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Govvernment Information Quarterly

Volume 15, Number 1 (1998)

CONTENTS

DISCUSSION FORUM
GIQ: A Snapshot of the First Fourteen Volumes
Peter Hernon .......................................................................................................... 1

Introduction
John A. Shuler and Gary Cornwell ................................................ 11

The Federal Depository Library Program in Transition:
A Perspective at the Turn of a Century
Daniel P. O'Mahony ................................................................................. 13

Partners on the Net: FDLP Partnering to Coordinate Remote
Access to Internet-Based Government Information
Duncan Aldrich ............................................................................ 27

The GPO and the Depository Library Program as Structured
Are Needed: Views of a Selective Depository Librarian
Lynn G. Walshak ................................................................................. 39

Why Continue to Be a Depository Library If It Is All
on the Internet Anyway?
Lorraine Kram ............................................................................... 57

Public Service Guidelines in an Electronic Environment
Daniel C. Barkley .......................................................................... 73

SPECIAL FEATURE

Introduction
John A. Shuler and Gary Cornwell .................................................................... 87

Quality Management and Building Government Information Services
Maggie Farrell .................................................................................... 89

Depository Libraries and Public Services
Ridley Kessler ................................................................................. 93

4. Wright State University's Service Ideal Statement
and Depository Libraries: More Questions Than Answers
Bert Chapman .............................................................................. 97

APPENDIX

Appendix A:
Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy
Summary of Activities, Principles, Goals, Priorities and
the Draft Legislative Proposal June 1997 .................................................................................... 101

Appendix B:
DUPONT CIRCLE GROUP ............................................................. 111

Contributors ............................................................................ 123

ANNOUNCEMENTS

First Electronic Federal Depository Library Created .................................. 127

Announcing the GIQ Homepage on the World Wide Web
Jim Gravois .............................................................................. 129

REVIEWS .................................................................................................... 139

Contributors

Duncan M. Aldrich is Head of the Business and Government Information Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has a B.A. in American history (1974) from Ohio University, and a M.A. in history (1976) and an M.L.I.S. (1985) from the University of Oklahoma. He has been active in the government information community, serving as chair of the Government Documents Round Table's (GODORT) Legislation Committee, 1990-1992, and as chair of GODORT in 1993-1994. He has been active in various forums regarding the future of the Federal Depository Library Program, including the Dupont Circle Group meeting and the Chicago Conference on the Future of Federal Government Information in 1993. Aldrich worked as an Expert Consultant on the Government Printing Office's Electronic Transition Staff in 1996-1997. He is currently a member of the Depository Library Council and has published several articles pertaining to the use of electronic information resources in depository libraries.

Daniel C. Barkley is Assistant Director, Government Information Department, at the University of New Mexico's Zimmerman Library. He is also currently Chair of the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association. Prior to his current position, he held professional positions as Head, Government Information/Microforms Department, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Assistant Head, Government Information and Map Library, University of Kansas. He has also worked as a para-professional at Miami University (Ohio) and the University of Kentucky. He has a Bachelor's of Political Science, Miami University (Ohio), 1977, and a Master's of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky, 1987. He has published several articles and book reviews in numerous journals, and held a variety of offices in GODORT during his 10-year professional career. His latest article appeared in North Carolina Libraries and was co-authored with Ridley K. Kessler, Jr.

Bert Chapman is Government Publications Coordinator/Assistant Professor of Library Science at Purdue University. He received a B.A. in history and political science at Taylor University, M.A. in history at the University of Toledo, and M.S.L.S. in library science at the University of Kentucky. He has previously served as Reference/Documents Librarian at Lamar University.

Gary Cornwell is Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Services Department at the University of Florida (UF). Prior to assuming this position, he served for twenty years as the Federal Documents librarian at the UF Libraries. An active member in the American Library Association's Government Dcouments Round Table (ALA/GODORT), he was Chair of the GODORT Legislation Committee and is currently a member of the ALA Committee on Legistation, Subcommittee on Government Information. Cornwell also served as Chair of the Depository Library Council during 1992-1993. In 1993, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Public Printer for his work on behalf of the Depository Library Program and was the 1994 recipient of the CIS/GODORT/ALA Documents to the People Award.
Cornwell has published several articles relating to restructuring the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), including "Problems and Issues Affecting the U.S. Depository Library Program and the GPO: The Librarians Manifesto." Along with Julie Wallace, he was one of the principle organizers of two national conferences on restructuring the FDLP--the Dupont Circle Group and the Chicago Conference on the Future of Federal Government Information.

Maggie Farrell is Associate Dean of Libraries at Montana State University, Bozeman. She recently worked as a consultant to the U.S. Government Printing Office in developing Internet services for depository libraries and the public. Her research interests include access to online government information and the role of depository libraries in the electronic environment.

Jim Gravois received a B.A. in history from Louisiana State University in New Orleans, an M.A. in history from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of South Carolina. He has served as a reference librarian in the Microforms and Documents Department of Auburn University Libraries, in Alabama, since 1991. He chaired ALA/GODORT's Joint Committee on Rare and Endangered Government Publications in 1994-1995. His articles have previously appeared in College & Research Libraries, Public Libraries, and College and Undergraduate Libraries, among others.

Ridley Kessler has served as a documents librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) since 1976. He is currently head of the Documents Section and Assistant Head of Reference at UNC. He is a long time member of the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association and has served on a number of committees and task forces. In 1993/1994, he served as the Chair of the Government Documents Round Table's (GODORT) Legislation Committee. He has also been a member of the Depository Library Council and served as Chair of Council for 1989/1990.

Lorraine M. Kram is Head of the Henry J. Bruman Library, Maps and Government Information, University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a government publications librarian for twenty years. Prior to her position at the University, she was an International Documents librarian at the University of Maryland at College Park, and a State and Local Documents Librarian at Stanford University.

Daniel P. O'Mahony is the Coordinator for Government Documents and Social Sciences Data Services at Brown University Library. He is a past chair of the Depository Library Council to the U.S. Public Printer, and has been an active member of the American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table (ALA/GODORT). He currently serves on the ALA Committee on Legislation, chairs the Ad hoc Subcommittee on Government Information, and is the Subcommittee's representative to the Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy.

John A. Shuler is Department Head/Documents Librarian of the Documents, Maps, Microforms and Curriculum Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since graduation from the master's program at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1983, he has served as a government documents librarian in Oregon (University of Oregon), New York (Colgate University), and now Illinois. He has been active in local, state, and national professional associations, serving on committees and speaking about topics related to government information policy and the management of documents collections. He has written several articles and a book chapter on the depository library program, and serves as GIQ's Reviews Editor.

Lynn G. Walshak is Professor and Government Documents Department Head at Zach S. Henderson Library, Georgia Southern University. She received her MLS from North Texas State University and did graduate work in Political Science at Georgia Southern. She has been a faculty member of Georgia Southern Library since 1971, served as Department Head of Documents since September, 1976, is a member of the Depository Library Council, and a member of the American Library Association's Government Information Subcommittee. She has served as Chair of Georgia Library Association's (GLA) Documents Interest Group and as a member of the Executive Board of GLA. She has numerous publications, primarily in Georgia Librarian.

ABSTRACTS

The Federal Depository Library Program in Transition:
A Perspective at the Turn of a Century

Daniel P. O'Mahony

The basic legal framework covering government information procurement, production, and dissemination has been in place for over 100 years. Congress is currently developing revisions to Title 44 of the United States Code in order to reform this system. fundamental principles of public access to government information, embodied in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), must guide these revisions. The strategic planning process, currently underway by federal agencies, must give due consideration to the entire life cycle of government information, particularly the dissemination and public access responsibilities.

Partners on the Net: FDLP Partnering
to Coordinate Remote Access to
Internet-Based Government Information

Duncan Aldrich

In June 1996, the Government Printing Office (GPO) published a plan for its transition to a more electronic Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). This plan assumes that federal information policy requires that the FDLP provide permanent public access to remotely-accessible electronic government information products and indicates that such access will be provided through a network of partnerships comprised of the GPO, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), federal agencies, and FDLP libraries. GPO has established its first library partnership in this FDLP network with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Richard J. Daley Library and the Department of State (DOS) to ensure that DOS materials will be available for permanent public access through the FDLP. To extend the partnership network to publishing agencies, a partnership has been arranged with the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure direct FDLP access to technical reports maintained on a DOE World Wide Web site.

The GPO and the Depository Library Program as Structured are Needed:
Views of a Selective Depository Librarian

Lynn G. Walshak

This article addresses issues previously discussed as perceived problems with the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the Government Printing Office (GPO) relative to a floundering program, electronic capabilities, costs to participating libraries, inept and inefficient service, and accountability requirements. The author believes that unfavorable images have resulted and been used by various advocacy groups in their arguments intended to bring the GPO, the FDLP and program libraries into a disadvantaged position. Such issues may have a bearing on whether the institution at which this writer is employed will continue to have the opportunity to participate as a depository library.

Why Continue to Be a Depository Library
if It Is All on the Internet Anyway?

Lorraine Kram

As U.S. government information is becoming increasingly available via the Internet, library administrators are questioning the costs and benefits of continuing to participate in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). And, given the current state of transition within the FDLP, within libraries, and within the growth of new technologies, what will future participation in the FDLP entail? This article provides a starting point from which individual libraries can seriously evaluate continuation of their depository status. The article explores many of the basic questions that a library needs to address and suggests additional resources to assist librarians in their assessments.

Public Service Guidelines
in an Electronic Environment

Daniel C. Barkley

In today's electronic environment, government information librarians face new and difficult challenges, especially in the arena of quality public service provision. Given the lack of clear guidelines that Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) participants follow, and based upon suggested guidelines of a reference oriented literature, the author proposes a new set of guidelines that FDLP participants might wish to adopt.

Announcing the GIQ Homepage
on the World Wide Web

Jim Gravois

The Internet and the World Wide Web (Web) have become important sources of information over the past few years. This article describes the efforts to mount a Web page containing the Tables of Contents of two of the most respected journals in the area of government information policy, Government Information Quarterly and The Journal of Government Information. Covering the entire run of these two journals, the Web page even includes abstracts of GIQ articles.