Minutes of the Depository Services Program Advisory Committee teleconference, February 3, 2016

Teleconference date

February 3, 2016, 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

Meeting chairpersons

• Angus O’Leary (Publishing and Depository Services Directorate)
• Chantal Akeson (Publishing and Depository Services Directorate)

List of participants

• Beth Christianson (Saskatchewan Legislative Library)
• Carla Graebner (Canadian Association of Research Libraries)
• Caron Rollins (University of Victoria)
• Diane Beattie (Library and Archives Canada)
• Jacqueline Luffman (Statistics Canada)
• Jennifer Pagnotta (Statistics Canada)
• Katherine McColgan (Canadian Association of Research Libraries)
• Michelle Lake (Concordia University)
• Nadia Villeneuve (University of Quebec)
• Sarah Stacy (Library and Archives Canada)
• Siobhan Hanratty (University of New Brunswick)
• Sylvie Nadeau (Association pour l’avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation, New Brunswick Public Library Service)
• Ted Goshulak (Trinity Western University)

Unable to participate

• Cheryl Wardell (Fleming College)
• Jennifer Paquet (Treasury Board Secretariat)
• John Sadler (University of Western Ontario)
• Michael Shires (Canadian Association of Research Libraries, University of Regina)
• Patrick McDermott (Treasury Board Secretariat)
• Sally Sax (Library of Parliament)
• Sebastien Tremblay (Library of Parliament)
• Susan Haigh (Canadian Association of Research Libraries)

Participating observers

• Julie Grady (Publishing and Depository Services Directorate)
• Melissa Graham (Publishing and Depository Services Directorate)
• Marc Saint-Pierre (Publishing and Depository Services Directorate)

Meeting summary

Pre-meeting discussion with Caron (who was unable to stay for the duration of the meeting) concerning the dissemination of Royal Commissions, especially concerning the upcoming Royal Commission on missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls.

1. Opening remarks by Angus. Noted that special guest Patrick from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) was unable to attend
2. Minutes from the January 27, 2015 teleconference approved
3. Angus spoke to the Open Information Initiative in Patrick’s place.
   1. The Open Information Initiative is a major priority for the current government. The action plan on Open Government has three main streams: Open Information, Open Data, and Open Dialogue
   2. TBS’s mandate letter from the Prime Minister states the following: "Accelerate and expand open data initiatives and make government data available digitally, so that Canadians can easily access and use it."
   3. There will also be a Cabinet Committee chaired by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) on Open and Transparent Government that will consider issues concerning improving government transparency and openness
   4. The Prime Minister’s Guide for Ministers focuses on making government information more accessible, and embracing open data
   5. Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), Public Services Procurement Canada (PSPC), Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Statistics Canada are working together to launch phase 2 which will include making documents meant for public consumption easily accessible through a Government of Canada (GC)-wide service
   6. Departments will be required by the "Open by Default" Policy to identify and release "open" data and documents
   7. A test pilot of the new service is scheduled in the spring followed by a full launch later in the year
   8. All members of the Depository Services Program Advisory Committee (DSP-AC) are asked to look at the existing portal in order to make suggestions on how to make improvements. Chantal and Marc both strongly encourage feedback to TBS
   9. Michelle and Chantal will work together to create messaging on the requested evaluation of the Open Information Portal by the library and information community for posting to government information blogs and the government information listserv
   10. Carla inquired about long term preservation of material that falls under the Open Information Initiative
   11. Angus indicated that LAC is responsible for the preservation aspect while Statistics Canada provides the technical (CKAN) support, TBS provides support and policy guidance, and Publishing and Depository Services Directorate (PDSD) oversees the business process, storage, and cataloguing
   12. Diane from LAC responded that anything deemed to have long term value will fall under LAC. She explained that they are trying to build metadata and preservation regulations for everything within the portal
   13. There was also question around the definition of "long-term value". Diane indicated there will not be a big change in the definition but certain items will be deemed long term. Members of the Committee expressed concerns that researchers may disagree with the federal government on what is deemed valuable in terms of preservation. For example, while the government may not see the value in preserving organizational charts in the long term, many researchers find great value in such documents
   14. Caron indicated that anything in the portal should be preserved and that a discussion on this issue should continue at a later date
   15. Angus noted that the formal program documentation is still in progress and suggested talking about this again at the September meeting
   16. Diane stated that LAC will continue harvesting the Government of Canada websites and post to the Open Information Portal (OIP)
   17. Angus mentioned the long term intention to federate the OIP by onboarding provinces and municipalities
4. Follow-up on action items from previous meeting:
   1. Chantal and Jennifer will be discussing at a later date the options regarding the consolidation of the Canada Year Book (CYB) PDFs for cataloguing by the Depository Services Program (DSP)
   2. Chantal to send the list of depository libraries with Statistics Canada collections.
      1. Jennifer indicated that the digitized CYB can be individually zipped containing all the chapters and sent to the DSP. Chantal indicated that this will need to be discussed with the technical team as she is not sure if zipped files are acceptable
      2. Jennifer indicated how large and unmanageable the files are and recommended talking to Chantal offline. An update on this issue will be provided at a later date
      3. For the 1968 to 1995 CYBs, Jennifer mentioned there were concerns regarding copyright with photographs and therefore they could not make the digitized versions available until they receive permission to do so. Since doing this would be a very large process to undertake, and the digitization project is currently the main focus, this will be a project for later on
      4. Carla asked about looking into the possibility of blocking all copyrighted images to allow for an expedited release. Jennifer noted that while this is not her project, she would mention the idea to her colleagues
      5. Chantal, skipping ahead to item 9 on the Agenda: intellectual property/Open Government. She indicated it was critical for government to share information openly on the web with Canadians and that the key to the Open Information Portal is that anybody could reuse, resell or do as they please with the information as long as it is cited
      6. Chantal indicated that she sent the list of depository libraries with Statistics Canada collections to Elizabeth Sander who was on assignment there at the time, who confirmed receipt and shared the information with Statistics Canada
5. Revisions to the Terms of Reference
   1. Chantal indicated that most at large memberships are all up for renewal
   2. Some members indicated having issues with the term "Institutions not represented by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)" in the Terms of Reference
   3. There was question of perhaps opening the membership to all education institutions and not limiting at large membership to only those that are not part of CARL. A discussion with Susan Haigh is recommended in the near future regarding this issue. Carla indicated that she would like to be part of that discussion. It was decided that a follow-up meeting will be held to discuss issues of membership. An agenda will follow along with the membership list
6. New members / Participating members
   1. All members of the DSP-AC must subscribe to the DSP’s listserv Infodep
   2. New members, or current members not subscribed, will be automatically added to the mailing list
7. Machine Readable Content (MARC) records
   1. Issues with DSP records regarding corporate name heading (MARC fields 110 and 710)
      1. Melissa explained the DSP’s current issues and future plan regarding this:
         1. Fields 110 and 710 currently drive the front-end (publications.gc.ca) in terms of searching, sorting and displaying records by department
         2. Department names on the DSP’s website are required to follow the format as set out in TBS’s Registry of Applied Titles
         3. This means that DSP staff are often forced to ignore Canadiana Authorities, and record the corporate names incorrectly (according to MARC/AACR2 Standards) to match the website’s needs
         4. DSP is currently investigating a solution for this by implementing the use of a 910 field in place of the 110 and 710 fields to drive the requirements of the website
   2. Carla mentioned there are issues with loading the MARC records in terms of character encoding and the lack of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
   3. Sarah from LAC noted that her team provides their MARC records which are posted alongside the DSP’s records in the Weekly Acquisitions List
8. Weekly Acquisitions List (WAL)
   1. Sarah noted that it is a challenge to navigate through the WAL
   2. The library community has asked that several features be added to the WAL including, but not limited to:
      1. Table of Contents/Index
      2. Sort records by format, monographs vs. serials, and new vs. old
   3. Chantal noted that she would like to keep one list for the WAL and that there is a plan in place to add an index. She welcomed further comments and feedback regarding the WAL
   4. Sarah noted that she wishes to be closely involved with revisions to the WAL and would like to be part of a working group on the subject
   5. To put into context the issue of the WALs being rather large and unmanageable, Angus noted DSP has hired extra resources to clear a historical inventory and that the DSP has seen an increase in publications coming in due to the web renewal. (individual departments losing their web presence to fall under a single Government of Canada website)
   6. Chantal will form a small working group so that the DSP can receive and consider formal input from stakeholders
9. Upcoming National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
   1. Caron had asked that the DSP ensure they are part of the dissemination of information with Privy Council Office to ensure that all information regarding the inquiry is made publicly available, not just the final report
   2. Siobhan brought up the concern that government implemented policy to ensure nothing is printed but would suggest that the upcoming national inquiry be an exception
   3. Chantal noted that there is some wiggle room on being allowed to print, though cannot guarantee that the report will be printed. However, she also noted that procedures for publishing currently state that the authoring department must print publications on demand. (Chantal will send a link to the policy to the members of the Committee which is available publicly on the Treasury Board Secretariat’s website)
10. Inclusion of DSP records in APLIC’s GALLOP Portal
    1. Beth noted that it has been some time since DSP refreshed their collection on APLIC’s GALLOP Portal and would like to see that done soon
    2. Chantal informed the Committee that providing DSP records to both the GALLOP Portal and LOCKSS is a priority for the DSP and will be completed once DSP receives necessary consultation time with the supplier
11. Round table
    1. Sylvie mentioned that the members of the Council of Atlantic University Libraries (CAUL) were beginning to explore the tracking of government documents in digital format and preservation efforts. She indicated that PDSD and other members of the Committee may hear from CAUL members seeking advice
    2. It was then mentioned that Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia and University of Victoria will be working together to capture local municipal websites by end of summer
    3. Chantal confirmed that she will set up a meeting to discuss membership for the Depository Services Program Advisory Committee in the next few weeks
12. Closing remarks by Chantal and Angus
13. Meeting adjourned at 1:59 p.m.

Action items