GPO Regional Depositories

This article profiles the 54 regional libraries serving in the depository program administered by the U.S. Government Printing Office. In addition to noting problem areas, the authors encourage the library community and the Federal government to find ways to provide the necessary financial and other support for the depository library program in an electronic and information age.     

The U.S. Government Printing Office's initiatives for the Federal Depository Library Program to set the stage for the 21st century

It is estimated that the majority of federal information is born digital. To that end, the U.S. Government Printing Office is transforming into a 21st century electronic information agency. As part of this effort, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) has been investigating new options for the dissemination of Federal information that incorporate digitization, preservation, electronic metadata, and information retrieval. The FDLP's efforts to find new solutions will improve acquisitions, information access, and collection development for depository libraries. This article describes just a few of the initiatives GPO has undertaken to increase access to electronic U.S. Government information.     

U.S. Depository librarians in reality and myth: A framework for a future government information program

How do the librarians in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) plan to perform a role in the electronic environment? Depository librarians must meet the challenge of changing how they think about government information libraries and their mission in order to provide citizen access services in an electronic environment. The new mission is to connect the user with information at the time of need, to instruct citizens in gaining access to government information, and to develop networking applications and programs that will help to put valuable content in the information infrastructure. If the FDLP and depository libraries are to prepare to perform that role, librarians need to take stock of their technological environment, deal with the political realities, and be critical of FDLP ideals that have taken on mythological proportions. A framework for the future of the FDLP can be built if depository librarians take advantage of the new communication technology. Depository librarians can use this technology to develop partnerships and networks of depository libraries, government agencies, commercial publishers, organizations of information professionals, and citizens. In turn, depository librarians could form the virtual associations needed to develop new dissemination programs; create user interface software; consolidate lobbying efforts to develop a nationwide electronic information policy; and provide community information networks with national links. Finally, communications technology could enable depository librarians to form a consortium of depository libraries to manage a government information dissemination library program.     

联邦寄存图书馆计划面临的挑战及其对我国政府信息寄存工作的启示

政府信息寄存工作在我国刚刚兴起,但在发达国家或地区已较为完善,如美国的联邦寄存图书馆计划(FDLP)。在网络技术和数字技术飞速发展的时代,政府信息寄存工作面临着巨大的生存挑战。FDLP面临的困境对我国开展政府信息寄存工作有所启发,我国政府信息寄存工作应以政府为主导,全国共建共享政府信息数据库,发挥公共图书馆和档案馆的固有职能,以此顺应数字信息存取和网络服务的发展趋势。     

Policy implications of a model public information service: the DOSFAN experience

The unique three-way partnership formed by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s federal depository library, the U.S. State Department, and the Government Printing Office (GPO) to deliver and preserve foreign policy information through servers housed at the University’s library offers some critical insights into the assumptions and policies of the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program. Ultimately, the Internet’s explosive growth, combined with powerful graphical interfaces of the major Web browsers, undermines several recently enacted laws that attempt to standardize (or centralize) effective information resource management within the federal government. Not only has GPO steadily lost political and economic support over the last decade from both legislative and executive leaders for its production and distribution programs, many agencies now consider their “.gov Webspaces” the natural successors to the GPO and its depository library program. As a result, a new model of government information distribution is being forged within the highly decentralized and interactive environment of the World Wide Web.     

Preserving Electronic Government Information

Abstract

Over the last ten years the Government Printing Office has made a massive shift from print to electronic media as the preferred distribution medium for government documents. Federal agencies over the same period have created large numbers of electronic records that require long-term preservation under the law. This article examines how the National Archives and the Government Printing Office are responding to the technical, financial, legal, and political challenges of providing permanent public access to electronic government information. NARA efforts to collect, appraise, and preserve records following the mandates of the courts in the wake of the PROFS litigation in Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President are discussed. The work of the GPO to develop an electronic archive and develop electronic partnerships with depository libraries and federal agencies is also examined.     

Whose vision fulfilled? toward a rightful ideological progenitor for the u.s. federal depository library program

This article addresses the assertion, advanced by the Depository Library Council (DLC) to the Public Printer, that James Madison's political writings serve as the ideological underpinning for the Federal Depository Library Program. In ascertaining the validity of the DLC's claim, this article reviews the evolution of Anglo-American thought regarding the concept of an informed citizenry, and concludes by suggesting persons who may rightfully be considered the harbingers of a federal depository library program.     

Constructing Television Communities: The FCC,Signals, and Cities, 1948–1957

This study analyzes the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) efforts to define the television “community” as it formulated a national television system. The first opportunity came with the Sixth Report and Order, when the FCC made no provision for tailoring signal contours to existing communities. The second came when the FCC established program guidelines for new TV licensees and mandated a broad, amorphous community to be served by local programming. Such communities often bore little relation to local political, cultural, or social units. These spatial dimensions, which efficiently served network advertisers, still exist in many U.S. television communities.     

The dissemination of federal government information: Prospects for the immediate future

The Government Printing Office is currently undertaking a study to “Identify Measures Necessary for a Successful Transition to a More Electronic Federal Depository Library Program.” With an anticipated date of 1998 for the implementation of an “electronic depository library program” this GPO study will become the blueprint for restructuring the FDLP. The ability of GPO to secure agency dissemination of electronic information through the FDLP as well as the willingness of depository libraries to remain in the Program will ultimately determine the long-term viability of the FDLP.     

Depository libraries,the Internet,and the 21st century?

The convergence of Internet technology and federal information policy are encouraging federal information producers and users to adopt a new direct model of information dissemination of federal information from producing agency to end user. On the surface, this trend would appear to remove the traditional middlemen—the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and depository libraries—from the dissemination model. To assess the impact of the Internet model on the future viability of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the traditional GPO/depository library model of information dissemination is examined in four areas, keeping in mind the underlying intent of the FDLP to assure access to federal information in all congressional districts.     

Integrating and Advertising Government Publications Internally and Externally: A Guide for Documents Librarians

ABSTRACT

Government publications contain a wealth of information. In an effort to increase the usage of these important publications, the staff at Bierce Library, University of Akron, use the following strategies to integrate and advertise government publications into the library activities and the community: (1) cataloging the publications so they appear on the local online catalog as well as the statewide catalog, (2) integrating them into the bibliographic instruction program, (3) listing them in pathfinders as sources on various topics, (4) making them a focus of “hot topics” such as health care reform, (5) presenting and promoting special workshops on specialized government databases such as the National Trade Data Bank and GPO Access (using the flyer approach), (6) visiting your Congressional Representative's Office to increase awareness of the information available in Depository Libraries to his/her constituents, (7) discussing these avenues at state groups, (8) including these methods in conferences, and (9) joining forces with other Documents Librarians in the area to create a depository brochure announcing hours, services, and highlights of each depository collection, and making this information available on a web page. The above strategies are generic enough that libraries can easily implement them into their programs.

The effect of these strategies is measured by an increased use of government publications. This can be monitored with circulation statistics and use of electronic products. The results are inconclusive if only circulation statistics are used.     

Beyond the Federal Depository Library Program: Providing Access to Information From a Reinvented Government

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), conceived in the nineteenth century, has served the American people and libraries for 100 years. It has provided free access to government information through a network of depository libraries distributed throughout the country. Currently, Democratic and Republican political leaders advocate reinventing, rethinking, reengineering, and renewing government. Despite significant differences between the political parties on specific changes, there is a consensus vision of a transformed or reinvented national government. What does this mean for the FDLP and access to government information? This essay looks beyond the current debates about specific legislation on the Government Printing Office or funding levels for the FDLP and outlines a vision of a reinvented federal government based on ideas expressed by Alvin and Heidi Toffler, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Vice President Al Gore. This paper identifies the basic challenges that their ideas present for the FDLP and depository libraries. The author concludes that these challenges will move the United States beyond the FDLP as it is presently constituted and will force librarians to rethink fundamentally how they provide access to government information.     

A brief history of the Federal Depository Library Program: A personal perspective

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) has served as a major public access point for government information for well over 130 years. Recent budget cuts to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) appropriations and an increased use of electronic formats for dissemination purposes have created many changes and problems for the system and the depository libraries that serve it. This article discusses the history of the FDLP and the impact of new formats in the last 25 years—especially electronic information. It also discusses the future of the FDLP and some of the problems that electronic information has brought to depository libraries and the need of depository librarians to accept and manage these new formats.     

Implications of harmonizing the future of the federal depository library program within e-government principles and policies

For more than 150 years, the United States Government Printing Office (GPO), along with its Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), has supported an informed citizenry and democracy by ensuring access and preservation to a broad swath of federal government information. This collaborative national public information program between local libraries and the national government, if it is to survive beyond its second century of service, must overcome profound challenges within a rapidly evolving complex of e-government policies and principles. The FDLP can (and must) find a way to serve its traditional values – permanent and public access to government information – that allows for growth and change within the demands of a dynamic electronic environment between the governors and the governed.     

Technological transformation of United States government documents librarianship

The United States Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is a government mandated program that distributes government information to the populace through designated “depository” libraries. From the 1970s until today, due to advancing technology, government documents librarianship has undergone several transformative changes. Beginning with distribution of government information on microfilm through the appearance of electronic information in the 1980s exponentially increased the amount of information available to users, information that often came with a large learning curve to use. The proliferation of government information transformed government documents librarianship from a self-contained, stand-alone, bibliographically focused entity to a more forward-facing, user-centric focus.The depository community is largely led by academic institutions, which account for 72% of depositories. They have lobbied the FDLP for increased access, better training, improvements in delivery, and assurances that electronic information would be found, captured, and preserved. In addition, their efforts have ensured digitization of the historic print depository collection is largely complete. However, until federal statutory legislation changes, significant amounts of born-digital government information is being lost to time.     

Old solutions in a new age: Cataloging and the future of access to government information

The availability of U.S. Government Printing Office bibliographic tapes for copy cataloging or for loading directly into online catalogs may have lulled documents librarians into believing that the problem of bibliographic control for documents collections has been solved. Others may believe that with the move to an electronic distribution system for United States government information, creating and loading bibliographic records for government publications into local library catalogs is becoming an anachronism. This article discusses the functions of cataloging in light of continuing needs and current developments in access to government information. Recommendations are made for ways that the library community, providers of government information, and automation specialists can work together to reexamine bibliographic standards, expand tape loading to non-U.S. depository documents collections, link useful bibliographic databases with library catalogs, and use cataloging of Internet resources to show relationships between physical collections and remotely accessible government information.     

The management of United States government information resources: An assessment of OMB circular A-130

In late 1985, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget issued its controversial circular on the “Management of Federal Information Resources. ”This article assesses that circular in four areas relating to public access to government information: information resources management, economy and efficiency in that management, the adequacy of selected definitions, and implications for the depository library program. The conclusion emphasizes that the circular is severely deficient and requires public scrutiny and modification, as well as congressional review.     

Changing partnerships? Government documents departments at the turn of the millennium

During the 1990s the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) has undergone a transition from collections comprised exclusively of tangible print on paper or fiche publications to a mix of print and electronic materials. This article examines the impact of this transition on depository library operations—both collections and services—at the turn of the millennium. The discussion of reference service on depository materials is considered within the context of G. K. Zipf’s law, that is, people will tend to seek the path of least effort in gathering information. Given this tendency, the extensive use of the Web to deliver electronic depository materials redirects depository library users away from depository shelves to Web workstations, and leads depository librarians to build Web pages to direct their patrons. The conclusion is that for depository libraries the new collection mix poses a management paradox—the FDLP receives thousands of tangible documents each year, yet it must maintain new services for patrons turning increasingly to Web-based resources.     

Electronic initiatives of the federal depository library program

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is in a period of transition from dissemination of primarily print government publications, to an expanded program including distribution of and access to electronic government information. In an electronic FDLP, the traditional roles of producing, acquiring, and disseminating government publications are expanded with additional roles of providing ongoing, long-term access to selected documents, and increasing the level of services to depository libraries. FDLP has already undertaken the transition with electronic initiatives. Additional projects are being developed which will facilitate access to electronic government documents. A more electronic FDLP implies significant changes for Library Programs Service and depository libraries. The goal of the transition is to improve the depository library program and continue to support public access to government publications.     

美国储存图书馆体系发展过程研究及启示

针对我国储存图书馆的构建需求,研究美国储存图书馆体系的发展过程,其经历国家储存馆、本地储存馆和区域储存馆为主体的不同阶段,各阶段的建设目标各有侧重,文献资源管理办法和服务内容也不尽相同。通过典型的案例分析总结其经验,为我国储存图书馆体系的构建和运行管理提供参考。