Digitization of the Federal Depository Library Program Judith C. Russell Superintendent of Documents & Managing Director, Information Dissemination “Electronic Publishing and the International Exchange of Government Documents: End of an Era” LC’s Digital Future & You Briefing Series November 2, 2005

Historical Perspective 1813 – Authorization for distribution of Congressional materials by the Secretary of State 1814 – American Antiquarian Society designated the 1 st depository library and received the Journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives 1861 – Government Printing Office (GPO) opened its doors 1886 – Brussels Convention authorizes IES 1889 – President directs distribution of US government documents to IES partners 1895 – Printing Act of 1895 transfer FDLP to GPO 1993 – Government Printing Office Electronic Information Enhancement Act of 1993

Permanent Access GPO, through the depository library program, has the responsibility for permanent public access to Federal publications that are within the scope of the FDLP. This ensures permanent access for IES partners as well.

Electronic Transition GPO Access Act, 1993 Study required by 1996 Appropriations Act 5% of titles distributed to depositories were electronic – at the time of the “Study” Electronic Collection Plan,

Current Situation By the end of FY 2005, only 8% of the new tangible titles were available to depository libraries only in tangible form. The FDLP distribution was already 92% electronic. 95% by 2005 is looking amazingly accurate for a guess made 9 years ago.

Tangible Distribution Essential Titles List –Titles to remain available for selection in paper (tangible) format, so long as they are published in that form by the originating agency –Fluid list, created and reviewed in consultation with the depository library community ID 71: Dissemination/Distribution Policy for the Federal Depository Library Program Essential titles list needed for International Exchange libraries?

Items Available International Exchange Service Libraries have always received a subset of what is available to Federal depository libraries As FDLP publications are mostly online, it follows that more publications are accessible to IES libraries

A New Vision for GPO “To deliver Federal information products and services from a flexible digital platform.” congressional/pdfs/ 04strategicplan.pdf

ID Mission To provide, in partnership with Federal Depository libraries, … for the perpetual, free and ready public access to the printed and electronic documents, and other information products, of the Federal government. To distribute, on a cost recovery basis, copies of printed and electronic documents and other government information products to the general public. The Information Dissemination organization (ID) has the primary responsibility for carrying out two of GPO’s key mission elements:

A Vision Objective The collection will date back to the beginning of U.S. Government printing (pre-GPO) The strategy calls for GPO “to complete 70% of this task by the end of 2007.” Conversion will begin in Fall 2005 with print publications, but will eventually include microfiche and other tangible formats. “digitize and authenticate all known Federal documents … to allow the entire collection to be searched on the Web and viewed over the Internet from a home, office, school or library.”

Digitization Initiative The goal is to digitize a complete legacy collection of tangible U.S. Government documents to make sure that these materials are available, in the public domain, for permanent public access.

Assumptions GPO’s Digital Conversion Service will scan publications to produce “converted content packages” — TIFF images and the associated metadata. The digital preservation masters (TIFF images) and the metadata will be preserved in the GPO electronic archive, along with text files resulting from the OCR process, and press optimized fully searchable PDF files, combining the page image and the text. “Converted content packages” and the associated text will be used to develop derivative files for no-fee public access on GPO Access, including searchable, screen-optimized PDF files. “Converted content packages” also will be used to develop Print on Demand (POD) master files for suitable publications.

Preservation Digitization is an excellent means to provide broad public access to Federal publications now available only in print or other tangible form. Traditionally, high resolution microfilm or microfiche has been the used to reformat publications for preservation. In June 2004, the Association for Research Libraries endorsed “digitization as an accepted preservation reformatting option for a range of materials.” “Many approaches are possible, but digital reformatting should now be considered a valid choice among various methods for preserving paper-based materials.”

Preservation Key benefits of digital preservation: Increased accessibility. Increased functionality. Output to other media. Capture and display of materials that are not easily reformatted using other technologies (e.g., color items, oversize materials and other complex graphic materials)

Related Activities GPO’s Future Digital System (FDsys) Authentication Disaster Recovery/WAIS Replacement LOCKSS Web Discovery and Harvesting ILS and OPAC Implementation Retrospective Cataloging

Authentication By using digital signature technology to add the Seal to a PDF document, GPO attests that the document has not been altered since it was authenticated and disseminated by GPO. For sample documents and more information on authentication:

End of an Era? Perhaps we are near the end of deposit of tangible documents, but this does not mean the end of the International Exchange Service Change in relationship between GPO, LC, and participating libraries Shift in emphasis from collections to accessing materials and providing services

For More Information … About GPO’s digital initiatives please visit: GPO’s Digitization and Preservation Initiatives Recommended Readings GPO – Future Digital System (FDsys)

Contact Information Judy Russell Superintendent of Documents