Documents
Librarianship
Ahead of the Curve
or Off the Wall?
How Does Government Affect
YOUR Life?

Family
 Health
 Income
 Housing
 Community
 Recreation
 Students
 Business
Family

Marriage license
 Birth certificate
 Divorce decree
 Child support
 Death certificate
 Funeral home regulations
 Estate taxes
Health

Flu vaccine shortage
 Nutritional guidelines
 Terrorism and bioterrorism
 Drug approval
 Regulation of nursing homes
 Medicare payment schedules for
hospitals
Income

TAXES
 Equal employment opportunity
guidelines
 Consumer price index
 Civil service salaries
 Mediation in labor disputes
 Social security and food stamps
Community

Roads
 Zoning ordinances
 Water supplies
 Waste disposal
 Power and cable industry regs
 Toxic waste cleanup
 Weather alerts
 Disaster assistance
Housing

Certifies home repair contractors
and prosecutes ripoffs
 Building inspectors
 Enforces disclosure rules when getting a
mortgage
 Consumer pamphlets on renting, buying
homes, and moving companies
Student World

Student loans
 Work study scholarships
 College admission court decisions
 Research grants for faculty and
academic departments
 Federal depository libraries
 Originally sponsored the internet
 Copyright protections
Business

Regulates stock market
 Technical research
 Patents
 Trade regulations and statistics
 Employment regulations
 Safety standards
 Loans to start a small business
Recreation

National park system
 Passports
 Airport security
 Grant funding for the arts and
humanities
 Genealogy
 Fishing and hunting licenses
 State park camping reservations
Who Uses
Documents
Public Libraries
Tax forms, nutritional guides,
Social Security, local zoning,
and genealogy
Academic Libraries
Congressional documents,
statistics, treaties, geological maps,
soil surveys, and technical reports
Who Uses
Documents
Special Libraries
Laws, regulations, and patents
Personal Life
Tax forms, maps, absentee ballots,
fishing licenses
What Is A
Government?
• National Governments
• State and Provincial
• Counties
• Cities and Townships
• Inter-Governmental Agencies
United Nations, SEMCOG
What Is Document?
Information in any format
produced at the expense
of a government
– Grace’s Definition
What Is Document?
“Government publication” as used in
this chapter, means informational
matter which is published as an
individual document at Government
expense, or as required by law.
-- 44 USC 1901
What Is Document?
Contracted Report
(funded by government; written by grantee)

Who owns copyright –
the author or the public

Does it fall under a depository program
(i.e. free to libraries)
What Is a
Document?
Published as Individual Document

Does published include
internet?

Does individual include
databases?
Types of Documents
About the Government
1. Laws and Regulations
2. Proposed Laws (Bills)
3. Legislative Debates
4. Executive Speeches and
Directives
5. Court Decisions
Types of Documents
Subject-Oriented
6. Research and
Investigations
7. Statistics
8. Copyright and Patents
9. Maps
10. Consumer Information
Document Distribution
Exchange
Publications from one government
sent to a library of another government
for publications of equal value
Depository
Publications of one government given to a
library in return for public access
Document Distribution
Sales
Works when have central
government printer or a vendor
such as Bernan
Internet
Most U.S., state, and local agencies as
well as UN have free documents on
internet. Other countries are stingier.
University Depository
Collection
Michigan
United States
Canada
United Nations
FAO
South Pacific Commission
Asian Development Bank
European Union (Law)
Federal Depository System

Beginnings
– Unofficially in 1814
– Extended to Executive Branch
– publications in 1895

Library Eligibility
– Congressional District = 2
– Senate = 2 (one apiece)
– Law Schools and Courts
15th Congressional District
University of Michigan
University of Michigan Law
Eastern Michigan University
Henry Ford Comm College
Monroe County Lib System
Depository Profiles
52 regionals -1223 selectives

50% Academic
 20% Public
 30% Remainder
Federal agencies and courts
 State libraries and courts
 Military academies
 Law and special

Depository Profiles
52 regionals -1223 selectives

Regionals
–
–
–
–

Take all publications
Approve disposals
Administrative and training
Library of Michigan
Selectives
– Select types of publications
– Retain for five years
– University of Michigan, University of Michigan
Law, and Eastern Michigan
Depository Item Numbers
7579 Item Numbers
Agency + Type of Publication





0461-D-05 = General publications of
the Education Department
0140-A-03 = Housing Units (EL)
0573-C = Federal Register (P)
0573-D = Federal Register (MF)
0573-E = Federal Register (EL)
Depository Tools

Documents Data Miner
http://govdoc.wichita.edu/ddm

Item Lists http://www.du.edu/bdld/lciintro.htm#gtr00
 Electronic shipping lists
http://www.du.edu/bdld/dslintro.htm#gtr00

Administrative Notes
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/index.html

Technical Supplement
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/techsup/index.html
Depository Guidelines
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/gid/
rusbibl.html

Mandatory selections, record-keeping
 Preservation, disaster recovery, weeding
 Computer workstations, internet filters
 Reference and electronic access
Collection
Development

Written Collection Policy
– UMich selects about 85%
– Receives $85,000 in federal documents
– Spends approx. $300,000 per year to amplify
federal collection

Weeding Policy
– 5 year retention; then offer to regional

Preservation Microfilming and Digitization
Shipping List Provides
SUDOCS Number
Collection Organization
 Options
– Separate Collection by SuDocs #
– Integrated with Non-Documents
 Success
of Either
– Enthusiasm of Librarian
– Time to Specialize
University of Michigan
Documents

Consolidated in Five Libraries
– Art, Architecture and Engineering
– Science
– Public Health
– Maps
– Graduate

Documents Center Coordinates
 Serials Records - Processing
Bibliographic Records
 Commercial
Cataloging Tapes
 Data Base Management
 Catalog Individually
 Combination Approach
Bibliographic Records
at Michigan
 Historical
cataloging of all but
fiche, Congressional, pamphlets
 MARCIVE implemented Feb. 2003
 Shipping list and full records for
monographs
Physical Access

Required for Congressional District
 Includes access to non-filtered internet
 Automatic for Public Institutions
 Private Institutions May Use
– Check-In without Identification
– Separate Hours for Public
– Separate Doors for Documents
Reference
Helping real
people
is the fun
part of
the job
Documents Center
Reference
Desk staffed 12-4:30, M-F
 E-Mail and Ask-Us Reference
 Telephone Reference
 Research Consultations
 Documents-Related Web Pages

Documents Center
Staff

Denise Schoene, student

Jennifer Nason-Davis,
supervisor and law selector
international documents
Ursula Arnold and Frank Lester, SI
 Grace York, coordinator & federal

Sample Reference Questions






History of an 1870s lighthouse
Translations of Chinese statements
on Sino-Soviet split
Evaluation of gray wolf initiative in
Yellowstone
Cost of living in San Francisco and Honolulu
How many times has John McCain voted with
the Democrats?
How to reinstate voter registration after two
rounds of prison
Documents Question Clues
•Legal Material
•Statistics
•Government Official or Agency
Mentioned in Question
•Obvious government publication
(e.g. Duelfer or 9/11 Commission report)
• Expert on the subject is a government
employee (not always obvious)
Legal Questions
•Laws, regulations, bills,
rules
•Court decisions
•Patent or copyright
•Taxes
Statistics
•75% of all statistical questions
start with the government
•Answers can be in databases
rather than printed in a table
•Business organizations and
associations provide data about
their own operations
Government Agency
Mentioned
Congressman Knollenberg,
President Bush, NASA, Social
Security Administration, etc. are
pretty obvious clues
Specific Government
Document
•Starr or 9/11 Commission Report
•Foreign Relations of the
United States
•Highway Statistics
•EPA 600/2-89-143
•PL 97-25
Expert on Subject?
Some are obvious
- State Dept. for passports
- INS for naturalization
- Census Bureau for Census
Some are unclear, e.g. baby cribs
- Consumer Reports (commercial)
- Consumer Product Safety
Commission (government)
Finding Answers
Standard Reference Tools
Bibliographies, Laws, Congress,
Statistics
Google’s Uncle Sam
86% of current docs on internet
http://www.google.com/unclesam
Browse Agency
Bibliography
Web site
Publications themselves
E-Mail Reference
•Since 1992
•Switchover to Ask Us around
1999
•Approximately 40-50 per month
•Trend from remote users to immediate
clientele
E-Mail Advantages
•Most questions take over 5 minutes to
answer anyway
•Time and freedom to research without
consuming user’s patience
•Reference interview possible
•Better research consultations when
people come in
•Use OCLC for nearby collections when
answering remote users
UMich Documents Site
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/
WEB MISSION
Reference Tool
Instruction
MAIN WEB PAGES
 Federal
 Foreign
 International
 Michigan
 State
 Local
RELATED PAGES
 Documents
in the News
 Documents Librarianship
 Political Science
 Statistics
Class Assignment Web
Pages







Chemical and Biological
– Disarmament
Community Analysis
Epidemiology
Environmental Justice
Middle East Conflicts
Race, Gender and Empire in Nuclear Age
Urban Planning
Alternative Formats
Powerpoint Instructional/Tutorials
– Census and Political
Science Research
 New Videos

– Manipulating Census Data with Excel
– Geolytics CD-ROM

Spreadsheets
– Congressional Elections
– Native American reservations by state
News Specials
(hits as of 11/1/04)






America’s War Against
Terrorism (918,647)
Election 2000 (195,858)
Election 2004 (360,095; 153,000 new hits
in 48 hours)
Impeachment of President William
Jefferson Clinton
Iraq War Debate (359,615)
U-M Affirmative Action Lawsuit (101,659)
Special Projects





JFK Executive Orders (Schieda)
Foreign Gazettes (Davis, Crouse)
Congressional E-Mail (Sept. 1994)
GODORT Handout Exchange (Aug. 1994)
GPO Administrative Notes (Sept. 1995)
WEB STATISTICS
 5078
Documents
 80,000 internal links and
47,000 external links
 6500 links broken
New Web Initiative
Possible data base format for
main sections
 Retain alternative formats
– (spreadsheets, powerpoint, videos,
tables)
 Multi-year switchover???
 RSS syndication new as of 11-9-04

– (http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/rss.xml)
Decline of In-Person
Reference at Michigan
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
FY
1996
FY
1998
FY
2000
FY
2002
FY
2004
Rise in Web Access of
Documents Center Web Site
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
FY
1996
FY
1998
FY
2000
FY
2002
FY
2004
Reference FY 2004
2,000
600
705,000
in person questions
e-mail/webmail questions
web reference answers
707,600
questions total
Depository
Surveillance
 GPO Biennial Survey
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/bisurv
ey/index.html
Self-Study
or Inspection
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/f
dlm/selfstud.html
Issues in Documents
Librarianship - 2004
Economic Impact of Online
– Publishing
 Downsizing Depository Distribution
 Depository Library Dropouts
 Downsizing Documents Departments
 Long-Term Training Needs
 Long-Term Preservation/Use

GPO is Losing $57 Million in its
Sales Program Per Year
Has closed all of its regional
bookstores
 Considering





On-demand publishing
Value-added services (e.g. notification
of new bills or regulations)
Selling the GPO building
Scrapped idea to charge public from
printing or downloading from the internet
Congressional Mandate
 Legislative Appropriations Act,
1996
(Public Law 104-53)
– Required shift to electronic Federal
Depository Library Program
GPO Distribution
1992
Paper
19,000
Microfiche 50,000
CD-ROMS
182
Internet
0
2002
8,307
5,525
480
20,585
GPO Distribution
•2003 – 65% of publications
distributed as internet only
•2004 – 86% of all documents
have internet version
•2005 – goal of 95% electronic
distribution
GPO to Distribute Electronic
Unless
•There is no online electronic
version
•The online version is incomplete,
unofficial or unreliable
•The tangible product is of
significant reference value
•The online version is hard to
access (Duelfer report was 3
volumes, each 50-70 MB)
Electronic Format Unless:
(continued)
The tangible product
serves a special needs
population; e.g., Braille
 Tangible product
required by law
 Electronic more
expensive

Selected Essential Titles
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/estitles.html
Constitution, U.S. Code,
Statutes at Large
 Budget, CPI, Monthly Labor
Review
 CFDA, Statistical Abstract
 Economic Report of the President,
Economic Indicators

Effect on Libraries

No incentive to remain a
depository if publications
distributed on internet only

ALL libraries can have access to
86% of depository documents via
the internet
Libraries Dropping Out of
Program

About 50 smaller libraries
have left the FDLP in the past
three years

Detroit Public is withdrawing
from regional status
The Issue
Why follow all of those
processing and electronic
rules, self-studies and
inspections when it’s all and
only on the internet?
GPO’s Solution

Cancel depository inspection
program; substitute library
advisors (Sally Lawler of Michigan
will be the first)

Provide depositories with $500 of
print-on-demand services

Stay with the Program Incentives
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs
/fdlp/staywiththeprogram.html
Biggest Incentive of All
Depositories MUST
offer their entire
retrospective
collection to the
regional when they
leave
Documents Departments
Disappearing
Many separate documents
departments have combined with
general reference (Penn State,
Berkeley, Duke, Iowa)
Documents Center reduced hours due to
budget cuts and irregular use
Some functions can be outsourced; reference
experience irreplaceable
Characteristics of
Documents Questions





Specific
At least 60% require over
5 minutes - sometimes 15-90
Use multiple formats (paper, fiche,
CD, internet for one question)
Must manipulate spreadsheets
May require interpretation
Training Issues

New “internet only”
– depositories
Reference staff at combined
reference/documents desk
 New documents staff members at a
documents desk

Fewer questions to practice for the tough
questions
How Librarians Learn






Taking specialized classes or
training sessions
Extended, off-desk reference
Teaching your own classes
Preparing bibliographies
Adopting a mentor
Lots of experience
Preservation Issues
Material disappears from the
internet
 Version control and authentication
 Technology change

Material Disappears for Political
or National Security Reasons
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Pipeline maps
Hazmat materials transportation info
Nuclear powerplant information
GPO recalled CD-ROM on water
resources
CRS Issue Briefs
Web pages of former Congressmen
Preservation Efforts
GPO copies documents; substitutes
copy if item disappears from
agency web site using PURL
 National Archives designated as
GPO partner
 Creating a collection of last resort
(dark archive) for paper and
electronic
 Cybercemetery at University of
North Texas

Versions and Authenticity
Do you keep only the revised
version of a looseleaf manual or
all of the changes?
Do you keep the provisional, final and
revised version of an unemployment
estimate?
How do you know a partisan or hacker
hasn’t altered a version of a
document for his/her own purpose?
Versions and Authenticity
GPO drafting documents on
version control and
authentication
Retrospective Conversion

GPO may partially fund
libraries for retrospective
conversion

GPO may do some conversion
itself

See vote results:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/pri
orities/vote_stats.html
Technological Change
Old versions of Adobe Acrobat
may not be compatible with
newer versions
1990 Census CDs don’t run well on
Windows XP
Before microfiche there
was microprint!
No one in government wants to pay
for migrating old data
Data Migration to New
Format
Who will step up to the plate?
Are Documents Librarians
Ahead of the Curve?
Off the Wall?
Or Behind the 8 Ball?
Critical Need for
Subject Specialists