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PDF - Stanford University
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor: John A. Shuler, Documents
Librarian,UniversityLibrary, 801S.
Morgan St., M/C 234, University of
Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607-
7041; (312) 996-2738; fax: (312) 4130424; e-mail: [email protected]
Associate Editor:Ben Amata,Social
Science/Government Documents
Librarian, Social Science, Library, CSU
Sacramento, 2000 E. State University
Dr., Sacramento, CA 95819-6039; (916)
278-5672; fax: (916) 278-7089; e-mail:
[email protected]
EDITORIALBOARD
Debora Cheney, PennsylvaniaState
University; e-mail:[email protected]
Andrea M. Morrison, Indiana
University; e-mail: [email protected]
Ann Miller, Duke University;
e-mail: [email protected]
Aimee C. Quinn,University of Illinois
at Chicago; e-mail: [email protected]
Maggie Farrell, MontanaState
University; e-mail: [email protected]
Daniel C. Barkley, University of New
Mexico; e-mail: [email protected]
COLUMN EDITORS
Internet Waves:
Brian Rossmann, MontanaState
University
NewPublications:
Susan Anthes, University of ColoradoBoulder;Marcia Meister, University of
California-Davis
International
Documents Roundup:
Lynne
M. Stuart, Johns Hopkins
University
Tech Watch:
Megan Dreger,editor,
University
DttP:A Quarterly Journal of Government
Information Practice and Perspective is the
official publication of the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT)
of the American Library Association (ALA). DttP provides current infomation
on government public technical reports, and maps at the local, state, national,
foreign, and international levels; on related government activities;and on documents librarianship, DttP is published quarterly in spring, summer, fall, and
winter. The opinions expressed by its contributors are their own and do not
necessarily representthose of GODORT.Acceptance of an advertisement does
not imply endorsement by ALA/GODORT of the products or services offered.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: DttP is sent free to ALA/GODORT members on a per
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CONTRIBUTIONS: Articles,
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and their organizations. The deadline for submissionof material is: January 15
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INDEXING: DttPis indexed in LibraryLiteraturebeginning with volume 19,
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30(1): 1-40 ISSN: 0091-2085
Copyright© 2002 ALA/GODORT
"
I
i
From the Chair
By Cindi Wolff
sI
write
this, Iam stillrecovering from the successful ALA
AMidwinter
Conference in New Orleans. By the time you
read this, depending on the mail, you may be preparing for or
returning from, the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
The GODORT meetings in New Orleans primarily dealt with
the "business" of ALA and GODORT, and part of that business
included preparation for GODORT's Thirtieth Anniversary celebration. Ihave been fortunate to be a member of GODORT for
fifteen years. Before, during and certainly after my time,
GODORT has and will continue to deal with the invigorating
world of federal, international, state, and local government information.
InNew Orleans, the opening of session formerly known as
the FDTF/GPO Update was changed to become the
GODORT/GPO Update. Through the efforts of Sherry
DeDecker, Coordinatorof the Federal Documents Task Force;
David Griffiths, Coordinator of the International Documents
Task Force; andNan Myers, Coordinator of the State and Local
Documents Task Force, we had an excellent program on the
accessibility to government information. Patrice McDermott,
ALA Washington Office, gave an update on issues related to the
"take down" of federal government information in the post
September 11th world and the new legislation that has been
passed by Congress. Suzanne Edam, Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, provided information on new
resources available via OECD. Judith Condit Fagan, Southern
Illinois University, showed her analysis of accessibility of state
government web sites. And, last, and certainly not least, the
Government Printing Office panel of Frances Buckley, Gil
Baldwin, and TC. Evans madebrief presentations and answered
questions from the audience.
In this issue of DTTP, Ann Miller, Past-Chair, will be providing a summary of meetings and other activities in New
Orleans for those who may not have attendedall the GODORT
meetings or even the Midwinter Conference in New Orleans.
Membership approved the exclusion of full meeting minutes in
DTTP; however, full minutes of each committee and task force
meeting are availablevia the GODORT home page<http://sun-
site.berkeley.edu/GODORT/>.
improper use of data such as diagrams of dams, power plants
and
pipelines, details of hazardous waste
sites and transport routes
and safety plans for chemical plants. However,
as information
professionals we are deeply
concerned about the access that is
being restricted to the public as wellas the
long-termavailability
of electronic information goes. For example,
is it deletedandlost
forever? Or, is it being held in a secure location until the times
change? The removals are not just on the federal
level. As of
January 2002, the states of Florida, Idaho, Missouri,
and
Washington are considering proposals to close previously open
records or meetings. Some states already have removed some
information and others have anti-terrorismtask forces proposed
to shield law enforcement and local
emergency preparedness
plans.1
One of my major concerns is the "lawof unintendedconseinformation via the Internet from all
levels of government andinternational organizations has allowed
for an informed world citizenry. The "take down" of the
Department of Interior web site due to a court order and not
September 11th is one example. As of December 6, 2001,
ThomasA. Downing,Chief GPOCatalogingBranch, announced,
"At present, most, if not all, Department of Interiorrelated publications links are down."2 If these publications weredistributed
in "electroniconly" format, theinformationis no longer available
via FDLP or any libraries.This is an unintended consequence.
The tourist planning a vacation no longer has access to the
NationalPark Service guides.The student doing research can no
longer access the Fish and Wildlife Service or Bureau of Land
Management web pages. The businessperson needing information can no longer get it via his/her office computer, and not even
in a local library. Ido not question the merit of the court order
(this lawsuit has been going on much longer than the explosion
of the Internet), but it is an excellentexample of the lawof unintendedconsequences.
Iencourage all GODORT members to be aware ofthe issues
surrounding access to and the provision of government information. An excellent resource to follow current activities is the
GODORT Legislation Committee Web page <http://sunsite.
berkeley.edu/GODORT/legislation/>. Also, the GovernmentInformation Technology Committee (GITCO) is working to provide
directiononimprovinglibrarians own "E-competencies" via their
webpage <www.library.ucsb.edu/ala/gitco/>.
—
And,Ilook forward to seeing all GODORT members past,
present, and future— at the ALA GODORT 30th Anniversary
Reception at the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta. W
quences." The access to
One concern for the advocates of open government and free
access to government information is the recent wave of federal
and state laws that are beingproposed that may limit access to
References
Public records.In the weeksfollowing the September11attacks,
federal agencies removeddocumentsfromInternet sites, depart- 1. "Post-9/11 laws may put public records, info under wraps,"
USA Today (January 29, 2002), p. 3A.
ment reading rooms and, in some cases, public libraries. The
closed its websites,"
withdrawal of a U.S. GeologicalSurvey CD-ROM from Federal 2. "U.S. Department of Interiorhas
(December
9, 2001) <http://listsl.cac.
GOVDOC-L Archives
Depository Libraries in October 2001 is one action that has
psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=indoll2b&L=govdocd&F=&S=&P
attracted attentionof not only depository libraries, but also the
=68>.
media. The federal government does have valid concerns for
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
5
International
Documents
Roundup
.ynne M. Stuart
HIV/AIDS in the Developing World
since the mid-nineteen eighties, HIV has infected millions of
people around the world, and the epidemic continues to spread,
rhe World Health Organization(WHO) estimates that by the
Deginning of the year 2000, 34.3 million people had been
nfected, and 95 percent of them live in the developing world.
Countries in Africa havebeenthe hardesthit butother countries,
mch as India and China, have a growingHIV epidemic which
means that millions more willbe infected.No longer just a health
problem,HIV/AIDS threatens the economic and social growth of
developingcountries. Because HIV/AIDS infects peoplein the
prime of their lives, all aspects of urban and rural societies are
affected. In Africa, millions of agricultural workers have died,
threatening people's food supply. In urban areas, professionals
and workers are dying negatively affecting a country's economic
development. As these countries' economies suffer, they also
incur the burden of the rising costs of HIV/AIDS patient care.
There is a vast amount of published materialon the impact
of HIV/AIDS in the developing world. This column explores
recent materials published by the World Health Organization
(WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), and the World Bank.
WHO
The World HealthOrganizationdeals primarilywith the medical
issues related to HIV/AIDS, ranging from surveillance to treatment. The organization's Communicable Disease Surveillance
and Response Department(CSR) is an excellentsource of statistics about HIV/AIDS. Two recent issues of its Weekly
Epidemiological Record (WER) contain the article, "Global
Situation of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic, End 2001," parts 1and 2
(no. 49, 2001, 76, 381-388 and no. 50, 2001, 76, 389-440; online at
www.who.int/wer/index.html).Part one presents statistics on the
totalnumber ofofficially reported AIDS cases from the beginning
of the epidemicby country. The second part is an analysis of the
distributionof reported cases by age, sex, and assumed mode of
transmission. To understand the importance of disease monitoring there is "Programme for the Surveillance of HIV/AIDS/
and Sexually Transmitted Infections" at www.who.int/emc/diseases/hiv/hiv-surveillance.pdf. It explains WHO's role in the
development of guidelines and surveillance tools. A joint publiDttP
cation with UNAIDS, Second Generation Surveillancefor HIV: the
data can help target preNext Decade, explains how surveillance
to
reduce
planning
the impact of HIV
help
in
vention activities,
of
country's
monitorthe
success
a
help
response.
and AIDS, and
(www.who.int/emc-documents/aids_hiv/docs/whocdscsredc2oos.PDF)
WHO's CSR Department also produces epidemiological fact
sheets for over 150 countries from Afghanistan
(www.who.int/emc-hiv/fact_sheets/index.html)
to
Zimbabwe.
(These are also
available on the UNAID web site.) These EPI fact sheets contain
the most recent country-specific data on HIV/AIDS and Sexually
Transmitted Infection (STI) prevalence and incidence, a short
assessment of the country's epidemiological situation, and information on knowledge and behaviors that can spur or stem the
transmission ofHIV.These data are necessary for a betterunderstanding of the status and trends of the epidemic,and areessential for informed decision-making and planning at national,
regionaland global levels.
WHO also publishes handbooks and guides on preventing
HIV/AIDS and caring for those who are infected. Examples of
these are AIDS Home Care Handbook (1993) andHIV Prevention
and Care: Teaching Modules for Nurses and Midwives (1993).
ThirteenWHO fact sheets on HIV/AIDS for nurses are located at
www.who.int/HIVAIDS/Nursesmidwivesfs/index.html. Topics
covered by these fact sheets include "Nursing care of adults with
HIV-related illness," "HIV/AIDS: fear, stigma and isolation," and
"Counseling and HIV/AIDS."
UNAIDS
For ten years from 1986 to 1996, the World HealthOrganization
had lead responsibilityon AIDS in the United Nations, helping
countries set up much-needed national AIDS programmes.
However, by the mid-19905, it became clear that the relentless
spread of HIV and the epidemic's devastating impact on all
aspects of human lives, including social and economic development, were creating an emergency requiring a greatly expanded
UnitedNations effort. In 1996, the UnitedNations created The
Joint UnitedNationsProgramme onHIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as an
advocate for global action against HIV/AIDS. UNAIDS drew
together six organization1 into a cosponsored programme. As the
main advocate for globalaction onHIV/AIDS, UNAIDS leads ar
expandedresponse aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV
providingcare and support, reducing the vulnerability of individuals andcommunities to HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the impact o:
the epidemic on developingcountries.
The UNAIDS series, "UNAIDS BestPractice Collection,'
demonstratesthe advocacy role of UNAIDS. This is a growinj
collectionof materials on specific topics. Each topic will contan
a booklet on data for journalists and community leaders, a teen
nicalupdate for managers of projects, case studies from countne
or regions, key materials that represent up-to-date authontativi
thinking on the topic, and a best practice summary booklet to
those working in the fields. A listof the topics and onlinemate
rials can be locatedat www.unaids.org/bestpractice/digest/.
ials can be located www.unaids.org/bestpractice/digest/.
Two publications, Report on the GlobalHIV/AIDS Epidemic—
June 2000 (www.unaids.org/epidemic_update/report/index.html)
and AIDS Epidemic Update— December2001(www.unaids.org/epidemic_update/report_decol/index.html), present an excellent
global overview of the epidemic. Covering the demographic,
social,and economic impacts of the epidemic, the reports discuss
prevention and its challengesand the care and support for people
living with HIV/AIDS. The 2001 report contains nine common
principles of effective response used by differentnations.
at
On its web site UNAID lists publicationsby subject. One
subject titled "response by different sectors," contains titles on
agriculture, military, prison, religion, and business sectors. One
such publication is Sustainable Agricultural-RuralDevelopmentand
Vulnerabilityto the AIDS Epidemic(1999) at www.unaids.org/publications/documents/sectors/agriculture/Jc-fao-e.pdf. The authors
of this joint publication of UNAIDS and the Food and
Agriculture Organizationof the UnitedNations (FAO) use seven
case studies to show howagricultural andrural developmentprojects can reduce the risk to HIV. The case study countries are
Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Haiti, Honduras, Guyana, and
parts of India andChina.
World Bank
extensive bibliography. On a more specific level,
Intensifying
Action against HIV/AIDS in Africa: Responding to a Development
Crisis (2000) presents the World Bank's strategic plan to fight
HIV/AIDS in Africa. This publicationprovidesa useful summary
of the impact of HIV/AID on various parts of African
societies as
wellas the Bank's own strategic plan.
The World Bank Web Site provides access to full-text versions of working papers and reports
covering many HIV/AIDS
issues.Issue briefs are located in the "DevelopmentNews" section ranging from general to country specific
information. For
example, there is a general HIV/AIDS update at www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pb/pbaids.htm and a regional update for
South Asia at www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pb/pbaids_sar.htm
from which thereis access to individual country briefs.The brief
for India (www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pb/pbaids_sar_india.
htm) provides facts such as how many peopleare estimatedto be
infected, a section on future risk, and then a finalsection on the
response to the epidemic fromthe Indian government, the World
Bank, UNAIDS, and involved NGOS.
To see what the World Bank is doing, one can explore
"World Bank HIV/AIDS Activities," a selection under the
"development topics" subcategory AIDS. This is a list of all
World Bank HIV/AIDS projects that are active, closed, or in the
pipeline. Each project entry contains a summary of the project,
project documents, and a sidebar that includes informationsuch
as project cost, project status, and name ofthe bank team leader.
These publicationsprovidea window to understanding the
complexity of issuesrelated to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Besides
the informationand statistics, they provide a wealth of information about the effort that governments, IGOS, and others are
expending to help millions of people combat the health, social,
and economicdestruction that HIV/AIDS causes, m
In addition to its sponsorship of UNAIDS, the World Bank publishesuseful material about HIV/AIDS and its affect on country
development. A valuable report is Confronting AIDS; Public
Priorities in a GlobalEpidemic(1999). The material in this report
covers basic aspects of the disease to discuss how governments
can confront the epidemic.One section covers the epidemiology
of the disease and the key principles for an effective response.
Another sectiondiscusses how governments can helppeoplewho Reference
have the disease. A third sectionconsiders the need for partnerships among country governments, Inter-governmental 1. The six original cosponsors are UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA,
UNESCO, WHO and the WorldBank. In 1999 UNDCP
Organizations (IGOS), Non-governmental Organizations
joined.
(NGOS), anddonors. The report contains statistical tablesand an
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
7
Internet Waves
Brian W. Rossmann
Survey Indicates e-Government a Success
As GPO and virtually every government agency continues to
make the transition from tangible document distribution to disseminating information electronically, those of us working in
depositorylibrariesare askingourselves what effectthis allhas on
the ability for the averageperson to access the governmentinformation that they need. Daily we watchour statistics at our reference desks decline and our collections receive less andless use.
—
—
It is easy from our vantage pomt to worry that our clientele
(the citizens of this county) are not getting what they need. On
the other hand, Iam always amazedwhen IattendGPO Updates
at eitherGODORT meetings or DepositoryLibrary Conferences
to hear the litany of statistics on the number of hits the GPO
servers are receiving. Apparently, many people are getting
through; but who are they? Moreover, is this the whole story?
The Center for e-Service at the RobertH. Smith School of
Business, University of Maryland, set about attempting to answer
these questions through a survey it recently completed.1 The
Center for e-Service's mission is to be the "world's leading eservice strategy andresearchcenter."Its strategic rationaleis that
the two most important long-term trends in the business world
are the shiftingof the economy from goods to services, and the
rapid expansion of the information economy and electronic networks. The Center operates as a partnership between the business worldand academia.
Annually, the Center co-sponsors a survey called the
National Technology Readiness Survey (NTRS) with
Rockbridge Associates, Inc, a market research and consulting
firmlocated in GreatFalls, VA, that focuses on technologyissues
for Fortune 500 services companies.2 Themain objective of the
NTRS is to try to gather some data about how consumers feel
about new technologies,to gaugetheir use of these technologies,
and determine how they view the impact of technology on
everyday life. It embraces a widerange of products and services
from cellular phones to e-commerce. The NTRS surveyed 1001
randomly selected households across the U.S. and specifically
asked consumers about their use of government web sites along
with other e-commerce web sites.Governmentinformationadvocates willprobably find the results somewhat heartening.
The Center discovered that more than half of American
adults with Internet access visited some sort of government web
site last year (55 percent). State and local web sites fared better
than federal with 50 percent of respondents claiming to have
accessed a state or local government site; 33 percent of respondents repliedthat they had visited a federalgovernment web site.
Particularly noteworthy is that 21 percent of the respondents
indicatedthat they conductedsome sort ofbusiness with the gov—
ernment on theInternet "ahigher percentage of users thanhad
8
conducted bank transactions online (20 percent), paid a credit
card bill online (15 percent), or traded stocks online (10 percent)." This would seem to suggest that not only are government
websites gaining acceptance with the public, but that the public
knows about them; perhaps it is even more aware of them (and
the benefits they offer) than it is awareof many commercial web
sites. Given the amount of marketing,advertising,and hypeleveled at the public by commercial organizationsregarding their
web sites, it is downright amazing that government web sites,
which marketthemselveslittle incomparison, are so successful.
The percentage of people using the Internet to obtain government information, pay taxes, apply for permits, and conduct
other business is surprisingly high, especially at the state and
local levels," said Roland Rust, director of the Center for cService andholderof the David Bruce SmithChair in Marketing
at the Smith School. "This research suggests that e-government
—
is in many ways even more prevalent than e-commerce eservice appears to be an increasingly attractive alternative to
standing in line at a government office," said Rust.3
AlreadyIcan hear the naysayers in the audience: "But, this
survey reports on the number of adults with Internetaccessl What
about the folks whoaren't online?" Indeed,according to a Harris
—
Poll releasedlast November, only127 millionadults are online
about 64%. Of these, 52 percent have Internet access from the
home while 28 percent are online at work (these figures are
essentiallyunchanged fromthe previous year's survey).4
These people are not able to take advantage of the government information on the Internet as easily as the rest of us.
Moreover, it is disheartening to learn that under the Bush
Administration's 2003 budget proposal, programs such as the
"Digital Divide" plan are likely to be discontinued: programs
which have a goal of teaching the technologically disenfranchised, such as the elderly poor, how to use technologyand bring
themup to speed with the rest of us.5
Perhaps government information librarians ought to be
making a concertedeffort to reach the citizens who do not have
easyaccess to theInternet or do not knowhow to use it? If wecan
offer them Internet access in our libraries and assistance in getting to government information, these people would be no worse
off than if that information were still in paper (meaning they
would still have to visit the library anyway). Moreover, as more
and more of our patrons try get to government information on
their own withoutvisiting a depository,wemay need to reach out
to these people virtually, through virtual reference services,
email, and telephone.We are still the experts when it comes to
finding andkeeping track information— evenif the majority of it
is not actually housed physicallyin our buildings.
What is clear, however, is that the public appears to be
embracing the concept of e-government evenmore readily than
it is embracing the concept of e-commerce (and more than itever
appearedto embrace the depositorylibrary).Our role must be to
facilitate andaid citizens in their search for governmentinformationin an online world. 1-T
References
1
Robert H.Smith School of Business, Center for e-Service,
University of Maryland. "National Technology Readiness
Survey." [Online];available at <www.rhsmith.umd.edu/
ces/Nationalpercent2oTechnologypercent2oßeadinessperc
ent2oSurvey.htm>,accessed 1February 2002.
Associates, Inc. "NationalSurvey Assesses
2. Rockbridge
Acceptance
of Technology;E-Commerce Faces
Consumer
[Online];
available at <www.rockreSkepticism."
Strong
Tech Watch
Tim Berners-Lee, Guest Columnist
Web Accessibility
"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by
everyoneregardless of disability is an essential aspect."
The above quote sums up the issue well: the Web is indeed a
powerful communication tool available to everyone, at leastin
theory. Yet millions of people have disabilities that affect how
they access information over the Web. For example,people with
vision disabilities using JAWS or other softwaredon't always get
all the information conveyed on the web page because the software can't read information relayed only with color or graphics
that have no text description.
The Web has become a key source of information.In the
past few years the amount of government information available
online has grown tremendously.TheFederalDepositoryLibrary
Program (FDLP) has steadily increased the amount of information available electronically;the "New Electronic Titles" listing
fromGPOaccess includes morePURL's each month.In addition,
more and more foreign, state, and local government information
is also becoming available on the Web.
To make this information accessible, web designers need
guidelines. Two important resources are the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines and the Section 508 standards, both created expressly to address this issue.
W3C's Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international
body that creates standardsandother toolsfor web development.
One W3C project, the Web Accessibility Initiative(WAI), focuses
on web accessibility and has published accessibility guidelines
for web developers.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (www.w3.org/TR/
search.com/Articles/press_release3/press_release3.html>,
accessed 12 February 2002.
3. "National Technology Readiness Survey". Ibid.
4. Harris Interactive. "Internet Penetration Has
Leveled Out
Over The Last 12 Months." [Online]; availableat <www.
harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PlD=266>,
accessed 14 February 2002.
5. '"Digital Divide' Plan inPeril; Two Tech Programs For Poor
Would Die." WashingtonPost, 5 February 2002, sec E, 1.
accessible. Three priority levels have been created; the most
important,Priority I, are the steps web developersmust take to
maketheirpages accessible.For example,a Priority1checkpoint
is: "Ensure that allinformation conveyed with coloris also available withoutcolor, for example from context or markup." These
guidelinesare well-knownand veryuseful. Butthe W3C has only
an advisory role: the use of the guidelines is not required.
Section 508
In 1998, PresidentClinton signed the Workforce InvestmentAct
(Pub. L. 105-220), whichamendedthe RehabilitationAct, specifically extending the requirements outlined in Section 508. The
amended Section 508 (29 U.S.C. 794d) mandates that disabled
people have access to the electronic and informationtechnology
of federal agencies. The law applies to agencies when developing, procuring, maintaining, or using electronic and information technology, unless this provision would impose an undue
burden.
The task of creating standards was assigned to the
Architectural and TransportationBarriers ComplianceBoard (the
'Access Board'). The standards that deal with web access (36
CFR 1194.22) are a listofsixteen things to do when designing(or
redesigning) a web site. For example, "A text equivalent for
every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via 'alt',
iongdesc', or in element content)." Many agencies now have
Section 508 web pages with background information and a
description of their compliance efforts (e.g. USDA's Section 508
Accessibility (www.ocio.usda.gov/irm/508/secsoB.html). These
standards have been incorporated into the federal acquisition
regulations(66 FR 20894, April 25, 2001), thus possibly affecting
private companies seeking government contracts. In addition,
other laws have included Section 508 compliance.One such law
is the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, which requires that
states receivingcertain funds comply with Section 508.
Tim Berners-Lee, Senior Research Staff, MITLaboratory
for Computer Science, [email protected]
WCAGIO/) is a prioritizedlistof things to do to make a web site
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
The Future
It remains to be seen how widespread the results of Section 508
and W3C's guidelines will be, particularly for web sites not
required to meet any standards. In a recent study examining
online access to state legislative documents, the authors wrote
that "[p]erhaps the most worrisomefinding of this study is the
failure to design so that assistive technology can interpret the
web pages."1 The web may never be entirely accessible, but as
the authorsof the study observed, "publicinformation websites
should lead the way in providing equal access."2 As more and
more governmentinformationis availableonly online,it iscritical
that these issues are addressed.
More information
The Access Board's Section 508 page: www.access-board.
gov/508.htm
Includes links to the-law and regulations as well as background material.
Bobby: www.cast.org/bobby/
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) created Bobby to help web designers test their pages for accessibility under Section 508 and W3C's Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines.
10
DttP
Information Technology Technical Assistance and
Trainin
Center: www.ittatc.org
Includes background information about Section 508
an
training material, such as an online Web Accessibility course
Section 508.g0v: http://sectionsoB.gov
Recently redesigned, this site has background information
aboutsection508 as wellas training materialand other informa
tion.
Usability.gov:www.usability.gov/
This site from the NationalCancer Institute is a guide tc
designingaccessible web pages.
W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative: www.w3.org/WAI/
Includes links to WAI guidelines as well as the very hand\
WAI Quick Tips Reference Card www.w3.org/WAI/References
QuickTips/ andlinks to sources of information, ik
References
1. Fagan,Jody Condit andBryanD.Fagan. "Citizens' Access
to On-Line State LegislativeDocuments" Government
Information Quarterly, 18 no. 2 (summer 2001): 111.
2. Ibid.
Some Thoughts on the
"FDLP Electronic Transition"
Charles D. Bernholz
office of its secretary, Charles Thomson;" The five volumes of
The Debates in the Several State
Conventions on the Adoption of the
FederalConstitution, or Elliot's Debates. These are "the best source
for materials for the period between
the closing of the
Constitutional Convention inSeptember1787 and the openingof
the first FederalCongress in March 1789;" and The Records the
of
FederalConvention of 1787 or Farrand'sRecords, in three volumes,
declaration by the Superintendent of Documents, thatoffer "the materialsnecessary for a study of the workings of
Francis J. Buckley, Jr., that there will be a substantial the Constitutional Convention."
migration to electronic distribution of Government
—
Printing Office materials the so called "FDLP electronic transi"
has stimulated considerablediscussion in the library com- The Journals of Congress
tjon
munity.In his letterof 25 August 2000 to Directors of institutions
1
that are part of the Federal Depository Library Program, the These include the followingtitles:
Superintendent noted that "due to the proposed congressional
appropriation for the FDLP, the shift to a primarily electronic ft The full run of the Journalof the House, from1789 to 1873,
The
—
program willaccelerate."
Iam delightedto see thatmaterialsthatmany library patrons
cannot access today will become more available through the
Internet. Ialso consider the impliedstandardizationof files2 destined for Internet distribution to be a far better approach than
that employed for the various CD-ROM and software products
available in the past from sundry government agencies.3
The followingshort note illustrates a veryfocused investigationinto anarea of UnitedStates history.It is a way to showcase
the availabilityof relevanthistorical materials, and it is a demonstrationthat wemay beable to livecomfortablyand productively
with sustainedelectronicaccess to government publications.Iam
using this example because it is a very American question, yet
one that relatively few patrons might examineto this depth.
As a government documents librarian, Ihave developedan
interest in treaties between the United States and the Indian
Nations. Librariansknow thatCharles J. Kappler, theClerk to the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, assembled a collectionof
these instruments.4 Today, though, we have the ability to access
electronically several of these volumes— and in particular the
second, or "Treaties, 1778-1883" one— through the digitization
project of the Documents Department at the Oklahoma State
University Library.5 An accompanying search engine means that
all I,ooo+pages of the treaty texts maybe searched for selected
targets, like "annuity" or "cession." Bluntly, this project at
Stillwater has reopened to all the forgotten world of American
Indian treaties.
In the same vein, the Library of Congress has increased its
digitized collection of historical assets. The Century ofLawmaking
for a New Nation web page6 supports selected documents from
four special groupings:7
The Continental Congress and
Constitutional Convention
The entire, thirty-four volume run over the years 1774 through
1789 of the Journals the ContinentalCongress that furnishes the
of
that "should be seen as the minutes of floor action"and that
illustrates "matters considered by the House and the votes
and otheractions taken" during this time period;
ft The correspondingJournalofthe Senate, supplying the equivalentSenate informationover the same interval;
ft The specialized Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the
Senate that revealsthe "executiveproceedings. .relatingto its
functions of confirming presidential nominees and consenting to the making of treaties;" and
ft The Journal of WilliamMaclay or Maclays Journal, pennedby
the Pennsylvania Senator from 1789 to 1791, that affords a
glimpse into the Senate proceedings that were not open to
the public before1795.
.
The Debates of Congress
The Annals of Congress, officially known as The Debates and
Proceedingsinthe Congress ofthe UnitedStates, from the IstCongress
in 1789 through the 18th Congress, Ist Session in 1824, deliversa
more complete, though non-verbatim paraphrased, account of
speeches that surpasses the material available in either the
Journal of theHouse or the Journalof the Senate.
ft The succeeding fourteen volumes of the Register of Debates
that subtends the congressional debates from the 2nd
Session of the 18th Congress through the Ist Session of the
25th Congress, i.e., from 1824 until 1837; and
CharlesD. Bernholz, MemorialLibrary, State University of New
York College at Cortland, POBox [email protected]
Editor's note: The authorhighlights a number of digitalprojects that
arenot supporteddirectlyby the current electronicinitiatives
managedby theGovernment Printing Office. Inthe spirit ofcooperadevelopment, readers are remindedofhow much "digitization and
"
sources can
tion and electronicarchivingof significant historical
be
included
andthese
need
to
projects,
state
andlocal
happen through
in the greater GPO effort.
"records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as keptby the
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
11
Bernholz
ft the subsequent Congressional Globe that "contains the
debates of Congress from the 23rd Congress, Ist Session
through the end of the 42nd Congress ( 1833-1873 )," in
forty-six volumes. As can be seen, there is a five volume
overlap between the Globeand the Registerof Debates for the
23rd Congress, Ist Session in 1833 through the 25th
Congress, Ist Session in 1837. The Globe format changed
from a "condensed report" or abstract approach to a nearly
verbatim one beginning with the 32nd Congress in 1851.
Although not in this collection, the familiar Congressional
Record, in 1873, began to report the proceedingsof following
Congresses, and replaced the Globe.
Statutes and Documents
The United States Statutes at Large, in a seventeen volume
ensemble, present the laws of the first forty-two Congresses,
—
betweenthe years 1789 and 1873. Note that volumenumber 7—7
entitled "Treaties Between the United States and the Indian
—
Tribes" is particularlyuseful in this inquiry because it contains
a backfile of treaty texts from the interval 1789 to 1842; and
Volumesof the UnitedStatesCongressionalSerialSet, selected from
the 23rd ( 1834-1835 ), 56th ( 1899 ), and 58th ( 1904-1905 )
Congresses, to whichattentionmust be paid to one especially relevant volume. Serial Set volume number 4015, "Indian Land
Cessions in the United States," is the secondpart of the two-part
Eighteenth Annual Reportof theBureau of American Ethnology to the
Secretary of the SmithsonianInstitution, 1896-97. It contains sixtysevencession maps and two data tables, compiled byCharles C.
Royce,where the tablespresent a "Schedule ofTreaties and Acts
of Congress AuthorizingAllotments of Lands in Severalty," and
a "Schedule of IndianLand Cessions." The latter table "indicates the number and location of each cession by or reservation
for the Indian tribes from the organization of the Federal
Government to and including 1894, together with descriptions of
the tracts so cededor reserved,the date ofthe treaty, law or executive order governingthe same, the name of the tribe or tribes
affected thereby, and historical data and references bearing
thereon."Browsing by tribe name, state or territory,or date is an
option with this resource.
To round out the main Century of Lawmaking web page, a
general search engine facilitates interrogating all twelve titles in
this group, or only a single selected title.
We may now postulate a patron's inquiry to demonstrate the
leverage that might be derived from this Internet tool. Our
patron is interested in the treaties to which the Navajo were a
party, and in information of any land cession(s) by, and/or reservation^) for, the Navajo Nation. The Senate's Executive
proceedings regarding treaties with the Navajo, and any other
supporting documentation, wouldbe welcomed.
This Library of Congress web tool can answer these
requests in four passes:
An initialsearch of the Journalof the Executive Proceedings of
12
DttP
the Senate, with the target "NavajoIndians," yields thirteen items.
Six contain the exact words, or word variants of, "Navajo
Indians." In total, three of them link to the Journal indexes
while the remaining ten point to Senate discussions between
1850 and 1872.
Eight possible links are derived from a review under the
Navajo tribe name in Royce's Serial Set cession assembly. The
first two of these denote the treaties consummatedbetween the
United States and the Navajo on 9 September 1849 ( 9 Stat. 974
) and on 1June 1868 ( 15 Stat. 667 ). The remaining six present
adjustments to land specifications, between the years 1878 and
1892, by Executive Order.For allbut the first item, a link to one
or more of the accompanying Royce maps is given so that the
appropriate geographicallocation may be studied.
—
—
Each of these citations 9 Stat. 974 and 15 Stat. 667 may
be used to directly access the relevant text from the Statutes at
Large web link. The images of the exact Statutespages of each
treaty may be printedand/or downloaded.
As a final examination, searching for "NavajoIndians" in the
Century ofLawmaking's full, twelve titlesuite returns one hundred
eighteen items.Ninety-two elementscontain the exact words,or
word variants of, "Navajo Indians." The thirteen items found
through the previous Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the
Senate search are part of this array.
The texts of the treaties may also be obtained with the
OklahomaState Universitydigitizedversion ofKappler's compilation.The "Navajo" indexpage of the second or treatiesvolume
displays links to the two treaties that were found through the
Library of Congress searches.Note immediatelythat our inquis—
itive patron after a relatively small amount of bibliographic
—
instructionto access and maneuveraroundthese websites may
be able to accomplish this entire research sequence without
librarianintervention.This surely was part of the thought behind
Superintendent Buckley's suggestion that the proposed plan
should be used "as an opportunity to expand public access to
electronicGovernment information products." We will have the
ability to substantially empower our patrons with these FDLP
access proposals, and this means that everyone wins.
This example asked questions about the history of the
United States. It wasan inquiry that can and must be supported
by federal documents, but itis clear fromthe Library of Congress
title suite that most libraries, let alone public ones, just do not
have these materials onhand.8 It is also indisputable that federal
depositoriesmay have difficulty supplying these wares with this
promptness and this minimalcost. Indeed, the stated goal of the
Library of Congress NationalDigitalLibraryProgram "is to offer
broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural doc"9
uments as a contribution to education and lifelong learning.
This mandateshould diminish the numberof lost opportunities
to address our patrons' questions. Such a reduction willin turn
bolster our efforts to further empower our patrons.
Finally,Iused to be a public librarianin northwesternNew
Mexico, just outside the eastern boundaryof the Navajo Nation.
The inquiries that Ioffered in this demonstrationare not hypo-
■
Some Thoughts on the "FDLP Electronic Transition-
and Iam sure
thetical ones,
inquiry
that each of us may generate an
librarypatron population.Nor is
from
our
own
equivalent
for reliableand sustained access to this country's
the requirement
history— -past, present, and future— a theoretical desideratum.
for, and work toward, this electronic
We must be prepared
is our responsibility to provide all our
it
because
endeavor
10
patrons with access to this information. The Century of
Lawmakingfor aNew Nationpage from the Library of Congress;
non-FDLP digitization projects like Oklahoma State University's
Kapplerpresentation; standardizedelectronic GPO products; and
the "systems for permanent accessibility" that the
Superintendent pledged in his letter are early examples of the
leverage we will have as a result of this transition. This is just
another evolutionary step in librarianship. i%
References
1. The Superintendent'sletter was also publishedin
Administrative Notes on 15 September 2000, and it is available at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/
ado9lsoo.html.
2. The Electronic TransitionCommittee's "Report on GPO's
Transition to a More Electronic FDLP" discussed aspects
of standardizationrequired for a successful migration(www.
access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/adosoloo.html#7).
3. AlthoughI was never able to find it in Title 44, lamsure
that someone once told me thateach agency was federally
mandated to create their own software development language and instruction package syntax so thateach and
every itemwould be an unique contribution to the FDLP
collection. Or maybe it just seemed that way when Itried
to help my patrons with some of those products....
4. The GPO, between1904 and 1941, originally published
Kappler's five-volume ensemble, but reprintings by AMS
Press in 1971 and by the GPO in 1975 have beenthe
recent sources of these materials. The second or treaties
volume was also producedby Interland Publishingin 1972
as a stand-alone monograph
entitledIndian Treaties, 17781883.
5. The Kappler compilationmay
be accessed at http://digital.
hbrary.okstate.edu/kappler.
6. See http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html
for
the main webpage. An additional access point is
available
from the "CongressionalDocuments and Debates,
17741873" link on the THOMAS page at http://thomas.loc.gov.
7. Cited document descriptions in the followingparagraphs
are taken from the main web pageof each specific
title.
8. Timothy L. Coggins identifies a concern for obtainingprimary legalmaterials ( "Print NoMore: U.S. Code,Code
of
FederalRegulations, and the FederalRegister," VirginiaLawyer
49 ( 2000 ): 53-55 ), but surely these questions havearisen
andbeen solved beforethe Internet era. On amore general
note, wemay each assess whether
our library has the title
suite from the Library of Congress Century of Lawmakingfor
a NewNation page, and whether electronicaccess may
expand our individual collections in a meaningful manner.
9. See the Program's mission statement at the bottomof the
mainCentury ofLawmakingfor aNewNation page.
10. The recent webusage data gathered by Media Metrixhave
shown thatlowerincome households are the fastest
growingsegment of Internet users. Although stillsmall in
terms of absolute numbers, this growth means that those
whohave traditionallybeen shut out of information
—
—
access regardless of the format will have greater opportunities in the future. As Media Metrix stated: "The
Internet, whilesmaller in size than the generalU.S. population, clearlylooks more like the mainstreampopulation
than everbefore." Exposure to, and skills obtained
through,the Internet willmean that more users will feel
less apprehensive to use web basedmaterials.This will
certainlyinclude FDLP commodities.See the Media
Metrix report at www.mediametrix.com/press/releases/
20000821.j5p.
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
13
Staying Digital
Recommendations on Preserving
New Jersey Government Information
in the Digital Age
Report of State Documents Interest Group of the "Report
oftheState Documents Interest Group of the Documents
Association of New Jersey, Ad-Hoc Committee for the
Preservation ofDocuments in ElectronicForm.
Adopted by the Documents Association of New Jersey, June 1,
2001
Executive Summary
Key Points:
ft The State of New Jersey now produces large amounts of
information in digital form. A policy to protect and preserve
that information is needed to ensure permanent public
access to this information.Developinga plan for permanent
public access will safeguard the State's investment in information and save New Jersey taxpayers money in the long
run.
ft Digital informationis fragile.Topreserve digitalinformation
over time, the information must be periodically copied or
"refreshed." After a period ofthree to five years digital information must be "migrated" to work withnewer softwareand
hardware or the information will beinaccessible.
ft Digital documentsmaybe less expensive than analogdocuments to create, but are more expensive to maintain over
time, given the costs of refreshing and migrating data.
ft Creators of digital information can enhance longevity
through the use of metadata that will make migration or
emulationof data easierand less expensive.
ft Documents that have enduring legal, historical or cultural
value are best protected by distributing them in both tangible and electronicformats.The Internet may offer greater
initial public access, but paper and microform are the only
media proven to last for periods of 50 to 100 years and
beyond.
Key Recommendations
ft The State should develop a plan to preserve government
information from the point of its creation and throughout its
life cycle. We recommend that digital documents include
descriptive metadata(e.g., XML) to facilitate migration of
data to new softwareand hardwareenvironments.
ft Government documents are created by many state and
municipal entities. A central repository is needed to ensure
permanent access to these documents.The State Library has
14
DttP
taken a leadership role in providingInternet access to documents created by many state agencies. Additional funding
and staffing are necessary for the Library to properly store
and safeguard valuable government information created in
both electronic and tangible formats.
ft Documents with enduringlegal, historical or cultural value
should continue to be distributedin both tangibleand electronic formats. Our current system of state depository
libraries provides the best method of preserving valuable
government informationfor long-term use.
Introduction
This report is the product of discussion among librarians who
oversee New Jersey state government document depositories.
Like many state governments, New Jersey now publishes many
government documents directly on the Internet. As librarians we
applaud these efforts to provide citizens with greater access to
government information.We are also concerned forthe long-term
viability of such documents. Without careful planning, much of
the digital informationcreated today will be gone tomorrow.
The major concern of this report is governmentpublications,
that is, substantive reports and monographs that have traditionallybeen distributed to state depository libraries, as opposed to
intra-agencyrecords, press releases and memorandathat are the
concern of the State Archives. But the Internet has blurred that
traditional distinction as agencies post both publications and
records on their Web sites. From the perspective of library
patrons, an electronicpublication is anything they can find on the
Internet. Internet postings of agency memoranda and press
releases are frequently cited in newspapers and scholarly publications. As librarians are called upon to locate and verify these
citations, our concernmust embraceallelectronic documentsthat
have continuinglong-term value. It is hoped that the recommendations made in this report will be of use to all state officials
responsible for the creation, dissemination, and preservation of
state government information, as well as the State Library and
State Archives.
Though the digital age has barely begun, we have already
lost tremendous quantities of data. Digital documents created
and stored in legacy software such as COBOL, C/PM, D-Base,
Wordstar, and evenMS-DOS, are now inaccessible to most computer users. The hardware necessary to view information stored
on 8" and 5 lA" floppies, 8-track and betamax tapes, and other
legacy formats has largely disappeared.
Government information is not immune from the threat of
technologicalobsolescence.The originalraw data from the 1960
decennial census was stored on a then state-of-the-artUNIVAC
computer. When the Census Bureau turned the data over to the
National Archives in the mid-1970s UNIVAC computers were
long obsolete. Heroic and costly rescue efforts recovered most,
but not all, of the data.Other items lost to the digitalblack hole
include much of the data from the Viking mission to Mars and
pre-1979 Landsat images of the earth. In neighboringNew York,
all of the computerized data from a comprehensive1960's study
.
-
land use and environmental data throughout the
that mapped
was
lost. The study had employedcustomized comentire state
no longer existed when the computer tapes
that
puter software
over
to
the New York State Archives.1
were turned
imagine
digital documents to be indestrucpeople
Many
crumble
or
fade like paper and they can be
tible. They don't
inexpensively.
Inreality,digital media are far
copied quickly and
microform.
All digital documents are
more fragile than paper or
on
magnetic
or magneto-opticalmedia
stored as computer files
such as computer disks or tapes. Computer files maybe erasedby
accidental exposure to a magnetic field or a surge in electric current. Exposure to oxidationand humidity can cause the substrate
material ofthe disk to degrade.Even withproper storage, digital
media degrade over time. According to National Archives, a CD
will last from five to fifty years, depending on the quality of its
manufacture.2 The lifespan of magnetic tape, under the best of
conditions, is measured in decades3 Unless the data is periodically "refreshed" by copyingit from one tape or disk to another,
it will become unreadable. And when digital data fails, it fails
completely.In contrast, archival qualitypaper andmicroform can
last up to 500 years.4
An even greater problem is that digital data is created to
work withina particular software and hardwareenvironment. As
the software and hardwarebecome obsolete, the data becomes
less accessible, and finally, inaccessible. Two possible solutions
existto rescue olderdocuments from a premature digital demise:
migration andemulation.Thesemethods are discussed in detail
in the section on digital preservationbelow.
For paper documents, decisions about preservation areusually made years after the document'screation when an archivist
or records manager appraisesits long-term value. If the document
is deemed worthy of preservation,steps are taken to ensure its
continued existence. Digital preservation requires a more proactive approach.Unless planning is done at a much earlierpoint,
ideally at the time the document is created, it will be costly and
perhaps impossible to preserve the document years later. This
reportrecommends steps the StateofNewJersey can take to preserve vital government information for generationsto come.
A final considerationin moving government information to
the Internet is the problem of the "digital divide."The digital
divide is a term used to refer to the differences, based on race,
gender, geography, economic status, and physical ability, in
access to information, the Internet, and other information technologies.s This term also includes differences in the knowledge
and ability to use informationand the technologicalskills needed
to access digital or electronic information.The difficulties experienced by users and potentialusers of digitalinformation complicate access andconfound their efforts to keep informed. Areas
affected by the digital divide include individuals who rely on
to make decisions and improve their quality of life;
businesses and economies that rely on informed customers and
employees; government agencies that seek to communicate current information to citizens; and the democratic process that
tehes on informed participants.
.
Staying Digital
By disseminating information via the Internet,
the State of
New Jersey has reached a greater audience
and providedcitizens
with quick and easy access to basic information
about state government. The Internet, however, does not reach everyone.
Providing alternateaccess through depositorylibraries
serves two
purposes: it makes government information accessible to
those
who cannot or willnot use the Internet, and it provides
a reliable
means of preserving that information for generations to
come.
New Jersey Government Documents
NewJersey has a vital andeffective depositoryprogram that dis-
tributes government documents to fifty-one libraries in every
corner of the state. This system ensures that New Jersey taxpayers can find importantgovernment informationclose to home.
In the past several years, most New Jersey governmental bodies
have undertaken efforts to publish documents directly on the
Internet.This allows some New Jerseyans to download government information directly to their computers at home or work.
Depository libraries offer additional access by providing the
publicwith computers and bycatalogingdigitaldocuments to aid
patrons in locatingspecific documents.
While computer savvy researchers may turn to the Internet
as the first stop, the life of a digitaldocument can be frustratingly
brief. The URL that workedlastweek turns up anerror message
today.Agencies mayredesign their Websites and removecontent
withoutnotice.Some agencies may leave reports on their servers
for years, others for only a few months.
To combatthe problem of shifting URLs and brokenlinks,
the State Library of New Jersey has established a web site entitledNJ Gov'tPublications on the Web, located at www.njstatelib.
org/cyberdesk/gbgday2.htm.This sitehas proved to be a reliable
and comprehensiveresource forNew Jersey librarians searching
for elusive state electronic documents. Despite the excellent
workof the State Library inmaintaining this site, it is not a longterm solution to the problem of disappearing documents.The
source files for the various government documents remain (or do
not remain) on the agency servers. The links or the file names
may be changed at any time. Older documents may be overwritten by newer documents with the same file name. There
does not appear to be any systematic policy for how long docuwill
ments will remain available on the agency servers and what
become of the documents when the agency decides to remove
them.
As state agencies move toward posting documents on the
Internet, depository libraries receive fewer documents in tan-
gible format. The number of documents shipped in 2000
dropped fifteen percent over 1998.6 This decrease is concentratedin a few state agencies.Documents shipped to depositories
by the Environmental Protection Agency dropped twenty seven
one
percent in the same period, legislative documents by forty
declined
Treasury
Department
percent and documents from the
by thirty eight percent.7
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
15
State Documents Interest Group
This shift, towardelectronic formats and away from tangible
documents, raises serious concerns for the long-term survival of
New Jersey government information. Without a comprehensive
plan to preserve electronic information, theState risks the loss of
vast amounts of information by the end of the decade.The next
section examines the topic of digital preservation and recommends specific actions theState can take to preserve government
information for the long-term.
Electronic Preservation
Digital documents are coded documents that consist of, at the
most basic level, zeroes and ones. These digital bits convey
information about the content and format of the document and
also about the software environment necessary to resurrect the
bits and bytes into a meaningful representation of the original
document. To view the coded document it must be viewed
within the software and hardware environment in which it was
created, or a good emulationof the original environment.Otherwise we are left with a meaningless string of zeroes and ones.
The codedbits and bytes of a digitaldocument are stored on
magnetic media such as floppydisks, hard disks, tape, zip drives,
CD-ROMs and DVDs. The average shelf life of a floppy disk is
two to three years. The average shelf life of a standardCD-ROM
is five to fifty years, although some highqualityopticaldisks may
last for up to 100 years.8 A document stored on a floppy disk can
be preservedby copyingit or "refreshing" it to a new disk. The
solution to digital preservation, however, is not as simple as
storing documents on high quality optical disks, or faithfully
refreshingthe data.In one hundred years (or even in ten years)
the software and hardwarenecessary to decode a digital document created today will no longer exist.To preserve the document for periodsbeyond a decade, additionalsteps are necessary.
The method most widely used to keep digital documents
accessible is migration. Migration is defined as "the periodic
transfer of digital materials from one hardware/software configuration to another, or from one generation of computer technology
to a subsequent generation."9 Migration is a more costly and
labor intensive method of preservation of data than simply
refreshing the data, but it is necessary if the document is to
remainusable beyondthe shortlifecycleof the softwarein which
it is embedded.
A simple example of migration is movinga document created in one version of word processing software to a newer version. Most word processing software programs will read the last
few generations of the same program withoutproblems or any
loss of content of formatting.Converting a document created in
Wordstar on a CP/M operating system twenty years ago is a far
greater challenge. It is possible(assuming that the datahas been
periodicallyrefreshed) to retrieve most of the content, ifnot the
formatting, if one is willing to invest time and money in the
recovery, but heroic recoveryis not the idealdocument management plan.
16
DttP
Documents that are createdinsimpler, standardized formats
are usually easier to migrate than documentsembedded incomplex formats of word processing software. Two widely used
coding standards are the American Standard Code for
Information Interchange or ASCII, and Unicode, a standard that
embraces a much larger character set than ASCII. Most word
processors willsave a documentin ASCII format whenthe author
selects the "txt" file extension. A universal format for graphic
images, Tagged Image File Format or TIFF was developed in
the 1980s. Many documents, however, are createdin proprietary
software formats thatbecomeobsoleteafter a few years. Savinga
master copy of an electronic document in open standardformats
such as ASCII, Unicode and TIFF will increase a document's
longevity andmake migration to newer formats easier.
Another migration strategy is to move the information from
less stable to more stable media.The simplest expressionof this
is copyingless stable digital files to paperor microform.Archival
quality paper and microform can last up to 500 years.The analog
copies are also not dependent on hardware or software for interpretation. This strategy may be acceptable for straight text documents, but more complex datais often lost through this method.
For example, a digital spreadsheet may contain embeddedformulas and have the functionality to manipulate the data in various ways. A printout ofthe spreadsheetpreserves only one static
view of the data.
Through the use of basic file formats andcareful refreshing
and migratingof data, text documents can be preservedfor many
years. More complex Internet documents, which combine text
with graphic images, sound files and videos, or contain
embeddedprograms(e.g.Java applets), are more difficult to preserve. In migrating multi-mediadigital documents, crucial elements of the formattingmay belost. To maintaincomplex digital
files, some researchers advocate another preservation method
known as emulation.
Emulation seeks to recreate a digital document's original
functionality, look, and feel.10 Emulation would create software
that would mimic the functionality of older software and hardware,allowinglegacydigital documents createdin obsolete software and hardware environments to be viewed on current
computer systems. Some researchers have been critical of this
strategy, arguing that there is no "magic bullet solution" to the
problem of digital preservation and that migration remains the
only proven method for preserving digital documents.
Emulationoffers the promise of preservingcomplex digital files,
but finding a practical method of emulation will require much
more research.
To facilitate bothmigration andemulation strategies,digital
archivists advocate applyingdescriptivemetadatato a document
at or near the time of its creation. Traditionally, librarians have
used metadatato describe the intellectualcontent of documents,
both analogand digital,in their librarycatalogs. An exampleof a
metadata standard used by most libraries is US MARC. Other
metadatastandards include Dublin Core, SGML and XML. For
preservationpurposes, metadatacan beused to describe the soft-
„
ware and hardware environment in which a document was created, as well as information about its appearance and functionality. Metadata can also be used to embed a "digital signature"
that can serve to verify a document's provenance and authenticity. While much research is being done to develop universal
standards, as of the writing of this report, there is no universally
accepted standard for descriptivemetadata. Research to develop
a uniform standard for preservationmetadatais being conducted
by OCLC and the Research Libraries Group12 and the National
Archives.13
Digital preservation is a labor-intensive effort, and therefore
Staying Digital
,
documents, the work of the federal Government Printing
Office offers a good model for cataloging electronic government documents.
ft Cooperation among all state agencies and
officials responsible for the creation and dissemination of electronic documents is essential. State agencies should work closely with
the State Library andState Archives to developpreservation
strategies for digital information.
ft The State should developa master plan to preserve its evergrowing store of digital information. Unless planning and
resources are directed at preserving the state's digitalinformationbase, the state faces a catastrophic loss of vital information in the next decade.
costly. A report done for the British Library in 1998 enumerates
some of the costs of creating, managing and preserving digital
information. 14 The report argues that the costs of digital preservation can be minimizedby careful planning from the point of
creation of the data and throughout its life cycle. The next sec- Conclusion
tion offers recommendations for the State that will reduce the
costs of preservation efforts to the taxpayers while ensuringper- The State of New Jersey has entered the digital age and now
provides both information and services to many of its citizens
manent public access to vital government information.
directly over the Internet. For the State to remaindigitalit must
take immediate steps to preserve its digitalheritage.New Jersey
Recommendations
is fortunate to have a pro-active State Library that has already
enduringlegal,
Documents
that
have
historical
ft
or cultural taken steps to provide greater access through a central web site
value should be preserved to ensure permanent public with links to many agency documents, but more is needed.
access.
Preservationof state government information over the long-term
ephemeral
ft Some government documents are
and do not will require careful planning, clear policies and standards for
long-term
preservation.By
merit
identifying those docu- those who create information and resources. These efforts, if
preserved
ments that must be
and those that may be deleted undertaken now, will not only save money for New Jersey taxperiod
after a
of time, the State can maximize its preserva- payers, they will preserve the heritage of vital state information
tion resources.
for generations to come.
ft State digital documentsof enduring value should be stored
in a central repository.Placingsource files on the servers of
the State Library or State Archives would protect informa- Contributors to the Report
tion from deletionandallow for the assignment of a permaSusan Kadezabek
nent uniform resource locator or PURL.
—
ft Documents that must be preserved for periods of greater Susan Lyons Report Editor
than a decade shouldbe distributedintangible format to the Shelley Myer
State's depository libraries. Paper and microform are stable Susan Sabatino
media that willensure cost-effectivepreservation and access Dorothy Warner
to the intellectual content of valuableState documents.
ft Where possible, master copies of documents should be
Participants
stored in open standard formats, such as ASCII, Unicode, Committee
HTML,XML or TIFF.
ft The State should explore embedding digital documents GeetaliBasu, County College of Morris
with descriptive metadatathat willenhance the chances for Carole Bruce, Seton Hall University
Rutgers University
successful migration of the documents to new software and Mary Alice Cicerale,
University
Rutgers
Mary
Fetzer,
hardware environments.
Public Library
Grice,
East
Brunswick
The State Library should catalog digital documents of Ann
University
Kadezabek,
Monmouth
enduring value. This will increase the likelihood that Susan
School-Newark (Chair, Ad-Hoc
Law
Rutgers
Lyons,
libraries willinclude state documentsin their online catalogs Susan
Committee)
and increase public access to these resources. This comMyer, Rutgers SCILS GraduateStudent
Shelley
mittee recognizes that additional staff resources will be necMurtha,
RowanUniversity
Peggy
essary to catalog state electronic documents. While there is
Public Library
Saurs,
Laura
Newark
still debate about the best methods of cataloging electronic
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
17
State Documents Interest Group
Susan Sabatino, William Paterson University (Chair, State
Documents InterestGroup)
Ella Strattis, Rowan University
Dorothy Warner, Rider University
4. Puglia,Steven, CreatingPermanentandDurable Information:
PhysicalMedia andStorageStandards, CulturalResource
Management, No. 2-1999, 25. Availableonline at [www.cr,
nps.gov/crm/] and [http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/
Documents Association of New Jersey 2001
Executive Committee
5. WhatIs the DigitalDivide? Washington, D.C.: American
Library Association, Office for Information Technology
Policy.Availableat [www.ala.org/oitp/digitaldivided.what.
—
A. Hays Butler President
—
Susan Lyons Vice-President/President-Elect
—
Ann B.Grice Secretary
—
Wen-Hua Ren Treasurer/Web Page Editor/Past-President
—
Mary Alice Cicerale Member-at-Large
—
Laura Saurs Chair, Federal Documents Interest Group/
Archivist
—
Susan Sabatino Chair, State Documents InterestGroup
—
Mary Fetzer Chair, InternationalDocuments InterestGroup
—
GeetaliBasu MembershipCommitteeChair
—
Ellen Boncarti NewsletterEditor
—
Jan Wanggard Liaison to Rutgers SCILS m
References
Waters, Donaldand John Garret, PreservingDigital
Information: Report of the TaskForce on ArchivingofDigital
Information, 1996, 2-3. [www.rlg.org/ArchTF/]_
2. NationalArchives andRecords Administration,http://web1.
LPSI447]
html]
6. Myer, Shelley, Availabilityof New Jersey State Government
Documents Online. Graduate research paper,Rutgers
UniversitySchool of Communication, Information and
Library Studies, 2000, 3.
7. Ibid., 4.
8. NationalArchives and Records Administration, http://webgopher.nara.gov/O/managers/archival/papers/optical/critiss.txt
9. Waters and Garret, PreservingDigital Information, 6.
10. Rothenberg,Jeff, AvoidingTechnologicalQuicksand:Findinga
Viable TechnicalFoundationfor DigitalPreservation.The
Council on Library and InformationResources, 1999, 17.
11. Bearman, David, "Reality andChimeras in the
Preservationof Electronic Records," D-Lib Magazine,April
1999. [www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/bearman/04bearman.html]
12. OCLC/RLG Working Group on PreservationMetadata.
PreservationMetadatafor DigitalObjects: A Review of theState
of the Art. January 31, 2001. [www.oclc.org/digitalpreservation/presmeta_wp.pdf]
gopher.nara.gov/O/managers/archival/papers/optical/critiss.txt. 13. Thibodeau,Kenneth, "Buildingthe Archives of the
Future," D-LibMagazine,February 2001.
See also the Stanford ConservationOnline (CoOL) Web
site on electronic storage media for additionalreports and
[www.dlib.org/februaryol/thibodeau/02thibodeau.html]
links on the longevity of electronicmedia at:
14. Hendley, Tony.Comparison ofMethods &Costs of Digital
http://palimpset.Stanford.edu/electronic-records/electronicPreservation.British Library Innovation Report No. 106,
storage-media.
1998. [www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/tavistock/
3. Van Bogart,John WC, Magnetic TapeStorageandHandling,
hendley/hendley.html].
CommissiononPreservationand Access and the National
MediaLaboratory,7995. [www.clir.org/pubs/
reports/pubs4/]
18
DttP
Get 'Em While They're
Young
Outreach Ideas for K-12
Tammy
Stewart
federal depositorylibrarians, weknow the importanceof
promoting our documents collections to various audiences.One such audience is the K-12 schools. The library
literatureis full of articlesabout what goodsources of information
As
documents can be for K-12 school assignments, but we need to
do more. We need to reach out to the teachers and library media
specialists that can bestlead students to this material.Here are a
few ideas that have helped me to promote the Government
Documents Collection at Southwest Missouri State University
(SMSU).
AlthoughIknew that there were lots of materials in our collection that would be helpful to students, teachers, and library
media specialists in the K-12 environment, Icould not pinpoint
what would be more helpful for 6th graders or 10th graders.
SMSU has a strong teachereducation program and works closely
with area schools, plus our LIS department certifies School
Library Media Specialists, so Iknew Ihad some good connections to consult. Cherri Jones, our Education Librarian, and I
were talkingone day about this subject and werealizedthat our
skills were complementary.We began to meet to discuss project
ideas for reaching out to teachers and school library media specialists.
Our first effort resulted in a PowerPoint presentation,entitled "Cheap and Easy: Using Government Information to
Enhance the K-12 Library", which we presentedat theMissouri
Association of School Librarians (MASL) Annual Conference.
The first part of the presentationconsisted of a generaloverview
of the Federal Depository Library Program, and directions for
how to locate a depositorylibrary nearby. We then introduced a
number of federally-producedcurriculum kits. These items are
housed inMeyer Library's Curriculum Resource Center rather
than in the Government Documents Department,so thateducation students canaccess andbrowse them more easily.Before the
workshop Cherri had taken several of these kits and divided
them into parts, identifying each part with a colored shape; we
placed these on the chairs in the room. Participants were then
asked to bring their booklets, brochures, posters, CD-ROMS,
etc., to the section of the room marked with a "red square" or
"green circle" and to spend a few minutes discussing with their
group the contents of the kit. Then each group talked about the
total contents of their kit with others in the workshop.After this,
1 introduced them to "Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for
Kids". Cherri and Ieach selected and showed two or three different U.S. government Web sites for children. Iwrappedup the
Presentation with information on how to contact me. This presentation wasvery wellreceived andthe evaluations wereexcellent.
Next, we submitted an article entitled "Cheap
and Easy:
Enhancing your Collection with government documents" to
Library Talk: the Magazine for Elementary SchoolLibraryMedia
& Technology Specialists. Our article was accepted
for publication in the November/ December 2000 issue. This
article was a
written version of the presentation discussed above,
covering
the basic information about how to access government
information onlineand in traditionalformats. We included a brief
bibliography on various topics that might be of interest in planning a curriculum unit, such as space and nutrition. These
sources were in a variety of formats. In April 2001, Cherri and I
joined with two other colleagues, J.B. Petty, SMSU Library
Science Coordinator and Dea Borneman, Library Media
Specialist for GreenwoodLaboratory School, to present a workshopdealingwith civil andhuman rights materials for theMASL
annual conference. Since SMSU's Meyer Library was recently
appointed as a United Nations depositorylibrary, Iincluded a
brief mention of international issues, although the program
mostly dealt withhuman/civil rights issues in the United States.
Ialso showed conference attendeeshow to access the Library of
Congress's "American Memories" Website and the Justice
Department Website, along with some paper materials on the
again
subject.
Most recently,Ipresented a three and a half hour workshop
for the Southwest Missouri Center for Educational Excellence.
Attendees served in various positions within the K-12 field,
including administrators, classroom teachers and library media
specialists. This presentation was similar to the one given at
MASL, but a lab was available so that Icould provide the attenhad the luxury of
dees with some hands-on training. Also, since I
two to three hours, Iwas able to show them more Web sites and
in more detail.Iwas also able to show them several sources that
Iwould recommend for school library collections. Later in the
morning, Iseparated the participants into groups and had them
look at curriculum kits.Each group was to elect a spokesperson
who presented to the group a "creative" way to use the kit they
were given. We also played a brief game of "Stump the
Librarian". They came up withtopics and, ifIcouldnot come up
with a site orsource to referthem to, they won aposter. (Ihad two
free posters from ALA conference thatserved as the prizes.)
One thing Ihave learned through working with my colleagues in the education field is thatcollaborative teaching is an
important issue in the K-12 community, particularlythe concept
of collaboration between the school library media specialist and
the classroom teacher. Cherri and Iplan to write a series of short
articles on specific curriculum topics, such as rocks or drug and
alcohol abuse. We also hope to take an updated version of our
presentation to the AASL (American Association of School
Librarians) Conference in the next year or two. This wouldreach
librarians, who could then carry the
a nationwide audience of
colleagues with whom
message back to the administrators and
Tammy Stewart, GovernmentDocuments Librarian, Southwest
Missouri State University, Duane G. Meyer Library
Soring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
19
____
,
Stewart
need to be educated regardingthe availabilityof this information
they work. Ialso would like to bring a PowerPoint presentation
Partnering with those who work in the education
form of grant at an early age.
to the rural schools in our district through some
making your promotionalefforts sucfunding to field may be just the key to
funding,since these educators often may nothave the
teach,
"v
cessful. Teamup and
attend conferences and workshops.
to
One of the best ways to promote your collection may be
Citizens
education.
reach out to those who work with children's
"Help, my govdocs are a MESSI!"
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nPPds'
Iiccuo.
'Round the Table
ALA Midwinter 2002
GODORT Highlights, New Orleans, LA
Ann E. Miller, PaSt-Qair/
mittee on the issue of removal of government information, inviting
liaisons from
rr.nr.DT
OUUUKI
other ALA groups.
State and Local Documents Task
Midwinter is considered ALA's working Force continued its discussion of state legmeeting.And GODORT membership did islator web sites with Jody Fagan. The
indeed accomplish much in New Orleans. task force also discussed upcoming proFortunately, there seemed to be timefor gram in Atlanta "Innovations in State
beignets, gumbo and walking in the Government
Information Sources"
including proposed speakers and direcFrench Quarter as well.
On Saturday morning GODORT tions for the program. In addition the task
Chair Cindi Wolff unveiled a new forcereviewedthe continuing work on the
GODORT update. Each task force con- State and Local Documents cataloging
tributed a speaker ona topic of interest in toolbox, and the completion of the
federal, international, and state and local housingagreement at UCLS of the docudocuments. Patricia McDermott of the ments on documents collection.
ALA Washington Office led off the
In its meeting, International Documorning with a presentation on agency ments Task Force formedwork groups for
restrictions on access to federal govern- three projects. One will work in conjuncment information, implications for the
tion with the Cataloging Committee and
general public, and possible responses. Stateand LocalDocuments Task Force to
Suzanne Edam of OECD spoke on "The integrate the IDTF Toolbox for ProcesOECD:The Shape of Its Digital Future." sing and Cataloging International and
Her presentation reviewed publication Foreign Government Documents with
programs both in print andelectronic for- those of the Cataloging Committee and
mats. Jody Fagan of Southern Illinois SLDTF. The second will provide a
University at Carbondalegave a presenta- detailed report on IDTF's development
tion based on her article assessing state of a comprehensive database covering
legislature web sites as the State and IGOs and NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Local Documents Task Force contribu- The databaseis intended as an alternative
tion to the morning. Finally, Francis to commercial products to which very few
Buckley, Superintendent of Documents institutions, particularly those in Africa,
and Gil Baldwin of the Government can subscribe. The final work group will
Printing Office provided a short update to assist IFLA in the development and
the activities of the Federal Depository implementation of an online directory of
Library Program and answered questions international document specialists. Ofthe
from the floor.
many updates, one was very encouraging.
In the afternoon task forces met for Gunda Trumkalne of the United Nations
their individual meetings. The Federal Publications reported that in response to
Documents Task Force continued its pro- objections by institutions and orgamzagram with speakers from the National tions, including GODORT, a revised
Technical Information Service, the Public license will soon be issued for the UN
Document Room of the Nuclear Regu- Treaty Database. The new license will
htory Commission and the Department of acknowledge that libraries cannot be held
Energy's Office of Scientific and accountable for theactions of databaseusers.
Technical Information. During the busiCommittees were also busy in New
*ess meeting FDTF discussed a number Orleans. Rare and Endangered Governof key issues. The FDTF sent forward a ment Publications discussed theSerial Set
the
recommendation recommending that the Inventory that Donna Koepp otOnly
has
initiated.
Kansas
GODORT Chair establish an ad hoc com- University of
two groups have turned in their inventory
and others are encourage to complete the
inventory, or begin one if one is not
underway. August Imholtz was not
present to discuss his Pre-Serial Set
Inventory though he sent a summary to
the chair. The committeediscussed how
the work could be continued without
August as he has access to collections not
readilyavailable to others.The committee
recommended that the chair of the committee write a letter to August Imholtz
thanking him for all the work he has contributed over the years.
The Cataloging Committee discussed the implementation of an integrated library system at the Government
Printing Office with GilBaldwin of GPO.
Pat Woodof Firstgov and John Kavaliunas
of the Census Bureauboth gave presentations to the Government Information
Technology Committee on products from
theirindividualagencies. GITCO also discussed the e-competencies idea with
Charlene Cain of the Depository Library
Council, as wellas plans for a Census 2000
toolbox, and updates and enhancements
to the Web Page Template.
As a result of suggestions from the
FDTF discussion groups on removal of
materials from federal web pages the
Education Committee was asked to
develop a press packet to help librarians
explain to the public and the press
regarding the issues involved. The committeediscussed the content ofthe packet
include an event chronology, annotated
list of available materials, listing of applicable laws, presentations on security
issues andlinks to "best practices" in the
event of a removal directive or law
enforcement visit. The committee also
discussed the value and intent of evaluation tools in bibliographic instruction as
well as suggestions for a mini-program at
the annual meeting.
The Ad Hoc Committee on
Digitization of Government Information
reviewed their draft report. Comments
need to be sent to CathyHartman by April
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
23
'Round the Table
1, 2002. In addition, the committee dis-
cussed the digitization program planned
forthe ALA meetingin Toronto.This program will be designed so that it can be
taken on theroad to state groupsandother
associationmeetings.
As always the LegislationCommittee
met multiple times with a full agenda.
Among the issues discussed were House
Committee on Government Reform
action requesting that Executive Order
13233 regarding presidential records be
withdrawn, implications of the USA
Patriot Act and Attorney General
Ashcroft's FOIA Amendment, the status
of 5.803 the E-Government bill. The
committee endorsed three resolutions
during conference: A Resolution
ConcerningGovernmentInformationand
Security, Resolution Concerning Executive Order 13233, Further Implementationof the PresidentialRecords Act
and Resolution on the Federal Activities
Inventory Reform Act (FAIR Act) PL.
105-270. Legislation and the ALA
Committeeon Legislation,Subcommittee
on GovernmentInformation(GIS) recom-
Among the items
mended that thePresident of ALA in conPublications
Committeereviewed
was a new proposal
sultation with the GODORT Chair and
Chair of GIS appoint an Ad Hoc for an electronic occasional paper series,
Committee to gather information, and The plan was well received and the cornsuggest policy, regarding a government mittee will form working groups to review
information issues inlight of current secu- policy issues and plan a pilot project.
rity concerns. The committeeshouldhave They also reviewed the status of DttP,
broad representation from within ALA. publications in process and considered
Finally Legislation voted with GIS to additionalrevenuegeneratingpublications.
In addition to hosting the New
endorse in principle the draft "Principles
Members Luncheon, Membership disfor the NetworkedWorld".
Looking forward to 2003 in Toronto, cussed the Mentoring program that has
Program Committeerecommended a pre- paired 21 individuals with GODORT
conference on "Digitalizationof Govern- mentors. The committee also noted that
GODORT membership is down 2.4 perment Information" sponsored by GICO
and the Ad Hoc Committee on cent and that strategies for increasing
Digitalization and a program on the membership are needed.The committee
"NationalLibraries" sponsoredbyFDTF. has reserved the Margaret Mitchell house
The Nomination Committee forwarded and museum for the 30th anniversary
five names on behalfof GODORT to the receptionin Atlanta.
Public Printer to serve on Depository
It is a challenging time to be in govLibrary Council and brought forward a ernment information and GODORT
slate of candidates for the 2002 election. members are working hard to bring netBylaws considered and recommended a working and educational opportunities,
bylaw change to the membership that discussion sessions and leadershipduring
moves the Past-Chair from the this time.We look forward to seeing youin
PublicationsCommittee.
Atlanta.
2002 GODORT Award Winners
James Bennett Childs
Award
In addition to working at the library,
Ridley taught the Public Documents
course at theSchool ofLibrary Science for
14 years and has advised over 50 masters
The 2002 recipient of the James Bennett papers As his nomination
letter stateds
addsAwardis RidleyR.Kessler, Jr., curRidleyKessler casts a large shadowb
rently the AssistantHead of Reference at field of government
documents librarianthe University of North Carolina (UNC), ship Not only is he devoted
tQ his profes.
ChapelHill.The Childs awardis a tribute sion, but he has inspired
„
others
tQ ente
„
to an individual who has made a lifetime
the field as wdL
andsignificant contribution to the field of
Ridley has served as a wonderful
government documents hbrananship.
advisor to his students whde they
Ridley began his 30-plus-year career library school, and he
continues the menin government documents at UNC as the
torineLUUII& dna
and aa
advisinosft^r most
mnCf ot this
tv;, stuvising alter
Assistant Documents Librarian in 1970. dents enter the profession.
It is not
This position was followed by a2
Vz year uncommonfor Ridley to check up on "his
stmt as the International Documents babies-encouraging
them to attend
Libranam after which he became the meetings of the Depository Library
FederalDocuments/RegmnalLibrarian in Council,activelyparticipateinGODORT,
1973. Twenty years later he moved into and by all means, to ask questions.
his current position as Assistant Head of
As the Regional Librarian for North
ReferenCe
Carolina, Ridleyhas gone wellbeyond the
-
.
.
-
24
DttP
norm to support and counsel his selectives. Ridley has taken a lead in projects
directedtoward operationalissues, such as
the several attempts to tackle problems
associated with Regionals and superseding documents Most recently Ridley
has co-spearheaded efforts to define
seryice expectations in
deposi
Ub
electronicenvironment.
,
Ridley s
contribudons t0 the
professif)n
many Just to name a few
Depository
he w
Qf
Library Council from 1987-1990. During
" "
, r^
v- term
naao
his
as Chair ofr the Council-i (198
1990), he brought a new level of excellenceand commitmentto the Council and
fostered new communicationand cooperation between GPO and the depository
community. Ridley was a member of the
__ _
-
__
GODORT Legislation Committee in
1992-1993 and 1994-1995 and Chair of
the Committee in 1994. Even when he
.
—
—
■
on the Legislation
he
would attend the
Committee
meetings
and offer assistance
numerous
Ridley
has
testified for the
advice.
and
Library
Associationbefore
American
— congressional committees three times twice
in favor of GPO's budget and onceon the
subject of "Government Information as a
Public Asset." He has been on the
GODORT AdHocCommitteeonGODORT
Organization and chaired the GODORT
Ad Hoc Committee on GPO/2001 Vision.
Ridley was part of an informal group
(Dupont Circle Group) that initiated discussion on reshaping the Federal
Depository LibraryProgram (FDLP). He
was instrumental in helping to organize
the "Chicago Congerence on the Future
of Federal Government Information",
held in October 1993. And he was a
member of the Coalition of Many
Organizations (COMA)/ARL, ALAGODORT, ALA, SLA, AALL— a groupof
membersfromthe four major library associations to discuss and come up with a
general statement concerning mutual
agreement on what must constitute the
Federal Depository Library Program in
any future Congressional legislation.
In addition to being awarded the
CIS/GODORT/ALA Documents to the
People Awardin 1992, Ridleyreceivedthe
Distinguished Alumni Award from the
UNC-CH School of Library and
Information Science in 1996 and was the
third ever recipient of the University of
North Carolina Mentor Award for
Lifetime Achievement in 2000.
What better way to honor someone
who has devoted his career to providing
access to government information, who
has shared his enthusiasm and love for
government information with colleagues,
students, faculty, staff, members of
Congress, congressional staff, and "anyone else who will listen"then by awarding
them the James Bennet Childs Award?
wasn't officially
CIS/GODORT/ALA
"Documents to the People" Award
The 2002 recipient of the CIS/
GODORT/ALA "Documents to the
People" Award is Andrea Sevetson This
'Round the Table
award
is presented to the
individual
library, institution, or other
noncommercial group that has most
effectively
Andrea has for many years worked
tirelessly to promote timely access to government information advocated for no-fee
encouraged the use of government
docu- access to government information. She
ments in support of library
service. The served as an at-large representative
to the
award includes a cash stipend and
has Inter-Association Working Group on
been sponsored Congressional InforGovernment Information Policy which
mationService, Inc., since 1977.
worked on reforming Title 44 during
This awardis being given in recogni- 1997-98.
Andrea was appointed to the
tion of Andrea's impact on the ability
of Depository Library Council of the Public
GODORT to effectively serve the inter- Printer to thePublic
Printer in 1999 andis
ests and needs of government
documents currently serving as its chair.
librarians, her work on the GODORT web
site, andfor her organization efforts for the
round table.
Her leadership, collegiality and
ability to articulate issues have con- Catharine J. Reynolds Research
tributed greatly to the cohesion and suc- Grant Award
cess of the round table. She has This research award which is supported
demonstrated long-term dedication by by a $2000 grant from Readex, a Division
undertaking many positionsinGODORT of Newsßank, Inc. for
the purpose of
A sampling her GODORT positions encouragingresearchthat will
make a coninclude International Documents Task tribution to the field of documents librariForce Coordinator, GODORT Chair anship. Two projects have been awarded
(1996-97), and Chair Bylaws and funding
for 2002.
OrganizationCommittee.
The DepositoryLibrary Community,
In 1994 Andrea worked with several Members of Congress, the American
of GODORT committees to create a public and all users of government inforGopher site for GODORT. This effort mationare fortunate to have in theirmidst
grew into the sophisticated GODORTweb professional librarians who continuously
site (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT) have important, innovative ideas and act
Andrea served as the GODORT Web upon them. The need for permanent, free
Administrator until 2001 and during her access to CongressionalResearch Service/
tenure the web site developed into a
CRS Reports has been a cause for concern
major resource for GODORT members for decades among government informaand those interested in government infor- tion specialists and others who support
mation policy. Andrea enhanced the site open access to U.S. Government docufor content, she added a search engineand ments and information. Cathy Hartman
createdstandards for metadatafor the site and Valeric Glenn have been selected to
and for all GODORT committee sites or receive one of the 2002 Readex/
pages. She worked with committeechairs GODORT/ALA Catharine J. Reynolds
or Web administrators to accomplish this Research Grant Awards. Their award-winwork. GODORT members have become ning study revolvesaround capturing elecdependent on the currency and accuracy tronic copies of CRS Reports and making
of the information contained on the site these permanently available without fee
As
and recognizeit as a major resource in the to the public. part of this investigation
a database storage strucwill
build
they
librarianship.
practice of documents
searchandretrievalof
ture
to
facilitate
the
knowlskills,
Andrea's organizational
The
award
will
be
used
to
cover
reports.
policy
edge of government information
costs of additional staff and also
and familiarity with the structure of ALA the
training
in support of this appliedresearch
has also assisted the numerous committee
project. Cathy and Valeric anticipate this
and task force chairs. One ofthe most sigwork willserve as a model for similar projnificant organizational contribution was ects,
and contribute to the growing body
Andrea's reorganization of the GODORT of
technical information regarding the
Policies and Procedures manual.
Readex/GODORT/ALA
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
25
'Round the Table
organization, and mechanisms for
accessing and archiving substantial digital
collections.
The success of this project is a foregoneconclusion. The CRS Reports collection will becomepart of the Cybercemetary.
The Cybercemetary is the Government
Documents Department, University of
North Texas Libraries', content partnership with the U.S. Government Printing
Office. Cathy Hartman is currently Head
of the UNT Libraries' Government
Documents Department, and Valeric
Glenn is the Documents Librarian at
UNT, and also its Electronic Resources
Coordinator and Texas Documents
Librarian.
Cathy Hartman led the way in the
formation of the Cybercemetary site, and
continues to have primary responsibility
for this unique resource. In addition, she
is responsible for the establishment of
related digital partnerships at both
Federal and State levels, including that
with the Texas Secretaryof State's Office
to electronicallyhouse the back issues of
the Texas Register. Cathy has been a
member of the Depository Library
Councilsince 2000, and will becomechair
in fall, 2002. She has contributed greatly
to ALA GODORT. At present she is chair
of its Ad Hoc Committee on the
Digitizationof Government Publications,
and a member of the roundtable's
Nominating Committee.Cathy has previously served as GODORT's Awards
Committee chair, and was recently a
member of the American Library
Association's Government Information
Subcommittee of the Committee on
Legislation. She has also been extremely
active within the Texas Library
Association, including TLA's GODORT
organization.Cathy is generous in sharing
her knowledge and expertise with other
professionals;she has compiled an extensivelistof publications and presentations,
and given numerous guest lectures at
UNT's School of Library and Information
Sciences, during the past dozen years.
Cathy Hartman is an alumnus of UNT's
SLIS. Valeric Glenn is a May 2000MSLS
graduate of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill's Information and
26
DttP
Library Science program.She is currently
member of ALA GODORT's LegislationCommittee.She isalso responsible
for the committee's web site. Valeric has
also contributed to the Ad Hoc
Committee on Digitization of Government Information, and is an active
member of one its Working Groups.
GODORT members and fans can rest
assured that this research project and its
results will receive "perpetual care" from
these award recipients, and we look forward to having permanent and free access
to the CRS Reports digital collection.
Congratulations to Cathy and Valeric!
They are most deservingof this award
The second 2002 research grant
recipient is John S. Walters who has been
awarded $500 to defray the cost of travel
to the National Archives and Records
Administration and other libraries in the
Washington DC area.John will be continuing his research in the field of U.S. government publications in order to expand
the various articlesthathe has writtenand
published serially over the last 10 years
into a book-lengthmanuscript.
John is currently the Regional
Depository Librarian at Utah State
University(USU). He has writtenten articles on the topicof U.S. government publishing, covering such issues as the Joint
Committee on Printing from 1919-1921,
the Federal Depository LibraryProgram,
fugitive publications, the Monthly Labor
Review, and the politics of U.S. government printing and publishing from 19601970. These articles have all been
published in Government Publications
Review or the Journal of Government
a
Bernadine Abbott Hoduski
Founders Award
No award was presented for 2002.
W. David Rozkuszka
Scholarship
The 2002 recipient of the David
Rozkuszka scholarship is Laura Sare, who
is a library assistant in the Government
Documents Department at the Cornette
Library of West Texas A&M University.
She is responsible for all aspects of
recording serials in the librarys online
system, includingworking withelectronic
serials and cleaning up document serial
records after the library ILS transition.
She supervises students, tracks depository
claims, and works at the mainReference
desk.She is active in the universitysStaff
Council and is the current webmasterfor
theCouncil.
While researching her masters thesis
history,
in
Laura became very comfortable
at the Cornette Library at West Texas
A&M. She describes her documents position as the first job where she really
looked forward to going to work, and a
place where she really belonged. Laura
was motivated to become a librarian in
order to become more involved in management, in order to be part of the information loop and to helpdevelop solutions
to problems, both in the library and in the
larger realmof government informationat
the nationallevel.
Her long-term goal is to work in an
Information.
academic library in cataloging of governJohn has been the recipient of four ment documents. She is especially interBernard M. Fry/Journal
of Government ested in the archiving of government
Information awards for the year's best information through projects such as the
article (1993, 1994, 1996, and1998). John's Web
Document Digital Archive Project
work has alsobeen nominated twice(1991 and the
Texas TRAIL project. She would
and 1993) for the James Madison Prize also like to
do retrospective cataloging to
from the Society for History in the incorporate
all documents in the online
Federal Government for the best article catalogs and to digitize important older
on governmenthistory.
government documents for their preservaPrior to his current position at Utah tion
and long-term access.
State University, John held documents
Laura is enrolled in the University of
positions at University of
Central Florida Illinois Graduate School of Library
and University of Richmond.
Science.
'Round the Table
Proposed Bylaws Changes
Bylaws changes
The followingproposed
to, and approved by, the
presented
were
GODORT Steering Committee on
They will be voted on at
January 22, 2002.
Meeting
at ALA in Atlanta,
the Business
f. Publications Committee. This andendorsesthe members theDttPEditorial
of
committee is composed of eleven nine Board upon recommendation
of the DttP
members, including a Chair, a Vice- editor.
Chair/Chair-Elect elected annuallyr-ehe
Rationale:The change in the makethe up and functions of the Publications
GODORT Treasurer, the Editor of Committee reflect what the Publications
June 17, 2002.
language— Documents to the People (DttP) (non- Committeehas moved toward in the past
Proposed deleted
voting), the GODORT Website Admini- few years. The GODORT Past Chair is
sHilmihrnngh
—
italics
strator
language
who also serves as the editorof the moving to the membership committee
Proposed new
GODORT Policies and Procedures becauseof the increased continuityon the
Manual (non-voting), the Chair of the Publications Committee (less need to for
Proposed Changes to
Notable Documents Panel, the Chair of theGODORTPastChair on Publications)
Standing
the EditorialReview Board, and one rep- and the need for the focus on
X:
resentative
from each of the Task Forces Membership that GODORT has seen in
Committees, Sections D, F.
appointed to staggered two-year terms. recent years.
The Publications Committee shall have
Section 3.
The Round Table shall have the fol- the responsibility of:
(1) Coordinating and disseminating Proposed Changes to
lowing standing committees:
d. Membership Committee. This information by issuing DttP, GODORT Article V: Duties of the
committee is composed of nine members Policies and Procedures Manual or other Officers
appointed by the GODORT Chair with publicationsor through correspondence to
Section 2.Assistant Chair/Chairthe approvalof the SteeringCommittee to memberaffiliates;
(2)
Elect.
staggered two-year terms. This committeeis
composed of nine members appointed by the
The Assistant Chair/Chair-Elect shall
GODORT Chair to staggeredtwo-year terms,
serve as a member of the Nominating
ijApprovingany
and the immediate Past GODORT Chair.
Committee, aft4the Budget Committee,
Four members shall be appointedin even publications produced under the auspices of
the Schedule Committee, and as Chair of the
years and five in odd years. The Chair of ALAIGODORT;
Program Committee.
(3) Compiling information with the
this committee shall be appointed from
among the committee members by the assistance of the Editorial Review Board
GODORT Chair with the approval of the on publication options and procedures, Section 3. Immediate Past Chair.
Steering Committee. The Membership reviewing all publications projects and The Immediate Past Chair shall serve as a
Committee shall actively promote mem- making recommendations on publishing memberof the Executive Committee, the
Committee;
bership inALA and the Round Table and to the GODORT Steering
Committee, the Budget
a
Notable Steering
Maintaining
(4)
shall promote participation of Round
Committee tH*i the Publication MemberTable membersinALA and Round Table Documents Panel responsible for the ship Committee andthe Schedule Committee
an annual
activities. The Committee shallalso main- compilation and publication of
and shall perform such duties as assigned
documents;
government
significant
tain communication with state and local list of
by the GODORT Chair.
(5) Maintaining rhr Diiccting the
affiliates, assisting and/or advising with
Rationale: This brings the duties of
projects, interests and activities groups.
conforthe Immediate Past Chair into
changed
The Chair of the Committee shall desigin
been
mance with what has
nate one member of the committee as
includes
in
and
Article X (Committees),
coordinator of these activities.
Chair/Chair-Elect
the duties of Assistant
Rationale: To affirm the emphasis
and the Immediate Past Chair the memthat GODORT is placing on recruiting
(May 2001) Schedule
wch bership on the new
ar>d maintaining membership, the
(6) Maintaining iln GODORT
by the GODORT
on
DttP, recom- Committee voted
publisher
as
of
Functioning
eiwMembership.
GODORT Past Chair is being moved
to the
horn the Publications Committee to the mendingandsubmittingfor endorsementeditor,
2/4/02 eh.2
the
DttP
GODORTSteeringCommittee
Membership
Article
Committee.
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
27
'Round the Table
Cartographic Users Advisory Council (CUAC) 2001
Meeting Minutes
April 17-18, 2001, LC G&M, Washington, D.C.
Reported by Donna Koepp
Copyright and Free Access
Issues
Mark Thomas
Copyright
The United States has a long traditionof
government-fundedbasic research to provide the infrastructure needed for an
informed citizenry and to provide the
building blocks for academic and private
research. It also has a tradition of copyright-free government publications,based
on the belief that the property rights of
government information resides with the
people as a whole.This is something that
—
sets this country apart from others it's a
traditionof which we shouldbe proud and
should try to preserve.
Free Access
Public money has paid for the collection
and compilation of the information. A
corollary to this is the implicationthat government agencies have the obligation to
provide some sort of results or output to
the public whofunded it: giving the deliverables to the sponsors, as it were.
Dissemination is just the final step; free
access should be funded at this point as an
integral portion of the government
research process.
The concept of depository libraries—
the idea that government information
shouldbe depositedinrepositories forthe
—
use of the public goes back to the early
19th century. By the late 1850s, the feature of congressional designation of
depositories in districts or states had
developed. The Printing Act of 1895
moved the Superintendentof Documents
to theGovernmentPrinting Office (GPO)
and ushered in the modern era of depositories.Title 44, chapters 19 and 13, of the
28
DttP
United States Code requires agencies to
provide materialto the public through the
Federal Depository Library Program
Useful References
(FDLP).
American Library Association (ALA).
Government Documents Round Table
(GODORT). Principles on Government
Benefits to the Agency
Freely available data, whether tangible
products distributed through libraries or
material provided free on the Internet, is
good publicity for the agency. In many
cases, such as with topographic maps or
nauticalcharts, the library acts as a "showroom," since librarians frequently tell
patrons how to purchase the products for
themselves. Best selling commercial
books are held bypublic libraries, often in
multiple volumes,butthis doesn't prevent
them frombecomingbest sellers.For convenience or to have more control, many
users always prefer to acquire material
directly for themselves.
Even in cases, such as with many
electronic products, where the a government agency disseminates material for
free, the open access model has benefits
for the agency. Besides advertising specific products, it "advertises" the agency;
good publicity can never hurt when it's
time for funding to be renewed.
Familiarizingusers with the products and
services of the agency will build and
expand the user base for that agency's
services and info.
The Census Bureau has sold, for
instance, CDs of 1990 Census data.
Nonetheless, these were also available for
free to libraries through the Federal
Depository Library Program (FDLP).
They eventually,with the advent of the
World Wide Web, put this materialon the
Internet.This is a good modelfor all agencies. For allthe reasons listedabove, benefiting the general public and the issuing
agency alike, we urge the federal producers of maps and geospatial data to
maintain this nation's longstanding tradition of free access to government-funded
information.
Government Information
Information
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/
prin_GODOßT.html
National Commission on Library and
Information Science (NCLIS). NCLIS
Principles of PublicInformation
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/
prin_nclis.html
Federal DepositoryLibraryProgram ALA
GODORT
The Federal depository Library
Program(fact sheet)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/97
04fact.html
ALA Washington Office.
Federal DepositoryLibraryProgramFact
Sheet
www.ala.org/washoff/fdlpbackground.html
United States Code. Title44.
www.access.gpo.gov/congress/congol3.
Html
United States Government Printing
Office (GPO)
Snapshots of the Federal Depository
Library Program(historical overview)
http://wwl.access.gpo.gov/gpoaccess/fdlp/
history/snapshot.html
CRADAS and Free Access
Janet Collins
1) A trend with your agency?
2) How doyou see it changingwhat you
do within your agency?
3) What are the potential impacts to the
depositoryprogram?
__
4)
'Round the Table
Will we still have free access to the General public
information through the depository Information Needs
program? For how long? In what Basic geographic information
Raw data
format?
Will the information be copyrighted? Assistance in converting data to inforPotential costs?
mation
How do werespond to the public that Models of service
questions taxpayer-basedinformation Data provider
being copyrighted?
Assistance in interpretation and use of
Summary
Christopher Thiry
This is a summary ofthe responses CUAC
received from the questions asked last
year to us by Robin Haun-Mohamed.The
6)
"X" signifies the number of times the
response was given. In general, the
responses came from academic libraries
data
7) Can we work together to assure free
with
information,
largemap collections.
No single modelworks for all libraries
access to government
participation
in the deposi- Campus-wide GIS support may come
Most mentioned concerns:
ongoing
tory program,and benefit everyone?
from other units, but frequently
Lack of printing facilities. High costs plotdoesn't
ters or oversized printers. Purchase
Statewide clearinghouses are not as well
of,
maintenance of, and lack of
positioned to support public data
PPA for Cartographic and
expertise
in computer software and
users
Spatial Electronic Data
Archiving of, or lack
hardware.
Levelsof expertise
thereof, data. Difficulty in finding
Within libraries: often home-grown or
Donna Koepp
many maps on the web.
self-trained
your
doing
to archive
What is your agency
Within public: largely novices
products? Will these archives be Within researchers: increasingly more Questions:
public and freely available?
novices
Are snap shots at regular intervals being MetadataandCataloging. A struggle: How What is the impact on librarieswhenmapping is online?
takenof products that are continually
to best catalog resources (MARC
support paper printing because of
Can't
being updatedin an electronic envicompliance)?How to best make use
cost. Xl
3
ronment?
of availableFGDC style metadata?
equipment
Need
for
better
and software.
If some of your agencies products are Does the "clearinghouse"model work for
—
X
6
being produced cooperatively
all concerned?
Limited expertise in software and hardeither with another federal agency or Who is getting leftout?
ware. X
4
with a commercial sector partner Encourage the production and distribuof
data
and
software
ties up
Complexity
(CRADA) are these products being
tion of metadata in standardforms
computers. X
4
archived in a way that they will con- Consider the distribution of metadata in
Archiving of maps? X3
tinue to be freely accessible to the
easier to use forms for general public
Format stability?
public?
Industry: Concern over industry-driven
Will we be able to ready CD-ROMs 20
Have you considered, when negotiatinga
standards in format and software.
years from now? X
2
CRADA, fitting into the agreement
Support the development of openDifficult to find on-line.X2
enoughcopies of your product to fulstandards. Copyrights should belong Library may by-passed.X
be
2
fill the need of the GPO depository
to the public whereverit is possible.
Requires less time to file and maintelibrary program?
Cautions:
nance.X
2
The Cartographic/GIS library community Spatialdata tends to have wideruses than Increased map use in general.
is an excellent way to advertise the
that for which it was orginally ereLose of ability to become aware of new
availability of your products and how
ated.
maps. Easier to keep track of.
they can be used. Is there any way We cannot always envision how data prodFinding on-line often takes more
you can think of that we might assist
ucts will/should be used.
time than finding in paper. Raises
you inmeeting your goals or mission?
Do not mistake delivery of geographic
expectations of what is available oninformation for delivery of spatial
line. Many patrons only interested in
data
digital products and forget/don't
GIS in Libraries
Web-mapping is not the same as spatial
know about printed maps. Patrons
analysis.
not skilled in using them. Cannot
Mike Furlough
GIS software industry is focused on govuse. Libraries of lesser means cannot
constituencles
ernment and business, not on educakeep up. Move collection from owntion and the public
ership to access. More up-to-date
Not just the academic users
maps. Older items (15' topos) not onktate and local governmentusers
29
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
5)
I
'Round the Table
line. Serious problem.Gettingworse.
Plotters/printers do not have acidfree paper or permanent ink.
How do weuse online spatial/cartographic
data?
—
Direct patron to web site organizethem
on our website. X4
Depends on request. X3
Don't. X
2
Download as needed. X2
Used to supplement collection.X 2
Many thesishave maps in them. X2
Not very useful to most patrons. Do
catalog relevant web sites. Used at all
levels. Public want very specialized data.
Students want Arc-formatted data.Make
maps to display topical information.
Do we download things, save things,
archive them, or do we go back to the original source materialeach time?
Go to source each time, but problems with
broken links. X
6
region.
Save if items coverown
X4
Depends. X2
Save sometimes if patrons use it multiple
times. X
2
Download especially if large file or popular site. Usually don't.
Do we handle electronic map needs
in the library or do we send our users
someplace else?
Do
not
send elsewherebecause
we
have
expertise.XIO
Both. X6
Help when possible, but limited
expertise. X
6
Send to GISlab. X3
Let themcheck out CDs. X3
They must go elsewherebecause there is
no place to print. X
3
Don't have GIS lab on campus. Patrons
want to take data away.
Do weuse the airport charts, obstruction charts, approach charts, etc.?
Little use. X8
Some use. X8
30
DttP
Yes. Haven't received any in years.
Use VFR Terminal charts.
What willbe the impact if the USGS
Open File Reports go online only?
(SOD 71) which sets policy for
Better than fiche. X4
15, 2001).
dissemina-
tion and distribution of materials in the
Federal Depository Library Program
(FDLP). Cartographic materials and their
use were taken into consideration when
these criteria were decidedupon. A list of
X
No consistent format. 6
titles, which will continue to be
essential
X
archiving.
Question of
6
published
in paper, has also been develplace.
not
all
in
one
Difficult to locate—
(See
oped.
AdministrativeNotes January
X
5
There have been many personnel
Both fiche and digital difficult to print
at GPO. Sheila McGarr resigned
changes
large maps.X
3
September
to become the Director of
in
of
onlineOFRs
No comprehensive index
Library. Robin
the
National
Education
(in any format). X
3
Chief of Depository
has
become
the
More use? X2
Services. Tad is now wearing two hats:
Save space. X2
Acting
Chief of Depository AdminiRequires less time to file and mainte
Branch and Head of Cataloging
stration
nance. X
2
Department. Coleen Davis is now
Depository Distribution
Need forbetter equipment.Depends heading the
Branch,
and Vicki Barber is on special
what's in OFRs. Criteria has changed.
Same difficulty to use as fiche. Cannot detail to the Superintendent of Document's office.
afford to start if charge.
Even with the move to an electronic
transition, LPS continues to distribute a
Government Printing
number of physical products. The numbers, however, continue to decrease. In
Office
FY2OOO there were 13,660 paper titlesdisRobin Haun-Mohamcd and Tad
tributed or 22.3% of all FDLP titles.This
Downing
number includes USGS maps. Microfiche
14,572 titles, or 23.8% of
Robin announced that this would prob- distribution was
total
distribution.
Online titles on GPO
ably be her last CUAC meeting, since
account for 11,715 titles or 19.2%
Access
there had been reorganization and reassignments at GPO, and that with the next distributed. Online titles from other
meeting Tad Downing would officially agency Web sites account for 20,591 titles
The
take her place.At this meetingTad would or 33.7% of FDLP titles distributed.
or
617
CD-ROM
or
DVD
titles
totaled
learning
be
aboutCUAC and commenting
just
1%
of
the
total.
where he could. Since Robin spoke to us
The total number of USGS map
last, GPO has experiencedmany changes.
It was a very chaotic summer due to pro- sheets distributedin FY2OOO was 357,907.
posed budget cuts by Congress. There In 1999 it was 381,282. A title count was
was an initial proposed cut by the House not available.
of 61%. The library community rallied
There is a new FDLP administrative
with a letter campaign, testifying to page which is now called the FDLr
Congress, newspaper articles, and in the Desktop. This contains cataloging and
end the GPO's budget was cut by about locator tools, as well as other useful tools
6%. Throughout the summer, however, in for libraries. For example, Depository
this environment of uncertainty, the Shipping Lists are now available here in
Library Program Service moved very PDF format.These tools can be used for
quickly on some initiativesthat they were claiming as well. The Joint Operation
committed to completing.
Graphics (1501s) thatJim Lusby promised
At the Depository Library Council us last year will need to be surveyed with
meetingin October 2000, GPO presented depository libraries to determine distribua Superintendent of Documents directive tion.
'Round the Table
New Products
electronic has driven manychanges within
Library Program Service and this
effects
everyone. GPO is evaluating, validating,
Oregon GAP Analysis.
Research Maps (R-Map) from HUD in acquiring and cataloging electronic
CD-ROM.
resources. Catalogers evaluate web sites,
Digital Atlas of Central and South point to URLs and use PURLs. The links
America.
sometimes take the user to the exact page
National Land Cover Data Base on the Web site that they think is appro-
(NLCDB) is online only but has
been catalogedby GPO.
Tide Tables temporarily dropped off the
distribution but are now back.
2001 will come out shortly and 2002 will
comeas scheduled.
National Atlas is coming as depository
whenpages can be sent. Some
sheets are cooperatively done and are
exemptfrom FDLP.
Tract maps from Census 2000 will be
coming on CD andDVDs when they
come out but right now they are 'one offs'.
Recommended
Specifications
priate: a place that is in accordance
with
the catalogingdescription. The Map catalogers are doing more of this than anyone
else on the catalogingstaff.
United States Geological
Survey
Rea Mueller
Rea Mueller presented for the USGS.
Currently, there are 55,000+ 7.5" quads
that cover the entire country. The topo
maps are a "national treasure". It took
approximately33 million hours to produce
the topos and the cost would be $1.6 billion at today'sprices to re-dothe set from
scratch. Over the next 10 years USGS,
together with its partners, willimplement
a revision strategy that provides "truly
current information" to customers in a
cost effective way. This effort considers
political,social, economic policy and technological challenges. Partners and stakeholders are part of the process.
Implementation begins in 2002 with a
vision that by the year 2010, this arrangement "will provide the nation with current, accurate, and nationally consistent
basic spatial data, including digital data
and derived topographic maps". The
resulting proposal from this study, The
National Map, is available on the web at
http://nationalmap.usgs.gov. Comments
are being requested by June 29, 2001.
Geographic Information will be
delivered in a digital world. Geospatial
data can be accessed at US Geodataonline
and electronic publications will include
search and access tools.The Web URL is
www.usgs.gov.Phone information are at 1888-ASK-USGS. SDTs, DLGs, DEMs
and land use/land cover data are available
The 2001 Recommended Specifications
for Public Access Workstations in Federal
Depository Libraries have been issued.
Special specs for cartographic data use are
noted. During inspections and selfstudies, GPO is looking for written policies concerning computers for use with
FDLP material.Computer specifications
are checked, as well as any impediments
to access to computer or online information. GPO is now taking comments
regarding computer specifications that
willgo into effect in the fall of 2002. One
noteworthy change is that libraries must
provide a DVDplayer.
Selective FDLP housing sites need
to be in compliance with all requirements
of the FDLP Instruction and Guidelines
for Depository Libraries. A decal on the
door of selected housing sitesis a requirement, as well as a written agreement for
the selective housingsite on file at GPO.
Robin asked for our ideas and participation in the October 2001 Depository
rederal Library conference. She would
http://edc.usgs.gov/doc/
hke us to present a session on mapping.
at no charge at
Tad: Electronic transitionnot only in edchrome/ndcdb/ndcbd.html. Web search
rDLP, but overall libraries.Transition to and access tools include National Water
Stream Gauging Network, National
Biological Information Infrastructure,
place based scientific projects, and
NationalSeismic Data Network. There is
a new Web site for current midwest
flooding. GLIS will be going away and
replaced by Earth Explorer.Over 60 databases will be represented.MAC users will
need to use GLIS for the present.
The National Atlas will continue to
be published mainlyin electronic format.
Some printed sheets will still be published. The updated "GeneralReference"
sheet will be out on depository soon at
larger scale and updated from the 1973
edition. Other new products include the
Pennsylvania Shaded Relief map in
experimentaleditions, DDS-62A "Global
GISDatabase:DigitalAtlas of Centraland
South America", the online version of the
National Land Cover Dataset and CD"
ROM of Status andTrends publications
of the Department of the Interior".
USGS' goal is to be "seamless". Design
goals include web accessible, best available data, most current data, GIS application ready, multi-resolution and full
coverage. Base map layers include
Elevation (NED), Land Cover (NLCD),
Hydrography (NHD), Orthoimagery
(DOQ, TM), and Digital Raster Graphic
(DRG) along with Geographic Names
(GNIS) andreference layer.
Other trends include DLG's coming
out on DVD. Web mapping will not be
under copyright. CRADA's will continue
(e.g. Laser Scan, Microsoft, ESRI,
Chicago Map Corp, Earth Data, etc.).
Seamless maps are available on demand
via Map Machines at several sites
includingREI stores, USGS Menlo Park,
USGS Reston, etc. There will be more
sites in the future. Users can center on a
place and buy what they want (parts of
many topos) at a cost usually less than the
cost of purchasing all the topos ($6.00 as
opposed to $4.00 for a standard topo
sheet). These are color laminate maps.
The machines were created through a
partnership betweenUSGS and National
Geographic, which acquired Wildflower
Productions. Users may soon be able to
annotate on the map where they want to
go-
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
31
'Round the Table
Library of Congress
Geography and Map
Division
John Hebert
DigitalProgram
Three years ago EDR Sanborn and the
Library of Congress Geography and Map
Division signed a contract to scan all the
Sanborn fire insurance maps held by the
Library of Congress and EDR Sanborn.
The contract has been broken because
EDR Sanborn wantednew copyrights for
the scanned images. The LC Geography
andMapDivision wants to keep the maps
produced before 1923 in the public
domain. Bell and Howell is placing scans
of theirblack and white microfilm on the
web.LC G&Mis talking with themabout
a contract tocreate colorscans on the web.
Pascagoula,Mississippi has been done as a
prototype. There have been a few
Sanborn maps in the LC G&M scanning
program. The division is looking for
organizations to help fund the Sanborn
scanning that do not have a commercial
interest in the scanned images.
The LC G&M scanning program is
proceeding with maps that are in the cartobibliographiescreated by the Division.
These lists include: Panoramic Maps,
Civil War, Revolutionary War, and John
Hebert's Luso Hispanic Maps. The last
cartobibliographycontains over1000 manuscript maps produced between1500 and
1900. Other areas to be scanned include
Russian Frontiers, Spanish Frontiers
Parallel History, and Brazil. James
Billington,the Librarian of Congress,has
an interest in scanning maps of Italy and
the Vatican, and Japan.High qualityprintouts of the LC G&M scans are available
from Museum Archives of Seattle. The
Division has an overhead camera worth
more than $70,000 and a cradle worth
about $25,000 in the Division to scan
atlases.
The Division is working to set up
scanning agreements with outside organizations. A letter of agreement has been
approved by LC with the Library of
Virginiaand the Virginia HistoricalSociety
32
DttP
scan Civil War maps in their collections.
It is now being studied in Richmond. LC
G&M has begun discussions withHarvard
for scanning maps of coastal areas in time
of the American Revolution from the
American Neptune. There may be some
possibility of cooperationwith WAML.
to
Cataloging
The LC Geography and Map Division
and the National Imagery and Mapping
Agency (NIMA) are both using Endeavor
Voyager for their Integrated Library
System.Because of this, they have begun
cooperating on a project for the Division
to create sheet level records for the set
maps. LC will acquire the records from
NIMA and create records for retrospective
sheets. Barbara Story is working with a
Program for Cooperative Cataloging
(PCC) committee chaired by Paige
Andrew of Perm State to create a Core
Level formatfor CartographicMaterials.
Recent Acquisitions
Dr. Charles B.Peterson, a cataloger at LC
G&M, has donated his collection of
approximately 15,000 gasoline company
maps to LC. The Division has also
acquired John Snyder's collection concerning projections and manuscript maps
from the National Geographic Society.
They have also purchased 1:100,000 scale
Soviet maps of the United States. The
Division is looking for funding to purchase Soviet maps covering Alaska and
Canada. In addition to the cooperative
acquisitionsprogram for foreign maps that
has existed for years, the Division is
working with El Instituto Nacional de
Estadistica, Geografia c Informatica
(INEGI)to acquire sets of Mexican maps
at 1:50,000, 1:100,000 and larger covering
different subjects.
Summer Project
The 50th anniversarySummerProject will
be held this summer with 6 participants.
The Division has received 300,000 maps
from NIMA. Jim Flatness, the Division's
Acquisitions Officer had estimated that
there would be about a 60% duplication
with the Division's collections.
However
a sample of the maps has shown that the
duplicationrate is less.
National Imagery and
Mapping Agency (NIMA)
Jim Lusby
Jim Lusby began his presentation by distinguishing between NIMA customers
and consumers of NIMA products.
NIMA's customers are the National
Defense and Intelligence agencies who
require cartographicinformation, products
and data produced by NIMA. They can
also directNIMA to produce certain products or cover specific areas of the world.
The civil and law enforcement agencies,
along with the generalpublic, are the consumers. The general public consumers
may not be able to receive these products
because of national security issues or
because of cooperative arrangements
made with organizationsin other nations.
The overall trend in NIMA has been a
move to digitalproducts and services, with
print products based on those data being
produced as needed.
He emphasized the political difficulty of arrangingreleaseof sensitivedata
produced for military or intelligenceuses.
In some cases, especiallyfor emergencyor
disaster-reliefsituations, it can be accomplished on a limitedbasis. But it is sometimes less easy for educational and
research use. In some cases, users may be
able to review data but not duplicateit or
receive a permanent copy. There is no
plan to take NIMA products entirely out
of the FDLP. All publicly available products, including digital products will be
placed into the FDLP within budget and
cost constraints. Jim attempts to move
products into that program where he can
and where costs allowit.
Jim outlined many initiatives and
cooperativeprojects with federal agencies
over the past year, including NASA,
USGS,FEMA, and theSecret Service. He
also acknowledged the difficulty of determining public availability of various
NIMA products. A web site is being
worked on that willattempt to bring all of
'Round the Table
■
a
together in one location.
that information
Mo release date was given. Jim then outlined the availabilityand schedulefor varDOI 10 (Digital
ious data products:
10-meter resoluImagery)
Orthorectified
is
now
available
for public
imagery
tion
through
Geospatial
the
NIMA
download
Engine (http://geoengine.nima.mil). DTED
(Digital Terraine Elevation Data);
DTED-0 (30 arc second/1km resolution)
is now available with worldwidecoverage
through the NIMA Geospatial Engine;
users may download about 50mb worthof
data at a time. DETD-1(SRTM) (100 m
resolution) will be available for purchase
through the EROS Data Center only for
the areas in the United States. The projected timeframe of this release isDec 01;
Lusby is working to make this data available through FDLP but there is no definite plan for that. DTED-2 (SRTM) (30
meter resolution) willbe availableonly for
the United States sometime early 2002
(see comments on SRTM below). SRTM
(Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) The
spring 2000 Space Shuttle mission took
radarbased elevationreadings at 30 meter
resolutionover the entire world. The data
is still being processed, with North
America being the highest priority. Only
United States data will be made available
to the public as DTED-2 (see above),
while the rest of the world will be
restricted. VMAP (Vector Map)
VMAP-0 is now availablewith worldwide coverage through the NIMA
Geospatial Engine; users may download
about 50mb worth of data at a time.
VMAP-0 is also available in 4 CD set for
the FDLP members. GPO can survey
members and provideNIMA with a quantityrequirement. VMAP-1 is also available
on a case by case basis. Certain areas of
the world along with the United States are
available for public purchase,and as such,
available to the FDLP. Again, GPO can
survey members for interest.
He closed by displaying a list of
Printed items that will be made available
through FDLP. Many of these were complete sets of 1:50,000
sheets for southeast
Asia; others were complete sets of
1:50,000, 1:100,000, and city graphics at
scales ranging from 1:12,500-1:25,000 for
certainnations.
Census Bureau, Geogrpahy
Division
Tim Trainor
Tim began by giving us
an
overview of
American Fact Finder (AFF) at the
Census website (www.census.gov), which
the agency is using to increase product
availability. He demonstrated the layout
of the AFF introduction page, which has
general user information at the top; access
to data fromtheir websiteis from a linkin
the lowerleft.The Census Bureau is getting more requests to download spatial
data. Users can create thematic maps
online using AFF. Tim then talked about
some of the major changes in Census
geography for the 2000 census (many of
these changes were things of which we
were previously aware). For instance,
Census is no longer using the term Block
Numbering Area (BNA), butis only using
the term "census tract" for this level of
geography. There is no minimum population limit for Census Designated Places
(CDPs). Block numbers will consist of
four digits withno alpha suffix.Theredistricting TIGER/Line 2000 files currently
are available and have an updated feature
network. The Zip Code Tabulation Area
(ZCTA) is a new level of geography for
aggregating data, where each block is
assignedone and only one zip code,based
on 2000 blocks. Tim asked for feedback
on these, especially with how water features are handledby them.TheMarch 28,
2001, Federal Register had a notice
regarding new urban and rural area criteria; after public input, there will be a
new list of urbanized areas in early 2002.
The Office of Management and Budget is
working on new MetropolitanAreadefinitions basedon Census 2000 using the concept of Core Based Statistical Areas; these
new definitions willlikelybe used in 2003.
TIGER will continue to be the spatial data source for the Geography
Division. In the summer of 2001 they
anticipate the latest version of the 2000
TIGER/Line files, which willinclude the
ZCTA boundaries and updated address
ranges. These will be available online, on
DVD, and on custom CD-ROM. Products
available from Geography include paper
maps,plotted on demandon 33 by 36-inch
sheets, for five dollars per sheet through
the customer services branch at 301-4571101. These are also available on the
Internet and on CD in Adobe Acrobat
format. These include several layers
neededfor redistricting purposes: countybased block maps (over 100,000 sheets),
voting district outline maps (23,354
sheets, sometimes including state legislative districts), and census tract outline
maps (6,514 sheets). One full set of the
maps was plotteded for the Library of
Congress. Color is an important component of thesemaps.You can Click "maps"
at the census web site to go to Geographic
Products; this will lead to the appropriate
web page. An index map will let you
determine which sheets you need. These
maps are also available in HewlettPackard Graphics Language (HPGL), for
output to plotters,but this is scheduled at
present for release only on DVD due to
the large file sizes. Specifications for
plotter configurations are available at the
web site. A CD-ROM with Acrobat files
will be indepositories this summer.
Tim had a table showing the historical changes in the U.S. center of population, as well as a map depicting the
change. These are online, along with a
description of the calculations used to
determinethis point. The 2000 center of
population is in Phelps County, Missouri.
Other informationavailable from the web
site includes a map of the over 70 Census
Information Centers (CICs). The
American Community Survey is the proposed replacement for the decennial
census long form.If the ACS is approved,
the 2010 decennial form will likely be
very short- maybe the size of a postcard.
At present, the ACS plan involves 250,000
households permonth within the survey.
Finally, for geographicproducts, there are
relationships files that relate 1990 census
geographyto 2000 census geography.
More forthcoming products from
census will be American Indian Tract
Outline maps, a Congressional district
atlas for the 106th and 107th Congresses,
state-based county subdivision maps,
state/county outline map, and state/
county metropolitan area outline maps.
Other upcoming products include digital
cartographic boundary files, generalized
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
33
'Round the Table
from TIGER, available in both low and least 30 days in order for a thorough
high-resolution versions. A projected review to take place.Natural features not
Census Atlas in printed book form will found in publications are given to state
include about 70 thematic maps. It willbe and local governments for a 45-day exam
distributed through the depository pro- period. Problematic or commemorative
gram and will probably eventually be names take at least four months. Thereis
available in Acrobat format. Tim wel- currently a moratorium on naming physcomes feedback using the email address: icalfeatures inwildernessareas,except for
safety and education reasons.
[email protected].
Some of the issues that BGN deals
with include requests byor laws passed by
Board on Geographic
Congress, commemorativenames, wilderNames
ness areas, and derogatory names. A current controversy surrounds the name
Roger L. Payne
"squaw";it is consideredby many to be a
derogatory name for a female. Five state
Roger Payne from the Board on
GeographicNames (BGN) gave an enthu- governments are requiring that the word
siastic overview of its history, functions, "squaw" appearing in a placename be
are taking the initiative,
and products. The Board was created in changed. They
not BGN, butBGN is working in cooper1890 in response to the confusion caused
by the variety of names given to physical ation with the state naming boards to
(lowa and
features in the United States by scientific make the changes official
boards).
Indianalack
such
expeditions. The BGN's mission is to
Names are rarely changed by the
standardize names, establish principles
BGN.
Exceptions do occur. Some of the
and policies, and promulgate their decisions. It was established by law and its reasons names are changed include the
decisions are legallybinding to agencies of addition of diacritic marks (as is hapthe Federal Government. Althoughlegal peningextensivelyin Hawaii), the elimiauthority extends to all feature types, by nation of duplicates and variants, and the
its own decision, the decisions only apply shortening of lengthy ones. The GNIS is
the only official list of names recognized
to physical features, not man-made feaby the BGN, and hence the US
tures such as roads, parks, schools, etc.
The names established by the BGN Government. All updates and additions
cannot be copyrighted.
are made on this web site by authorized
BGN uses the following rules to personnel. The site receives 30 to 35,000
makedecisions: the names must be in the hits a day. Printed versions were dropped
Romanized alphabet,and used locally, or in 1991. The CD-ROM version is still
established by Congress or executive available, but this text version will be
order or other authorities (such as local replaced by a spatially enabled version in
governments). Of these, "local use" takes 2002. Since the last edition, more than
priority. The names may be in any lan- 350,000 entries have been added to the
guage. The BGNdoes not approvenames database. The gazetteers
can still be
whimsically; much thought and research downloaded.
go into each decision. The process begins
The GNIS database was developed
with the submission of a new name to in several phases. During the first phase,
BGN via their Geographic Names the Bureau meldedallof the names found
Information System (GNIS) (http://geon- on US Geological Survey maps, National
ames.usgs.gov/) Web site/database or by Forest Service maps, National
Oceanoother means. After submission, if the graphic Survey charts, and
National Park
name is published elsewhere in "official" Service maps. This yielded only
20% of
sources or established by historical the known names in the US.
Phase II
resources, and non-controversial, it will be beganin 1982. It
used data from all fedadded to GNIS within 30 days. Cultural eral, local governments, as well as
histor(man-made) features must be held for at ical and BGN "approved"
documents.
34
DttP
Most of Phase IIis complete; only Alaska
Kentucky,Michigan, and New York have
yet to be finished. The database now
includes references to a name's origin if
that name was the subject of a controversy
since 1982. The names in GNIS do not
have to be current; in fact, the database
includes over 100,000 entries of places
that are nomore. Phase 111will beginin 5
years and will be more in depth.
Federal Agencies must use the
names found in GNIS; they cannot make
up new ones. They may choose to leave
out names. If the wrong name is used,
there are serious repercussions. The least
may be embarrassment; the worst could
lead to problems with safety and accidents. GNIS has been incorporated into
many government databases including
"Gateway to Earth" by USGS,
Terraserver, the National Atlas, and
Landview. Landview 4 was last updated
in July 2000, and contains approximately
90% of the names found on GNIS. Since
1987, BGN has operated an electronic
maintenance program. Recently, Florida
and Delaware have entered in an agreement to aid with this process by keeping
their respective names up to date, and
more importantly, adding delineated
boundaries to each name. Ultimately, the
latter will allow people to spatiallysearch
GNIS. To that end, the U.S. Geological
Survey is developing a new version of
GNIS, and it is planned for release in
October 2001. It is geographicalenabled.
The new version also includes the source
of the names, and the name of everymap
name at every scale that the place name
occurred.
National Park Service
(NPS)
Nancy Haack
Nancy indicated that there are many
changes underway at the National Park
Service. Many parks have geographic
information systems (GIS) in place, and
there are national coordinators in regional
offices. The Park Service is using digital
line graphs (DLG) and GIS to generate
their maps. Nancy stated that Harpers
'Round the Table
Center is located in West Virginia (www.nps.gov/carto) whichincludes inforinterpretive service center for mation on data
nd is an
sources and accuracy. New
The center creates maps are being made
the entire park system.
with digital line
publications, exhibits, wayside exhibits, graphs from USGS. Shaded relief maps
and films. Waysides are "up and coming" are created using digital elevation models
as a mapping unit in Harpers Ferry (DEM) from USGS. An example of a
Center, creating maps for outdoor shaded relief map is the national parklands map of Alaska.
exhibits.
Technical Information Center is
The NPS also works closely with the
Denver
Service
Center
in
NPS's
Board on Geographic Names and the
U.S.
located
drawings,
for
internal
library
various
is
the
State Boards on Geographic
and
Names. The use of diacritical marks on
plans and the like.
The National Park Map and Guide maps by the NPS arenow included for the
(map of all units of the NPS) is revised parks in Hawaii.
and current on the NPS Web site,
ParkNet, at www.nps.gov. The web site
includes information on programs and National Resources
projects. The web sitealso includes entry Conservation Service
to Web sites of affiliatedunits.Nancy also
(NRCS)
mentioned another web site: www.recreation.gov. According to the web site, Christine Clarke
"Recreation.Gov is a partnership among
The Natural Resources Conservation
federal land management agencies aimed
Service presentation was given by
at providing a single, easy-to-use web site
Christine Clarke, NRCS GeodataCoordiwith information about all federal recrenator. Formerly the Soil Conservation
ation areas. The site allows you to search Service,
the NRCS's missionis to provide
for recreation areas by state, by recre- leadership
in a partnership effort to help
ational activity, by agency, or by people conserve, improve, and sustain
our
map"."The message project" is a recent
natural resources and environment. They
initiative of the NPS. The goal of the ini- oversee conservationprograms mandated
tiativeis to bringall units together under a in farm bills and help put conservation
NPS arrowhead to create a corporate iden- practices on the ground. The Service has
tity. Another initiative has involved the 10,000 employees in 2,400 field offices
individual parks recreating maps (in- located in almost all counties in the
house) from existingvisitor use map dig- country, in addition to state, regional and
ital files and reproducing them as stripped nationaloffices. They also maintain a vast
down versions in their park newspapers. network of partners including conservaAn example was a transportation "shuttle tion districts, state and federal agencies,
map" for Zion National Park. Adobe is Earth Team volunteers, agricultural and
used to create the in-house maps.
environmental groups and professional
Printed examples provided were: societies. These employees help farmers
Volunteers in Parks, the National Park and ranchers develop conservation plans
System Map and Guide, National Park suited to theirlocal situation.
Index, Civil War at a Glance, Hawaii
The Service began digitizingsoil surVolcanoes, Grand Canyon, and a veys about 20 years ago. Today they proRevolutionary War at a Glance (for the vide information at the statelevel through
225th anniversary), which is currently the State Soil Geographic Database
being printed.Most derived products are (STATSGO) and the county level through
Printed through Park Associations, not the Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Data
Government Printing Office (GPO), and Base. Both are available on the web and
geographic informaafe not
available through the depository designed for use in
Program.By law, theParks have to provide tion systems. Online soil survey manuPark brochures. The NPS digital visitor scripts, generally PDF versions of the
are available for some
Use maps are
posted on a Web site printed soil surveys,
Ferry
counties. In addition they produce a CD
with "soil explorer", a graphical interface
that allows easy map generation and the
raw data files for the more GIS proficient
to assist their field operations. The
Service is developing an internet access
tool allowingmap generation on the web.
This product is called the Soil Data
Viewer.
Other NRCS products include the
National Resources Inventory (NRI)
which is a statistically based sample of
800,000 points surveyedat 5 year intervals
of land use and natural resource conditions and trends on U.S. nonfederallands.
The National Soil Information System
(NASIS) is the core component of the
National CooperativeSoil Survey's vision
of providing a dynamic resource of soils
information for a wide range of needs and
is designed to manage and maintain soil
data from collectionto dissemination.The
PLANTS Database is a single source of
standardized information about plants.
The National Water and Climate Center
provides water and climate information
and technology which support natural
resource conservation. Many of these
products have dataavailable for download
and can be found fromthe NRCS website
at www.nrcs.usda.gov/.
The Service is concerned with both
data access and archiving. They are a node
on the FGDC National Geospatial Data
Clearinghouse and develop metadata for
their datasets. They are actively archiving
soils data, the traditional focus of the
NRCS. Otherdatasets generatedonan asneed local basis are not as actively
archived or centralized for national use
and applications.
Fish and Wildlife Service
(F&VVS)
Doug Vandegraft
Doug introduced himself as the Chief
Cartographer, F&WS. He noted that he
had been a F&WS cartographer in Alaska
before accepting the job as Chief
Cartographer in D.C. one year ago. His
presentation focused on the maps of the
National Wildlife Refuges through the
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
35
'Round the Table
,ears. He began the discussion with a
Drief history of U.S. Wildlife Refuges.
for a
The first was establishedin 1903_ and
„r,_.._.
number of years, the maps or Wildlite
ak,u n
d t
Land
Refuges
by the Generalii^
weremade
-»*r
-ru
v- v and
a xviAVt
e-"~.
Dffice.
The Fish
Wildlife
Service
_ , „
became a unit of the Department ot
,
. . mAn TT
recently,most,maps
Interiorin 1940.Until
„
"
_
,.._
ri
D
vi t- and
Refuges
aff Wildlife
were in black
&
-L
white.
,
,,.,
ftf
att
refuges
Mapping of wildlife
F&WS has been revolutionized with the
introduction of GIS. Among other advantages, this has increased the accuracy of
boundaries and land ownership data.
Examples of the different types of maps
produced through the years were shown.
These maps are becoming more valuable
as a source of information and to document changes in land ownership and
refuge boundaries. A question was raised
concerning the distribution of wildlife
refuge maps to library depositories. This
issue willbe investigated.
CUAC representatives:
Janet
J
Collins, Western
'
. ..
.
„"«___¥
(MAGERT
v
*-„-,_.__
University of Kansas
Donna Koepp,
r*l
(GODORT)
" _
. _ . „ ,.
University
,a a McLeod, Washington
Clara
(GIS)
.
Bruce Obenhaus, Virginia Tech (SLA
TT
"„,
.
G&M)
Celia Pratt, University of North Carolina
(SLA G&M)
Dan Seldin, Indiana University(NACIS)
Richard Spohn, University of Cincinnati
(GIS)
Paul Stout, BallState University (NACIS)
Christopher JJ Thiry, Colorado School of
Mines (WAML)
Duke
Umvcr.it.
Presenters: Attendees:
ur__u;«««.«n
Washington
\
University WAML)
,
7
* University off Virginia
Mike Furlough,
T
*
Ma
"
w ■
.
TI
Robin Haun-Mohamed
GPO) Vi
,
Moorhead (GPO Cataloging)
&
. ,___,
Tad Downing GPO Chip Woodward
,
"
«
GPO Cataloging
„„_?,«„-,
Rea Mueller (USGS) Wilford Daniels (LC
v
■"
.
. .
Cataloging)
John Hebert (LC G&M) Patricia
(NOAA)
Jim Lusby (NIMA) Sharon
Banks
Kemp
(NOAA)
Tim Trainor (Census)
RogerPayne (US BGN)
Nancy Haack (NPS)
Christine Clarke (NRCS)
Doug Vandegraft (F&WS)
Help GODORT Increase the Rozkuszka Endowment
Send your check to: Tim Byrne,
The W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship created an endowmentfund that partially
Treasurer, Government
scholarship
awardedeachyear. GODORT
provides financial assistance to an mdi- covers the
vidual who is currently working with gov- GODORT has worked to increase the Publications Library, University of
ernment documents in a library and is
amount in the endowmentand has held a Colorado, Boulder,CO 80309-0184
trying to complete a masters degree in Silent Auction at the Annual Conferences
More information about the
library science. This award, establishedin for the past two years.
Scholarship and past recipients is at the
Rozkuszka,
1994, is namedafter W David
If you wouldlike assist in raising the GODORT Awards Committee web site:
former Documents Librarian at Stanford amount of moneyin the endowmentfund, http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/GODORT/
University. The award winner receives please make out your check to awards/
$3,000.
ALA/GODORT, in the memo field please
died,
legacy
When David
note: Rozkuszka Endowment,
part of his
36
DttP
Spring 2002
Volume 30, Number 1
37
ALA GODORT 2001-2002 Directory
Steering Committee
Elected Officers
GODORT Chair
Cindi Wolff
Washington Information Network
4801 Oxbow Road
Rockville, MD 20852
work phone: 202-693-6633
cell phone: 225-802-9821
fax: 202-693-6644 e-mail: [email protected]
or [email protected]
GODORTAssistant Chair/Chair-Elect
William (Bill) Sudduth
Head,Documents and Microforms
University ofSouthCarolina
Thomas Cooper Library
Columbia, SC 29208
phone: (803) 777-1775
fax: (803) 777-9503
e-mail: [email protected]
GODORT Secretary
Mary Horton
Gov't Info. & Microtext Dept., Access
Services Team,
Z. Smith Reynolds Library,
Wake Forest University(Dep.O44SAVFUN)
P.O. Box 7777
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
phone: (336) 758-5829
fax: (336) 758-8831
e-mail: [email protected]
GODORT Treasurer (2003)
Tim Byrne
Government Publications Library
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0184
phone: (303) 492-8834
fax: (303) 492-1881
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: (Bl2) Bss-6924
fax: (812) 855-3460
email: [email protected]
Elected Officers
Task Force Coordinators
FederalDocuments TaskForce
Coordinator
Sherry DeDecker
Reference Services
Davidson Library
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010
phone: (805) 893-3713
fax: (805) 893-4676
e-mail: [email protected]
InternationalDocuments TaskForce
Coordinator
David N. Griffiths
Assistant Government Documents Librarian
Government Documents Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Library
200D
1408 W Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL61801
ph0ne: (217) 333-6696
fax:(217)333-2214
e-mail: [email protected]
Publications CommitteeChair
Andrea Morrison
Documents Librarian
Government Publications Dept.
264 Main Library
1320 E. 10th St
Indiana University Libraries
Bloomington, IN47405-3907
38
DttP
Bylaws CommitteeChair
Andrea Sevetson
218 Doe Library
University ofCalifornia
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
phone:(510) 643-9346
fax:(510)642-6830
e-mail: [email protected]
Cataloging CommitteeChair
John Stevenson
Coordinator, Government Documents and
Maps
University ofDelaware Library
181 S. College Aye,
Newark, DE 19717-5267
phone:(302) 831-8671
fax:(302)831-1046
e-mail: [email protected]
EducationCommittee Chair
Karrie Peterson
University of California, San Diego
Geisel Library - SSHL 0175R
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla,CA 92093-0175
phone:(858) 534-2024
State & LocalDocumentsTaskForce
Coordinator
Nan Myers
Assistant Professor
Librarian for Government Documents, Patents
and Trademarks
Ablah Library
1845 Fairmount
Wichita State University
Wichita, KS, 67260-0068
phone:(316) 978-5130
fax: (316) 978-3048
e-mail: [email protected]
GODORTCouncilor
Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, (2004)
100 N.Lamborn
Helena, MT 59601
phone: (406) 449-9974
fax: (telephone so she can turn on fax)
e-mail: [email protected]
Budget CommitteeChair
Tim Byrne
See GODORT Treasurer for contact
information.
Standing Committee Chairs
Awards Committee Chair
Judy Horn
GovernmentInformation Dept
Main Library
University of California
PO Box 19557
Irvine, CA 92623-9557
phone:(949) 824-4344
fax: (949) 824-3644
e-mail: [email protected]
fax: (858) 534-7548
e-mail: [email protected]
GovernmentInformation Technology
Committee (GITCO) Chair
Eric Forte
Social Sciences Librarian
Davidson Library
University ofCalifornia
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
phone:(805) 893-2074
fax: (805) 893-4676
e-mail: [email protected]
Legislation CommitteeChair
Laura Dickson
Michigan State University
U.S. Documents Librarian
Michigan State University
100 Main Library
East Lansing, MI48824
phone:(517) 432-8045
fax:(517)432-1191
e-mail: [email protected]
membership Committee Chair
Karen Russ
Documents Librarian/Assistant Professor
Library
Ottenheimer
of Arkansas at Little Rock
Rare andEndangered
Publications
Committee Chair
John B. Phillips
Head, Documents Dept.
University
University Avenue
28oi South
Rock, AR 72204-1099
Little
phone (501) 569-8444
fax (501) 569-3017
e-mail: [email protected]
EdmonLaw Library
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater,OK 74078-0375
phone: (405) 744-6546
fax: (405) 744-5183
Nominating CommitteeChair
Louise Treff-Gangler
Head, Government Publications
Schedule Committee Chair/Immediate
Auraria Library
Federal Documents Librarian
PublicDocuments and Maps
Perkins Library
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0177
University ofColorado at Denver
1100 Lawrence St.
Denver, CO 80204-2095
phone: (303)556-3532
fax:(303)556-2178
e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail: [email protected]
_"_._.
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i .*
,
GODORT PastChair
Ann E. Miller
phone (919) 660-5855
fax:(919)684-2855
e-mail: [email protected]
Program CommitteeChair
Bill Sudduth
See GODORT Assistant Chair for contact
information.
Special Officers
Archivist
Vicki L. Tate, Archivist
Head, Documents/Serials
University Library
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688-0002
phone:(334) 460-7024
fax: (334) 461-1628
e-mail: [email protected]
Parliamentarian
Beth Clausen
Federal Documents Librarian
Northwestern University Libraries
Evanston, IL 60208
phone:(847) 467-3679
fax: (847) 491-8306
e-mail: [email protected]
Website Administrator
Christof Galli (2004)
Data Services Coordinator
Public Documents
— 6k Maps
Perkins Library Duke University
Box 90177
Durham, NC 27708-0177
phone: (919) 660-5850
fax: (919) 684-2855
e-mail: [email protected] ik
Spring 2002 Volume 30, Number 1
39