Real American Government Information, in Northern VA of All Places!

Last week I was able to attend the biannual Federal Depository Library Conference in Arlington, VA. In addition to spending time with some old friends and meeting new ones (hey Audrey - knitters!), I was nearly overwhelmed by the great choices of sessions being offered. These conferences coincide with the Federal Depository Library Council meetings, but I felt safe in skipping most of the Council working sessions as they are documented in exquisite (some would say excruciating) detail in GPO's Administrative Notes, so I was free to choose from the three other concurrent tracks during most of my time, and even squeezed in some promotional events offered by Lexis-Nexis and Marcive.

Some of the presentations were put on by various agency personnel, and highlighted that agency's online offerings and other services. Most of the presentations have already been posted to the conference website, and I encourage anyone who's interested to check them out! I attended those dealing with:

• The National Library of Medicine
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics
• The Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (a very meaty source for "non-Googleable" scientific literature, much of it free)
• The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism
  

Other sessions that also dealt primarily with online content included the following:

• "Encouraging an Informed Citizenry II: More Information on Locating and Using CRS Reports" which focused on efforts to provide better access to these often elusive documents
• "What Was Lost, Now Is Found: Using Digital Repositories to Rebuild What Hurricane Rita Destroyed" emphasizing the availability of digitized docs in online repositories like Google Books, Project Gutenberg, and the US Government Publication Digitization Projects Registry
• "2008 dot Gov Harvest -- Preserving Access" which detailed the University of North Texas' ambitious project of capturing the entire .gov domain at the end of the current presidential term, for the purposes of keeping the websites accessible, and in order to hone their URL Nomination Tool for future digital-capture projects

Some of the more thought-provoking sessions dealt with meeting the users' needs through the appropriate combination of collections and services, a topic that drives our own library.

• "Assessing User Preferences for Government Information" was an intersting look at the University of Montana's survey of its users and what they found (their users didn't like blogs -- but were fine with them when they were just called "frequently updated websites"; Survey Monkey is the bomb)
• "Calling In Academic Reinforcements: The Continuing Need for Government Documents Expertise in an Online Environment" dealt with the role of GovDocs in Library Instruction
• "Assessing Integrated Federal Information Collections" emphasized some of the same issues we addressed when evaluating our own GovDocs collection, and discussed some of the challenges we faced, due to the difference between GovDocs and other collections in an academic library
• "Teaching Non-depository Librarians about Government Info: Tips & Techniques from the Gi21 Project" described a really neat project that took place in five Western states over the past two years -- a sort of "train the trainers" for Government Information (I highly recommend the program's website, where all their actual training videos and presentations are available)

I also indulged in some of the geekier offerings, targeted specifically at those whose work revolves around the minutiae of SuDoc classifications, shipping lists, claims, corrections, and shelflists, and described the tools available to make our lives easier. I won't bore you with the details, but yes, I enjoyed them immensely...

Finally, the plenary sessions at this conference reinforced my takeaway experience of the FDLP Interagency Seminar in August; although the GPO and the FDLP are bureaucracies, and prone to the same issues that affect any bureaucracy, these organizations have taken to heart their missions of providing Government Information to the people of this country, and have adapted to a changing environment with the intention of improving their contributions to the library community. They understand that the lines have blurred between collections, services, communication, access, and stewardship, and they are committed to capitalizing on this situation, to the ultimate benefit of users everywhere. I feel lucky to have been able to attend this conference, network with my colleagues from all over the country, and soak up some of the energy that is infusing the depository community these days!

If any of you are interested in hearing more about the sessions I've described, or anything having to do with Government Information or the FDLP, please get in touch with me -- I'm happy to share what I know!