Read this week! GPO discussing digital deposit at Fall 2006 DLC!
On October 17, 2006, the FDLP-L listserv announced the availability of a briefing paper to be used for discussion at the Fall 2006 Depository Library Council meeting. The paper is called Digital Distribution to Federal Depository Libraries (PDF). According to the FDLP posting, this document will be used in a discussion at DLC next Wednesday, October 25, 2006. We at FGI strongly encourage you to read the two page document before then. We would also like to commend Council and GPO for having this discussion and asking what seem to be good questions for a system of digital deposit. The bulk of briefing paper is a listing of general assumptions and questions for discussion in seven different areas. As you might imagine, we have have some thoughts both about the assumptions and the discussion questions. We have begun writing and collecting our thoughts at http://freegovinfo.info/node/680 . We're hoping to start a discussion here, so if you have comments of your own, or wish to challenge our assumptions, facts, biases, etc, please either use the comments form or send an e-mail to admin AT freegovinfo dot info. When discussion appears to have drawn to a close, we will send our commentary plus your comments to GPO. As of this writing, we've finished the section on general assumptions. By Friday we hope to finish our responses to the discussion questions. But don't wait to join us. Go ahead and comment on any of the sections. If you are going to Council, share your thoughts in person as well. Update 10/17 7pm - The Access discussion questions have now been addressed. Feel free to comment on that or any other item. Continue reading
8. Ownership – Discussion Questions
The Government Printing Office (GPO) document, Digital Distribution to Depository Libraries: Exploring the Issues (9/6/2006) asks these questions about Ownership:
7. Ownership a. Do digital publications distributed under the aegis of the FDLP remain the property of the U.S. Government, including back up and other copies maintained on library systems? b. What are the implications of an agency requesting the recall of an FDLP electronic title? c. If an agency does not want older issues to remain available on-line, how should this be handled?
FGI Responses Q: a. Do digital publications distributed under the aegis of the FDLP remain the property of the U.S. Government, including back up and other copies maintained on library systems? 44 USC 1909 makes it clear that depository libraries are custodians of material received through the depository program. This would be just as true of digital files as it would be for print or microform materials. Any publications acquired through the FDLP and any library-controlled backup copies remain Federal property. Q: b. What are the implications of an agency requesting the recall of an FDLP electronic title? We believe that the implications of an agency requesting the recall of an FDLP electronic title are identical to that of requesting recall of a tangible title due to the ease of digitizing tangible titles. While an agency can withdraw a tangible title from FDLP collections, all it takes is one member of the public with a digital camera or copier-scanner to make a digital copy for the world to see. The main implication of withdrawals in an electronic environment is that in an environment of digital distribution, an agency would have to go through a public process, which seems appropriate for material that has already been released to the public domain. In a "link to federal servers system", documents could be quietly removed for any reason at all regardless of formal policy. And the individuals and groups who care about such materials might well have made digital copies anyway (i.e. Federation of American Scientists) Q: c. If an agency does not want older issues to remain available on-line, how should this be handled? They should go through the process outlined in ID 72: Withdrawal of Federal Information Products from GPO’s Information Dissemination (ID) Programs. Agencies can't simply dictate which tangible versions/issues of a given title stay on depository shelves and they should not gain such a privilege in electronic materials. They do have a right to expect that libraries will indicate superseded materials as such in their catalogs. Continue reading
7. Version Issues / Synchronization – Discussion Questions
The Government Printing Office (GPO) document, Digital Distribution to Depository Libraries: Exploring the Issues (9/6/2006) asks these questions about version issues/synchronization:
6. Version issues/synchronization a. If a library no longer selects similar publications, will it need to manage its collection to ensure that it is not providing access to a superseded version? i. If yes, how could this be accomplished?
FGI Responses Q: a. If a library no longer selects similar publications, will it need to manage its collection to ensure that it is not providing access to a superseded version? Our answer is maybe. Some superseded publications have historical value and so deserve continued accessibility. But depository libraries do have a responsibility to ensure that superseded content is clearly marked. We suspect this would be done through the bibliographic record. Q: i. If yes, how could this be accomplished? When a publication is no longer selected, all library catalog records with the same item number (if still used) should be marked as "possibly superseded, please check FDSys for most current version." Most Integrated Library Systems (ILS) have global search and update functions, so this should not be burdensome to depositories. The library would also have the option of removing both the catalog records and the digital publications subject to established retention guidelines. Continue reading
6. Selectivity – Discussion Questions
The Government Printing Office (GPO) document, Digital Distribution to Depository Libraries: Exploring the Issues (9/6/2006) asks these questions about Selectivity:
5. Selectivity a. When can a selective library / regional select only the digital version of a publication? b. Are there exceptions?
FGI Responses Q: a. When can a selective library / regional select only the digital version of a publication? A library may select only the digital version of a publication provided they have a backup and/or preservation plan for their digital publications subject to the exception below. Added 5pm 10/18/2006 - We'd like to be clear that we feel that selecting a digital item to be downloaded to a library's servers should not preclude that library from selecting a tangible format as well. We can envision times when a library would want both tangible and digital: one for easy access and searching, one for presentation/preservation and a different kind of access! Q: b. Are there exceptions? When the tangible format is a legally controlling version, then the tangible version must be selected. Continue reading
5. Metadata – Discussion Questions
The Government Printing Office (GPO) document, Digital Distribution to Depository Libraries: Exploring the Issues (9/6/2006) asks these questions about metadata:
4. Metadata a. Should GPO distribute bibliographic and other metadata as well as the digital publication? b. What other metadata should be routinely distributed?
FGI Responses Q: a. Should GPO distribute bibliographic and other metadata as well as the digital publication? Yes. But the issue is more complex than this question implies. We need to be thinking of "metadata" in new ways. It might be best to think of this question as two separate issues: First, should bibliographic and other metadata records be freely available? Secondly, should they be distributed (as opposed to being freely available) to FDLP libraries? We would answer "yes" to both those questions. We believe that a wide variety of rich metadata should be made available to the public without charge. The specific implementation of such a policy would require study, but we can imagine one specific instance that serves as an example: GPO could expose OAI records for harvesting using OAI-PMH. This would allow libraries, archives, digital repositories, citizens groups, and even individuals, to create indexes, guides, portals, bibliographies and even collections of government information, freely and relatively easily. We also believe that there need to be mechanisms for digital "deposit" of metadata with FDLP libraries. Such mechanisms will need to be developed, but they should include the ability of FDLP libraries to select what they want and receive what they select easily. This would enable FDLP libraries to easily and even automatically build their own indexes, guides, portals, bibliographies, and collections through the use of their OPACS and other tools. It would also facilitate FDLP libraries in their management of their own collections -- including government and non-government information -- in a common environment and with minimal special procedures for government information. Q: b. What other metadata should be routinely distributed? There are many different types of metadata: preservation, administrative, descriptive, technical, use, and others. (See for example, Gilliland-Swetland, Anne J. “Setting the Stage: Defining Metadata†in Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information , Murtha Baca, ed. Los Angeles: Getty Information Institute, 2000, second edition. 12 pp. -- Third edition forthcoming, Summer 2006.) In addition, metadata can include Semantic Web, Thesaurus, and RDF-like information. Metadata can be highly structured and controlled, or user-contributed. A rich depository system needs methods of exposing, distributing, and sharing such metadata easily. One of the most valuable pieces of this puzzle will be the high-value, authoritative, metadata constructed by and for GPO for use in describing and managing government information for the long-term as mandated by Title 44 and as administered through FDsys. There should be a very high priority for distributing such metadata to FDLP libraries. Continue reading