March 20, 1997

TO: David Farrell

FROM: Lucia Snowhill (UCSB), Linda Kennedy (UCD)

RE: UC/SU Government Information Librarians Report

NAME OF GROUP: UC/Stanford Government Information Librarians (UC/SU GILS)

NAMES OF CONVENOR(S) Linda Kennedy (UCD) and Lucia Snowhill (UCSB)

NAME OF CDC LIAISON: Roberto Trujillo (Stanford)

NAMES OF CURRENT MEMBERS /Campus affiliations

BERKELEY: Andrea Sevetson, Susanna Hinojosa, Christof Galli, Jim Ronningen, Ron Heckart, Marc Levin, Terry Dean

DAVIS: Linda Kennedy, Patsy Inouye, David Lundquist, Marcia Meister, Juri Stratford

IRVINE: Judy Horn, Kay Collins, Margaret Renton, Yvonne Wilson

LOS ANGELES: Lauri Kram, Jan Goldsmith, Chere Negaard, Barbara Silvernail

RIVERSIDE: Margaret Mooney, Lynne Reasoner

SAN DIEGO: Patricia Cruse, Larry Cruse, Joanne Donovan, Sam Dunlap, Victoria Williamson

SANTA BARBARA: Lucia Snowhill, Carol Doyle, Janet Martorana, Sherry DeDecker, Barbara Ceizler Silver

SANTA CRUZ: Cynthia Jahns

STANFORD: Chuck Eckman, Joan Loftus

CURRENT PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

Communications and Cooperative Access: The UC/SU Government Information Librarians maintain an active communications network.

LISTSERVER: Members communicate regularly via the GOVINFO listserver maintained at UC Davis. There are currently 45 subscribers.

MEETINGS: The group meets annually, in conjunction with the California Depository Library Conference. Minutes of the Annual meetings are posted on the GILS web site, discussed below.

WWW: In 1996, the UC/SU GILS gopher site was replaced by an extremely useful Internet site located at UCB. The web site is maintained by Andrea Sevetson. The UC/SU Government Information Librarians Homepage contains links to government information homepages on the various campuses, as well as to local guides, and a link to a useful collection of working tools and resource documents maintained by UCB. The web site also includes UC/SU GILS administrative documents, such as agenda and minutes, as well as hosting the reports of the UC/Stanford Electronic Government Information Initiatives Group.

DIRECTORY: The printed Directory of Government Publications Departments is now mounted on the GILS web site, where it can be continuously updated. The Directory greatly facilitates cooperative activities.

UNION LIST: In 1997, the Union List of Microform Government Publications and Holdings was made available on the GILS web site. Between 1995 and 1996, the Northern California list of microform holdings was gradually expanded to include holdings for all UC's, Stanford and the California State Library, with selected holdings for important or unique government information resources in other libraries. Paper copies of the Union list were distributed in conjunction with GILS meetings.

DIRECT BORROWING AND INTERLIBRARY LOAN: The UC and Stanford Government Information Librarians have always had a strong history of sharing resources, particularly large microform sets. The Union List facilitates direct borrowing, which still occurs among the UC and Stanford libraries. Some resources are loaned through inter-library loan; others, particularly microform sets, are shared on a direct borrow basis, depending upon the campus. Libraries continue to rely on the California State Library , (our Regional Federal Depository Library) for little used material, and for technical report literature.

COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT: The Agreement On The Cooperative Development Of Access To Government Information Among The University Of California/Stanford Libraries is posted on the GILS web site. There have been no changes to the Agreement.

FOREIGN DOCUMENTS COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT: The group is developing a survey to determine what current levels and areas of collecting is going on campuses to determine if there are ways to divide geographically to ensure better coverage throughout t he system.

UC/STANFORD ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT INFORMATION GROUP (EGIIG):The UC/SU Government Information Librarians regularly provide input to the UC/Stanford Electronic Government Information Group (EGIIG) on electronic government information issues such as investigation of projects related to access and archiving of electronic government information. As a result of discussion at the 1996 GILS meeting, EGIIG made a recommendation that the University seek a statewide contract for STAT/USA. EGIIG is seeking UC/SU GIL discussion of aspects of serving as an electronic regional depository for federal government information. has asked UC and Stanford librarians for suggestions of potential partnership projects for federal information.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

SHARED PURCHASES: UC/SU GILS has a strong history of shared purchases for large microfiche sets. The most recent sets include UN Development Programme publications (1995, a cooperative purchase) CIS Executive Documents 1789-1909, parts 1 and 2 (Mini-Scap proposals in 1994/95 and 1995/96)

COOPERATIVE ACCESS: The primary focus of the group in the last few years has been in maximizing access to electronic government information, building on what had been a strong cooperative access network for a number of years. A an example of the information sharing that occurs, UC/Stanford government information librarians shared opinions (via GOVINFO) on the pros and cons of selecting the voluminous full-text patent cd-roms, USAPAT.

INFOMINE: UC Riverside established this comprehensive web site for government information by subject, a site which other campuses often consult for subject access. GILS members serve as a user advisory group, and have also taken on responsibility for adding sites in specified areas, such as foreign governments or international organizations.

CQ/CIS: In spring of 1996, the UC/SU GILS conducted an in-depth review of CQ resources compared to other legislative information sources for the Computer Files Committee. Cynthia Jahns coordinated the work, with contributors from each campus, of analyzing each CQ database. A presentation on CIS's new website for congressional information was offered to GILS members attending ALA Midwinter 1997, and GILS members are starting to evaluate the CIS database in comparison to CQ.

NTIS: UC Davis is currently participating in a project with the National Technical Information Service to obtain electronic versions of technical reports. Extensive technical report collections, such as those from the Department of Energy and NASA, will no longer be distributed in microfiche format. UCD is testing on-demand free delivery to depository libraries. The test may include other UC libraries in the next phase of the pilot project.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

The UC/Stanford Government Information Librarians group was established as a selector group in October of 1993.

The goals of the UC/Stanford Government Information Librarians Group (GIL) selector group include the general goals for selector groups in the University of California and Stanford: to improve University-wide access to government information resources and to support projects which result in lowering costs and broadening the resource base available to support UC programs.

Another goal in creation of GIL is to maintain communication and share expertise. Reorganizations have resulted in merging of government documents reference and/or technical processing functions with other library units at some campuses. GIL provides a mechanism for continuing to work together on common problems and issues. Due to the rapid transition to electronic formats in the area of government information, effective communication is even more critical.