ALA | Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)

Follow this link to see what ALA is proposing to help smooth out the current controversies with GPO:


ALA Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)

Superintendent of Documents--New Commentary

While you may have already been informed that the new issue of the FDLP newsletter is available, I want to make sure all of you see the commentary by Mary Alice Baish, our new Superintendent of Documents.

http://www.fdlp.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1110:creating-our-shared-vision-roles-opportunities&catid=335:fromsupdocs


SGB

GPO/FDLP News from the Frontlines

I promised to update this blog a while back; and now that I have so much to share for our meeting in Lafayette on Friday, I'll start by putting a lot of current information right here.

As most of you know, there has been a lot of controversy over a couple of issues having to do with how, in this time of great change in libraries, the current system of Regional and Selective responsibilities are being tested and, for some FDL's, are failing.

One of those tests involves the dropping to Selective status of Michigan's only remaining Regional and the arrangement that they made with Minnesota to take over the duties of Regional for Michigan. This arrangement was not approved by GPO, primarily because the new Administration at GPO/FDLP is not approving any new multi-state Regional/Selective arrangements.

The other prominent test involves the approval of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) Collaborative Federal Depository Program (CFDP)--a.k.a. the Centers of Excellence Program. As you all know, LSU and LaTech have both signed on as Centers of Excellence participants; and LSU is already working with aspects of the ASERL Disposition Database.

The controversy surrounding this second test has developed because the prior Administration at GPO/FDLP gave "informal" approval to the ASERL project, and now the current Administration is questioning if the project meets legal standards.

In this first of what will probably be many posts, I will insert links to documents that, when read in chronological order, give details about both of the tests.

• ARL's listing of documents: http://www.arl.org/pp/access/fdlp/fdlp-dev/index.shtml
  



• ASERL's listing of documents: http://www.aserl.org/programs/gov-doc/gpo-letters/
  

Enjoy the drama!

Here at ALA Midwinter

Final day of ALA Council meetings for Midwinter 2011. Keep an eye on this post thread, starting now!

Questionnaire for FDLP Selectives

Update for Tues. 11/30, The questionnaire is ready for Selectives' responses.
Please scroll down to the end of this section that has the posts, and fill out the form. To see the whole form, you'll probably need to use the scroll bar within the form itself.

If you have questions, please contact me directly at sbraunst@lsu.edu. Thanks--and looking forward to your answers and comments!

Reporting from last month's fall 2010 Depository Library Conference in Arlington, VA--the High Points:

The migration from GPO Access to FDsys is on target and should be completed by the end of December 2010.

Ithaka S+R will once again do a study on the FDLP--this time at the request of GPO. Please open and take a look at the website set up by Ithaka so that you can understand the purpose and process of this study.

GPO has given us some new promotional tools, among them a "User Survey." Click here to link to Lori Smith's announcement of this survey, and then follow the link from there to participate.

UPDATES ON THE ASERL PROPOSAL FOR A COLLABORATIVE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY PROGRAM (CFDP)

Read the October 2010 Program Update found on the ASERL site. After you open this link to the main page, look in the right hand frame for "Managing FDLP Collections Across the Region"; then click on "Project Page." After opening that page, scroll down to "Current Program Activity Update."

Details pertaining to the plan which have been discussed by members of the ASERL community include the following:

• Handling ILL requests
• Disposal lists policies and procedures
• Digitization facilitation and modeling
• Questions on how to handle the listing of microfiche

If you have specific questions or comments, either leave them on this post or email me at sbraunst@lsu.edu

Louisiana Docs Librarians Participate in National Library Advocacy Day in Washington, DC

On Tuesday, June 29, ALA sponsored a rally and legislative day for attendees at the 2010 Annual Conference in DC. Two of your docs colleagues, myself and Melanie Sims (who is also immediate past-president of Louisiana Library Association) attended the event along with 2000 other library supporters.

Melanie and I were joined by other Louisiana librarians to make up a seven-person delegation to the rally and to visit both of our senators and one of our congressmen on Capitol Hill.

In the photo, left-right: Stephanie Braunstein, Head Government Documents/Microforms, LSU; Felix Unaeze, Director of Library Services, Grambling University; Cecelia Beaubouef, School Librarian, Park Ridge Elementary; Melanie Sims, Government Information Librarian, LSU Law; Joseph Sbisa, Director, Washington Parish Library; Jacqueline Jones, Associate Dean of Learning Resource Center, Baton Rouge Community College; and Marilyn Lee, Head Serial Librarian, Xavier University of Louisiana.