With nautical charts no longer being published in paper as of this spring, the issue of Federal Depository Libraries retaining old editions of paper maps has attracted the attention of GPO and by extension the Depository Library Council (of which I am chair); at GPO's request, I recently approached MAGIRT with this issue.  As it turns out, MAGIRT is in the early stages of a planned revision of their Guide to U.S. Map Resources and were looking for an angle to approach this project.  As this is a Biennial Survey year for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), GPO thinks they will be able to include some high-level questions about paper map retention; MAGIRT would be able to use the survey results to do a targeted, in-depth survey to determine which libraries intent to retain paper maps.  Ideally, these libraries would be willing to become Federal Information Preservation Network (FIPNet) partners and agree to permanently retain and preserve these maps so they will be available for future generations.  FIPNet is a component of GPO's new National Plan for Access to Government Information, which fulfills the information needs of the public and ensures that Government information is available in perpetuity, when and where it is needed.  It should be noted that the new National Plan encompasses the entire corpus of federal government information in all formats, not just items that have distributed through the FDLP; this means that items such as the World War II surplus maps that were distributed to academic libraries fall under its umbrella.

I will be leading a Council session on the retention of paper maps at the Fall Depository Library Council Meeting and Federal Depository Library Conference in October; GPO and MAGIRT are tentatively planning a follow-up webinar for January. All Council sessions from the Fall Meeting will be broadcast virtually for those who will not be able to attend in person; once the meeting schedule is set I will post information about how to attend the Council on maps on this list.

If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions about retaining paper maps, or if your library intends to permanently retain paper maps issued by the federal government please contact me at [log in to unmask].

Hallie Pritchett, Chair

Depository Library Council

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