GPLNE November Meeting Agenda
State Library Storage Facility
Hartford, Connecticut
Friday, November 30, 2007
Attendance
Len Adams, UMass/Amherst
Naomi Allen, State Lib/MA
Deborah Angelo, Providence College
Paul Donovan, VT Dept. of Libraries
Betty Febo, Wellesley College
Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, Wellesley College
Glynis Georgie, CT State Library
Nancy Godleski, LexisNexis
Katherine Hart, Trinity College
Sarah Hogan, Boston College
Erhard Konerding, Wesleyan University
Nancy Lieffort, CT State Library
Jim McDonald, CT College
Gratien Meda, CT State Library
Deborah Mongeau, URI
Nancy Peluso, CT State Library
Diane Pizzi, CT State Library
Connie Reik, Tufts
Stephen Rice, CT State Library
Bette Siegel, State Lib/MA
Julia Tryon, Providence College
Connie Reik opened our Friday, November 30, 2007 business meeting requesting any comments or correction’s on Secretary Jacqueline Fitzpatrick’s notes from the October 26 meeting at the Dimond Library at UNH. Bette Siegel approved the notes and Betty Febo seconded the motion. The Treasurer, Julia Tryon, reported no change in the amount in our bank account. Connie also listed the dates and topics for the scheduled 2008 meetings. On Friday, March 14, the group will meet in Concord, MA at the U.S. Corps of Engineers. Donna Koepp will speak on the Corps’ reports and maps in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Our final meeting will be held at the Warwick Public Library on Friday, May 2. All Rhode Island librarians will be invited to attend. Connie Reik will illustrate how government publications can be used to trace family research. Her topic will be: “Soldiers and Sailors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries in Government Publications for Historical and Family Research.”
Connie asked our hosts, the members of the Connecticut State Library, to introduce themselves. Nancy Lieffort then spoke to the group about what has been accomplished by this group in the last two years. She broke the areas down to four categories: Hunting & Gathering, Access vs. Preservation, Work on the Depository Program, and the State Library’s Outreach Efforts.
Nancy stated that in Connecticut, “it’s the law,” to provide availability to government information and titles, citing the mandates in both Connecticut Public Acts 77-561 & 227. The acts took about three years to write, but they now provide librarians with a “wide net” for gathering materials and titles they deem important for the public to be able to access.
The Legislative Libraries sent over sixteen boxes this fiscal year which the Archives staff sorted. PASA (the Public Acts & Special Acts) database helps them track documents and keeps the information centralized. They have done a brief, alphabetized description of all the CT state agencies and have included the members of each agency. The State Library has been in existence since the 1880s. The policy has been to archive the “Best Copy” of a state document and place #2 and #3 copies in their open stacks for use by any Connecticut resident. URLs, if available, are also provided. Seventeen other copies are made and distributed to the State Depositories and the Library of Congress. Titles can be requested via Interlibrary Loan, and those requests are honored as long as the pieces are in good condition.
The outreach efforts of the group have been well-received by the state agencies. Nancy stated that they have been pleased with the State Library’s preservation efforts on their behalf.
Steve Rice spoke next about the Electronic State Document Initiative. He has digitized photos for the electronic photo collection and has completed six years of photos of the Connecticut state highways (the ConnDOT Photolog, a section of the Photolog Data Services). The years covered thus far are 1986, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2006. There is public access via a dedicated terminal. This database has proven to be invaluable with accident reconstruction, roadside documentation, and historical research. Connecticut was the first state to electronically preserve its aerial photos. About half of them have been indexed, and they help document the infrastructure of the state. In the thirties, there was limited access to state documents, and the State Library was closed during the World War II years. Now there are scanned photos, negatives, and electronic images online. ARCView (GIS) provides the Locator Index Maps, and the original photos have been re-housed. At this point more than 9000 state publications have been linked and cataloged in the State Library Online Catalog, which was begun in 1999. Steve’s next electronic image project will be to work on the 1965 images, and he continually trolls the list of state agencies for lists that should be preserved. Currently, the Cataloging & Collection Management staff use Word, Excel, Power Point, and html files, but they cannot make use of any audio or video formats. CONTENTdm may be able --- sometime in the future --- to capture these more difficult formats, though Steve does not think it will happen anytime soon. For a further look at a description of this program, the user can go to the Connecticut Digital Archive page –
http://www.cslib.org/CTDigArch.htm
Because of permanency concerns, Governor John Rowland has signed Executive Order 30 to try and solve the electronic situation. The files need to be put into the more stable Digital Archive. Though there is a Web portal for the state, there is no mandate as to how long information should be accessible. Consequently, some material has been lost.
Our next speaker, Paul Donovan, from the Vermont Department of Libraries, painted a somewhat disheartening picture of access to government documents in his state. “We are still in the twentieth century.” Though this department was mandated in 1975 to keep a list of the state agencies and lists of their documents, it is impossible for the small staff to keep up with this request. He discussed the various groups that have met over the years with specific depository recommendations (the Task Group @ Tufts in April, 1976, the Guidelines for State Documents issued in 1987, and the Government Information Study Group Survey completed in 1991). Interestingly, Vermont residents do not request many titles. The agency receiving the largest number is the Department of Motor Vehicles.
In 1975 and 1976, the Vermont Constitution ordered that government records should be part of the public record, though there are still 124 stated private designations (e.g asset/income records, arrest records). In 1995 the state did produce a Public Records Management Report and requested that records be kept, but there has been little concern with permanent record keeping. The state has long help privacy issues to be of primary concern, though now public access is becoming an assumption by many citizens. Concerns and agendas for 1976, 1989, and 2000 have been published.
Paul trolls the Web and newspapers, but the Daily Calendar probably provides the most valuable information. He receives materials from the Legislative Council and catalogs as much as he can. Now that there is a state portal, he feels the situation may improve.
Greg Facincani, our third speaker, from the Rhode Island State Library, was unable to attend. Debbie Mongeau, from the University of Rhode Island, spoke in his stead. Her topic, “Money, Politics, and Consortia,” discussed the problems with that state’s system. The Secretary of State is the Director of the Rhode Island state libraries. Since the Secretary was a political appointee until the mid-twentieth century, very little was done to provide access to government materials. In the late 60s the Department of State Library Services was formed and its goal was to improve the depository system. When Beth Perry became the Secretary of State, she took on the Clearing House Project. Though her staff numbered four (including herself), she notified each state agency to appoint a Documents officer. This person became responsible for collecting state documents and delivering them to the State Libraries. (Rhode Island has twenty-two depositories and three of those are full depositories --- RI State Library, URI Library, and the Providence Public Library). The depositories are using the SWANK system, with a topical arrangement for information. The material is received monthly, cataloged with an OCLC designation, and placed in a permanent or five year collection. There is mixed success because some agencies --- the Office of the Building Code Commissioner, for instance --- refuse to hand over any documents.
In the 2006 revision, it was stated that all forms could be reproduced. Clearing House is able to capture and store the information on a server, but at this time, patrons are unable to access that information. URI owns a good-sized Legacy Collection and Debbie hopes it will eventually be available to the public.
After Debbie’s presentation, the group took a lunch break that was provided by the Connecticut State Library. Tours of the State Library & Archives were offered after lunch.
Connie was given the PowerPoint presentations on a CD-ROM and Paul provided his notes. Please contact her at Connie.Reik@tufts.edu if you would like copies. This material can not be posted to the website due to space constraints.
Submitted by Jacqueline B. Fitzpatrick, GPLNE Secretary