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Federal websites may go dark if shutdown occurs
Declan McCullagh at CNET reports that many federal Web sites will likely go offline if the government shuts down Friday night. "A 16-page memo (PDF) to federal agencies says their Web sites may stay online only in a small number of situations, including tax collection and handling 'exempted' activities such as payments and other functions that are paid for by previous annual budgets." So how will permanent public access be maintained in the event of a shutdown? Will the standard notice include information on how to find your local federal depository library? The public won't even be able to find a list of depository libraries on the FDLP desktop (fdlp.gov) but will have to go to Documents Data Miner hosted by the library at Wichita State University. The Washington Post has a list of govt agency shutdown plan details -- including GPO -- but only states, "If the government were to shut down, a [GPO] skeleton staff is expected to stay on to print copies of the Congressional Record and other White House documents." It's unclear whether or not fdlp.gov, fdsys.gov or other GPO sites will remain online in the event of a shutdown.
"The mere benefit of continued access by the public to information about the agency's activities would not warrant the retention of personnel or the obligation of funds to maintain, or update, the agency's Web site" during a shutdown, says the memo, prepared by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. It adds: "If an agency's Web site is shut down, users should be directed to a standard notice that the Web site is unavailable during the period of government shutdown." The IRS's Web site would likely stay online, the memo says, because tax collection is an exempted activity, "but the entire Treasury Department Web site would not."Continue reading
GSA Turns To GPO’s Partnership With Google To Offer Free Government Publications Online
Press Release from GPO: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 5, 2011 No. 11-17 GSA TURNS TO GPO'S PARTNERSHIP WITH GOOGLE TO OFFER FREE GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS ONLINE WASHINGTON-The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is working with the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and GPO's relationship with the Google Book Partner Program to make popular Government publications available for free electronic download through Google. The program is making available 100 consumer-related Federal Government publications distributed through GSA's Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) on Google Books. The public can view and download PDF copies of these publications on desktops, laptops, and various e-readers. The FCIC plans to add more consumer publications to the program. The public can also order hard copies of the publications on Google Books and through the GPO's Online Bookstore. The FCIC will coordinate delivery through GPO's Public Documents Distribution Center in Pueblo, Colorado. "GPO and GSA have been partners in distributing federal government publications to the American people for 40 years," said GPO's Business Products & Services Managing Director Herb Jackson. "GPO looks forward to expanding that partnership with Google in providing the public with free electronic access to popular consumer publications." ... Continue reading
New Depository Library Councilors named
Congratulations to Stephanie Braunstein, Donna Lauffer, Susan Lyons, Mark Phillips, and Arlene Weible on being named to serve on the Depository Library Council! Here's the GPO press release:
Public Printer Bill Boarman announced his appointments to the Depository Library Council (DLC) by saying, "I am honored to appoint these talented individuals to the Council and look forward to their advice on how to advance the mission of the FDLP. GPO has a strong partnership with the depository library community, which is also the foundation of GPO's mission in disseminating Government documents and information to the public." The five new DLC members (who will serve from June 1, 2011 through June 1, 2014) are: * Stephanie Braunstein, Assistant Librarian at the Troy H. Middleton Library at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, one of Louisiana's two regional libraries. Braunstein's outreach with the library community includes presenting at conferences, partnering with GPO to host an online list of Federal agency web sites, and contributing to Browse Topics, an online subject based portal for government information. She currently serves as Coordinator of the Federal Documents Task Force (FDTF) of the American Library Association (ALA) and is the Louisiana Library Association Councilor to ALA. * Donna Lauffer, County Librarian for the Johnson County Library system's 13 branches in Overland Park, Kansas. Lauffer has a strong track record in delivering government information to the public and in promoting civic engagement. Her leadership in support of government information and relevant programming in her library system led to the Johnson County Library being honored as the 2010 Federal Depository Library of the Year. * Susan Lyons, Reference and Government Documents Librarian at the Rutgers University Law School Library in Newark, New Jersey. Lyons' professional interests include digital preservation, authentication, and permanent public access to government information. She has served as Chair of the Government Documents Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Librarians (AALL), President of the New Jersey Law Librarians Association, and President of the Documents Association of New Jersey. * Mark Phillips, Assistant Dean for Digital Libraries at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Phillips specializes in digital collections, knowledge of infrastructure for digital collections, preservation techniques, and web harvesting. He currently serves on the Access Committee in the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative's, Dublin Core Library Profile Workgroup. * Arlene Weible, Government Documents and Technical Services Librarian at the Oregon State Library in Salem, Oregon. Weible has a broad background in technical services and public services, and experience working in state and academic libraries. She currently serves on the National Digital Stewardship Alliance and the regional coordinator for Oregon's intrastate shared regional, a successful shared housing arrangement that serves the depository libraries in Oregon. The DLC consists of fifteen members appointed by the Public Printer. Its mission is to assist the U.S. Government Printing Office in identifying and evaluating alternatives for improving public access to Government information through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and for optimizing resources available for operating the Program. Members serve three year terms, with five members retiring each year and five new members entering. At least half of the Council's members work in depository libraries and have experience in a Documents department.Continue reading
Happy 150th birthday GPO!
Happy 150th birthday US Government Printing Office! And to celebrate, here's a blast form the past: a 1979 report from the Public Interest Research Group entitled "The Peoples' Printer: A Report on the Government Printing Office" by Shawn kelly. This little known PIRG report was scanned and put online by Carl Malamud who said in a tweet that "it was handed to me in a brown paper wrapper at an event I was speaking at. Remarkable 1979 independent analysis." Thanks Carl for for scanning and tweeting about this!
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) marks a milestone on March 4th when it celebrates 150 years of producing and delivering Government information for all three branches of the Federal Government and the public. GPO opened its doors on March 4, 1861, the same day President Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office. Throughout its history the agency has used constantly changing technologies to meet the needs of the Congress, Federal agencies, and the public. During GPO's early days, employees relied on ink and paper to set the text for The Emancipation Proclamation. Today, as another President from Illinois leads the Nation, GPO employees are using the latest digital technology to document the actions of our Government while carrying out its founding mission of Keeping America Informed. While GPO's past has been about printing, its present and future are being defined by digital information technologies. In fact, GPO today is the product of more than a generation of investment in digital production and dissemination technologies, an investment that has yielded stunning improvements in productivity, capability, and savings for the taxpayers, savings of 66% on the cost of congressional printing alone. Employing just 2,200 staff, fewer than at any time in the past century, GPO now provides a range of products and activities that could only have been dreamed of 30 years ago: online databases of Federal documents with state-of-the-art search and retrieval capabilities available to the public without charge, Government publications available as e-Books, passports and smart cards with electronic chips carrying biometric data, print products on sustainable substrates using vegetable oil based inks, and a public presence not only on the Web but on Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube.Continue reading
GPO’s Metalib federated search engine
Sometimes there's too much happening and things get missed. That's what happened this time as I totally missed the *October 2010* press release from the GPO about their new federated search engine called Metalib AND the Oct 29 post from the Pratt Library Students, our guest bloggers -- though I shouldn't feel so bad; only 45 libraries have cataloged it according to WorldCat. Metalib federates the search of 53 seed resources and counting including such databases as the Catalog of Govt Publications, Agricola articles, EPA publications and newsletters, GAO reports, National Technical Information Service (NTIS), USGS library catalog and much much more. I haven't had a chance to put Metalib through its paces, but if any of our gentle readers have used it, please leave a comment and let us know what you think.
GPO’s MetaLib Released Thursday, 14 October 2010 The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has released MetaLib, a federated search tool that is a service of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. Use MetaLib's federated searching to retrieve reports, articles, and citations by simultaneously searching across multiple databases. The initial release of MetaLib contains fifty-three Federal Government databases. Over time, the collection will grow based on recommendations from the GPO MetaLib team as well as public suggestions. Learn more about MetaLib and how it can be used in Federal depository libraries in Accessing Federal Information Using MetaLib's Federated Search.Continue reading
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