For immediate release:
April 14, 2009

For more information, contact:
Prue Adler
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
prue@arl.org

Strategic Directions for the Federal Depository Library Program

ARL Releases White Paper

Washington DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published a white paper, "Strategic Directions for the Federal Depository Library Program" (FDLP), that calls for a reframing of the FDLP to ensure a robust and effective program for the future.

The US Government Printing Office (GPO) is engaged in a strategic planning process regarding future directions for the FDLP. With GPO and the library community, the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer will be discussing the future needs and strategic vision of the FDLP at the upcoming Depository Library Council meeting in Tampa, Florida, beginning on April 20, 2009.

In support of the Depository Library Council's request for community-wide input to the planning process, ARL has issued a white paper that notes:

the current FDLP strategic planning process should lead to a flexible, sustainable, reconfigured program that reflects the needs and interests of users of government information and participating libraries; embraces the digital networked environment; and importantly, encourages collaborative network-based services while ensuring a smooth and orderly transition to a new program framework. The underlying principles of the program should continue, in particular the long-standing principle of no-fee access to government information. The specifics of such a reconfigured program require more in-depth discussion. But such discussions cannot last another 20 years. The risk of missed opportunities and decreased viability is too high.

Key elements of a new service model for the FDLP should include:

• Strategies to achieve a small but essential number of comprehensive, print, legacy collections

• Increased development of network-based collaborative efforts between GPO and depository libraries and among the libraries themselves

• Creation of new knowledge-management tools and resources that enable users direct and independent access to content and the ability to work with the content effectively

• Formation of a participatory and open environment to encourage and engage new partnerships

• Establishment of a new service model that is economically sustainable and provides sufficient flexibility for libraries and agencies to introduce new approaches to access and deliver government information

• Development of a service model that sustains multiple preservation points for both print and electronic government information

The white paper provides an environmental context for the FDLP, discusses the current opportunity to reframe the program, presents selected regional cooperative initiatives that demonstrate new directions for the program, and suggests that reframing the FDLP presents a unique opportunity to explore cooperative print-management strategies.

The white paper is available via http://www.arl.org/pp/access/fdlp/.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.