Minutes of the Depository Services Program Advisory Committee teleconference, January 27, 2015

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Teleconference date

January 27, 2015, 1:30 p.m. (EDT)

Meeting chairperson

List of participants

Unable to participate

Participating observers

Meeting summary

  1. Welcome and introductions by Chantal Akeson. PDSD’s new Director, Angus O’Leary was introduced to the Committee Members
  2. Minutes of April 10, 2014 teleconference approved
  3. End of Library Agreements and retention:
    1. Chantal A. noted that although depository library agreements have ended and there is no longer a requirement to maintain collections of Government of Canada publications, other members of the committee have expressed concerns that libraries may decide to weed some important publications from their collections. Though it is no longer a requirement, there is still a great deal of value in retaining these print collections for Canadians
  4. Updates to the ILS:
    1. Chantal A. provided an update on the progress of the ‘ILS Project’
    2. PDSD has been working to migrate its records from a non-MARC to MARC environment. While this has been a challenging undertaking and we have been able to address most issues, there are still some data elements that we were unable to migrate for launch. This means that we will have a period, post-launch, of necessary clean-up activities to ensure the quality and stability of our records. We ask members for their patience during this time
    3. Carla Graebner asked when the ILS will be launched. Chantal A. responded that although the PDSD is planning for a late March 2015 launch, the timelines are currently being negotiated; launch may be delayed until summer of 2015
    4. Access to DSP MARC records will be available via Z39.50 at launch
  5. Implications of Open Government (formerly the Virtual Library) on PDSD:
    1. Phase 1 of the Treasury Board Secretariat’s initiative on Open Government – Information Portal was launched in the fall of 2014. Previously referred to as the Virtual Library, Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) is now calling it Open Information. The website (open.gc.ca) will showcase Government of Canada publications from Library and Archives Canada and Publishing and Depository Services
    2. While Publishing and Depository Services expressed the importance of maintaining the PURLs in the Open Information portal, these were not addressed in Phase 1 of the Open Government initiative. PDSD has brought this to the attention of TBS and encourages Members to voice any of their concerns to TBS
    3. Chantal highlighted the importance for members to look at the offering of the Open Information portal and encouraged them to provide feedback to Treasury Board Secretariat. She provided contact information for the Open Government Portal as follows: open-ouvert@tbs-sct.gc.ca
    4. Chantal: The Treasury Board’s Web Renewal initiative is looking at reducing the number of websites hosted by the Government of Canada. This means that while departments are responsible for the creation of information, these will be housed and offered to Canadians using very few public facing websites. The information will primarily be made available through Canada.ca
    5. Caron Rollins asked about the software behind the Open Government Portal; Carla indicated that it was built on a Statistics Canada provides the technical (CKAN) platform and this was confirmed by Chantal
    6. Michael Shires suggests that email address (open-ouvert@tbs-sct.gc.ca) be added to the web form on the open.gc.ca website
    7. Catherine McGoveran asked if TBS was harvesting metadata directly from the DSP catalogue or if the DSP sent that data to TBS
    8. Chantal A responded that the DSP sent metadata for all records to the TBS team working on Open Government Information Portal
    9. Carla noted that TBS does not want ownership of the data included in the Open Government Portal
    10. Jennifer Pagnotta asked if this means that even though Government of Canada websites will be consolidated into only 4 websites, the DSP will therefore have to continue
    11. Chantal A. noted that departments will continue to maintain and supply their own web content and contributions. 2016 to 2017 is the target for the Government of Canada to go through Web Renewal. At this moment there are no plans to discontinue the Depository Services Program
    12. Amanda asked if there were any guidelines for archiving lost web content and information marked for deletion
    13. This brought the discussion to point 6 on the Agenda
  6. Incorporation of newly digitized material from departments / PDSD digitization of older print publications available in print only:
    1. PDSD has been approached by many departments to include newly digitized publications from their collections to the DSP catalogue. We are working closely with departments and our current workload to integrate
    2. Last year, with the closure of the DSP’s physical distribution program, we also took the opportunity to digitize many publications that were only available in print
    3. Carla asked if there was currently a proactive process to promote digitization to departments
    4. Chantal A. responded that PDSD is currently reacting to departments that are providing their digitized publications, but would like to be more proactive in the future
    5. Jennifer noted that she had previously been in contact with Joanne Joanisse (former A/Director of PDSD) concerning a large digitization project from Statistics Canada
    6. Jennifer will meet with Chantal A. and Angus at a later date to discuss the details of this project
    7. Caron asked if the Statistics Canada digitization project included everything. Jennifer replied that StatsCan is trying to digitize everything available in print format only. StatsCan is close to the end of the digitization process
    8. Once digitization is completed, Jennifer noted that StatsCan will put out a call to libraries for copies of publications they do not have or are too fragile for digitization. Jennifer also noted that they are trying to keep at least one, and where possible two, last copy prints
  7. Incorporation of newly digitized material from departments / PDSD digitization of older print publications available in print only:
    1. PDSD has been approached by many departments to include newly digitized publications from their collections to the DSP catalogue. We are working closely with departments and our current workload to integrate
    2. Last year, with the closure of the DSP’s physical distribution program, we also took the opportunity to digitize many publications that were only available in print
    3. Carla asked if there was currently a proactive process to promote digitization to departments
    4. Chantal A. responded that PDSD is currently reacting to departments that are providing their digitized publications, but would like to be more proactive in the future
    5. Jennifer noted that she had previously been in contact with Joanne Joanisse (former A/Director of PDSD) concerning a large digitization project from Statistics Canada
    6. Jennifer will meet with Chantal A. and Angus at a later date to discuss the details of this project
    7. Caron asked if the Statistics Canada digitization project included everything. Jennifer replied that StatsCan is trying to digitize everything available in print format only. StatsCan is close to the end of the digitization process
    8. Once digitization is completed, Jennifer noted that StatsCan will put out a call to libraries for copies of publications they do not have or are too fragile for digitization. Jennifer also noted that they are trying to keep at least one, and where possible two, last copy prints
  8. Moving from a Supplementary Checklist (SCL) and Weekly Checklist (WCL) to a single Weekly Acquisitions List (WAL):
    1. Melissa Graham: Once we have moved from our in-house cataloguing system to the ILS, we will no longer produce a separate, static Weekly Checklist or Supplementary Checklist. Instead, we plan to offer a dynamic Weekly Acquisitions List (WAL)
    2. The implications of this include:
      1. Because the WAL will be dynamic, if a record is removed or recatalogued, it will no longer appear in the WAL it had originally appeared on
      2. ‘Older’ publications and newly published materials will not be separated into different lists; everything catalogued and approved in one week will appear on the same WAL
    3. Our old WCLs and SCLs will remain on the website in HTML format as they appear now
    4. We are exploring the possibility/feasibility of cataloguing past SCLs and WCLs (in PDF) for which we have access to an electronic copy. However, please note that should it be determined that we can go forward with this project that it will take a significant amount of time and resources
  9. MARC records for the Supplementary Checklist (SCL):
    1. Chantal A. noted that MARC records for the SCL are not something that PDSD has ever offered. As the DSP moves to a MARC environment with the implementation of the Integrated Library System, MARC records will be available for individual titles. There are plans in place to meet with partners at LAC to discuss the issues and future of MARC batches for PDSD WCLs
  10. Groundwork for ensuring the continuation of services offered by PDSD:
    1. Carla noted that she would like to see what the library community can do to support PDSD after the elimination of the depository library agreements. The services provided by the DSP are still very important to the library community and would like to ensure that PDSD and DSP have the support they need from the library community
    2. Chantal A. noted that there is currently no plan to eliminate PDSD; but that the front-end as it currently exists could disappear with the Web Renewal plans to consolidate all Government of Canada websites
    3. Amanda asked what the library community can do to help ensure the future of services provided by PDSD
    4. Chantal A. responded that as concerns are brought forward, PDSD will bring them forward to senior management
    5. Caron noted that metadata in the library context is still very important and that libraries prefer to have the ability to download MARC records in bulk
  11. Juristat articles – consolidated issues for libraries:
    1. Chantal A. asked that the representatives from StatsCan address this concern brought forward by the library community
    2. Jackie Luffman noted that Juristat is published on an article basis so that there is no need to wait for information to be published in one large issue, though this is a problem for the DSP in terms of cataloguing the publications. Jennifer also noted that StatsCan is exploring the possibility of consolidating Juristat articles into single issues once all articles in an issue have been published and released
    3. Jackie noted that many more StatsCan publications may move to HTML format only due to time and financial constraints
    4. Chantal A. noted that the TBS communications policy requires all publications to be produced in a portable format to be supplied to PDSD for cataloguing and inclusion in the DSP catalogue
    5. Discussion about publication formats and use of the Statistics Canada catalogue
    6. Jackie noted that Statistics Canada will not be included in TBS’s Web Renewal initiative
  12. Canada Year Book (CYB):
    1. Chantal A. noted that several members of the library community had expressed an interest in having the DSP add the electronic versions of the Canada Year Book to the collection, but the CYB is split into approximately 40 PDFs and is not published in a format that lends itself well to meaningful cataloguing
    2. Jennifer Pagnotta and Chantal A. will discuss options concerning the consolidation of the Canada Year Book PDFs for cataloguing by the DSP at a later date
    3. Amanda enquired about the possible digitization of the CYB for the years 1968 to 1995
    4. Jennifer will look into this, though noted that there were possible copyright issues to be considered
    5. Chantal A. added that she would share the link to the Government of Canada’s information on open license
  13. Round table:
    1. Sarah Stacy informed the Committee that LAC has been given the ‘green light’ to begin discussions to replace AMICUS with OCLC
    2. Jackie noted that the DSP used to publish lists of depository libraries with Statistics Canada collections. Chantal A. responded that PDSD has list somewhere in the archives and will send it once located
    3. Caron added that the University of Victoria is part of a consortia; Last Copy Print Project, so their library has not weeded any of their Government of Canada and Statistics Canada collections
    4. Sarah noted that LAC also has a Last Copy Print initiative but is not specific to just government documents
  14. Next teleconference will be scheduled for September 2015. Caron asked that it not be scheduled for the first week; all agreed
  15. Closing remarks. Meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
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