Fall Depository Library Conference, October 15-17, 2007

There was wonderfully warm fall weather in the Washington D.C. area during the Fall Federal Depository Library Conference held in Arlington VA this year. Despite the temptation to get out and sightsee, I managed to attend a number of interesting sessions at the conference. I’ll just mention the highlights below, but feel free to contact me if you would like to get any additional information about any of the sessions held at this year’s conference. The detailed agenda is available on GPO’s web site.

The new Public Printer, Robert Tapella, opened the conference with a request. He would like to know what qualities the depository library community would like to see in a new Superintendent of Documents. Ric Davis, the acting SuDoc, has already declined the appointment, so Mr. Tapella is seeking a new candidate that he hopes would be in place by the end of the year.

Much of the excitement at this year’s conference was focused on the announcements and demonstrations of several long-promised services. One session focused on the Future Digital System (FDSys), and we were finally able to see for the first time a working demonstration of this long awaited system. The most impressive feature demonstrated was the search interface, which has a clean and intuitive design, with many enhanced features for filtering search results by keyword, date, and other metadata fields. A full public release of the system is not scheduled until late 2008, but more information about the system can be found at the FDSys web site.

Another service that has finally been updated is the FDLP Desktop. Those completing the FDLP Biennial Survey will have a chance to interact with this new interface, but there are many other additional features that you will want to check out. For example, FDLP Express including the ability to have alerts by topic sent directly to your email. Also, a new Distribution page has been set up to make it easier to identify missing shipments. Most of the functionality will be ready for an Nov. 2007 launch, but we were warned that it may take awhile for all the content on the FDLP’s web pages are migrated to the new interface.

GPO is also finally moving forward with the conversion of the PURL server to Handles technology. They are still testing this new system, and will not be implementing it until late 2008. However, the good news is that we will not need to update links in catalog records as the PURL server will be reconfigured to use the Handle technology. Learn more and provide feedback to GPO at the FDLP Desktop.

Probably the most important issue of interest to depository libraries introduced at the conference was the concept of Public Service Assessments, which would replace GPO’s Inspection program. The goal of the program would be to assess depositories’ compliance with the public access requirements of the FDLP. GPO staff would use information gathered in the Biennial Survey and reviewing their web pages to look for positive evidence that the depository program is visible and promoted at the library. Examples of positive evidence could include cataloging of collections, web pages pointing to resources, visible access policies and other promotional activities. The assessments would focus on outcomes rather than procedures and practices, and GPO would provide a self-assessment checklist with benchmarks to assist libraries with compliance. This proposed program is still in the preliminary planning stages, and GPO definitely wants to get more feedback from libraries about the proposed program. The request for comments should be coming across FDLP-L soon.

I also attended an overview of the Government Information in the 21^st Century project, an IMLS grant project that has pulled together “train the trainer” resources for government information topics. I think there is much we can use in this resource to help us plan for training efforts in Oregon. Make sure you check out their webite at WebJunction.

Finally, I had the pleasure of being able to announce at the conference that the Oregon State Library had finally received its official designation as a Regional. I was also able to provide a short overview of our planning efforts at a session entitled “Regionals at the Crossroads”, and learned a great deal from a session presented by Indiana libraries working on an effort to create a complete FDLP collection in their state.

Please contact me if you have any questions or need clarification on any of the topics I have covered.

Arlene Weible

Oregon State Library

503-378-5020

arlene.weible@state.or.us