- Email: [email protected]
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND OLD-FASHIONED ECONOMICS:
Journal of Government Information, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 21–24, 1999 Copyright © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. 1352-0237/99 $–see front matter
PII S1352-0237(98)00085-9
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND OLD-FASHIONED ECONOMICS: Creating a Brave New World for U.S. Government Information Distribution and Use* DIANE SMITH† Director of Market Research, Congressional Information Service, Inc., 4520 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814-3389, USA. ,Internet: [email protected].
Abstract — New technologies, including the ability to distribute government information globally across the Internet, are creating a need for new ways to view the U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The changing needs and roles of government information’s five stakeholders: federal agencies, the Government Printing Office (GPO), the depository libraries, the commercial sector, and the American public will need to change drastically in reaction to improved technologies and to the pure economics of information dissemination. The concept of the FDLP network may have outlived its relevance. Experiments should begin to explore new ways to provide users with assistance in locating government information in a timely and economically feasible manner. Shoring up a program that has outlived its relevance in today’s world is not an option. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords — U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), Economics, Information access, Depository libraries, The commercial sector, Government Printing Office (GPO)
A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but as Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.—James Madison, 1822
INTRODUCTION Over the years Madison’s words have been a common rallying point for all interested in the free and equitable distribution of government information. They are cited as “proof” that the founding fathers would have embraced the rubric of “documents to the people” and would have been supportive of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The release of the Independent Counsel’s Report to the House of Representatives (the Starr Report) via the Internet on Friday, September 11, 1998, may have, forever, mooted the FDLP’s core mission to distribute information to a network of selected U.S. libraries [1].
*The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author, not of Congressional Information Service, Inc. †Diane Smith is currently Director, Market Research at Congressional Information Services, Inc. Formerly, she was Chief of Reference and Instructional Services, Pennsylvania State University (1990–95). 21
22
D. SMITH
Thousands of the world’s citizens freely accessed and downloaded the report over the following days [2]. The speed at which the report was distributed, the enormous traffic that ensued at the sites that mounted the report, and even the ease with which the various publishers and news sources reprinted the full text of the report [3] highlighted the fact that society and technology had advanced far beyond the neatly defined world of the FDLP. Madison’s “popular government” had discovered a new way to acquire popular government information without going to a federal depository library. THE ENVIRONMENT The role the Web plays in distributing government information is hardly news to information professionals who have worked diligently to inform their users of government resources available through the Internet. The release of this report, however, marks a serious turning point in the world of government information. For, if a report that was as widely publicized as the Starr Report could be so efficiently and effectively distributed to the whole world, what then is the future role of the FDLP in government information distribution? Is it possible to find an American citizen, or even an American child, who is not now fully aware that there is federal information on the Internet that can easily be obtained? In an age when fully three-quarters of the nation’s public libraries and all its academic libraries can access the Internet [4], is there a need for the current FDLP to distribute government information? Is not the idea of a limited network of libraries throughout the country to which people can go for government information anachronistic in an age of instant telecommunications? The cultural phenomenon of the release of the Starr Report not only calls into question the need for the current network of depository libraries, but it raises serious questions as to the roles of the varying stakeholders involved in the world of government information. THE FUTURE Historically, access to U.S. government information has had five stakeholders: federal agencies, the Government Printing Office (GPO), the depository libraries, the commercial sector, and the American public. The agencies gathered and created information; the GPO printed, described, and distributed the information; the libraries maintained a collection of information and assisted the public; commercial vendors created value-added services that provided either better or archival access to the printed information; and the American public used the information. Several of these roles must drastically change in response to improved technologies and the pure economics of information dissemination. U.S. Federal Agencies
Federal agencies that gather data and create reports are and will unquestionably continue be the most important link in this government information “food chain.” Agencies gather data and publish reports not to provide a “social good,” but rather to fulfill their mission to their primary constituency and to meet legal and regulatory mandates. Depending on the agency, that constituency may or may not include the general American public and has not usually included libraries. In today’s world, each agency’s constituency in knowledgeable about the type of data that the agency creates and has book-marked the agency web site on their computers. For the first time an agency can
Brave New World in U.S. Government Information
23
reach its primary constituency, as well as others who may be interested in their activities, without accruing any printing costs. If publication on the Internet is an efficient and economic method to disseminate information about an agency’s services and activities, why should an agency publish on paper? From a budgetary perspective it is reasonable for an agency to print publications only when there is the likelihood of sufficient sales to offset publication and marketing expenses. If in a time of reduced budgets the choice offered an agency administrator is “publish electronically or do not publish at all the results of your agency’s labors,” which decision do we want the administrator to make? The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)
GPO’s currently mandated role to acquire items and distribute them to depository libraries will clearly be diminished. The work of distribution is initially based on identifying and acquiring all agency materials as they are printed. The program strives to be comprehensive and cover all forms of government information, from the one-page flyer to the substantive report. As fewer agencies publish, the number of items physically distributed will naturally decrease. Concurrently, as more agencies publish on the Web, the bibliographic identification of items will become exceedingly expensive and far beyond the traditional skill set that resides within the GPO. In an age of constantly improving search engines, is there a need for the traditional cataloging of government publications in a source, such as the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications? In a government that appears to be working toward decentralization and privatization of many functions, is it logical to assume that there will ever be a central list of all agency intellectual activity? Depository Libraries
The need for a named depository library in each congressional district will cease to exist as more libraries provide users with access to the Internet and as more users can access the Web directly. Because agencies will be primarily publishing via the Web, all libraries should be able to assist users to locate information on agency sites. It will become the norm for public libraries, the “universities of the people,” to be the primary assistance centers for government information, rather than academic libraries. Academic libraries will begin to collect and maintain electronic government information much more selectively than they have in the past under the FDLP. Selected libraries in the FDLP will take on archival responsibility for material distributed through the paper-based program. The Commercial Sector
For commercial vendors the challenge will be to create and add sufficiently high quality to agency information to assist libraries and their patrons in the use of government information. Clearly, simply reprinting the data will not suffice in this new world. Value will be added through editorial expertise, data archiving, and data manipulation. Packaging the data in a way that fits specific user information needs and library collection development will be crucial. Comprehensiveness of the data within a collection will be less important than the quality and the archiving of the information provided within the product.
24
D. SMITH
The American Public
Clearly, the American public has much to gain in this new electronic environment. Government agencies will be able to communicate with their primary constituents more quickly and effectively; those constituents, in turn, will be able to communicate more effectively with those agencies. If the Starr Report demonstrates nothing else, it illustrates that in this new world the American public will be able to observe government in action and they will be able, more easily, to “arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” THE PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGE For most people it is difficult to imagine a world other than that which they currently know. Individuals are most comfortable in the present—or past—rather than the future. It is even more difficult to imagine a world in which there could be a substantive change in everyday activities. In the library world in which this author has resided for the past 20 years there have been a number of “truths” that one assumed could or would never be challenged. These tenets ranged from a belief that MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging) was the best form of metadata by which to describe an intellectual entity to the belief that the scholarly journal was the only approved means of distributing scientific research results. Today, new technologies and old-fashioned economics are forcing a reassessment of these “library truths.” Why should not the same forces challenge the efficacy of the current FDLP and question if it should continue to exist? Should not librarians be experimenting with new ways to provide users with assistance in locating government information in a timely and economic manner rather than attempting to shore-up the concept of an FDLP network that has outlived its relevance in today’s world? NOTES 1. U.S. Office of the Independent Counsel, Referral to the United States House of Representatives Pursuant to Title 28 United States Code, §595(C), 105th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 105-310 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1998), available at. 3. Doreen Carvajal, “Testing of a President: The Report; Starr Report Selling Well in Book Form,” New York Times (Late Edition), September 19, 1998, A10; Verena Dobnik, “ Starr Report Shipped to Bookstores,” AP Online (September 17, 1998), available at Academic Universe . 4. “How Many Libraries Are on the Internet?” LARC Fact Sheet Number, 26 (Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1998), available at ,http://www.ala.org/library/fact26.html.; “New Survey Shows 73 Percent of Public Libraries Offer Internet Access; Librarians Offer Helping Hand,” ALA News Release (September 14, 1998), available at .
PII S1352-0237(98)00085-9
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND OLD-FASHIONED ECONOMICS: Creating a Brave New World for U.S. Government Information Distribution and Use* DIANE SMITH† Director of Market Research, Congressional Information Service, Inc., 4520 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814-3389, USA. ,Internet: [email protected].
Abstract — New technologies, including the ability to distribute government information globally across the Internet, are creating a need for new ways to view the U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The changing needs and roles of government information’s five stakeholders: federal agencies, the Government Printing Office (GPO), the depository libraries, the commercial sector, and the American public will need to change drastically in reaction to improved technologies and to the pure economics of information dissemination. The concept of the FDLP network may have outlived its relevance. Experiments should begin to explore new ways to provide users with assistance in locating government information in a timely and economically feasible manner. Shoring up a program that has outlived its relevance in today’s world is not an option. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords — U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), Economics, Information access, Depository libraries, The commercial sector, Government Printing Office (GPO)
A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but as Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.—James Madison, 1822
INTRODUCTION Over the years Madison’s words have been a common rallying point for all interested in the free and equitable distribution of government information. They are cited as “proof” that the founding fathers would have embraced the rubric of “documents to the people” and would have been supportive of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The release of the Independent Counsel’s Report to the House of Representatives (the Starr Report) via the Internet on Friday, September 11, 1998, may have, forever, mooted the FDLP’s core mission to distribute information to a network of selected U.S. libraries [1].
*The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author, not of Congressional Information Service, Inc. †Diane Smith is currently Director, Market Research at Congressional Information Services, Inc. Formerly, she was Chief of Reference and Instructional Services, Pennsylvania State University (1990–95). 21
22
D. SMITH
Thousands of the world’s citizens freely accessed and downloaded the report over the following days [2]. The speed at which the report was distributed, the enormous traffic that ensued at the sites that mounted the report, and even the ease with which the various publishers and news sources reprinted the full text of the report [3] highlighted the fact that society and technology had advanced far beyond the neatly defined world of the FDLP. Madison’s “popular government” had discovered a new way to acquire popular government information without going to a federal depository library. THE ENVIRONMENT The role the Web plays in distributing government information is hardly news to information professionals who have worked diligently to inform their users of government resources available through the Internet. The release of this report, however, marks a serious turning point in the world of government information. For, if a report that was as widely publicized as the Starr Report could be so efficiently and effectively distributed to the whole world, what then is the future role of the FDLP in government information distribution? Is it possible to find an American citizen, or even an American child, who is not now fully aware that there is federal information on the Internet that can easily be obtained? In an age when fully three-quarters of the nation’s public libraries and all its academic libraries can access the Internet [4], is there a need for the current FDLP to distribute government information? Is not the idea of a limited network of libraries throughout the country to which people can go for government information anachronistic in an age of instant telecommunications? The cultural phenomenon of the release of the Starr Report not only calls into question the need for the current network of depository libraries, but it raises serious questions as to the roles of the varying stakeholders involved in the world of government information. THE FUTURE Historically, access to U.S. government information has had five stakeholders: federal agencies, the Government Printing Office (GPO), the depository libraries, the commercial sector, and the American public. The agencies gathered and created information; the GPO printed, described, and distributed the information; the libraries maintained a collection of information and assisted the public; commercial vendors created value-added services that provided either better or archival access to the printed information; and the American public used the information. Several of these roles must drastically change in response to improved technologies and the pure economics of information dissemination. U.S. Federal Agencies
Federal agencies that gather data and create reports are and will unquestionably continue be the most important link in this government information “food chain.” Agencies gather data and publish reports not to provide a “social good,” but rather to fulfill their mission to their primary constituency and to meet legal and regulatory mandates. Depending on the agency, that constituency may or may not include the general American public and has not usually included libraries. In today’s world, each agency’s constituency in knowledgeable about the type of data that the agency creates and has book-marked the agency web site on their computers. For the first time an agency can
Brave New World in U.S. Government Information
23
reach its primary constituency, as well as others who may be interested in their activities, without accruing any printing costs. If publication on the Internet is an efficient and economic method to disseminate information about an agency’s services and activities, why should an agency publish on paper? From a budgetary perspective it is reasonable for an agency to print publications only when there is the likelihood of sufficient sales to offset publication and marketing expenses. If in a time of reduced budgets the choice offered an agency administrator is “publish electronically or do not publish at all the results of your agency’s labors,” which decision do we want the administrator to make? The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)
GPO’s currently mandated role to acquire items and distribute them to depository libraries will clearly be diminished. The work of distribution is initially based on identifying and acquiring all agency materials as they are printed. The program strives to be comprehensive and cover all forms of government information, from the one-page flyer to the substantive report. As fewer agencies publish, the number of items physically distributed will naturally decrease. Concurrently, as more agencies publish on the Web, the bibliographic identification of items will become exceedingly expensive and far beyond the traditional skill set that resides within the GPO. In an age of constantly improving search engines, is there a need for the traditional cataloging of government publications in a source, such as the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications? In a government that appears to be working toward decentralization and privatization of many functions, is it logical to assume that there will ever be a central list of all agency intellectual activity? Depository Libraries
The need for a named depository library in each congressional district will cease to exist as more libraries provide users with access to the Internet and as more users can access the Web directly. Because agencies will be primarily publishing via the Web, all libraries should be able to assist users to locate information on agency sites. It will become the norm for public libraries, the “universities of the people,” to be the primary assistance centers for government information, rather than academic libraries. Academic libraries will begin to collect and maintain electronic government information much more selectively than they have in the past under the FDLP. Selected libraries in the FDLP will take on archival responsibility for material distributed through the paper-based program. The Commercial Sector
For commercial vendors the challenge will be to create and add sufficiently high quality to agency information to assist libraries and their patrons in the use of government information. Clearly, simply reprinting the data will not suffice in this new world. Value will be added through editorial expertise, data archiving, and data manipulation. Packaging the data in a way that fits specific user information needs and library collection development will be crucial. Comprehensiveness of the data within a collection will be less important than the quality and the archiving of the information provided within the product.
24
D. SMITH
The American Public
Clearly, the American public has much to gain in this new electronic environment. Government agencies will be able to communicate with their primary constituents more quickly and effectively; those constituents, in turn, will be able to communicate more effectively with those agencies. If the Starr Report demonstrates nothing else, it illustrates that in this new world the American public will be able to observe government in action and they will be able, more easily, to “arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” THE PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGE For most people it is difficult to imagine a world other than that which they currently know. Individuals are most comfortable in the present—or past—rather than the future. It is even more difficult to imagine a world in which there could be a substantive change in everyday activities. In the library world in which this author has resided for the past 20 years there have been a number of “truths” that one assumed could or would never be challenged. These tenets ranged from a belief that MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging) was the best form of metadata by which to describe an intellectual entity to the belief that the scholarly journal was the only approved means of distributing scientific research results. Today, new technologies and old-fashioned economics are forcing a reassessment of these “library truths.” Why should not the same forces challenge the efficacy of the current FDLP and question if it should continue to exist? Should not librarians be experimenting with new ways to provide users with assistance in locating government information in a timely and economic manner rather than attempting to shore-up the concept of an FDLP network that has outlived its relevance in today’s world? NOTES 1. U.S. Office of the Independent Counsel, Referral to the United States House of Representatives Pursuant to Title 28 United States Code, §595(C), 105th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 105-310 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1998), available at