Square peg in a round hole: Electronic information and the federal depository library program

Abstract

Rapid technological advances have brought the relevance of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) into question. Technology has advanced to the point that government information is so easy to distribute electronically, that it is seemingly available everywhere. Documents librarians, and increasingly other librarians as well, must come to terms with how to handle the flood of electronic government information from a wide variety of sources while at the same time coping with the changes wrought by a fading FDLP. The slow and uneven response of the Government Printing Office (GPO) to accelerating technology and electronic information, in part due to congressional and information policy impediments and in part due to its own reluctance to move beyond its traditional printing role, says much about the FDLP's current situation and what it will mean to be an electronic depository. This article examines the history of electronic products in the depository program, the redefinition of dissemination of government information in an electronic environment, the roles for the non-depository government information services, and what the future may hold for public access to government information in all formats.