Washington, D.C.
October 18-20, 1995
Convened by James Neal, Director
Johns Hopkins University Library
We bring to this session many questions about new models for the dissemination of government information. Over the course of the day we have already examined both opportunities for and barriers to collaboratively influencing the future of scholarly communication. This afternoon we are going to address the efforts being taken by the ARL in conjunction with the federal government.
This panel for Program Session IV will discuss cooperative projects that influence the dissemination and reconceptualization of the Federal Publishing and Depository Program.
We discussed at our May 1995 meeting many important developments. Research libraries, indeed, are important participants in the Depository Library Program, and we are facing the issue of decentralized versus centralized federal information dissemination and preservation environment.
Agencies are increasingly providing their information resources in electronic formats. Agencies, like research libraries, are facing severe budgetary pressures. Agencies, like research libraries, are in the midst of an important transition in moving the delivery of information from print base to electronic means. Fewer printed resources are coming through us from the Depository Library Program. Few, if any, agencies or libraries are tackling the important preservation and archiving issues in regards to electronic federal information.
The issues involved are extremely complex, and our charge in bringing about this collaboration is structured into many layers. We need to identify those resources of key interest to our research communities that could serve as a basis for experimentation. We need to evaluate the scalability of those models. We need to identify possible implementation strategies for testing these new shared responsibilities, and we need to propose ongoing mechanisms for research libraries to participate in pilot projects and evaluate the viability of those projects.
I, like many of you, have participated in conversations at the American Library Association and elsewhere about this redefinition. In reflecting on that experience, I'm often reminded of what the Anglican Bishop said to the Episcopalian Bishop: “Brother, we both serve the Lord; you in your way, and I in His.”
In order to help us better understand our responsibilities in this arena, we have asked three leaders of government information offices to address us today about these new models for effective dissemination and preservation. Please help me in welcoming Governor John Carlin, Dr. Martha Farnsworth Riche, and Bruce McConnell.
The Honorable John Carlin is Archivist of the United States and served as Governor of Kansas from 1979 to 1987. Before being elected to that office, Governor Carlin served as a State Representative for Kansas from 1971 to 1979. There he served as the Minority Leader and Speaker of the House.
As Governor he was Chairman and served on the Executive Committee of the National Governors Association. He has served on the board of the National United Way, The Kellogg Foundation, and the National University Continuing Education Association's Commission on Future Academic Leadership for Continuing Higher Education, and the Kansas State University Foundation Board of Trustees.
Governor Carlin will examine the National Archive’s role in support of research and new initiatives to make NARA resources publicly available electronically.
Our next panelist is the director of the United States Bureau of the Census, Dr. Martha Farnsworth Riche. She began her career with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and, in 1978, became a founding editor of American Demographics, the nation’s first magazine devoted to interpreting demographic and economic data for government and corporate leadership. In 1991 she became Director of Policy Studies for the Population Reference Bureau, and she took her present office in 1994.
She holds a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Literature and Linguistics from Georgetown University. She will describe the programs being developed at the Bureau of the Census for facilitating information retrieval.
Our third presenter this afternoon is Bruce McConnell, Chief of Information Policy and Technology at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He started at OMB in 1985 and assumed his current responsibilities in 1992.
OMB’s responsibilities include oversight of the acquisition and use of information technology and telecommunications, and the development of policies and guidelines to improve those practices. The office is presently participating in initiatives to improve the dissemination of government information, including federal printing reform, electronic privacy, and federal information processing standards.
Bruce received his B.S. in Engineering from Stanford in 1971 and an M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Washington in 1985.
Join me in welcoming our presenters to this afternoon’s program.