The CIC Government Publications Task Force recommends that it be converted into an ongoing peer group CIC Heads of Government Publications, an ongoing peer group within the Center for Library Initiatives (CLI) composed of a representative from each of the CIC libraries with a government documents collection or staff associated with government publications.

The Task Force was established in January 1997 by the CIC Library Directors with a two-year lifetime, later extended through 1999. Under the guidance and direction of the Task Force on the CIC Electronic Collection, the Task Force was charged to identify, develop, and implement proposals for projects that will provide networked access to government information across the CIC. Initial areas for exploration included:

Current Task Force membership: John Shuler, UIC; Lou Malcomb, Indiana; Carolyn Kohler, Iowa; Lawrence Woods, Iowa; Grace York, Michigan; Julia Wallace, Minnesota; Charlene Mason, Minnesota; Debbie Schaubman, Michigan State; Jackie Druery, Northwestern; Debora Cheney, Penn State. Lawrence Woods has been chair of the group for the entire period.

1. FLOPPY DISK MIGRATION. The Task Force has nearly completed a project to identify federal depository materials originally provided on floppy discs, either 3.5 inch or 5.25 inch formats, and to load the contents of these floppies onto an FTP site for permanent access and shared retrieval (see http://www.indiana.edu/~libgpd/mforms/floppy/floppy.html). A follow-up project will identify and provide a similar site for supplementary software provided by government agencies in these formats. An official partnership with the Government Printing Office (GPO) is in progress and, if accepted, will provide an opportunity for all US depository libraries to use this site for continued access to this information rather than keeping and supporting the older physical formats.

This pilot project demonstrates shared access to information originally distributed in a now dying physical format, and could be expanded to other areas where floppy discs are an access issue. This project also demonstrates how providing access at one site to information held in common at multiple sites can affect positively workflow and the resources needed for support for access to information.

2. CD-ROMS - DOCUMENTATION. The Task Force created a comprehensive on-going list of all federal depository CD-ROMs and tracked the existence and availability of technical documentation for those CDs (see http://henry.ugl.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/cicdoc/cicdoc.htm). Currently the Task Force is partnering with the ALA Government Documents Round Table Government Information Technology Committee (GITCO) to provide a comprehensive searchable database of bibliographic and technical documentation for CDs issued by all levels of government: federal, state, foreign, and international (see http://tango.lib.uiowa.edu:8003/govpubs/gitco.taf)

This project will enhance access to this documentation and create a checklist for its preservation in the future, as well as provide a resource that can be used by government publications librarians nationally.

3. CD-ROMS - PRESERVATION AND ACCESS. In an effort to preserve and provide continuing access to information of historical and research interest currently on older DOS-based CD-ROMs, the Task Force is focusing on Census Bureau publications and raw data to implement a pilot project that will address issues in this area. The project has three parts:

The three parts to this project demonstrate a possible partnership with a government agency (Census Bureau); a deeper partnership with another consortium (ICPSR); and a cooperative venture within the CIC libraries. It is envisioned, however, that use of all three parts will be integrated to provide full access to historical Census Bureau information.

4. PRE-1976 RETROSPECTIVE CATALOGING. The Department of State was chosen as a pilot agency to determine the scope of the pre-1976 cataloging problem and to develop a model for identifying and upgrading existing cataloging records. OCLC has agreed to work with the CIC to identify relevant records in its database after the CIC provides a database for matching against the OCLC database. Once identified, the records will be mounted on a local system and work would proceed to complete any missing information. The end result will be a record set available from OCLC for the pre-1976 records which could be loaded into local OPAC databases. Work has progressed on creating the initial database, but this is a quite lengthy project.

5. JOINT ACQUISITIONS. The Task Force has had some success in promoting joint acquisition packages for expensive on-line databases and microform sets, the most recent of which was the opportunity to purchase the CIS Executive Branch Documents microfiche set, indexes, and MARC cataloging records at half-price.

6. ELECTRONIC REFERENCE. The Task Force is also pursuing initiatives related to providing electronic reference services. Members will be proposing and then coordinating a session on this theme at the Federal Depository Library Program Conference in the fall of 2000. The Task Force would also like to have a conference for all CIC government publications staff on this issue, focusing on future directions of reference services for government publications.

7. DIGITIZATION. Northwestern University has received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize a large set of their League of Nations materials. In addition, the Task Force is interested in digitizing the full run of US Government Manuals, as a valuable resource in understanding how the organization and functions of the federal government have changed over time. As a start to understanding how this history can be made available electronically, a pilot project to scan one of the first of these manuals (1912) will be pursued. The Task Force is very interested in digitizing Foreign Relations of the U.S., a large set of primary materials essential to an understanding of U.S. diplomatic history, and is currently investigating the possibility of their inclusion in J-STOR.

Over the three years the Task Force has worked, and hopes to continue working, on a number of projects and issues that directly relate to the six strategies outlined in the document "Extending the CIC VEL to Encompass Digital Collections" (June, 1999). However, the projects are ambitious and cannot be completed in a short period of time. The Task Force requires a permanent venue in which to continue its work, and is therefore requesting a change in status to an ongoing peer group within the Center for Library Initiatives, which would also provide the advantage of a larger base from which to draw talent.

The existing Task Force membership would be retained as a core working group within the CIC Heads of Government Publications; the chair to be chosen from within the peer group in a two-year rotation. The working group would continue having 1-2 regular meetings per year at the Big Ten Conference Center in order to maintain the momentum of current projects and develop future initiatives, with invitations to additional persons leading significant initiatives to attend specific meetings. The full peer group would continue to meet at ALA conferences and similar venues as feasible. In order to maintain fuller communication with CLI, the CIC Heads of Government Publications would like to request liaisons with other CLI committees, particularly Library Automation Directors and Collection Development Officers; the latter would meet primarily virtually with the Government Publications group, via listservs, minutes, and reports. The CIC Heads of Government Publications expect to report two times a year to the Library Directors.