GPO essential titles survey
Survey to Identify Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper or Other Tangible Format The Government Printing Office (GPO) seems to be hearing librarians' footsteps. In an effort to seem responsive to the FDLP community, GPO recently released a survey to "identify items that should be added to the "list of Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper Format." GPO requests that the survey be completed by March 18 so that they may compile the data and bring the results to the Depository Library Council (DLC) meeting in April. We'd love to hear your comments on the survey. Please post a comment here (they can be anonymous). We will bring these comments to DLC to share with the entire community. Continue reading
Printing office to keep on printing
National Journal (subscription required) 02-26-2005 Executive Brief "Printing Office to Keep on Printing" Good news for insomniacs: The Government Printing Office appears to have backed down from a plan to stop printing bound copies of congressional hearings and other "nonessential" government publications. GPO Superintendent of Documents Judy Russell set off a firestorm in January with comments she made at the American Library Association winter meeting, where she suggested that the GPO was planning to decrease the number of documents it routinely makes available to libraries in paper format, as part of its transition to the digital age. The change wouldn't affect an "essential titles" list of about 50 critical documents -- budget books, Congressional Records, and the like -- that would still be sent to hundreds of libraries across the country that are part of the Federal Depository Library Program. But for congressional hearings, maps, geological information, and other items, libraries would have to make a special request to have a print copy made, would have to "pay" for the printing -- with vouchers provided by the GPO up to a limit -- and would get a paper version of sufficiently low quality that it would be readable for only 20 years, according to several people who heard the presentation. Continue reading
Congress hears about over- and pseudo-classification
Christopher Shays (R-CT), Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, convened an oversight hearing on March 2, 2005 to examine the proliferation of categories of information that are not classified but are withheld from public disclosure. Rep Henry Waxman wrote a letter in support of Shay's hearing. Waxman's letter cites more than a few occasions that govt information has been improperly classified to block its release and cover up "potentially embarrassing facts rather than to protect legitimate security interests." Here is one little tidbit from testimony of Thomas Blanton, Director, National Security Archive:
national security secrecy is skyrocketing, but like the ballistic missile defense system, it cannot tell the real threat from the decoys. Let’s start with the core statistics, or least the most recent ones available, provided by ISOO in last year’s report to the President. New classification decisions are up from 9 million in 2001, to 11 million in 2002, to 14 million in 2003. If you look at that ISOO data all the way back to the first year in which it was collected – 1980 – you will discover that the 2003 number of new secrecy decisions is the highest ever recorded, higher even than the peak years of the Cold War in the mid-1980s. Continue reading
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.
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Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program
March 10, 2005 / 8 Comments on Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program
by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo. Published in the May, 2005 issue of Journal of Academic Librarianship. We would greatly appreciate it if, after reading this article, you post a comment. We'd like to collect all comments for collective input to Depository Library Council. Link to the entire article other copies >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ABSTRACT: Rapid technological change has caused some to question the need for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). We argue that the traditional roles of FDLP libraries in selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, and providing access to and services for government information are more important than ever in the digital age. In the United States, there are deeply rooted values that a democracy requires an informed citizenry, that government must be accountable to its citizens, and that citizens therefore must have full, free, easy access to information about the activities of their government.1 These values have led to the creation of the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP), Government Printing Office (GPO), and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)2 to facilitate this process. Over the last several years, developments in publishing and Internet technologies have affected the way government information is produced, disseminated, controlled, and preserved. These changes have affected the policies and procedures of the GPO and, in turn, have affected the depository library program. Despite the often-heard promises that these new technologies will bring more information to more people more quickly and easily, the actual effects have been decidedly mixed. The few highly visible, short-term successes of rapid dissemination of single titles directly to citizens (e.g., the large number of downloads of the 9/11 report3) mask the loss of a secure infrastructure for long-term preservation of and access to government information.4 Continue reading...
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