================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 24 ISSN 1069-7799 April 7, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (113 lines) GOVERNMENT INFORMATION UPDATE: (PART 2 OF 2) PUBLIC PRINTER TESTIFIES THAT FDLP CONTINUES TO BE NEEDED WARNER WARNS OF GROWING CRISIS IN PUBLIC ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION _________________________________________________________________ Editor's note: This is part 2 of 2 ALAWONs chronicling activities before Congress regarding the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service, the Government Printing Office and the Federal Depository Library Program. ______________________________________________________________ PUBLIC PRINTER TESTIFIES THAT FDLP CONTINUES TO BE NEEDED In prepared statements before the Joint Committee on Printing on Oversight of the Government Printing Office on March 13, GPO's Michael F. Dimario, Public Printer; Wayne Kelley, Superintendent of Documents and T.C. Evans, Acting Director of the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Service, spoke of the wide array of product and dissemination services that GPO provides. (The statements can be found at http://www.access.gpo.gov/public-affairs/.) DiMario asserted that the Federal Depository Library Program continues to be needed even if federal agencies are putting information on the Internet. "The FDLP is not a library program; e.g., it does not function like the Library of Congress, although one small component, the Cataloging and Indexing Program, carries out a library-related function pursuant to law. The majority of the FDLP, however, is dedicated to the dissemination of publications and information products to the public through depository libraries, he said." He stressed the issue of fugitive documents publications produced by the government that belong in the FDLP but fail to be included. "Their absence from depository library collections impairs effective public access to Government information." DiMario also addressed GPO's progress to date in providing "about 50 percent of FDLP information electronically" by the end of FY98, as outlined in the final report, Study to Identify Measures Necessary for a Successful Transition to a More Electronic Federal Depository Library Program, submitted to Congress in June 1996. "At the bottom line, our programs reduce the need for duplicative and costly production facilities throughout the Government, achieve significant taxpayer savings through a centralized procurement system, and enhance public access to Government information, an increasingly vital resource in the Information Age," he said. During an organizational meeting before the hearing, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and Rep. William Thomas (R-CA) were elected, respectively, Chair and Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Printing. _________________________________________________________________ WARNER WARNS OF GROWING CRISIS IN PUBLIC ACCESS TO PUBLIC INFORMATION In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. John Warner (R-VA), chair of the Joint Committee on Printing, said that chief among JCP's priorities are reform of Title 44 of the United States Code, and retention of public access to information created by the Federal Government at taxpayer expense (see February 27 Congressional Record, pp. S1730-1). Warner said that currently, the Government Printing Office is charged under Title 44 with the management of the federal government's procurement of information products and with the maintenance of the public's access to these products through the Federal Depository Library System, the GPO Bookstore Program, and GPO Access. He then went on to point out a major problem in the way many federal agencies are meeting their obligations to disseminate government information to the public: He announced two days of hearings in the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on legislation to correct this situation and to reform other areas of Title 44. He also placed in the Congressional Record the remarks made by Superintendent of Documents Wayne Kelley on February 15 to ALA's Government Documents Round Table at ALA's Midwinter Meeting. Kelley provided specific details of the growing trend to transfer federal government information from the public domain to private ownership and the detrimental effect on the American public. Kelley concluded his remarks by urging a debate on these issues. In addition to the Congressional Record, Kelley's remarks can be found on GPO Access http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/ adnotes.html#6. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Anne A. Heanue All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================