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GPO Position on FDLP Distribution — Judith Russell
Through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), and in partnership with more than 1,250 libraries nationwide, the U.S. Government Printing office has an abiding commitment to providing public access to the most comprehensive body of official Federal Government information possible. Since 1996, GPO has been transitioning the FDLP to a predominately electronic basis in full cooperation and consultation with the library community. This initiative has resulted in an exponential expansion of effective public access to Government information without substantial increases in funding, and today more than 1 million documents a day are retrieved from GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov
GPO will continue to expand electronic information offerings through the FDLP and will continue to provide for dissemination of tangible products to depository libraries in accordance with existing policy, in full consultation with the library community. GPO will ensure that the necessary resources are applied to these tasks for FY 2005 and 2006 without requiring additional resources beyond those that have been approved and requested. All ongoing work on improvements to GPO's electronic information dissemination systems-including those projects associated with the authentication, preservation, and establishment of standards for electronic information products-will continue. GPO's Superintendent of Documents will actively seek the guidance and input of the library community in planning for and implementing changes in the dissemination of Government information products in either electronic or tangible formats.
Continue readingGPO “clarifies” its position
Printing Office to Keep on Printing. by Paul Singer, National Journal, 02-26-2005, page 606. [subscription required]
When GPO Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell suggested that the Government Printing Office was going to stop distributing all but 50 titles to Federal Depository Library Program libraries, she "set off a firestorm." This National Journal article says that, "GPO officials would neither discuss this story nor provide a copy of Russell's remarks" but that "Russell issued a statement Wednesday to 'clarify' her January remarks."
Russell posted a message to the govdoc-l mailing list on 3/1/2005 with more information. Unfortunately, while speaking of the importance of "electronic documents" this message still only mentions "dissemination of tangible products" to depository libraries. The message also says that GPO will "expand electronic information offerings through the FDLP" -- apparently confusing GPO (which has electronic information content) with FDLP libraries (into which GPO will not deposit electronic documents).
Continue readingA plea to make public records retention digital
Real-Time Sunshine Government Technology, March 2005 By Paul W. Taylor.
Open records laws -- driven by citizen initiatives at the ballot box three decades ago as government accountability measures -- were intended to prevent the last scandal from happening again, tens of thousands of exemptions notwithstanding. Erring on the side of caution, paper, microfilm, microfiche and digital records on various media are put in archival boxes, never to be seen again....
The public record is effectively lost to obscurity at a time when real advances are being made to broaden the circulation of literature and library holdings by bringing the world of wood pulp to the World Wide Web....
There is still time and considerable urgency to make the unique, authoritative public record held by government a primary source online. Citizens expect it, the historic values of transparency demand it, and government will be conspicuous in its absence if it fails to make it so....
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Republican Policy Committee Attempts to Bolster Data Quality Act
Republican Policy Committee Attempts to Bolster Data Quality Act, OMB Watch, 02/07/2005.
This article analyzes a new "background document" from the Senate Republican Policy Committee on the Data Quality Act. OMBWatch says that document "praises the law’s benefits and attempts to bolster its legitimacy" but makes factual errors and inadvertantly supports criticism of the Act. The article gives an example of use of how the Act has been used in attempts to suppress scientific information.
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More on GPO’s “public-private partnership RFI”
April 16, 2005 / 2 Comments on More on GPO’s “public-private partnership RFI”
The questions I have about the current RFI relate less to how GPO and FDLP and the bookstores and sales program worked and interacted in the past and more to how new partnerships and plans might affect free, fully-functional, permanent access to government information in the future. I am concerned that GPO's business strategies and its new "Strategic Vision" will affect free public access to digital publications as well as to paper-and-ink documents. In terms of paper-and-ink documents, it is possible that a robust, successful paper-and-ink sales program would benefit FDLP by getting more publications into the FDLP distribution stream. On the other hand, it is possible that successful sales will lead to the removal from FDLP of publications that can earn a profit as they migrate into the private sector. And, as Scott Matheson pointed out here recently, it is also possible that less profitable documents would not be ordered for the sales program, and if not very popular, not ordered for depository distribution. Continue reading →
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