NORDOCS Spring 2008 Meeting
05.08.2008
9:30 - 10:00, Refreshments & Meet/Greet
10:00 - 11:30, Meeting
- Suzanne Sears, UNT (Univ. of North Texas)
- welcome to UNT and Research Park
- Tom Lindsay, NORDOCS Chair, UTA (Univ. of Texas at Arlington)
- welcome, let's update on our libraries, etc.
Library Updates
- Susan Humphrey, Navarro College
- her library director's contract was not renewed
- not much else going on at her library
- Brenda Mahar, UTD (Univ. of Texas at Dallas)
- budget is still flat, so couldn't attend FDLP spring meeting
- physically located in Tech Services Dept.
- lost two tech services positions
- hired new webmaster
- went to TLA for one day, cataloging session
- preparing for item selection update period, want to add more electronic documents
- Charlotte Baugh, Dallas Public
- two or three weeks from going live with new ILS
- lost their patent librarian
- hiring freeze may be imminent
- Ellen Simmons, HSU (Hardin-Simmons)
- will be attending Interagency
- now active in GODORT (Legislation) and attended ALA Midwinter
- not much change at the library
- all of the library has space issues; consulting group is coming in to find their needs
- at ACU, their administration is cutting down their docs collection
- changed docs librarian title (Laura Baker) to emerging technologies librarian (and dismissed assistant)
- at the end of June, the ET librarian will be the only person processing documents
- Starr Hoffman, UNT
- attending Interagency
- TLA GODORT: program/preconference for 2009 in Houston is being planned
- Clarice Luce, UNT
- retiring at the end of the month
- Melissa Fairfield, TCU (Texas Christian)
- new to documents
- will also be attending Interagency
- Susan Black, Longview Public
- not too many changes
- more of her time is being taken up with non-Gov Docs stuff
- some weeding
- Suzanne Sears, UNT
- currently have a lot of support
- one new fulltime staff member
- Suzanne/Starr moving off the reference desk to do more outreach
- collaborative project to provide docs support to Denton Public Libraries
- Dean and Suzanne are each making responses to the FDLP/GPO regionals survey
- Julia Stewart, SMU (Southern Methodist)
- been working on a weeding project
- trying to concentrate collection to support the curriculum
- lost one support person
- have an attractive area, but need to get more people into it
- trying to promote the collection more
- also signed up for Interagency
- would like to host NORDOCS meeting next spring, perhaps
- been working on a weeding project
- Tom Rohrig, Texas Tech
- agreed with Suzanne's comment that the old on-site inspections were helpful
- staff is still catching up on processing/requests
- updating contact lists to communicate with selectives
- will be providing official letters acknowledging discards, etc.
- Suzanne commented that the presentation Tom sent out could maybe be a basis for some virtual training
- Tom said maybe we could use OPAL for that
- looking at off-site storage
- director wants 20% of collection moved into storage
- doing Circulation studies in preparation
- since January, no librarians are working reference desk (nights/weekends?)
- actually seen rise in documents questions since this time
- law library has Digitized Serial Set; hoping to get wider library access to that
- Chris Brady, Baylor Law Library
- been at Baylor for almost a year
- cleared the backlog that he inherited (in January)
- very small selection (about 5%): focus on law and congressional
- would like to revisit their selection rate
- Sinai Wood, Baylor Library
- Lexis Serial Set and Congressional Hearings (with law library)
- folded dept. into reference dept. (had to move part of collection)
- raised documents profile, more involved
- looking at space issues
- Tom Lindsay, UTA
- been weeding since 1997 and will probably do so until he retires
- has database/spreadsheet of 30,000 documents that he uses as a weeding list, includes classification numbers
- happy to send copies of the list to anyone who's interested
- selection rate around 52%
- uses DDM2 quite a bit
- wrote a draft collection development policy
- wrote some LibGuides on documents-related areas
- started a blog where he's posting notable items related to current events, etc.
- in Reference, did a one-week time-log: 23% spent in email, only 8% as liaison to campus depts.
- as a results, Tom's trying to send less email and use the blog as his information "push" resource
- setting up rules to direct auto-messages like IT updates, etc.
General Comments
- Julia mentioned book on gov doc librarianship
- "Government Documents Librarianship" by Lisa A. Ennis, ISBN 978-1-57387-270-6
- gives a good sense of your role
- talks a lot about what to do, procedure, etc.--good beginner's guide
- Julia: personal goal to make a display for the presidential election
- provide some kind of program related to this
- bringing attention to the collection is the important part
- Ellen's also doing something on the election
Conference Reports
- FDLP Spring 2008
- GPO provided spiral-bound proceedings of the meeting
- DLC page has a lot of this online
- already set meeting dates/places for fall and spring meetings
- Oct 20 - 22, 2008: Doubletree in Arlington
- April ?: Hyatt Regency in Tampa, FL
- not many people have submitted ideas for OPAL presentations to GPO
- ideas thus far: may have one on DDM2, patents, Browse Topics (how to contribute), Browse Topics (how to use it)
- let Suzanne know if there's a topic you'd like to see presented
- maybe a good way to use DDM2 to weed, since that topic came up a lot today
- discussion on the Public Access Assessments
- taking your answers to the Biennial Survey and your library webpage, to determine if you need a site visit
- you can also request a site visit at any time
- you can email someone at GPO beforehand and request that they mention specific things to your director
- Tom mentioned that this has always been a positive experience for him
- GPO wants to do more collaborative efforts
- small group discussions
- small libraries are interested, but too small to do it alone
- John Shuler's Gov Info Online project is a good model: his library is the interface with GPO, but he is also partnering with several other libraries
- regionals discussion
- Joint Committee on Printing asked GPO for report by June 1
- we need to discuss that more; GPO needs more comments
- Coby Condrey and Cathy Hartman's discussion about the issue on the list-serv (TLA GODORT)
- Ellen asked how can we best send comments to GPO
- such an important job that regionals have, but how can it get done?
- what is important for the JCP to hear?
- Suzanne: constructive comments are good: provide a solution
- she hears all the gripes, and wonders if JCP will only hear "this isn't working" and then decide to do away with regionals altogether
- Charlotte: one of Cathy's concerns was that we need to *not* reduce the number of regionals--we need as many as possible
- on the other hand, Coby's comments were more practical, that we have limited resources and can't do all that's expected of us--she can see that point, too
- she's thinking about at what point does the task get so big that it's specialized and broken down (several people)
- by working as a team, we can help ensure that everything is taken care of
- Tom L. discussed briefly concerns about more agency electronic databases being pulled
- Suzanne said FDsys is supposed to help address this type of thing, but it won't be working with dynamic databases--it's the agency's call
- Ellen: also wants to raise awareness that the government doesn't always let us know what is happening, that we are threatened by them closing informational doors (EPA, Ag., etc.)
- in our response to the regional survey, we need to mention that
- likes Suzanne's idea about providing positive feedback
- likes Charlotte's idea of specializing and breaking up tasks
- Suzanne: electronic depositories was an idea brought up by Cathy
- Charlotte: one problem with that is that it breaks up the information--when we're answering questions, we don't care what format it's in, it's the content that we're looking for
- Suzanne: there was talk at FDLP 4 or 5 years ago about pushing content out form FDsys to house on local library servers (push what you selected)
- server space is much cheaper than shelf space, so this shouldn't be a major issue
- but she hasn't heard that idea mentioned again lately
- this ought to be done with at least 10 regionals in different areas of the country (similar to LOCKSS) to protect it
- Tom R.: 1970's idea of regional-selective
- like that idea by population density
- having it by state, administratively might work better, though
- between states, if there are good relations, could work
- informally, Tech and UNM deans have been discussing this
- New Mexico also discussing shared regional status
- he sees it important to keep many regionals
- Ellen: what do the regionals need?
- are they short-staffed? how can our comments show what types of support they need?
- Tom R.: number one, from his standpoint, need system support (distributed regional system)
- flexibility to meet the changing nature of information; past idea of super-regionals
- Suzanne doesn't see how only 10 super-regionals could do the amount of things they need to do
- OK has a manageable number, and they get things done
- CA only has one regional for over 100 selective libraries
- the system does work if it's in a manageable way
- TX is way more geographically spread than OK, which is a problem there
- Charlotte: so it's management and support that's more of an issue than shelf space?
- Tom R. says yes, and also funding or consultants are also needed
- Ellen: it could help to get more people to step up to be regionals if they get funding/support
- Suzanne: that's exactly why there are so few public libraries in the depository program, because they want money to balance out the work being done (the prestige isn't enough for public libraries)
- Tom R.: they discussed that idea of providing "carrots" some years ago
- Suzanne: public libraries need to be able to financially justify the status to their directors
- for larger states to be limited to two regionals is ludicrous; need to be able to visit their selectives regularly and help new librarians
- Ellen: would some of these changes call for changes in Title 44?
- Suzanne: yes, thinks that Title 44 specifies two regionals per state
- that's where population density could be helpful
- Suzanne: yes, thinks that Title 44 specifies two regionals per state
- Charlotte: interesting that GPO titled it "A Time for Change"
- looks like GPO is already of the mindset that they'll be proposing a change
- Suzanne: looks like because of selectives complaints, GPO has been looking to do away with regionals
- the basic structure is good, but there are management issues and new regional librarians who weren't trained and don't know what to do
- needs to be some standardization and agreement on duties, and provide training or hands-on experience with an experienced regional librarian
- need a manageable number of selectives under regionals
- think the regionals are the safeguard to keep selectives in the program, because they can talk to library directors about the realities of dropping out of the program
- Charlotte: I agree on the training, and they need a strong support network
- Tom R.: Tx-fed has been an excellent means within TX; there is a regionals list-serv
- meeting like this is really helpful
- Suzanne: meeting virtually is a good method, too, to pull the state groups together
- MetroDocs in OK also interested in collaborative training (see handouts for two events)
- virtual training mentioned again; if we record them, they'll be available for regionals to give to new depository librarians to help them learn
- GPO provided spiral-bound proceedings of the meeting
Next Meeting
- Chris Brady is Secretary, so that makes him Chair-Elect (he'll be next Chair)
- fall meeting?
- November 6th, 2008
- at Baylor
- need to elect Secretary to take minutes, send out note: Brenda Mahar volunteered
(11:30 - 1:00, LUNCH)
1:00 - 2:00, Webpage Training
2:00 - 2:30, Intro to UNT's Digital Collections
3:00 - 3:30, Tour of UNT Library Digital Projects Lab
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