Willing to provide but unable to support: The dilemma of smaller depositories in an electronic era

Abstract

The increasing influence of government information in electronic format poses acute problems for smaller depositories facing financial and personnel shortages. These constraints will increase the dependence of smaller depositories on regional depositories and may compel the smaller institutions to reassess the viability of their depository status. This cumulative predicament will make some government information inaccessible to users of smaller depositories. Recognition of this should be augmented by acceptance of the reality that existing Federal budgetary pressures, coupled with trends toward user fees in other sectors of librarianship, make free and unimpeded access to all government information an unrealistic public policy option. This, in turn, will increase the importance of regional depositories as clearinghouses for technical support and resource sharing and require selective depositories to place even greater emphasis on determining the government information of greatest relevance to their constituencies.