Documents Potluck

Present: In Cheney: Rob Lopresti, NGIN President (Western Washington University), Rami Attebury (University of Idaho), Jean Hartman (Spokane Public Library), Cass Hartnett (University of Washington), Peggy Jarrett, (University of Washington Law Library), Justin Otto (Eastern Washington University), Michele Reilly (Central Washington University), Marilyn von Seggern (Washington State University Library). In Tumwater: Crystal Lentz, Laurie Fortier (Washington State Library)

The morning program featured a Documents Potluck, seven brief “dishes” (lightening talks) regarding government information. Broad topics covered: All-Electronic Depository Status; Incorporating Documents Into Undergraduate Research; Active Learning in Documents Instruction; Digital Primary Resources; Proposed Regulations; Cases and Information of the U.S. Courts; and Humorous Titles of Documents. The agenda and slides can be accessed above.

• Justin Otto: The Eastern Washington University Library is meeting its core depository responsibilities with not enough staff. A new collection management librarian is coming on board soon – will they take over have some of the depository coordinator functions, too?
  
  
• Rami Attebury: The University of Idaho is managing its Cohort 2 migration to Ex Libris fairly well, but the Marcive loads/holdings not going well. A new Head of User Services is being hired. They are cataloging their maps collection, and the curriculum/College of Education is undergoing renovation. She is facing a collection footprint reduction from a 3500 square feet area down to 700.
  
  
• Jean Hartman: Reported that the library has a new home page. She has initiated a blog for federal To make space available for more tables and study carrels for wireless ustomers, the library is weeding the Reference collection and the Federal Documents Reference shelves (moving some books to circulating, or to the closed stacks, or discarding or disposal listing items). They will keep at least these federal documents titles on the public access Reference shelves: current CFR and US Code, historical census volumes of WA and ID, historical climatological data of WA and Spokane. Instead of Judge Judy, Spokane Public has Judge Mary: Community Court is a collaborative effort of the courts, the police department, the Downtown Spokane Public Library, and many other agencies. Instead of appearing before a judge at the courthouse and facing potential jail time, nonviolent misdemeanor offenders can attend court at the library, where they're also given a needs assessment and connected with service providers. Each Monday, the library's meeting room 1A becomes a courtroom; and room 1B and the gallery space are populated with small tables staffed by representatives from service agencies. A person does not have to be a Community Court participant; anyone can walk in and take advantage of help from services agency tables. Often the court users are sent upstairs to use the library's public computers to access government websites, to print court forms, to type resumes, etc.

  More Information:

  • Community Court at the Downtown Library (Library News, March 2014)
  • A New Approach (Inlander, December 19, 2013)
  
  
  
• Marilyn Von Seggern: Her library is contributing to the Technical Report Archive and Image Library (TRAIL) through CRL. Her library is weeding their Humanities & Social Science Reference Collection, acknowledging that the digital sources are more widely used. They will create more commons-style seating. WSU Library is hiring a development officer and already has a new graphics person, a publicity person, and it is making a real difference. Now stories get out from campus to the local news and have even gone national.
  
  
• Cass Hartnett: In August, the GovPubs technical services staff will be integrated into the mother ship of central technical services: Acquisitions and Rapid Cataloging Services (ARCS). Their work will remain the same, with Specialist Supervisor Hilary Reinert as their manager. In April, Hilary, Cass and the entire GovPubs crew reviewed 5,000 duplicate Serial Set volumes to determine the better quality copies for retention. Hundreds of withdrawn volumes were sent to other libraries, including the U.S. Senate Library, law and tribal libraries. Cass attended the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) symposium Leviathan: Government Documents in the Era of Big Data and Cass’s conference summary .
  
  
• Rob Lopresti: Rob is having the busiest quarter he can remember. Jenny Oleen has accepted their position as Scholarly Communication Librarian. Jenny will take over as Copyright Officer and will run CEDAR, the new IR, from BePress. Seeking permission from WWU profs to deposit their stuff, using BePress’s kickstart program. Master theses will be automatically included. Almost 100% electronic depository. Map giveaway 12-15000 maps. WWU president got death threats for his pro-diversity strategy comments: “If WWU is as white in ten years as it is now, we’ve failed as a university.” Students replied to death threats with a 4-min video of WWU dancing to “Happy.” An existing staff member is now the library's marketing manager. Some faculty are complaining about cancellation of Westlaw, in favor of Lexis-Nexis. Rob recently used the Air University Index to Military Periodicals to help someone looking for Defense Department enlistment campaigns. Complained about the dumbing down of USA.gov
  
  
• Peggy Jarett: Gallagher Library is strong and moving forward despite print cancellations. . The library has stopped binding Congressional reports and documents (former Serial Set) but is continuing to collect them print. Peggy is incoming Vice-Chair of the American Association of Law Libraries Government Relations Committee. Its subcommittees include: Access to Information, Open Government (Sunshine laws, etc.), Privacy (e.g. NSA surveillance). Peggy will be working and conferring with AALL Director of Government Relations, Emily Feltron.
  
  
• Michele Reilly: CWU had a library gala. Every floor of the library had activities: musicians, entertainment, swing dancing, an Ellensburg big band ensemble, food, wine, a silent auction, and author readings. Michele chaired the planning committee, 166 people pre-purchased tickets, staff volunteered, the event pulled 275 people and raised funds. It will become an annual event for the Saturday before National Library Week. CWU has also chosen BePress for its IR, which launched at the party. The system is a little quirky for archival/digital library resources, won’t perform batch uploads. Her library is shelf-reading documents, piece by piece, federal first, then state. They are review 200,000 items, matching their collection to curricular needs.
  
  
• Laurie Fortier: Laurie is adding older federal items to their catalog. In the migration to their solo catalog, all item records reverted back into the order in which they were input. Laurie is fixing those one by one.
  
  

Regional’s Report (Crystal Lentz): Carole Bryant, Barbara Massey & Crystal Lentz all attended the Spring Depository Library Council meeting at the Government Printing Office in Washington, DC. At the regionals’ meeting, the sense was “don’t get too mired down in the details” of the proposed new FDL models, as there are many different interpretations of what the different things meant. Maybe Public Printer Vance-Cooks could convene a teleconference with directors? Ideas abound.

As the WA State Library proceeds through their catalog conversion, there is a lot of cleanup to do.

Proposed national plan for depositories: we may soon be a community of information access libraries, joined by an additional tier of affiliate information access libraries (e-only depositories, intended to broaden the program). Information access assurance partners would provide preservation-level help. Changes to Title 44 are needed for some aspects, so these changes won’t happen tomorrow. We can all provide feedback via the FDL community site.

Peggy Jarrett looked at the proposed plan carefully and encouraged us to read the forecast summary, results, and recommendations. A lot of this comes from the notion that GPO doesn’t have the authority to digitize publications. Some recommendations: print-on-demand capability (this one goes back to 2003), digital deposit, and subbing electronic for print as long as the digital edition is on FDsys. GPO is exploring the concept of different levels of authentication. We will probably hear more by this summer’s AALL & ALA conferences. Barbie Selby’s posting on the changes was positive. Question of whether affiliate libraries would go through the regional with questions. GPO will likely proceed with the changes that do not require Title 44 changes. (Look at the Legal Requirements for FDLs document.) Is the 10,000-volume requirement (minimum size of a library’s nongovernmental holdings as per Title 44) still valid?

Former SuDocs Judy Russell is on record as opposing the Let Me Google That for You Act.

The November 2013 minutes were approved.

Brainstorming Themes for Fall Meeting: In brainstorming themes for our Fall Meeting, our conversation centered on the Ex Libris Alma software: how are libraries doing batch uploading? Shipping lists? We will pursue getting Karen Highum from UW Libraries to speak about how UW is dealing with document record loads. How can depository coordinators generate lists of what they’re getting in their depository? How will Alliance libraries fare in Public Access Assessments (GPO inspections) without a “check-in card” feature (piece level records), and how will libraries check in un-barcoded materials?

New Officer Spring 2014 - Spring 2015:

• President Elect/ Program Chair: Rami Attebury
• Treasurer: Justin Otto
• Secretary: Cass Hartnett

Treasurer's Report (Jean Harmtan): $723.38 balance, with 11 paid members, which is on par with last year. We spoke about succession with the Treasurer role and Justin Otto agreed to take over from Jean. NGIN thanks Jean for doing such a wonderful job over the years.

Next NGIN Meeting Fall 2014: Agreed: pursue location of King County Library System (Bellevue) or Seattle Public Library, with UW as alternative if needed. Strive for a Monday in October or November, avoiding time conflict with Depository Library Council’s virtual training and meeting.

Non-existent gavel passed to Peggy Jarrett, President.

The business meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

Return to NGIN