ARL met with Regional FDLP directors in July of 2003 to discuss the need of establishing a mechanism, initiative or organization to provide a vehicle for formulating and implementing a North American Digitization Plan for historical government documents. In response to this meeting, ARL established the Working Group on Digitizing Government Document Collections. The Group sent a survey to all ARL Selective and Regional Depository Libraries to study the current problems, successes, and future of the Federal Depository Library Program with a total concentration on research libraries.

Members of Working Group on Digitizing Government Document Collections

Ken Frazier (Wisconsin) as Chair, Bill Gosling (Michigan), Charles Lowry (Maryland), Sarah Michalak (Utah), Lance Query (Tulane), and Carla Stoffle (Arizona). With the support of the ARL Executive Committee, the working group was formed in 2003 by ARL's Information Policies Committee, chaired by Lance Query (Tulane).

Resources

"Rethinking the Federal Depository Library Program," by Prudence S. Adler, ARL Associate Executive Director, Public Policies, in ARL: A Bimonthly Report, no. 229 (August 2003): 8.

"Future Directions of the Depository Library Program," Remarks by Judy Russell, US Superintendent of Documents, at ARL 142nd Membership Meeting, May 2003

"Removal or Destruction of Federal Depository Library Documents," memo from Tom Susman, March 13, 2002

GPO Letter to Depository Library directors regarding the new electronic depository program, August 25, 2000

"Final Report to Congress: Study to Identify Measures for a Successful Transition to a More Electronic Federal Depository Library Program," GPO, June 1996

The Dupont Circle Group was an independent group of depository librarians that gathered at offices on Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, April 16-18, 1993, to develop a document for discussion on the goals and future of the Federal Depository Library Program.