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Collegues:
Last spring I, as the chair of MAGERT, was asked to recommend a delegate
to the Dupont Circle meeting held in Washington D.C. I recommended Melissa
LaMont because of her energy and involvement in both GovDox and Maps. She
attended and has been diligently supplying us with the Dupont Circle Reporters.
A major meeting will be held by the GovDox community to discuss the Future of
Federal Government Information in Chicago, Oct. 29-31. It includes, of course
the future of maps, spatial information, etc. as they are supplied by the
federal government. We, as the map library community, need to provide feedback
to our collegues who will attend in order to have our challenges and concerns
met. I have extracted the areas to be discussed. Please look them over and
reply to the MAPS-L List (for discussion), Melissa (at HBLADM140@UCONNVM) or
me, Patrick McGlamery (at LIBMAP1@UCONNVM). Don't let this happen without a
voice. Our needs are special. They won't know unless we tell them.
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The Conference will cover the following:
AREA 1 Articulation of the Program
AREA 2 Framework for the Program
WORK GROUP A: Role of Libraries in Program
WORK GROUP B: Administration of Program
AREA 3 Depository Community Reform and Development
WORK GROUP A: Challenge of Electronic Information
WORK GROUP B: Organizational Reform
AREA 4 Collaboration, Outreach, and Education
WORK GROUP A: Library/public Stakeholders
WORK GROUP B: Public/private Info. Providers
WORK GROUP C: Educational Programs
AREA 5 Legislative and Regulatory Reform
WORK GROUP A: Identifying Necessary Reforms
WORK GROUP B: Strategic Action Plan
(Below is a complete description of the AREAS and WORK GROUPS.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
AREA I: Articulation of the Program (Facilitator: Sandy
Peterson, Yale University).
This AREA is concerned with the background and development of the
Depository Library Program, mission, goals, and benefits of the
program. Work in this AREA will include describing briefly the
history of the DLP and will provide a more detailed discussion of
developments that have led to the need for restructuring the
program. It will develop a statement of mission and goals for a
federal information access and dissemination program drawn from a
review of the professional literature to this point and based
upon the "Life Cycle of Government Information" as outlined in
the Dupont Circle discussion documents. The group will develop a
final statement of the mission and goals that will reflect the
views of conference participants. It will compose variations of
a preamble for the mission and goals statement that will permit
the statement to be presented to a variety of governing bodies at
federal, state and local levels of government.
Much of the work of this AREA will be completed PRIOR to arriving
in Chicago. (The target deadline for finalizing a mission
statement and goals is early in the conference; thus, those
assigned to AREA 1 may also be able to participate in one of the
other AREAS during the Chicago conference.)
AREA 2: Framework for the Program (Facilitator: Diane Garner,
Harvard University).
This AREA is concerned with developing the framework for a
consensus model for the NEW federal information access and
dissemination program. It will be based on the various aspects
of the government information life cycle adopted by the Dupont
Circle Group. This includes the creation, distribution, access,
use, evaluation, and preservation of government information.
Participants in this AREA will examine the Association of
Research Libraries model outlined in the Depository Library
Council report on alternatives for the future of the DLP, and the
Federal Information Service Centers and Government Information
Access Centers models proposed by the Dupont Circle Group. The
Depository Community Consensus model will include the appropriate
elements of these models and other proposals which arise in the
discussions. Work in this AREA must be based on the overall
mission of the program. Consequently, WORK GROUPS in this AREA
will need to communicate with AREA 1.
Work Group A: This group will delineate the organization and
role of libraries within the NEW program. It will consider how
depository libraries/service centers will be organized and
"networked" to meet the future mission and goals of the
DLP/government information access and dissemination system. In
this work the group will consider the questions: 1) will there
be different types of libraries in the system; 2) what will be
the function of the libraries; 3) should different types of
libraries be responsible for different services; 4) what types
of organizational relationships will be required among the
libraries/service centers; and 5) should the program/system be
laid out geographically or according to some other plan? In
short, how will the libraries within the NEW program be organized
to best provide user access and services?
Work Group B: This group will delineate how the NEW library
program will be administered by the government and the libraries.
Questions this group will examine are: 1) will the program be
administered under a single central federal agency; 2) if so,
which agency should that be; 3) how will libraries participate
in an have influence over administration of the program; and 4)
what will the new depository/access agreement be between
participating institutions and the government? The group will
concentrate on the goals and mission of the government
information access and dissemination program based on the
elements of the life cycle of government information.
AREA 3: Depository Community Reform and Development
(Facilitator: Anne Watts, St. Louis Public Library).
This AREA focuses on short term strategies for immediate reform
to the current program which will lay the foundation for a new
program structure in the future. The work in this AREA will
delineate the responsibilities and recommend priorities for the
GPO and depository libraries in facing the current fiscal,
organizational, and technological challenges to the program.
Participants will recommend organizational changes to be made
both in the DLP and GPO to prepare for the transition into the
new government information access and dissemination program.
Work Group A: This group will examine steps that the GPO and
depository libraries can take in the immediate future to prepare
this community for the increased availability of government
information in electronic formats and the implementation of the
GPO Access law. For example, should the GPO establish a "one
stop" gateway to federal online data bases? Should GPO use
Gopher or WAIS software to connect to other agencies' online
systems? What procedures should GPO establish to solicit advice
on software and online networked systems packages? Should the
GPO distribute hardware to libraries? How do libraries prepare
for an electronic future? What are the technical requirements
for libraries disseminating electronic government information?
Work Group B: This group will assess organizational changes that
can be made within the depository community and GPO to improve
access and dissemination services with specific focus on the
question of what must be done organizationally to prepare for the
future. Several proposals were published in the "Librarians
Manifesto" (_Government Publications Review_, 20:121-140) which
suggest organizational changes for the libraries in the program
ranging from shared regionals to basic document centers. The
"Manifesto" also discusses an evolutionary process by which the
GPO might move through a transition from being a printing house
for the government to an information disseminator, gateway, and
coordinator. Other topics include, but are not limited to,
education and training, the inspection program, the role of
regionals, alternative dissemination options.
AREA 4: Collaboration, Outreach, and Education (Facilitator:
Jack Sulzer, Pennsylvania State University).
Participants in this AREA will develop strategies which the
depository library community can employ to increase the role of
depository libraries and librarians in delivering federal
government information in a future of multiple government
information providers where many diverse professional and user
groups have a stake in how federal information resources are
disseminated and accessed. Development of these strategies will
acknowledge the significance of other stakeholders and will
consider collaborative efforts with these groups, including
information users, private sector information providers, and
related interest groups such as CNI, APDU, IASSIST, and others.
Particular focus will be given to development of programs which
support library outreach, education, funding, and cooperative
networking at the state and local level, and to examination of
how librarians should work with other stakeholders to establish
these programs. In other words, what will be the role of
depository libraries within the broader context of government
information delivery, and how will it become an integral part of
a broader system?
Work Group A: This group will develop strategies for identifying
and working with other library groups and public stakeholder
organizations that are advocates for better user access to
government information. The group will outline the activities
and advocacy initiatives of these other groups. It will identify
steps that depository librarians may take to participate actively
with other groups in the planning and establishment of various
programs that advance government information access issues.
Work Group B: This group will examine strategies for identifying
and working with government information providers both private
and public. It will focus on the questions: 1) what sources of
government information, other than the DLP, and what forms of
public access to that information exist that depository
librarians should know about and contribute to; 2) what is the
program's role in coordinating these various sources of access to
government information for the user; 3) what are the steps to be
taken for depository librarians to participate in various local,
state, and national initiatives to network government information
from multiple sources and through multiple services either
outside of or in combination with libraries?
Work Group C: This group will focus on describing new programs
for the training and continuing education of government
information librarians; educating government information
providers about the library program; educating other librarians
and end users about the program and government information
access; and strategies for developing local educational
opportunities.
AREA 5: Legislative and Regulatory Reform: Policy development
and the technical legal structure (Facilitator: Steve Hayes,
University of Notre Dame).
This AREA is related to AREA 4, but it is limited to developing a
political/legal agenda, and a strategy for presenting it to the
"power brokers" of the various library professional associations
and lawmakers at all levels of government. The WORK GROUPS of
this AREA will identify new legislation and regulations required
and amendments and changes needed; outline a strategy for
developing new legislation and rules; develop the action plan
for submitting this proposal to the library associations, to
Congress, and to Executive Agencies (i.e., developing a plan to
broaden the constituency and build support, getting other groups
to join in developing the specific legislative and regulatory
language and activities needed to implement this proposal).
Work Group A: This group will identify specific legislative or
regulatory changes that will be required to implement the
consensus recommendations of the conference. Participants in
this group will be assigned to attend the meetings of other
conference WORK GROUPS in AREAS 2, 3, and 4, and to bring back to
the work group action items that may require changes to
regulation and legislation.
Work Group B: This group will develop a strategy for proposing
legislative and regulatory reforms that may be required to
implement the consensus recommendations of the conference. This
strategy will focus on building support and broadening the
constituency, and on examining means for approaching legislators
and regulators. The group will consider strategies for carrying
forward a developmental plan of legislative action within the
various library associations and building cooperative efforts
with other stakeholder groups to develop a specific legislative
agenda in a future stakeholders conference.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
----------------------
PATRICK MCGLAMERY
MAP LIBRARIAN U-5M
HOMER BABBIDGE LIBRARY
UNIV. OF CONNECTICUT
STORRS, CT 06268
(203) 486-4589
LIBMAP1@UCONNVM
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