The Depository Library Council (DLC) conference was a very GPO-centric meeting; practically all the presentations dealt with various aspects of the migration to an increasingly electronic environment. Change is in the air, and the devil is in the details.

These notes are arranged by topic, not by session so I can pull together related information from different sessions. GPO will have write-ups on the sessions mounted on GPO Access by mid-May. Session notes are also being posted on Free Government Information . Some sessions at the Fall FDLP will be webcast.

Print on Demand

Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents, said GPO’s proposal to give depositories a print on demand (POD) allowance was meant to supplement the Essential Titles that will continue to be produced in a tangible format. GPO has decided not to pursue this proposal due to the misunderstanding by depositories of the proposal’s intent. Some GPO staff indicated that GPO would like depositories to ask for POD as an additional option for building up collections. POD is not dead for the sales program.

Essential Titles Survey

The results were all over the place to the point where all GPO could conclude was that everybody wants different items. There wasn’t agreement on titles within the different types of depositories, let alone across the depositories as a whole. There was little correlation between titles already selected and the titles requested in the survey. No title was requested by 50% of the responding depositories. Some attendees blamed the confusing results on the survey’s methodology. It was also pointed out that the wide range of responses reflects the wide range of needs and interests of depository libraries.

Future of Tangible Documents

The response to Judy Russell’s announcement at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference that soon the only items GPO would issue in tangible format would be the Essential Titles and don’t translate well into an electronic format (for example, quad maps) proved that contacting Congress can work. The documents community and library organizations contacted Congress, Congress contacted GPO, and GPO backed off. However, the tensions between continued demands for tangible documents and GPO’s plans electronically distribute documents are unresolved.

Certain things are sure. The default format is electronic. When GPO runs out of tangible copies of a document, it will distribute it electronically. Microfiche contracts are being phased out, but will be kept on in certain cases when it’s needed to fill gaps in distribution.

GPO will look into how to handle U.S. Geological Survey publications that aren’t maps, but have maps in pockets. (This was in response to a question from the audience.)

GPO used the phrase “prohibitive cost” to describe the cost of printing certain documents. Print is expensive when the demand is limited. For example it cost $14,000 to print and distribute the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

GPO is not ready to digitize cartographic documents such as maps.

Don’t assume that just because a title is in the Sales Program that it’s distributed in tangible format to depositories.

When an agency stops issuing an Essential Title in tangible format, GPO contacts the agency and notifies it that the title is considered vital to the depository community. GPO’s leverage is limited to persuasion and negotiation.

Electronic Documents

Much of the discussion about electronic documents had to do with the harvesting, authentication, and version control of electronic documents. (Note: I attended the session on disaster recovery instead of the session on version control. Sorry, catalogers.)

The Environmental Protection Agency will be the test bed for GPO capturing electronic documents. This project will involve two contractors so GPO can compare the results of different approaches to following the same criteria and standards. The contractors will make two or three passes through the EPA websites to capture documents over 180 day period. Then GPO will test the captured documents to make sure the links work. EPA was selected because it issues many fugitive documents. EPA staff is interested in the results of this project as well.

A second project is aimed at the LOCKSS (Lots of Computers Keep Stuff Safe) approach to mirror sites for storing electronic documents. Some libraries that already are involved with LOCKSS will capture ten serials.

GPO is doing more liaison work with agencies (including appointing people to work with specific agencies) to capture documents. One goal is a requirement that agencies break electronic files into usable, easily downloadable sections. GPO is also looking into capturing non-English language documents.

Agencies don’t have to submit an “intent to publish” notice for electronic documents. GPO is very careful about letting agencies know about web-crawling and harvesting on the agencies’ websites. It’s a matter of courtesy and turf issues. GPO cannot dictate preservation practices to its partners.

GPO is watching Google’s digitization project with interest. It’s not seen as competition; instead it’ll be one more source of digital content.

One GPO staff person said one reason GPO’s servers are sometimes slow and don’t always work well certain software is because there’s a lot of legacy code and programs “from the dawn of the Internet Age” mounted on them. He stressed that you should contact GPO if you don’t get a response acknowledging receipt of a survey or event registration.

In another session somebody asked how GPO would deal with a cataclysmic internet crash or hack attack that took down GPO’s electronic backbone and access to electronic only documents. GPO’s response was silence.

National Bibliography

The National Bibliography is the name for “…a comprehensive catalog containing descriptions and locations of U.S. Government unclassified publications in all formats.” More information on this program can be found at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/cip/index.html . It will be mounted on GPO’s new Ex Libris Aleph 500 system. GPO is putting a great deal of effort into getting this system up as soon as possible. Online catalogs can be tricky beasts so I wish them well and will be patient if there are glitches when they bring it online.

GPO will not charge depositories fees for downloading or exporting records from the National Bibliography. (There could be copyright issues if OCLC records are added to the National Bibliography.)

GPO aims to have the National Bibliography to have batching abilities for distributing records. On the other hand, GPO is unclear on the abilities of “push technology” so they’re not ready to say that pushing records to libraries would be on a no-fee basis.

National Collection

National Collection is the new name for the Collection of Last Resort. This is the system of dark archives (non-accessible preservation copies) and light archives (copies that will be directly or indirectly accessible). These archives will be outside of the Washington DC area and at least 600 miles apart in areas not prone to natural disasters.

A prime point of access to this program will be the catalog records in the National Bibliography and OCLC.

Depositories will be a major source of documents for the National Collection. Transfer of documents will be voluntary for libraries staying in the Depository Program. Libraries dropping out of the Depository Program will be a major source of documents for the National Collection. GPO has no claim on documents obtained through the Sales Program.

Declassified documents will be within the scope of the National Collection. When a declassified document is recalled by the issuing agency, a record for the document will be kept in the National Bibliography, except in cases when the very existence of the document is classified. (GPO doesn’t make it easy for an agency to recall a document. There are discreet negotiations and the head of the issuing agency has to sign the recall order.)

Authentication

Judy Russell says GPO’s requirements are ahead of the state of the art for authenticating documents, especially in granularity (that is, to what level of detail can you guarantee authenticity for a document—can you authenticate an excerpt from a document down to, say, the paragraph or table level?). If you think of an electronic document as an electronic file, ideally—but not currently possible—any extract from that file is automatically authenticated. This made for a discussion with a lot of hypothetical elements. It didn’t help that the Depository Library Council hadn’t seen a demonstration of the proposed authentication method.

There will be no fee for a user to authenticate a document. There will be a digital signature that will be an inseparable part of the document file. No digital signature, no guarantee of authenticity.

GPO want it seal/stamp/logo of choice to be the one people recognize as the guarantee of authenticity. It sees no need for every department, agency, office, and bureau of having its own seal of authenticity.

Disaster Recovery

This was a good presentation that covered different scales of disaster: the burst pipes at the University of New Mexico damaged one building; the flash flood at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa caused damage throughout the campus and nearby neighborhood; and Hurricane Ivan struck the University of West Florida when that entire region was dealing with the aftermath of previous hurricanes. Note also that some disasters are unexpected (burst pipes) and some are foreseeable (hurricanes). Prepare for the unexpected and take full advantage of any warning you may have.

Disaster recovery plans are much more effective if they’re in place before a disaster. It’s useful to have multiple scenarios in disaster plans. A disaster plan for a flooded floor may not be appropriate for an area-wide disaster and vice versa. Even with a plan in place you may have to improvise given the chaotic nature of disasters. Accept limits on what you can realistically plan for—the plan is there to give you guidance, not answer every question.

Have contact information for your staff and those you do business with such as vendors. Also have contact information for nearby depositories and your Regional depository. Contact GPO—Gretchen Scheitle took the suggestion that GPO have a contact number/designated staff person for dealing with disasters. (Some of the panelists had trouble knowing who to contact at GPO—a bad situation when time isn’t on your side.) See if GPO can delay shipments for awhile or if another nearby depository can hold shipments for you. Let other depositories know what’s happening—they can be very supportive.

You may have to contract with a disaster recovery firm to help with cleanup. One panelist described these firms as ambulance chasers. They start making contact when your disaster hits the news. They will often contact higher levels of administration in your organization than the library. Be sure to specify that any disaster recovery firm working with you should have experience with library/archival materials. Hawai’i and New Mexico hired Balfor—this is not an endorsement, per se, but the firm has worked with libraries and library materials.

Both personal computers and servers may be damaged. It may be possible to recover some or all the data on them, but that’s another task that might have to be outsourced.

Be ready to triage damaged items. What are the most valuable or irreplaceable items? What are the most damaged? Are there items located in areas that are unsafe to work in? In short, know what you need to save, what you can save, and what’s safe to save. You may have limited access to refrigerated areas where you can freeze dry wet items. (For instance, the University of Hawai’i could only get 5 refrigerated containers because it was Christmas tree shipping season. If it’s an area wide disaster, you could be in competition with other libraries and archives for limited resources.)

Water can damage furnishings as well as collections. Shelving can rust. Ball bearings in map case drawers can corrode.

Red property stamp ink can bleed through paper and maps. Folders can trap water and further dampen items.

You may be able to batch some jobs. The University of New Mexico was able to shrink wrap map case drawers to simplify shipping maps off for restoration (and avoid possible damage by trying to separate soggy map sheets).

A disaster affects the staff as well as the collection. If it’s an area wide disaster, people will be more concerned about their families, friends, and homes. Even if it’s more localized, stress and exhaustion can cause workplace accidents—for this reason, people at the University of Hawai’i weren’t allowed to work past 5:30 PM. At the University of New Mexico staff had to take training in protective clothing in case of mold exposure. This is also a good time for administrative staff to get out from behind their desks and help the rest of the library staff in disaster recovery work.

Mold is persistent, mold can be dangerous. Any area that gets damp could be harboring mold. Even areas that dry out quickly can host mold. The University of New Mexico discovered this with maps that dried out by themselves in a day or two; the mold showed up a little later. Flooring, ventilation systems, drywall, and furniture may have to be thoroughly cleaned or replaced to avoid sick building syndrome.

Getting money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency can require detailed paperwork. And an audit follows.

Miscelaneous

GPO is no longer paying attention to selection percentages based on type of library.