STATE PUBLICATIONS TASK FORCE REPORT Executive Summary

Alabama State Publications Task Force
Executive Summary

January 2001

Full Report of the Alabama State Publications Task Force

The Alabama State Publications Task Force (ASPTF) was appointed by the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) and the Alabama Library Association Government Documents Round Table (ALLA GODORT) in June 1999 for the purpose of studying the distribution of and public access to Alabama state publications. The ASPTF was given eight charges to address in their consideration of the issue:

1) Review the Alabama Clearinghouse for State Publications (AL Code sec. 41-8-40 - 41-8-48), and recommend changes that would incorporate language appropriate to an electronic publishing environment.
2) Consider implications of the legislation for collections and archiving of both electronic and print materials for Alabama Public Library Service and Alabama Archives & History Department.
3) Consider implications of the legislation for Alabama agencies and offices that generate information. Study guidelines that will result in better dissemination and preservation of electronic and print information including minimum technical standards.
4) Consider what method would be most effective for a central finding aid for state publications and state records. The task force will study options for cataloging state documents, whether print or electronic, and review the potential for creating a common database, or using an existing one to allow multiple agencies and libraries to contribute cataloging records.
5) Consider the need and frequency for the publication of a list of state documents and the resources necessary for compiling and printing such a list.
6) Investigate and consider current copyright agreements on state generated information which might impact dissemination of some state information and review options.
7) Consider the opportunities in the state for cooperative generation, preservation, mirroring, etc., of state information by universities, public libraries, and other organizations. Consider language for the legislation that will encourage cooperation.
8) Consider the relationship for state information dissemination with regard to the Alabama Virtual Library.

Each of these charges are addressed in detail in the full report, with discussion, options, and recommendations under each charge. The report concludes with some overall recommendations which are, in simple form, inclusive of the various recommendations within the eight charges. These recommendations are addressed to the Alabama Library Association (ALLA) since ALLA is the primary library and information organization in the state. However, this report, once approved and revised by APLS and ALLA GODORT, should be provided to the leadership not only of ALLA, but also to the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries (NAAL), the leadership involved with the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL), and to other library and archive organizations in the state for consideration of methods of cooperation in the state in order to provide the best access to and dissemination of Alabama state publications and state information.

The concluding recommendations are:

The Alabama Library Association, in representing the needs of Alabama library users, should promote measures that assist and encourage state agencies to meet their broader responsibilities for collecting, archiving, distributing, and providing access to state publications and state records.
The Alabama Library Association should promote the establishment of an Alabama Information Technology Commission, which would provide continuing information technology policy oversight for Alabama government and create effective guidelines for good information practices. Similar to the Alabama State Records Commission, the Alabama Information Technology Commission would operate independent of changes in the state administration, offering a more long-term and stable organization to address state information technology issues. A draft description of this type of commission is provided in Appendix D in the full report.
The Alabama Library Association should endorse the other recommendations in this report and encourage inclusion of these ideas, where appropriate, in similar projects and committee work of the Association.

Encouraging the Alabama state government to make the changes listed above will not be easy work, and some of the ideas involved, such as electronic archiving, are still evolving. Nevertheless, improving the distribution of and public access to state government information is very important work. These information issues affect every aspect of the state: business, education, every organization, every citizen, and the state government itself.

As mentioned several times in the report, many tasks involved with the dissemination of and access to state publications are converging, with discussions of computer technology, archiving methods, and library services, among other areas, necessary to make progress. It should be obvious that librarians are experienced in organizing information and making that information easily accessible to its users. However, librarians and archivists are in the unique position of seeing the broad view of some of the less obvious issues, since libraries had to tackle some of these tasks earlier than other organizations. Librarians have had to: set standards and policies for their web pages, write contracts with vendors, carefully set security firewalls, guard confidentiality of their patrons, and address some archiving issues.

Librarians can and should play an important role in encouraging the Alabama state government to improve how it handles its information resources, and the Alabama Library Association is the appropriate organization to initiate the effort.

Diann Weatherly, Chair
Government Documents Reference Librarian
Mervyn H. Sterne Library
University of Alabama at Birmingham
SL 135, 1530 3rd Ave. S.
Birmingham, AL 35294-0014
(205) 934-6364
dweather@uab.edu

Alabama State Publications Task Force,
January 2001