Patricia Cruse, Chair
1998 Midwinter Meeting, New Orleans
Hilton Riverside, Magnolia Room
Sunday, January 11, 1998

Members in attendance: Patricia Cruse (Chair), Burt Chapman, Debora Cheney, Elizabeth Cowell, Sherry DeDecker, Jan Oberla, and Amy Spare.

Visitors in attendance: Larry Romans, Sally Lawler, Michael Levine-Clark, and Ann Rosell.

Federal Documents Task Force (FDTF) - Sherry DeDecker reported on activities that included: a presentation by Beth Bingham from the IRS Advisory Committee on the distribution of tax forms; George Barnum, GPO, spoke on partnership issues; and Robin Haun-Mohammed spoke about new publication coming through the FDLP. Of note: the 1996 World Factbook was not ordered in error; it will be coming to depositories in microfiche only.The FDTF then split up into individual discussion groups to discuss various topic which included:

• NTDB redesign: this is in response to Ken Rogers recent request for input on the redesign. Suggestions will be forwarded to Ken; also posted on GOVDOC-L.

• CD-Rom standardization: several ideas were proposed; those wishing to contribute ideas should contact Chuck Eckman of Stanford. GITCO is discussing this issue at their Sunday ALA meeting.

• Reciprocal links with Congressional web pages: suggestions were proposed for linking to Congressional web sites, and requesting that they link to depository libraries. Chris Casey will draft a letter to Senators and Representatives asking them to provide these links; they can use the url on the GPO page that links to depositories. It was agreed that the best way to accomplish this is to personally contact your representative.
• Agency liaisons: Cindi Wolff is heading this effort. The latest list was published in 1994, and needs updating. A work group will be established to ask for liaisons to add to the list.

International Documents Task Force (IDTF) - Debora Cheney reported on activities that included: the demise of the Area Handbook Series and the resolution by IDTF to voice their disapproval; IDTF is looking for candidates for IDTF secretary; foreign census materials located at the University of Texas; the IDTF WWW page; IDTF's agency liaison group; and IDTF's preconference, "International Organization Information for the 21^st Century."

Handout Exchange - Larry Romans reported that the new diskette is now ready to go. There are 130 items on two disks. Romans also reported that the WWW version of the Handout Exchange, http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/godort.html receives about 300 hits a month. The Education Committee inquired how we might help produce the Handout Exchange. Burt Chapman will work with Romans to identify materials that are NOT on the Handout Exchange and help solicit submissions based the omissions.

Continuing Education Fund (CEF) Work Group - Amy Spare reported that the CEF Work Group has prepared two proposals to be considered at 2^nd Steering. The first proposal is for an Advocacy Teleconference focusing on different levels of advocacy. DuPage or another institution would partner with GODORT to produce the teleconference. The second proposal is for a clearinghouse for electronic government information management tools on the WWW (see new business below). The site would contain resources that facilitate the use and management of electronic government information including public and technical service materials. The project is a two-phase project, the first phase focusing on gathering together already available resources, the second phase would focus on the development of needed resources. The Education Committee voiced their support for both proposals.

Jan Wilson, Chair, Program Committee, Education & Behavioral Sciences Section, ACRL, visited the Education Committee's meeting to see if the Committee would be interested in participating in their program, "Information Services for Citizen Participation, Protection, Education, Advocacy." The program would take place at Annual 1999. And would focus on what resources are useful for successful citizen participation and advocacy sills. The Education Committee was enthusiastic about participating in the program, particularly since it would target an audience outside of depository libraries. Wilson was going to meet further with her committee to discuss specifics of the program and will be in touch with the Education Committee.

GODORT Dues Increase - the Committee discussed the impact of a dues increase and felt that there was not enough information available to make a decision about an increase. Specifically, the Committee felt that detailed documentation is needed on the current state of finances and what the impact of a $5.00 or $10.00 increase would accomplish. Other concerns included that we need to keep GODORT fees inline with other round tables.

ASCLA Merger - The Committee briefly discussed the ASCLA merger and the impact that it would have on the organization. There was concern that the merger would have a negative impact on the Education Committee in particular -- the purpose of the Committee would be lost in the new structure.

WWW Clearinghouse for the Management of Electronic Government Information - The Committee discussed the idea of creating a www site that would pull together resources that are currently available on the WWW that would facilitate the successful management of electronic resources (see CEF proposal above). The site would include resources such as collection development policies for electronic resources, completed "Self Studies," resources for cataloging electronic materials, and how to government CD-ROMs. The Committee was in agreement that this is a good idea and will begin work immediately on pulling together the resources. The Committee also felt that this was an ideal opportunity to work with other GODORT committees (GITCO and the Cataloging Committee in particular) and capitalize on some of their hard work in this area. The Education Committee Chair will be in touch with other GODORT Committee Chairs about the project.

WWW Page Work Group - The last 1 1/2 hours of the meeting was devoted to the discussion of the Education Committee's WWW page. DeDecker led the discussion.

Present: Sherry DeDecker (Chair), Debora Cheney, Elizabeth Cowell, Michael Levine-Clark, Larry Romans, Ann Roselle, Amy Spare.

1. The committee reviewed the recommendations in the Final Report from the Ad Hoc Committee on the GODORT Web Presence and developed criteria based on this report.

• Layout, design and organization: The page will continue as presently set up; it was agreed that the organization complies with the recommendations of GODORT.
  
• Elements to be included; criteria for adding materials: All subpages will link to the Education Committee page. The page will include Education Committee member list, Committee purpose and description, minutes from ALA annual and midwinter Committee meetings, current activities of the Committee, links to projects adopted by the Committee (currently: workshops of interest to government information librarians, library and information science schools with government information classes, library organizations and groups related to education, models of government information web pages), Education Committee working groups, links to GODORT and ALA. A new link will be provided for a clearinghouse for government publications web sites and information. Criteria for adding materials to the Education Committee web page will be that it is determined to be useful and appropriate for educational purposes.
  
• Links to other GODORT pages: links will be maintained to GODORT, ALA, and the Resources of Use to Government Documents Librarians page at University of California, Berkeley.

• Relationship to the Handout exchange: as a project of the Education Committee, this will have a permanent place on the Committee page. Links are provided to the University of Michigan page containing the handouts, and to Larry Romans, Coordinator of the Handout Exchange.

• Location of the page: the page will continue to reside on the Rice University web site: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~govhelp/godorted.html. Amy Spare, Rice University, will link information as sent to her by members of the committee.

• Updating of materials: information will be reviewed/updated quarterly.

• Editorial control and maintenance: will be done by contributing members, under supervision of the Web Page Work Group.

• Archiving of materials: materials will be archived annually. After four conferences, minutes will be saved to an archive section.

2.  The entire page was reviewed, and suggestions made for revisions. It was agreed that the Models of Government Information Web Pages should be changed to Examples of…, Approaches to… or some other similar title; the sites will be subdivided into topical sections. Debora requested that additional sites be sent to her by ALA annual. It was suggested that dates be added to the sites on the home page. Amy will experiment with this, and the group will assess its usefulness. A new site will added, to be titled: Clearinghouse for Government Publications Web Sites and Information.   This site will conform to Module One of the Proposal for Electronic Government Information Web Site. Components will include public and technical services aspects of locating and managing electronic government information: processing, cataloging, networking, collection development, providing access, staff training, working with other departments and staff, complying with depository program standards and technical guidelines, contacts.

• Ann Roselle volunteered to write a section on technical aspects, such as unzipping files, downloading Adobe, searching the GOVDOC-L archives. That section will be part of the Clearinghouse.

• Michael Levine-Clark volunteered to begin collecting sites on managing of government publications.

• Elizabeth Cowell volunteered to begin collecting sites pertaining to advocacy, which will correspond with Module Two of the Proposal. The group agreed that we would all help with this project.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.