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The Olive Tree |
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The Olive Tree |
| Tri-State Regional Depository Holds Conference | |
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By Frank Wihbey |
Librarians gathered in Orono from three northern New England states on 30 October to discuss issues surrounding future planning for government information service. The University of Maine has logically acted in the role of facilitator of this conference as we are the Regional Depository for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Although they have met periodically in individual state associations, a gathering of the government documents librarians of the three states has not occurred in a generation. |
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| There are 28 U.S. federal government document depository libraries in the tri-state area, of which 26 sent delegates. Though the conferees represented different library types, all have in common a long-standing commitment to serve their local constituencies by providing access to government publications in all formats. About 60 participants, including the directors of nine of the libraries, as well as most of the government documents librarians in the region, attended. National authorities were invited to share their knowledge of the new challenges, including the Director of the Library Programs Service, U.S. Government Printing Office, Gil Baldwin, and Duncan Aldrich of the University of Nevada-Reno. We are blessed with experts in our own region, and several served as panelists and discussion leaders. What brought us together is an uncertain but promising future. We hoped that our creative library professionals and government leaders would devise a vigorous, innovative program for the handling of new information formats, such as CD-ROMs and the Web. This would be particularly useful to patrons, it would be efficient, and it would save money. The converse side is the remote but real possibility that, responding to the pressure to commercialize the delivery of government information, the Depository Program will be compromised by unilateral government action. We reviewed how we've organized our depository system within our states and within the region. The day, however, was dominated by discussion of the changes in the environment of government publications and government information, such as the evolution of the "electronic transition." Even the question of why we should or should not have depositories was addressed. Reasonable progress was made in how to deal with these questions and plot our future course, individually and collectively. A number of the speakers explained how they are already grappling with serving their clientele's needs in a mixed-format (electronic and conventional) environment and how they are trying to profit from the change. We felt it was important to face these issues together and share our collective wisdom to find solutions. The conference closed with a strategizing session for the future. It was agreed that our state plans for government information service, constituted in the mid-1980's, would be updated. Conferees pledged to communicate more regularly among their peers via e-mail, listservs and other forms of free discussion and idea exchange. The library organizations will be called upon to help organize training workshops. Attendees felt that conferences like this should be held more frequently, and it was suggested that we reconvene in two or three years. The conference differed from some others in the past by exclusively using electronic media to organize and publicize it: e-mail, telephone, fax, and the Web. Many presentations were enhanced by slides stored electronically or by live web demonstrations. Participants thought it would be valuable to have a record of conference transactions. The availability of electronic content made assembly of this easier. A CD-ROM of the proceedings is in the process of being made. Many persons and organizations made this conference possible. Acknowledgement is made to Raymond H. Fogler Library, The University of Maine for financial support. Gratitude is also expressed to the U.S. Government Printing Office for fully funding the travel of Gil Baldwin. A hearty "thank you" was expressed to the presenters for their time and energy in preparation and delivery, and to all the attendees for taking time in that busy season to travel to Orono (a great distance for most and a first-time trip for many) and for their participation. |
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