Leaper 1 Shannon Leaper Ms.

Lisa Ennis MLIS 7120 7 December 2011 Preservation Issues in Government Documents Government documents preservation is a fascinated and somewhat controversial topic. Librarians, archivist, scholars, politicians, and citizens alike, admit preserving our nations documents for present and future research is of paramount importance, but issues in preservation have plagued the government since the creation of the United States Constitution. In the past there was not only a need for provide government information to a new nation, but as this was a new nation based on democracy, it was important to inform the public of the newly created laws. Thus began the printing of government documents. However, the relative lack of attention paid to accuracy, quality, or longevity when it came to actually printing government information (Forte, Hartnett, and Sevetson 10) created issues in consistency. These issues were addressed in the creation of the Government Printing Office (GPO). The GPO was created in 1860 to print the publications of the executive branch under the umbrella of the government. As the government grew, the number of documents being printed and distributed by the GPO increased, as did the requirement to keep the public informed of government actions. This growth in publications and the need to adequately distribute these publications led to the development of the Federal Depository Library Program. Today, the GPOs primary functions are to collect, organize, and preserve the vast amount of information produced by government sources and to distribute this information to the public.

Leaper 2 The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is the avenue by which the GPO has been able to offer information free of charge by transferring the responsibility of collection maintenance to partnered libraries. Libraries within the program had the responsibility of providing shelf space, staff, and processing costs in return for receiving free documents. The public benefited from the FDLP program through open access of government documents and library staff reference services. As the government and the information it produced expanded, new federal acts brought about requirements for keeping the public informed, yet to also reduce the amount of printing being done. Formats for government documents began to evolve with the advent of new technologies, first with microform and then to CD-ROMs. The next evolution came in the form of web documents which has caused a dramatic shift from a tangible paper collection to a ubiquitous web of government information (Forte, Hartnett, and Sevetson 15). GPO is shifting from managing resources in a predominately print environment to being a manager of digital government information electronically collecting, organizing, disseminating, and ensuring continued security and access to government information (Kumar 232). Issues concerning access to and preservation of information in a web based environment are being addressed as permanent government documents shift to web based, digitally produced documents. Preservation of all forms of government documents is necessary to provide future generations with access to a vast record of information. Print Preservation In the beginning there were issues in print preservation including, but not limited to, the effects of humidity, light, mold, insects, and acid on paper, the lack of physical space, the lack of ambient environment, and the lack of adequate staff to manage the collection. Generally preservation is only thought of in the concept of very old, deteriorating items and certainly this is

Leaper 3 an aspect of any preservation program, but concern for preservation begins with proper handling of all publications and their formats upon initial receipt. The better print volumes are handled and stored initially the better off the collection will be. Additionally, an in-place preservation program, developed by experts throughout many departments, will assist the government documents department in creating and implementing a disaster plan, in repairing and preserving the collection, and in planning for future endeavors. Preserving a large collection is a timeconsuming task, especially when there are other duties and responsibilities to consider. (Kwak 22) Many FDLPs have been depositories for government documents for well over two centuries. While there are many treasures to be found in these antique documents, they must be handled carefully, if at all. Gail Stern Kwak discusses some of the issues concerning preservation of a collection of the United States Serial Set. Many of the documents she has to catalog and preserve are in poor condition due to decay and neglect, and also due to the biggest issue of preservation, lack of funding (19). Lack of adequate space to house large collections plagues even the largest facilities. Another factor in preservation is how often the collection is actually used by patrons. Although not in general circulation, government documents that are routinely used by the public will see much more wear and tear than those in closed stack area with little patron interaction. It would not be a stretch to conclude that a librarian responsible for the government documents collection would need to be part reference librarian, part government documents librarian, part cataloger and part archivist. Digital preservation The integrity of the digital data on computer tapes or disks may over time degrade, requires copying onto new media. Another issue is the media format hardware can become obsolete when data stored on older forms of media require obsolete computers to read the data,

Leaper 4 much like trying to play cassette tapes on an 8-track. Software can become obsolete as well. Software obsolescence is a concern not only for application programsbut operating systems as well (Lyons 209). The biggest challenge to the preservation of electronic material is the growth of digital information. The amount of digital information produced by the government threatens to overwhelm the resources and abilities of authorities to preserve it. The idea of the Internet as a primary publishing platform is not a futuristic scenario; government documents, newspapers, and even the output of some academic disciplines appear on the Web first, and may not appear in print at all (Szydlowski 36). As such, archiving web content has become an important responsibility of institutions for the benefit of researchers. Serious concerns have been raised about perpetual access and authentication of government information in the new digital environment (Kumar 225). Forte, Hartnett, and Sevetson discuss the transition of government information in recent years, The print era evolved to the web era, then HTML and PDF documents became blogs and wikis, which became videos, which became ever-evolving websites including Web 2.0 and social media aspects. Modern documents may be in flux, each one changing continuously, with countless revisions and versions, making identifying a government document or a single distinct version of a government-much less preserving itincreasingly complex. The government information professional can keep up with finding the information in changing formats. But figuring out how to catalog, archive, preserve, and access it in perpetuity is extremely difficult( 19-21) Access to online, web based government documents has been a helpful development to anyone not near a FDLP as all citizens are entitled to access to government information. But the lack of printed documents being shipped to FDLPs has caused some concerns.

Leaper 5 Anyone with access to the Internet can be a virtual depository, but libraries that participate in the Federal Depository Library Program offer far more. They provide the public with librarians highly skilled in government information. If depository libraries fail to receive a sufficient number of tangible documents to justify the expense of remaining in the program, there is a real danger that many will drop out and the public will lose access to these services (Lyons 220). The general principles of the library profession require us to adequately provide access to information generated by the government. As ground-breaking as the print to digital movement has been, the FDLPs have not changed. FDLPs still provide not only records, but also faculty and staff with experience and knowledge of the government information system. As Szydolowski points out, Every year, state and federal agencies publish thousands of documents directly to the Web without issuing print versions. These documents are important to many libraries collections not only for the information they contain, but because they represent the continuation of series that libraries have collected over many years. The value of these print series will be greatly diminished if we are not able to preserve current and future editions that are published only on the Web (37). That records must be kept and made available for public inspection and that documents must be published in some format are accepted principles (Billings 625). In a delightful article detailing state efforts to preserve electronic information, Billings points out, Our profession can be proud that in most states the oldest, most successful, and bestorganized efforts to bring about access to and preservation of government documents has been through the depository programs operated almost always by state libraries. In states

Leaper 6 where there are public records commissions, librarians and archivist have usually been the leaders in applying political pressure and carrying on the real work of collecting, preserving, and providing access to government information (625-6) Many state libraries are striving to make state government information available to the public as citizens are entitled to access to the information generated by state governments in the course of performing their functions (Billings 625). In many aspects, state governments efforts to preserve government information have surpassed that of the federal governments. One of the biggest issues in preservation of electronic government information is the environment it is stored in is ever changing. While electronic documents may be preserved for the good of the public citizen, one must consider the changing communication devices of choice by the government. Many agencies are accessing and utilizing Web 2.0 features that are both attention getting and contemporary, but are also a source of consternation for librarians trying to provide up-to-date yet traceable information for a patron. Important content is increasingly published on the Web, and not all of it being preserved by the large projects such as the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.Local content, government documents, and database-backed websites are three areas in which libraries may find that existing Web archives do not contain the content that users are likely to need (Szdlowski 35). Other issues include the lack of coordination and cooperation between agencies, and therefore a lack of standards, the lack of power by agencies to enforce compliance of record preservation and fugitive documents that are only preserved due to the efforts of librarians and archivists. Fugitive documents are yet another source of preservation woes. While libraries which participate in the FDLP can expect to receive all the documents the GPO decides to send them,

Leaper 7 which are generally all document required to be printed and distributed by law, certain agencies go outside the realm of control of the GPO and produce documents on their own. Such documents are known as fugitive documents and are generally only part of a collection through the efforts of a government documents department. Such documents further demonstrate the lack of cooperation between agencies. One of the databases providing access to digital material formerly found on GOP Access is the GPOs Federal Digital System (FDsys). One of the primary purposes of FDsys is to preserve government information and provide public access even as the technology to do so changes. Also, as multiple versions of government information are published, FDsys provides version control (Forte, Hartnett, and Sevetson 35). Much work is being done to archive and provide access to government information formerly not available to the public. Open access organizations including The Sunlight Foundation, OpenTheGovernment.org, and Public.Resource.Org are working to protect public access to government information. Also doing massive scanning projects are the Internet Archive and the Google Books Library Project, both of which have scanned and contain thousands of government documents available to the public (Forte, Hartnett, and Sevetson 21). Additional sources of preservation are the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) which is NARAs system allowing, Federal agencies to perform critical records management transactions with NARA online Agency records management staff will use ERA to draft new records retention schedules for records in any format, officially submit those schedules for approval by NARA, request the transfer of records in any format to the National Archives for

Leaper 8 accessioning or pre-accessioning, and submit electronic records for storage in the ERA electronic records repository (National Archives and Records Administration). While the NARA does not specifically maintain government documents, but instead collects various documents, correspondence, etc., not intended for public use. NARA does work directly with agencies to ensure the entire life cycle of federal record-keeping is done according to legal requirements (Forte, Hartnett, and Sevetson 356). Work on the preservation of electronic government information has made great strides in the last decade but much remains to be done to insure permanent public access to the vast quantities of government records and documents that now exist in electronic form (Lyons 208). The same can be said for all forms of government information. Only by striving to preserve government documents, whether in print, microform, CD-ROM or electronic form, can librarians provide excellent service to the public.

Leaper 9 Works Cited Billings, Carol D. "State Government Efforts To Preserve Electronic Legal Information." Law Library Journal 96.4 (2004): 625-632. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. "Electronic Records Archives (ERA)." The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives, n.d. Web. 4 Dec 2011. <http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/era/>. Forte, Eric J., Cassandra J. Hartnett, and Andrea L. Sevetson. Fundamentals Of Government Information, Mining, Finding, Evaluating, And Using Government Resources. Neal Schuman Pub, 2011. 19-21. Print. Kumar, Suhasini L. "Providing Perpetual Access To Government Information." Reference Librarian 45.94 (2006): 225-232. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Kwak, Gail Stern. "Preservation Of The United States Serial Set For Less Than One Dollar Per Volume: Practical Advice From A Project In Progress." Louisiana Libraries 66.3 (2004): 19-23. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. Lyons, Susan. "Preserving Electronic Government Information: Looking Back And Looking Forward." Reference Librarian 45.94 (2006): 207-223. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Roe, Kathleen D. "Let's Give Them Something To Talk About: Advocating For Archives." Provenance: The Journal Of The Society Of Georgia Archivists 28.(2010): 5-18. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 3 Dec. 2011.

Leaper 10 Szydlowski, Nick. "Archiving The Web: It's Going To Have To Be A Group Effort." Serials Librarian 59.1 (2010): 35-39. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 3 Dec. 2011.