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Government of Canada Publications – it’s about access, not format
[Editor’s note: my Canadian colleague Amanda Wakaruk, government information librarian at the University of Alberta asked me to post the following. Please direct questions and/or interest in partnership to her at amanda.wakaruk AT ualberta DOT ca. JRJ]
On Friday the Depository Services Program of Canada (DSP) announced that, by 2014, it would, “no longer be producing, printing, or warehousing hard copies of publications.” (The announcement was distributed on INFODEP, a list for depository libraries, and appended to this post). The Library of Parliament will stop distributing paper publications with the end of September’s session. Library and Archives Canada will stop obtaining Government of Canada (GOC) publications in print format by 2014. Many GOC agencies have moved exclusively to born digital publishing.
For those of us on the privileged side of the digital divide, the main problem with the transition to digital is not format, it’s the absence of any comprehensive GOC policy on digital integrity, preservation, and long-term access. To make matters worse, the intellectual organization and capital of the GOC information landscape is increasingly fractured through policy decisions including, but not limited to, government cutbacks.
For example, Statistics Canada moved away from the DSP’s e-archive to mount their own. Implementation of the Common Look and Feel for the Internet website standard removed countless publications in pdf and also access to several databases (including library catalogues) from GOC web sites – it’s unlikely that many of these were captured by the DSP or other e-archive services.
Federal departmental libraries have been in quiet decline for years. CISTI was decimated (70% budget cut), multiple libraries closed (most recently HRSDC), staff reductions have touched practically every agency, and I’ve been told that librarians are being replaced with less-expensive and precariously employed support staff. As an academic librarian, I’ve lost a good portion of an important referral network of experienced, knowledgeable colleagues. And, because of this, my clients – who are important assessors of our governing bodies – are underserved.
Transitions like this one require an influx of professional knowledge and action. At the moment, this means starting a discussion to establish a Canadian federal government LOCKSS PLN similar to the USDOCS LOCKSS PLN partnership between the US GPO and academic institutions.
Let me know if you are interested in partnering on this project. Better yet, attend the CLA Government Information Network meeting in Ottawa (May 31) – it will be on the agenda.
Amanda Wakaruk, MLIS, MES
Government Information Librarian
Liaison Librarian, British History
Humanities and Social Sciences Library
University of Alberta
amanda.wakaruk@ualberta.ca
From: infodep@lists.canada.gc.ca On Behalf Of Publications
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:33 PM
Subject: infodep DSP Important Notice/PSD Avis importantNotification of Deficit Reduction Action Plan Implications for PWGSC’s Depository Services Program
Dear Sir or Madam,
Further to the 2012 Budget, tabled on March 29, 2012, this is to advise you of a decision that affects the business relationship between Public Works and Government Services Canada Publishing and Depository Services Program, and your organization.
As part of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan, the decision has been made to completely transition all publications published by the Publishing Program
and publications provided by departments to the Depository Services Program from traditional print to exclusively electronic publications. This aligns with the Government of Canada’s greening government initiatives. This also aligns directly with Canadians’ increasing access to electronic information and use of e-publications. Recent statistics from publications.gc.ca show a significant increase in the number of unique visitors to the site which was close to 2.2 Million and the number of downloads close to 10 Million annually. The resulting demand for paper publications has greatly declined. This decline is expected to continue as the trend towards the use of the Internet to access publications increases. By fully transitioning to free web-based
publications we will eliminate the costs associated with producing, printing, distributing and warehousing hard copies.In 2014, Publishing and Depository Services will no longer be producing, printing, or warehousing hard copies of publications. However the Depository Services Program will continue to provide access to Government of Canada publications through publications.gc.ca. Other services under the Publishing and Depository Services Program remain as they are.
Please be assured of our utmost co-operation in limiting the impact of this decision on your operations and in continuing to offer a high-quality service.
Thank you for your understanding and continued co-operation.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to communicate with us at: publications@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.
LOCKSS-USDOCS at Best Practices Exchange
I just got back from Best Practices Exchange 2010 (check out the growing list of available presentations and the twitter back channel!). It was a really solid conference — a healthy mix of archivists, documents and other librarians, and technologists having project-oriented presentations with a healthy dose of discussion. The cherry on top was the engaging keynote by the David Ferriero, the Archivist of the US (AOTUS) (here’s a good summary of AOTUS’ talk).
I was on a panel with Arlene Weible from OR State Library (Arlene gave a great talk on RAT, OSL’s tool for collecting state documents — I hope she posts her slides soon!) and presented about LOCKSS-USDOCS, the distributed documents preservation project. Take a look at the slides. We’re looking for other participant libraries so email me if your library is interested (jrjacobs AT stanford DOT edu).
Call for a historiography of government documents
James Bridle, a book publisher from London, gave a talk on the “Value of Ruins” (listen below) at the 2010 dConstruct Conference. He talks about [w:Geocities], the wayback machine, [w:Library of Alexandria], the Yo La Long Dia, the tragedy of the loss of history and the importance of historiography.
Bridle’s bit about the historiography of wikipedia got me thinking that the FDLP, over the last almost 200 years, has been creating, preserving and giving access to a historiography of the US government. It’s no hyperbole that this historiography is really important. As we’ve said many times, the change of format from paper to digital does not mean that libraries no longer need to participate in the historiography of the FDLP. Rather it’s even more critical. Won’t you join the 20 libraries (and growing!) of the LOCKSS-USDOCS project in continuing to participate in this critical FDLP historiography, this massively important Government document changelog?
GPO joins LOCKSS: digital deposit a reality
According to yesterday’s press release, GPO has joined the LOCKSS alliance! The Stanford News Service also wrote a story about this historic event, complete with a goofy picture of yours truly 🙂
But what the GPO press release didn’t explain is that, as part of GPO’s participation in the LOCKSS Alliance, GPO will assist the LOCKSS-USDOCS project (which I’m organizing) in preserving content harvested from fdsys.gov in a geographically distributed network of digital archives. GPO has put LOCKSS permission statements (for example here, and here and here) throughout the FDsys.gov site in order for LOCKSS-USDOCS to harvest GPO content. LOCKSS-USDOCS — which is 18 libraries strong (including 4 regionals!) and growing — replicates key aspects of the FDLP in the digital environment and furthers the concept of “digital deposit,” an essential component of the digital FDLP.
We’re actively looking for other libraries to participate in the project, especially regionals. Together we can provide an essential digital preservation piece to the FDLP. Please contact me (jrjacobs AT stanford DOT edu) with questions or interest.
–That is all.
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