ARCHIVED—Minutes of the Depository Services Program Library Advisory Committee (DSP-LAC) Teleconference, August 28, 2012

Teleconference Date

August 28, 2012

List of participants

• Diane Beattie, Library and Archives Canada
• Alison Bullock, Library and Archives Canada
• Louise Carpentier, ASTED – Concordia University
• Carla Graebner, CARL – Simon Fraser University)
• Margo Jeske, University of Ottawa
• Joanne Joanisse, PDS
• David Jones, University of Alberta
• Gay Lepkey, PDS
• Christie Martel, Statistics Canada
• Sylvie Nadeau, ASTED – New Brunswick Public Library Service
• Brent Roe, CARL
• Marc Saint-Pierre, PDS
• Amanda Wakaruk, University of Alberta
• Hafid Zoumhani, Library of Parliament

Meeting summary

1. The meeting was called to order at approximately 1:00 pm with Gay Lepkey as Chairperson
2. Opening remarks were delivered by Marc Saint-Pierre and Joanne Joanisse
3. The Minutes of the 2011 Annual Meeting were reviewed and approved
4. The Agenda for the 2012 meeting was approved without change
5. The Depository Services Program (DSP) Report had been distributed in advance of the meeting. Gay Lepkey presented highlights from the report as follows:
   1. DSP business statistics show that items shipped have been in steady decline since 2008 and that Depository Libraries are ordering fewer hard copy publications
   2. DSP efforts in the past few years have improved departmental compliance with the TB Communication Policy to approximately 90% for most organizations
   3. The decline suggests that departments are publishing fewer hardcopy publications
   4. The DSP Evergreen ILS is proceeding with two RFPs in preparation, one for data conversion and another for support and implementation services for Evergreen. Target date for launch is April 1st 2012
   5. Government organizations have been approaching DSP with digitized publications for inclusion in electronic collection – many are coming with MARC records and therefore, will be added to the collection when the new ILS is operational
6. In response to a question from Amanda Wakaruk Gay Lepkey confirmed that the ILS data conversion would include legacy records for print publications and that DSP would continue to acquire copies of print publications for cataloguing but would no longer distribute them as of 2014
7. David Jones asked about the status of map distribution and asked that Map Depository libraries be provided with a list of maps that will not be distributed
8. Marc Saint-Pierre said that a meeting with representatives of NRCan / ESS was scheduled for September 14, 2012 and that a report of the outcome of the meeting will be provided to the DSP-LAC and to Map Depository libraries
9. Margo Jeske asked about the University of Alberta LOCKSS project. Amanda Wakaruk reported that a number of universities were interested in participating and that a meeting was planned for the near future. Gay Lepkey noted that DSP had agreed to be a contributor of documents to the project when it became operational
10. Gay Lepkey outlined the major changes to PDS leading up 2014 which included:
    1. Publishing Programs will close
    2. The Crown Copyright Licensing Office will close
    3. DSP will cease distribution of physical publications
    4. PDS will carry on business as usual until 2014
    5. DSP will continue to maintain and develop the electronic collection
    6. There will be a significant impact on depository libraries since the terms of The Depository Library Agreement will be essentially null and void since neither side will be able to deliver on certain critical terms of the agreement
    7. DSP has received a proposal from Treasury Board that DSP host and manage the Virtual Library component of the GC Open Government Action Plan. DSP has responded with an outline of options but decisions have been made to date
11. In the light of these developments, Gay Lepkey asked the Committee members to consider whether or not the DSP-LAC should continue to meet and under what terms. During ensuing discussion the following points were made:
    1. Amanda Wakaruk supported continuation of the Committee noting that discussion is more important than ever
    2. Carla Graebner noted that DSP was moving into the virtual environment but discussions need to be maintained and the DSP-LAC is one way of doing that
    3. Louise Carpentier also thought that the DSP-LAC will be important in the discussion
    4. David Jones thought that in moving to electronic, perhaps DSP should expand its mandate to include all the digital data that the government creates – do not constrict, but open doors to government information
    5. Gay Lepkey noted that TB and the government see a difference between data and published information (the Open Data portal is already operational). During initial discussions, TB was asked if the Data portal would be incorporated in the virtual library but there was a “vigorous negative reaction”
    6. Sylvie Nadeau supported continuation of DSP-LAC activities but with a revised mandate/terms of agreement
    7. Carla Graebner agreed with David Jones that DSP should continue archiving electronic documents
    8. Alison Bullock said that the group will have very valuable contributions to the changing mandate of the DSP
12. Discussion then turned to consideration of changes to the Terms of Reference
13. Margo Jeske said that there do not seem to be many drastic changes needed
14. Gay Lepkey pointed out that with the move to teleconferencing, the Committee could have multiple, shorter meetings as well as an expansion of membership. Gay suggested that some changes to the language in TOR would be required to accommodate an expanded membership
15. Discussion moved on to a consideration of membership renewal
16. Eight nominations had been submitted since the last DSP-LAC
17. After a review of each candidate, and in view of the fact that the Committee will be meeting by teleconference only, it was decided that all candidates would be accepted as members
18. The list of nominees was as follows:
    • Beth Christianson, Reference Librarian, Saskatchewan Legislative Library
    • Ted Goshulak, University Librarian, Alloway Library, Trinity Western University
    • Siobhan Hanratty, Data/GIS Librarian, University of New Brunswick
    • John Sadler, Director of the John & Dotsa Bitove Family Law Library, University of Western Ontario
    • Maxine Tedesco, Geography, Government Documents, Spatial/Numeric Data & Math/Computer Science Librarian, University of Lethbridge Library
    • Nadia Villeneuve, Conseillère en information documentaire, Service de la bibliothèque, l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
    • Cheryl Wardell, Library Technician, Fleming College – Sutherland Campus
    • Amanda Wakaruk, Government Information Librarian, Rutherford Library, University of Alberta
19. In response to a question from Gay Lepkey, Chantal Poliquin reported that the House of Commons (HC) plans to reduce their production of print publications. Gay noted that DSP will not be receiving HC publications in print format as of September 2012
20. As the result of discussions with HC, there is an agreement to set up a an RSS feed to electronic editions of HC publications. The Senate deals with its publications differently and to date there have been no discussions with Senate representatives
21. In response to comment from Louise Carpentier that DSP libraries expected to continue receiving House of Commons debates, Gay Lepkey confirmed that printing of HC publications will cease when Parliament resumes in September. DSP will post something on Infodep when more information concerning this is available
22. Louise Carpentier noted that the collection on the LoP website has decreased, and people are relying on the DSP to keep these publications available to all – things are often removed from the website
23. Joanne Joanisse replied that some GC information has been removed because of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines requirements – information must be produced in a format that is accessible to everyone, therefore some information might be removed until this done
24. Marc Saint-Pierre pointed out that this is why we have the big red bar on our website stating that the documents are archived – explanation, many departments are removing documents that are not compliant so that their website complies with the guidelines
25. Louise Carpentier asked about the new guidelines and their availability (available on the TB web site)
26. Regarding the Guidelines, Gay Lepkey noted that there are variant interpretations, PWGSC is very strict. Many departments are removing documents simply because they are older. Therefore PDS is being approached by some departments to be an archive for these older documents (for example Health Canada)
27. Louise Carpentier asked if storage was an issue and was advised that it is not
28. Carla Graebner asked if digitized works from Library of Parliament be included in the DSP e-collection and was told that they will be as long as they are in PDF format
29. Gay—Any government organizations who may approach with their PDF publications, we would be interested in aquiring them – we will also need to look into expanding our document format types
30. Carla Graebner asked if DSP had any plan to digitize publications and Gay Lepkey responded that digitization is up to the individual publishers / departments
31. Brent Roe noted that it seems that they are working independently (in terms of digitizing their publications) – they are all taking different approaches, some are digitizing, some are sending their publications to LAC
32. There was some discussion of the closing of some federal libraries during which the following points were made:
    1. Gay Lepkey had no information about the disposal of collections of closed libraries
    2. Louise Carpentier will try to find out what is going on with this – how to deal with the materials is of great concern
    3. The collection of the Transport Canada library is of particular concern
    4. Alison Bullock will look into this issue and get back to the committee through email
33. There was some discussion of the status of depository libraries:
    1. Brent Roe asked what will be the difference after 2014 between depository library and a regular library—presumably any library will have access to the publications on the website
    2. Gay Lepkey said that in terms of a library's access to DSP resources and services there will be no difference at all and therefore no need to maintain current agreements – tangible publications just won't be in the mix. The dilemma of the future is: how do we redefine ourselves in this new environment
    3. Gay Lepkey offered an opinion that we will maintain relationship with library community on basis of providing information and services that those libraries find useful – such as out e-collection and catalogue records – whole new line of business for us – but as decided, the DSP-LAC will continue to meet. However, all signs point to end of print within government – it's just not necessary for government to print anymore
34. Amanda Wakaruk asked about the transition from print serials and asked for support from DSP to co-ordinate between libraries and departments – subscriptions to paper serials beyond 2014 (when DSP ends distribution)
35. Joanne Joanisse noted that we cannot speak to the future on this
36. Marc Saint-Pierre added that there is no clear-cut decision at this point
37. Gay Lepkey said that many departments may continue to create print publications post 2014, but most operate without subscription distribution lists which the DSP takes care of right now
38. [Unidentified] asked if departments will the still have an obligation to produce PDF publications
39. Gay Lepkey responded that there is no obligation under the Communications Policy. Many departments are simply posting HTML documents, but the DSP does not acquire HTML publications while others are happy to provide DSP with PDF rather than hosting it on their own website
40. After some discussion it was decided to plan for another teleconference in November when new members would be introduced and the Terms of Reference would be discussed
41. The meeting adjourned at 2:45 pm