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Administrative Notes: Newsletter of the FDLP
Table of Contents
~Administrative Notes Resources~ Get the PDF version of this volume Tribute To Virginia R. Saunders’ 60 Years Of Federal Service
Hon. Steny H. Hoyer
Mr. Speaker, I rise in tribute to Virginia Saunders, Program Operations and Evaluation Specialist for Congressional Documents, in the Office of Congressional Publishing Services at the Government Printing Office, as she approaches her 60th anniversary of dedicated Federal service, May 26, 2005. Mr. Speaker, this is becoming a habit: Ten years ago, on the occasion of Ms. Saunders’ 50th anniversary of Federal service, I rose to recognize Ms. Saunders’ achievements, and I expect to do so again ten years from now. Born Virginia R. Frisbie in Darlington, Maryland, on October 11, 1926, Ms. Saunders spent her entire career in service to her fellow Americans. After working briefly at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, she came to the Government Printing Office on February 4, 1946, as a war service junior clerk-typist in the division of public documents, stock section. Two years later, she was promoted to the division of public documents reference section. In February 1951, Ms. Saunders was promoted to indexing clerk and earned subsequent promotions in the same classification. In July 1958, she was promoted to library technician. Becoming a congressional documents specialist in April 1970, she was then promoted to supervisor of the congressional documents section in July 1974. In October 1983, Ms. Saunders assumed the position of congressional documents specialist in the congressional printing management division, customer services, and in September 2004 she was promoted to her current position. As I pointed out ten years ago, although one may not yet recognize the name of this outstanding GPO employee, the end product of her dedicated efforts is certainly familiar. Ms. Saunders has primary responsibility for the Congressional Serial Set, which is a compilation of all the House and Senate documents and reports issued for each session of Congress. Dummy volumes establishing the format for each edition are prepared and assigned a serial number following each session of Congress. The actual books are produced by GPO’s binding division, often as many as 100 volumes per set for each session of Congress. As a chronicle of work of the Congress over the years, the Congressional Serial Set is rivaled only by the C ongressional R ecord . While the Serial Set records behind-the- scenes legislative activities for the United States, the C ongressional R ecord reflects the ‘‘in-session’’ proceedings. Distributed to the House and Senate libraries, the Archives, the Library of Congress, and depository libraries, the Congressional Serial Set joins the C ongressional R ecord in offering students and historians a rich insight into the American system of government. Virginia Saunders makes all that possible. In late 1989, Ms. Saunders recognized the importance of the depository library program in informing the Nation, and drew upon her then- 43 years of GPO experience to submit an employee suggestion regarding the appendix to the Iran-Contra Report to Congress. She suggested that this 40-volume publication, which was printed as both a Senate and House report, be bound only once for the serial set volumes of House and Senate reports that are sent to depository libraries. She further suggested that the Schedule of Volumes, a listing of the bound volumes, contain a notation explaining the missing serial number volumes. The implementation of this suggestion resulted in a reduction of 13,740 book volumes to be bound, saving the Federal Government over $600,000. In recognition of these efforts, she received GPO’s top monetary Suggestion Award for that year. In ceremonies held on January 9, 1991, Ms. Saunders received a Presidential letter of commendation under the Quality and Management Improvement Award Program. In his letter to Ms. Saunders, President George H.W. Bush noted, “You have demonstrated to an exceptional degree my belief that Federal employees have the knowledge, ability, and desire to make a difference.” As one with the privilege of representing tens of thousands of Marylanders in Federal service, I know this to be true. In tribute to her work on the Congressional Serial Set, in 1999 Ms. Saunders received the James Bennett Childs Award from the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association. The ALA honored Ms. Saunders’ “distinguished contribution to documents librarianship,” and paid “grateful recognition” of a lifetime of exceptional achievements in this important field of endeavor. I know my colleagues and Ms. Saunders’ family, friends, and co-workers join me in congratulating her on 60 years of exemplary Federal service. See you in 10 years, Virginia! [ Top ] Spring 2005 Federal Depository Library Council Agenda, Hotel, & Transportation UpdatesUpdates to the Council meeting agenda, information on a walking tour, and conference dates and times, are available at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/events/dlc_agenda_spring_05.pdf Registration Walking Tour Advance registration is necessary to allow transportation arrangements to be made; registration at the meeting will not be possible unless there are open seats remaining. Regional/Selective Lunch Hotels While the Sheraton is fully booked, the additional hotels listed below are offering Council meeting participants rooms at the government rate of $68.00 per night. NOTE: Mention the U.S. Government Printing Office or the Depository Library Council meeting in order to receive the Government rate.
Transportation Taxi service: Taxi service from the airport to the Sheraton Old Town Hotel is approximately $25 one way. Car Rental: For Council attendees wishing to rent a car during the meeting, Avis is also providing discounted rates from April 10 through April 27. Rates for a compact car are $41.99 daily, $175.99 weekly, and $26.99 weekend. Reservations can be made by calling (800) 331-1600 or via online at: www.avis.com, and using AWD number J947660.
[ Top ] Major List of Classes Update UnderwayInformation Dissemination has undertaken a project to update the List of Classes, identifying items that have not been distributed in 5 years. Staff are researching titles to see if they are still being published. Classes that are no longer active will be eliminated from the list. Libraries using the online List of Classes or viewing their selection profiles online may notice a reduction in the number of items over the next few months. Entries for the classes that are eliminated will appear in WEBTechNotes subsequent to their publication in Administrative Notes Technical Supplement. [ Top ] GPO Position on FDLP DistributionThrough the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), and in partnership with more than 1,250 libraries nationwide, the U.S. Government Printing office has an abiding commitment to providing public access to the most comprehensive body of official Federal Government information possible. Since 1996, GPO has been transitioning the FDLP to a predominately electronic basis in full cooperation and consultation with the library community. This initiative has resulted in an exponential expansion of effective public access to Government information without substantial increases in funding, and today more than 1 million documents a day are retrieved from GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov). At the same time, GPO has continued to provide public access to information in tangible formats in accordance with policy established by GPO's Superintendent of Documents. GPO will continue to expand electronic information offerings through the FDLP and will continue to provide for dissemination of tangible products to depository libraries in accordance with existing policy, in full consultation with the library community. GPO will ensure that the necessary resources are applied to these tasks for FY 2005 and 2006 without requiring additional resources beyond those that have been approved and requested. All ongoing work on improvements to GPO's electronic information dissemination systems ‒ including those projects associated with the authentication, preservation, and establishment of standards for electronic information products ‒ will continue. GPO's Superintendent of Documents will actively seek the guidance and input of the library community in planning for and implementing changes in the dissemination of Government information products in either electronic or tangible formats. To begin this consultation, the Superintendent will convene multiple sessions on the future of tangible information products in the FDLP at the Spring 2005 meeting of the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer, in Albuquerque, NM (April 17-20). The Superintendent will also conduct a survey of Federal depository libraries nationwide on the same subject. No changes in existing policy or program practice regarding the dissemination of tangible products will be implemented until the results of these efforts have been fully reviewed in consultation with the library community and GPO's oversight committees in Congress.[ Top ] Government Information Online Pilot Project To Test Virtual Reference ServiceGovernment Information Online (GIO) is a national pilot project sponsored by the Illinois State Library, OCLC, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Launched on November 15, 2004, this pilot aims to establish a model cooperative virtual reference service for answering government information questions. The service utilizes OCLC’s QuestionPoint software and currently offers chat reference 57 hours a week, as well as email reference. GPO is participating in the pilot along with more than 30 federal depository libraries from across the United States. The pilot is scheduled to run through November 14, 2005. There may be an opportunity for additional libraries to participate in the pilot in April. For more information on Government Information Online, see the project’s website at http://govtinfo.org/.[ Top ] New Bound Congressional Record Application on GPO AccessThe 1999 Bound Congressional Record (Volume 145, 106th Congress, 1st Session) is now available online from the U.S. Government Printing Office at www.gpoaccess.gov/crecordbound/index.html, with future volumes to follow as they become available. The online Bound Record is fully searchable and browseable, making it a comprehensive guide to the contents and an enhanced aid in tracking legislation. The daily edition of the Congressional Record has been available on GPO Access since 1994. Because the page numbers and indices in the daily and bound Congressional Record are not the same, the addition of the Online Bound Record to GPO Access provides users with “one-stop shopping” when researching the work of Congress. The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published daily when Congress is in session. At the end of each session of Congress, all of the daily editions are collected, re-paginated, and re-indexed into a permanent, bound edition. This permanent edition, commonly referred to as the Bound Congressional Record, is made up of one volume per session of Congress, with each volume containing multiple parts. [ Top ] New Classes and Item Numbers Established for “Ephemera”Bookmarks are distributed to depository libraries because they are within the scope of the program as defined by Title 44, Section 1902. As many bookmarks advertise government programs or services, they are of public interest or educational value and some depository libraries want to receive such items. GPO recognizes that many libraries do not routinely collect bookmarks and ephemeral material. To assist depositories in managing these resources, GPO created "Ephemera" classes and item numbers for all Cabinet-level agencies, as well as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Library of Congress, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Federal Trade Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities. Item numbers for additional agencies will be created as needed. Libraries selecting the general publications item number for these agencies will have the ephemera item number added to their item selection profile. If your library does not wish to receive ephemera, you should deselect the relevant item numbers. Publications in the ephemera classes are items issued for a specific, limited use, and are usually intended to be discarded thereafter. Including: - Bookmarks that are not part of a kit If a specific item number and class exists for a title sometimes considered ephemeral, it will be distributed under the original item number, not the ephemeral item. Examples of this include: - Grants to Organizations, Application Guidelines (NF 2.15: , Item 0831-B-16) In the past GPO distributed folders and notebooks without content, stickers, and certificates. GPO is no longer riding for distribution copies for these materials. The following new classes and item numbers will be included in an upcoming issue of Administrative Notes Technical Supplement:
[ Top ] GPO Adds OCLC Holdings Symbol for Regional Depository LibrariesBeginning February 1, 2005, the OCLC holdings symbol of 30 Regional depository libraries are being added to the bibliographic records GPO contributes to OCLC WorldCat. Working with GPO, OCLC has developed an automated batch loading process to set the holdings, which will be run daily. This project will bring improved public and library community awareness of resources available in Federal depository library collections through an increased number of bibliographic access points and facilitated interlibrary loan of tangible U.S. Government publications. Adding OCLC symbols to GPO-produced cataloging originated as a suggestion from Regional depository librarians. GPO would like to thank the depository libraries at the following institutions for participating in this project:
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