Federal Depository Library Conference,
April 20-23, 1998
NOTE: some of the links in the text below are no longer valid. The following accounts are taken from my notes. If you have any questions, let me know and I will try to find more information in the notes or handouts. Also let me know which handouts you would like copies of; they're described in italics in the accounts below.
GPO has published proceedings from this conference.
The 2000 Census will be taken using the shortest short form in 1980 years. Several questions that have been on the short form have been moved to the long form, and a few questions have been dropped from the long form. The race/ethnicity question has been "solved" by letting respondents check off as many categories as they want (wouldn't want to look at THOSE tables).
There will be--surprise!--less printed output than in 1990. All information will be available on the Census web site, most for free, some more customized tables through the CenStats service. The only printed series will be those corresponding to 1990's CPH 1 and 5--state and national level population and housing data. Files corresponding to 1990's STF 1 and 3 will be produced on CD, but there will be no subject report CD's. The Census people hope to have a summary of the anticipated 2000 products up on their web site soon.
A new direction for the Census has begun with the American Community Survey. This is a survey that will ask the same questions as the decennial census, but of a smaller sample, and more frequently. They have only surveyed four communities so far, but are hoping to have the entire country covered by 2003. The decennial census would then become an apportionment tool only, as specified by the Constitution, with the American Community Survey taking the place of detailed census data. It will be updated yearly except for smaller population areas, which may go as many as five years between surveys. For more information, see the Census web site.
I also attended a demo of the LandView software, which is on the set of 11 disks some of you recently received. LandView is a cooperative effort among Census, EPA and NOAA, and was described as a "GIS system with training wheels." The basic area of display is the county, and up to 54 variables can be selected to display for the area. You can search the map for objects, including streets and address ranges, and be given the census tract number and block number for the objects found. You can also estimate the population within a selected radius, find other objects (such as hospitals, schools) within the radius, and get records for the block groups included in the radius. Thematic maps can be constructed with the software, with user-selected color schemes and displayed features. I have a handout called Introducing LandView III--email me if you'd like a copy.
The StatUSA web site has been re-designed to offer more directed searching options. They also hope to be re-doing the NTDB CD software soon, as they know that no one likes it very much. Focus groups are currently being consulted for ideas.
ERIC and OCLC have entered a partnership to make public-domain ERIC reports (these are the reports which have been sent to depositories on fiche) available online. Beginning this summer, the 300+ libraries currently selecting the fiche will be part of a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility of such access. The reports will be loaded in TIFF format, but with a PDF "overlay" that will make them look like PDF documents. They will be searchable using OCLC's FirstSearch software. Email me if you currently select the ERIC fiche and want more information on this program. Libraries may not NOW choose to select this item and be considered for the pilot study, but if all goes well, non-selecting libraries may be invited to join in later in the year. I have a couple of extra copies of "Access for All," the National Library of Education Advisory Task Force's report, which I picked up at this session (it is also a depository item: ED 1.302:L 61/10), a copy of the NLE newsletter, and handouts on the ERIC pilot program and on AskERIC. Email me if you'd like copies of any of these materials.
This program was given by Cynthia Teague, who is at Michigan State, a MUCH bigger outfit than any of us, but she had some good ideas. Their training calendar is on the web, but not linked from their public library pages. Email me if you'd like more information about Cynthia's presentation.
I saw the last half (there was a lot of overlap of interesting sessions this year and I tried to get to as many as I could) of this presentation by Virginia Saunders, who is IN CHARGE of Serial Set production at GPO. It included a slide show picturing the stages of Serial Set production. Ms. Saunders is staunchly opposed to any electronic version of the Serial Set being called "The Serial Set," but the extremely high quality of binding illustrated in her slides just doesn't look like it could possibly be sustained in today's government economy. GPO may be putting some of the slides on their web site-- watch for them! The handout from this session is a detailed listing of types of Serial Set publications. Email me if you'd like a copy.
This presentation just made me a little more familiar with SEC's web page. Ruth Pitt, the presenter, recommended using the "Quick Forms" option for most searches. Her handout reproduced the slides from the first part of her talk (which I missed), mostly giving information and statistics about the SEC web site and use of it. Email me if you'd like a copy, or more information.
This site is operated by OMB and is a gateway to federal statistical agencies, especially the 14 included in the interagency statistical council, but with some links to other agencies as well. We should probably use this site more than we do. You can browse by subject, search, look for specific agencies and programs, and also find links to international statistical sites. I have a Fedstats brochure; email me if you would like a copy.
Casey is the author of "The Hill on the Net" and is a web consultant for the Senate Democrats. He gave a very entertaining talk on the state of internet-savvy among Senators (it's all over the map). His advice for people emailing Congress is to send individual mail, include your address (if emailing one of your own congresspeople) or otherwise identify yourself as a constituent. He feels that well-written, thoughful email is usually treated with as much respect as a well-written letter, although the procedures for handling mail do vary from office to office. Take a look at his web site for more information.
Grace is of course the inspirational founder and maintainer of the University of Michigan's Documents Center web site. She had some good tips for web page developers that I'll be glad to share with interested parties. She also presented some statistics on web and traditional reference use that were very intriguing. The rate of increase in use of their web site is decreasing, and the rate of decrease in their in- house reference is also decreasing, but their time spent per in-house reference question is increasing. People are answering the easy questions themselves, she reasons, but bringing the more difficult ones to the library. Her handout reproduced the overheads she used and detailed some of the uses to which their web site is put; it also includes charts detailing the statistics referred to above. Email me if you'd like a copy of this material.
GPO responded to the last Council recommendations on Monday, before I got to the conference, but I have a copy the handout accompanying the responses. Let me know if you'd like a copy, although usually one appears in Admin Notes soon after the meeting. The recommendations made at this meeting are also available in draft form. Email me if you want copies of any of the recommendations. One item of potential interest is the draft recommended specifications for public access workstations. I have a separate handout which details these. Council announcements:
I missed the official GPO updates on Monday, but picked up handouts summarizing the presentations. These are the summary sheets I have (email me if you'd like copies of any of them):
Email me if you'd like any copies.
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