by GPO to bring depositories together to collaborate on topics. Point 5 refers to "new unfunded mandates and requirements, especially without consultation." I am extremely confused with this point. I have had discussions with several individuals at the DLC meeting this week and the only thing I can figure out that point 5 is referring to is the new document that GPO released in June 2011 "Legal Requirements and Program Regulations of the Federal Depository Library Program." This document was released by GPO after consultation with the Depository Library Council. The DLC had been requesting GPO clarify the legal requirements since the Spring 2009 DLC meeting in Tampa. We had heard from the community that the FDL Handbook was too cumbersome to go through to pull out the regulations and that a more compact publication containing only the legal requirements was needed to discuss with our directors and deans. GPO created this document with feedback from the DLC and published it in June 2011. To be clear, these are long standing legal requirements and regulations that have been compiled into a new publication. My issue with point 7 can be considered more an opinion rather than fact, based on my three years on DLC and my 27 years working with depository collections. I feel that GPO spends considerable time and effort on ways to engage and facilitate partnerships with the community for expanding the digital content. They are restricted in what they can do because of budget and law. They operate within strict legal parameters. For instance, the community has requested that GPO offer grants for digitization. GPO has no legal authority to do so, therefore they can not help in this way. The Digitization Projects Registry is improving due to constant consultation between the community and GPO. It is a tool for libraries to use to collaborate on digital efforts and to avoid duplication of effort. I do understand the issues facing depositories, both selectives and regionals, regarding their individual institutions needs and the demands on budgets, staffing, and space of a depository collection. Like everyone in the depository community, I am desperate to find a successful solution to these problems to ensure the viability of the program. I am hopeful that the day long discussion Thursday will result in some positive solutions within the framework of Title 44. I want to echo my colleague Dan Cornwall's statement in his blog "Back from the Brink" http://freegovinfo.info/blog/17, developing a model for the future of the FDLP is going to require cooperation from libraries in the program and GPO. Now is the time we need to pull together and find a common ground for a workable solution. We need to work together to clear up misinformation, rumors, and innuendos that are causing several members of our community to feel personally attacked. As a community, we have disagreed many times over the years on what is the best solution to many problems, but we have never brought it to the point that it is now. I am extremely concerned that the contentious situation we find ourselves in is going to create an atmosphere among Legislators that the program is not worth spending tax payer dollars on and considerably effect the appropriations for vital services like FDSys and the FDLP. Suzanne Suzanne Sears Assistant Dean for Public Services University of North Texas Libraries 1155 Union Circle #305190 Denton, Texas 76203-5017Continue reading
State Agency Databases Activity Report 10/30/2011
It has been a productive week at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. ORPHAN NEWS Our last official orphan remains Rhode Island. Will you be the one to take the last "unadopted orphan?" If you're interested in adopting Rhode Island, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt it. If you adopt Rhode Island, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. SUBJECT PAGE ACTIVITY Health Practitioner Databases (Lynn McClelland) By adding resources for AZ, CO, CT, GA and MI, Lynn now has 18 states plus the District of Columbia represented on this page. OTHER WIKI ACTIVITY See our last 7 days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED MICHIGAN (Michael McDonnell) Business Entity Search - A service that provides information on business corporations, limited liability companies, and limited partnerships authorized to transact business in the State of Michigan. you can search the database by name, keyword or ID number. NEW MEXICO (Adrienne Walker) Official Transparency and Accountability Portal - The Sunshine Portal is the official transparency and accountability portal for New Mexico state government. This is your window into government spending, budgets, revenues, employees, contracts and more. Continue reading
State Agency Databases Activity Report 10/23/2011
It's been a few weeks since the last report for the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases, but our volunteers have stayed busy. VOLUNTEER AND ORPHAN NEWS Ann Ellis, Metadata Librarian with Stephen F. Austin State University Library, answered the call of Texas and has begun adding databases. Our last official orphan remains Rhode Island. Will you be the one to take the last "unadopted orphan?" If you're interested in adopting Rhode Island, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt it. If you adopt Rhode Island, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. WIKI ACTIVITY See our last 14 days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs14d for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED CALIFORNIA (Joel Rane) Recommended Literature for Math and Science - A database of outstanding science and mathematics-related literature for children and adolescents. The recommended titles reflect the quality and the complexity of the types of materials students should be reading at school and outside of class. Searches can be performed by author, title, keyword, grade level span, language, science or mathematics subject area, etc. Extensive explanations of the search indexes are available. Joel has been extremely busy the past few weeks adding and reorganizing California resources. If you haven't checked out the page since mid-September, you should. NEW MEXICO (Adrienne Walker) Physician Profile Search - The New Mexico Medical Board provides and maintains physician data as part of this official website, and is the primary source for physician and physician assistant profiles and other related information and data. Information on the website is normally updated weekly, and the date of the most recent update is always provided on the search page. NORTH DAKOTA (Kathryn Thomas) North Dakota Courts Records Inquiry - Search criminal, traffic, civil, family, and probate case records; judgments; and court calendar. This is one of a number of court system databases that Kathryn has added. OHIO (Audrey Hall) Treasurer's Transparency Project Search for state public employee and teacher salaries. - Links to The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions for local, higher education and federal salaries. TEXAS (ANN ELLIS) Texas Plant Information Database - Database includes information about native and naturalized plants used for landscape restoration. It lists species that when planted appropriately provide landscapes that are similar to those that naturally grow in Texas. Continue reading
Back from the brink! Recent discussions and the future of the #FDLP
We are concerned that in some recent informal comments on twitter and some more formal discussions of the MN/MI regional proposal and ASERL project, the tone has taken on a decidedly confrontational, even hostile tone with implications that GPO is being obstructionist. We are concerned that a few libraries may be in a rush to set the agenda for the FDLP in a way that best suits their interests. We are writing in hopes of calming the discussion so that, at the upcoming Depository Library meeting, we can have constructive discussions and avoid rushing into important decisions and the setting of agendas. The stakes are too high to oversimplify the issues facing GPO, the FDLP, the Regional Depositories, and the Selective Depositories with one-word epithets, emotionally loaded characterizations, and name-calling. It is essential that the conversations at DLC not be dominated by a few well-organized, vocal Regionals. 1. At the DLC meeting this month, when the future of the FDLP is discussed and the specific proposals by MN/MI and ASERL are sure to be raised, it is very important that we differentiate the issues that Regional Depositories face (with their special legal requirements, comprehensive collections, and support of selective depositories) from the issues that selectives face. The issues overlap but it would be unwise to let the agendas of the Regionals (or, worse, just some of the Regionals) set the agenda for all of the FDLP. Regionals face unique problems, and solving their problems will not necessarily "save" the FDLP any more than a failure to solve their problems will "kill" the FDLP. Even the defunding and privatization of GPO will not "kill" the FDLP: it will just make it that much more difficult to build and maintain FDLP collections and services. It is particularly important that we examine the context of the proposals currently on the table. As Ithaka S+R has assiduously described in its recent reports, many library directors and administrations are actively seeking ways to weed their paper-and-ink collections, and some want to decrease their commitment to the FDLP because they no longer believe that there is an institutional value to depository status. Regardless of the efficacy of such policies, FDLP librarians should recognize that those policies, even if justifiable for an institution, have little if anything to do with a commitment to long-term, free, public access to government information. At best, designing policies based first on local needs will only yield value for the FDLP as a by-product; at worst, it will diminish the FDLP's value to users. Ithaka S+R's report already made the case for just such an approach and GPO has (wisely, we believe) rejected it. GPO and the FDLP collectively need to maintain the long-term preservation of and access to government information as a first priority and need to keep the needs of information users, not individual institutions, as our collective highest priority when modeling the future of the FDLP. Policies based on such an approach will yield value to users as a direct result of their implementation, not as a by-product. In our deliberations on the future of the FDLP, we need to clearly state our justifications for new policies and procedures and separate those that are demonstrably good for the FDLP and government information users from those that are tied to local needs -- such as budgetary constraints and the desire to weed paper-and-ink collections. Obviously, each library has to take its own needs into account, but, just as obviously, we should avoid making system-wide decisions based on the needs of a few libraries. 2. Developing a model for the future of the FDLP is going to require give-and-take and cooperation. Name calling and hostility will not serve the needs of anyone or result in positive solutions. Libraries must work with GPO -- and vice versa. Libraries need to accept that GPO operates under legal constraints. When GPO asks legitimate legal questions, it is not attacking or resisting change; it is fulfilling its legal obligations. Characterizing GPO's responses as "protecting the status quo" are neither helpful in this difficult transition time, nor accurate. That said, we also urge GPO to be as flexible as it legally can be and also as creative as it can be in order to come up with innovative solutions that strengthen information preservation, public access and the ongoing management of regionals and selectives. We believe GPO should push its policies and procedures to the limit of the law, not look for the most conservative possible interpretation of the law. We remember all too vividly how the introduction of microforms into the FDLP took almost 7 years, but it was done with leadership from GPO. Just as GPO must work within a legal framework, so individual libraries must work within their own constraints. We urge FDLP libraries to be as flexible as possible and come up with plans that reflect the needs of a broad community of users and that will guarantee long-term preservation and access of government information in all formats. The digital-shift provides libraries new opportunities to do more than they ever have before. While it may seem easy to come up with procedures that reduce collections, minimize numbers of copies, increase costs to users and Selective Depositories, and reduce services to users, such "solutions" are, we believe, short-sighted and inadequate to the task at hand. It will be harder but, we would argue, much better to develop innovative solutions that will expand what libraries do to meet needs of users. Libraries are not as constrained as GPO is by Title 44: we can do more than GPO/FDsys can do by building collections that are beyond the scope of Title 44. Digital makes this possible and provides new opportunities; it should not be used as an excuse to trim services and collections. We at FGI yield to no one in our desire for a fully functional digital FDLP. We have been advocating that for seven years and are just as anxious -- if not more so -- as anyone to move forward to the next phase of the FDLP. Over the years, we have criticized GPO and its policies -- and will continue to do so when we believe such criticism is warranted. But our intention has always been to challenge GPO to do more and to do better, and to work with FDLP libraries, not work against them or arrogate responsibilities from them. Just as we want GPO to work with FDLP libraries, we want FDLP libraries to work with, not in opposition to, GPO. We at FGI believe that the future of the FDLP will be most secure if GPO and FDLP libraries work together to a common end. We urge all participants in these conversations to deal with each other collegially and cordially and seek common solutions that will benefit all -- not just a few libraries. We urge all parties to refrain from over-simpification of complex issues. We urge thoughtfulness and cooperation toward what should be our common goals of high-quality long-term preservation of and access to government information, driven first and foremost by the needs of users. Endnotes
- Tweets:
- ASERL documents:
- Letters regarding the MI/MN shared regional plan:
- GPO letter to Nancy Robertson 15 September 2011 (PDF)
- response to GPO from Ms Robertson (PDF)
- Response to GPO from Ms Wendy Lougee, University Librarian at University of MN
- "Recent Developments on FDLP" from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) including links to several letters to/from GPO and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Between University of Minnesota Libraries and Library of Michigan/Michigan Department of Education
- Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP
- FGI response to Ithaka draft values proposition for the FDLP
- "The GPO Microform Program its history and status" by LeRoy C. Schwarzkopf, DttP (June 1978) v6, n4, p163-166.
State Agency Databases Activity Report: October 3, 2011
This has been a relatively busy week at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. Lynn McClelland continues to expand the healthcare practioner databases page at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Healthcare_practitioners_databases. It now features practioner related databases from 14 states and will be under heavy construction for the next month or so. ORPHAN NEWS Our last official orphan remains Rhode Island. If you're interested in adopting Rhode Island, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt it. If you adopt Rhode Island, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. WIKI ACTIVITY See our last seven days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED NORTH DAKOTA (Kathryn Thomas) Cass County, N.D. Divorce and Civil Cases Index - This database indexes over 3,300 civil and divorce case files, spanning from the 1870s to 1942, handled in Cass County District Court. Individual entries include names of the plaintiff and defendant, attorneys, dates of proceedings, and miscellaneous notes. Kathryn recently completed a major expansion of the North Dakota page. If you haven't visited in the past week, you ought to now. SOUTH DAKOTA (Brenda Hemmelman) Professional Licensing Boards - links may or may not include searchable databases or lists of active/inactive licensees. WASHINGTON (Marilyn Von Seggern) Health Systems Quality Assurance Online Search - A credential search system for health care provider, health facility, hotels/motels, and migrant farmworker housing. The search is by credential number or name. Continue reading
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