Carol Bednar, Government Documents Coordinator, shares background and insights on the Federal Depository Library Program and its role in providing public access to government information.
The Federal Depository Library Program was begun in 1813 to ensure the public's free access to federal government information. Pollak Library has been a selective Federal Depository Library since 1963 and since that time we have amassed a collection of over one million documents. The Government Printing Office is the agency charged with overseeing the Federal Depository Library Program and the Public Printer is the official who oversees the GPO.
In 1993, the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act (Public Law 103-40) launched the transformation of federal government information dissemination from print to electronic format. Although some agencies quickly began publishing their documents on the Web, others did not. This effort, however, gained an enthusiastic advocate, in Bruce James, who became Public Printer in 2002. James declared that the goal of GPO was "to digitize all retrospective documents that can be authenticated back to the Federalist Papers."
While the library and information community was excited about the promise of timely access to government information on the Web, serious questions arose. These questions included matters of bibliographic control, authentication, and permanent public access. It is fair to say that the approach used was to roll the information out on the Web as quickly as possible, and solve the problems in a more gradual fashion - a practical approach. Much of the information was issued in both print and electronic formats.
Progress on Bibliographic Control
Bibliographic control can be defined as the systematic identification of recorded information and the mechanism for gaining subsequent access to such information (Shoop, 2003). To this end, GPO produces the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, a finding tool which contains more than 500,000 descriptive records for historical and current government documents in all formats, and provides direct links to those that are available online. Pollak Library provides bibliographic control of its documents collection through our Library Catalog. We currently have more than 140,000 records for documents in all formats in our Library Catalog and provide direct links to over 30,000 documents which are available online. In addition, we maintain a Government Information Web site consolidating those sites we think will be beneficial to our patrons.
GPO faced a new challenge in this electronic environment in identifying federal documents which should be included in the Catalog. In the print environment, federal agencies had a great incentive to funnel their publications through GPO. The agencies were mandated to provide their publications free to the approximately 1,265 depository libraries nationwide. However, if they sent the publication to GPO for printing, GPO would assume the printing cost. But, with the advent of the Internet, agencies could publish directly to the Web, bypassing GPO and the Depository Program. It is estimated that up to 50 percent of federal publications are currently not included in the program (Priebe, Welch, & MacGilvray, 2008). Why is it important that publications be included in the Depository Program? Because otherwise, bibliographic control, authentication, and permanent public access are not insured. GPO is currently researching Web harvesting technologies with the goal of capturing copies of publications that belong in the program with the goal of providing bibliographic control and a persistent identifier which will aid in subsequent access to the information.
Another serious concern facing the information community is authentication of government information on the Web. It is easy to copy and alter content on the Web, and the user needs to have confidence that the online information is authentic. GPO has recently completed the process of establishing an operational Public Key Infrastructure that will allow users to determine, by viewing an integrity mark, that the information they are accessing is unchanged since it was authenticated by GPO (Priebe, 2008).
Permanent Public Access
The Depository Library Program is supposed to insure permanent public access to government information, and the online environment poses special threats to this goal. Online information is by nature impermanent. The same agency that mounted the information on the Web can take it down. The electronic format lends itself to easy censorship. Also, with the dynamic nature of government, an entire Web site, such as Whitehouse.gov, can change overnight, or at least every four years! GPO is working with the National Archives and Records Service and has developed partnerships with major libraries and institutions to work to ensure, in general and also with each change of administration, permanent public access to electronic government information. This is a major challenge!
Does this mean the end of printed government documents?
While a wealth of government information that was formerly available only in print can now be found on the Web, it is not all there yet. At the Federal Depository Library Conference in October 2006, Public Printer Bruce James (who has since resigned) reported that Congress is not particularly enthusiastic now to finance the retrospective conversion of all documents back to the Federalist Papers (Bernholz, 2008). But today, more than 90% of the new titles entering the depository program are electronic (United States. Government Printing Office, 2006). However, last year, Pollak Library received over 5,000 print documents through the Depository Program. While some content, such as Federal Register notices and tax forms lends itself to electronic format, lengthy monographs are usually more readable in print. Like much of the rest of the information world, government information is subject to different formats based on content and use. And until the issues of bibliographic control, authentication, and permanent public access are resolved, the depository program should continue to exist.
References
Bernholz, C. D. (2008). Federal government documents: Dead or alive. Government Information Quarterly, 25, 57-60. Retrieved January 16, 2008, from ScienceDirect database.
Priebe, T., Welch, A., & MacGilvray, M. (2008). The U.S. Government Printing Office's initiatives for the Federal Depository Library Program to set the stage for the 21st century. Government Information Quarterly, 25, 48-56. Retrieved January 16, 2008, from ScienceDirect database.
Shoop, J. (2003). Lib 101 glossary. Retrieved January 18, 2008, from http://www.seattlecentral.edu/faculty/jshoop/glossary.html.
United States. Government Printing Office. (2006) Annual Report. Retrieved January 18, 2008 from http://www.gpo.gov/congressional/annualreports/06annrep/2006-GPOAnnualReport.pdf.