THE DOCKET
Newsletter of the Documents Section of the North Caorlina Library Association
| Volume 29 Number 2 Fall 2002 |
It is with delight that I report that Eileen Brown has agreed to be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Documents Section for the remainder of this term, and will then become Chair for the following year. Eileen is the Assistant University Librarian Directing Government Research & Regional Studies at William Madison Randall Library, UNC Wilmington.
Although Laura West had to resign to follow her
husband to the wilds of Mississippi, I am delighted that our section will
continue to be served by a bright and accomplished person in the vice chair
position.
--Paula Hinton, UNC Chapel Hill, Chair, Documents Section
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Coming Up: Fall 2002 Documents Workshop
Please plan to attend the Fall Documents Section
Workshop on Friday, November 8, 2002 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh.
The topic will be North Carolina state documents with the focus on electronic
format. This topic was suggested by some attendees at our last workshop
and perhaps it is time to revisit this subject, particularly since we have a
relatively new Clearinghouse Coordinator. Confirmed speakers are Jan
Reagan and Michelle Hayslett, both from the State Library, and Michael Van
Fossen from UNC Chapel Hill.
--Eileen Brown, UNC Wilmington, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Documents Section
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State Library of North Carolina Receives Initial Funding for "Access to State Government Information Initiative"
The State Library of North Carolina has initiated a three-year project, entitled "Access to State Government Information Initiative," to address the issues involved in the state's transition from printed documents to "born digital" information (e.g., information produced and distributed solely in digital format - no longer available in tangible formats such as paper documents, microforms, or CDs). The first year of the Initiative (2002-2003) is funded through an LSTA Statewide Leadership Grant and Jan Reagan, Head of the Documents Branch at the State Library, will serve as Project Manager for the Initiative.
Traditionally, government information in North Carolina, as in other states and the federal government, has been disseminated through printed documents available from government agencies and libraries. Over the last 5 years, however, state agencies have begun providing information digitally via the Internet as well. More recently, budget cuts have forced agencies to eliminate printed documents altogether. The result is a new breed of information that poses challenges to traditional systems within state government (e.g., North Carolina State Documents Depository System) designed to collect, catalog, store, and distribute information for easy access and long-term use.
The State Library is the agency responsible for facilitating public access to state agency publications. The Library fulfills this responsibility through the North Carolina State Documents Depository System, established in 1987 by G.S. 125-11. The statute requires state agencies to submit multiple copies of publications to the State Publications Clearinghouse where they are processed, cataloged, and distributed to 26 depository libraries in North Carolina, the Library of Congress, and the State Library's permanent State Documents Collection. The Depository System remains a viable program for facilitating continued public access to current and historical state government information in printed format; however, it does not have the capacity to accommodate born digital information.
The issues involved in managing born digital information for long-term access are various and complex and there is currently no facility within state government to support systematic collection, and preservation of this information. There are also no officially adopted state standards and guidelines for publishing, formatting, archiving, or preserving digital information that would help ensure sustained availability and access to information disseminated solely via the Internet. The "Access to State Government Information Initiative" provides the means for assessing current practices in state government information publishing and dissemination and developing recommendations for standards and processes that will facilitate the preservation of current and historical state information in all formats. The State Library will work collaboratively with other stakeholders (e.g., information producers, librarians, and end-users) throughout the three-year initiative to ensure the development of workable solutions.
Access to State Government Information Initiative Project Phases:
Phase I: Research, Discovery, and Education - Conduct research, collect information and engage a representative core Advisory Group of stakeholders in the Initiative to educate and improve all stakeholders' understanding of the issues and challenges involved in providing continued access to born digital state government information and statistical data. The results in Phase I will provide the foundation for solutions development in Phase II. (Year One: 2002-2003)
Phase II: Solutions Development - Workshop on Solutions - Expand the Phase I core group of stakeholders to form a larger collaborative Workgroup that will address the issues identified in Phase I research and develop solutions for continued access to state government information. Standards for data formats, metadata, and preservation; architecture for repository building; finding aids and access tools; and guidelines for collection born digital information are among the issues to be considered. (Year Two: 2003-2004)
Phase III: Testing, Implementation, and Legislation - Test and implement solutions provided in Phase II where feasible. Project staff and core members of the Workgroup will draft language for legislation. (Year Three: 2004-2005)
Phase I Overview: 2002-2003
Project staff will conduct research and gather
information in Phase I that will provide insight into publishing trends in
government information; stakeholder perceptions of the public's need for
continued access to state information; the status (e.g., how formatted,
published, accessed) of agency publications and statistical data sources
produced and updated since 1997; the level of state agency compliance with the
State Depository System; and the availability of current and historical born
digital state information. Staff will also investigate efforts in other
states and the federal government to deal with the challenges of digital
information. A core Advisory Group of stakeholders will be appointed by
the State Librarian to provide guidance on project activities and ensure
effective outcomes. A White Paper on the implications of the changes in
state government information dissemination for long-term access will be prepared
and distributed to stakeholders and relevant state officials for review and
comment in July 2003.
--Jan Reagan, Head of the Documents Branch, State Library
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On Sunday, June 16, 2002 at the annual conference of the American Library Association, Ridley R. Kessler, Jr., was awarded the James Bennett Childs Award by the Government Documents Round Table. This award recognizes an individual's "lifetime and significant contribution to the field of government documents librarianship." Among the attendees at the ceremony were several present co-workers and many of Ridley's former students. Presently the Regional Federal Documents Librarian and Assistant Head of Reference in Davis Library, UNC Chapel Hill, Ridley began his career in government documents more than thirty years ago.
An ALA preconference on using Census 2000 data and maps was held in Atlanta on June 13, 2002. The workshop was structured to incorporate hands-on exercises to give attendees experience manipulating the data and maps.
If a directive of the White House's Office of Management and Budget is implemented, one hundred and thirty agencies and departments of the federal government will have to contract privately for their printing. The Government Printing Office has expressed grave concerns regarding potential negative ramifications on public access to government information, as well as likely increased costs to individual departments.
Some documents staff are being asked for assistance in interpreting the USA Patriot Act of 2001 (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism), Public Law 107-56, which has implications for libraries. An informative webpage may be found at http://www.ala.org/pio/crisis/qa.html.
Some depository libraries were caught short-handed by the state's hiring freeze. The retirement of Linda Lloyd, long-time employee in the documents section at UNC Chapel Hill, and Mary Ellen Spencer's move to Virginia from her former NCSU government documents responsibilities, left these departments in a staffing bind on the cusp of the freeze. Several other documents departments have suffered similar staffing shortages.
UNC Wilmington's Eileen Brown, Vice Chair of the
Documents Section, is planning the section's fall workshop. Stay tuned for
more details!
--Paula Hinton, UNC Chapel Hill, Chair, Documents Section
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Thanks to Spring Workshop Speakers
The Documents Section's Spring Workshop was held at McKimmon Center in Raleigh on May 17, 2002. The theme of the workshop was "The Virtual Depository." Thanks to the speakers who were:
Ridley Kessler, Regional Depository Librarian,
UNC Chapel Hill;
Bob Gaines, Documents Librarian, UNC Greensboro;
Nancy Kolenbrander, Head of Government Documents, Western Carolina University;
Bryan Sinclair, Electronic and Government Documents Coordinator, UNC
Asheville;
Virginia Branch, Government Documents Librarian, Appalachian State University;
and
Steve Morris, Head of Data Services, North Carolina State University.
* * * * * *
Notable International Documents
The first issue of the "Arab Human Development Report" covers 22 Arab countries. The report was compiled by an independent team of Arab experts and published by the United Nations Development Programme Regional Bureau for Arab States with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development as co-sponsor. All of these publications, as well as many others of current interest, may be found at the State Library of North Carolina or at selected state depositories.
In the last twenty years, the Arab region has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality. Life expectancy is up; infant mortality is down. But there are also signs of faltering development: per capital income growth is close to the lowest in the world, labor productivity is low and declining, women's participation in the workforce, in political and professional life, trails behind the rest of the world. One in five Arabs still lives on less than $2 a day.
The text includes sections on demography, health, habitat, education, economics, information and communications technology, Arab cooperation, and government reform. The Statistical Annex includes 30 pages of data.
The 2002 "Arab Human Development Report" is available in PDF format from the United Nations Development Programme at http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr/. Users can download the entire report or chapter by chapter. Instructions on ordering a print copy ($23) are also included.
The Publications section of the United Nations Development Programme page, http://www.undp.org/dpa/publications/index.html includes an amazing number of full-text publications in PDF format.
These are arranged by world region, or theme: democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, energy and environment, information and communications technology, HIV/AIDS, gender in development, strategic partnerships, and South-South cooperation.
The world region section includes copies of some
of the national human development reports (which cover general human
development) or specific reports, such as "Human settlements in
Azerbaijan," "Transition and the state in China," "Social
Cohesion in Uzbekistan," and "Local governance for poverty reduction
in Africa."
--Mike Van Fossen, UNC Chapel Hill, NC Libraries Associate Editor
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People, Events & Important Information
North Carolina Wesleyan is pleased to announce a new librarian has taken over management of our government documents. Melanie W. Strals is the library's new Reference and Government Documents Librarian. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in History from Agnes Scott College and her MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Melanie worked as Periodicals Manager at Columbia College while she pursued her degree in library science. An important member of the library's team of reference and instruction librarians, she will also be responsible for the library's collections of state and federal government documents.
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NCLA Documents Section Executive Board 2002
Chair
Paula Hinton
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
pphinton@email.unc.edu
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Eileen Brown
UNC Wilmington
910-962-3277
browne@uncw.edu
Secretary/Treasurer
Karen O'Keefe
State Library of North Carolina
919-733-3683
kokeefe@library.dcr.state.nc.us
Past Chair
Frank Molinek
Davidson College
704-892-2154
frmolinek@davidson.edu
Docket Editor
Marilyn Schuster
UNC Charlotte
704-687-3983
mbschust@email.uncc.edu
NC Libraries Associate Editor
Michael Van Fossen
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
vanfosen@refstaff.lib.unc.edu
Regional Librarian
Ridley Kessler
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
kessler@refstaff.lib.unc.edu
State Clearinghouse Coordinator
Jan Reagan
State Library of North Carolina
919-733-3683
jreagan@library.dcr.state.nc.us
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I am still looking for someone who would be
willing to take over editing The Docket. It's a newsletter with a
lot of potential and could use someone with some new ideas. Let me know if you are interested.
--Marilyn Schuster, UNC Charlotte, Editor, The Docket
Volume 29 Number 2, Fall 2002
Editor: Marilyn Schuster, UNC Charlotte
The Docket (ISSN 0198-1048) is the official newsletter of the Documents Section of the North Carolina Library Association. Published twice a year in February and August, the deadline for contributions is the first day of the month of publication. Permission to copy is granted provided appropriate credit is given to The Docket and individual authors.
Current contact information and back issues of The Docket are available at: http://www.nclaonline.org/grs/pub.html. [2/24/05]
Address all editorial correspondence to Marilyn Schuster, Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001; 704-687-3983; fax 704-687-2232; email mbschust@email.uncc.edu.