Depository program in jeopardy

One of the nation's most popular federal programs -- and on this campus one of the most important -- is threatened by a House proposal to slash its funding.

The House Appropriations Committee, led by Rep. Charles Taylor, R-North Carolina, voted last month to cut funding for the Federal Depository Library program, which distributes U.S. government documents of all kinds for free to selected libraries nationwide, including the library at Cal State Long Beach.

Proponents of the measure believe the program, which began in 1858, has become outdated in the age of the Internet. Last year the government distributed 16.1 million copies of 40,000 titles at a cost of $30 million.

Librarians and other information advocates believe transferring federal documents to an exclusively electronic format would effectively disenfranchise millions of people, at least at the present time.

"The thing we're most concerned about is the timing," said Henry DuBois, associate dean of the University Library. "We don't question that the Internet has tremendous potential. It's the infrastructure needed to do this. There is a real question whether there are enough computers in households or at libraries (to accommodate those who needed the information). We believe it's a bit premature."

The American Library Association has spearheaded the move against the proposal, which faces stiff opposition in the Senate and has yet to pass a full House vote.

"There are all kinds of reports and data that are still available only in print," said ALA spokeswoman Lynne Bradley. "And even if everything were online, there are still issues with the speed of connections and librarians using their limited time to reach specialized computer programs to patrons."

At CSULB, federal documents are used extensively by faculty and students across the academic spectrum. There are eight federal documents at the university's reference desk alone that are requested almost daily, DuBois said.

In addition to the Congressional Record and U.S. Code, routinely requested information includes medical information produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Census, criminal-justice statistics and public-policy documents.

"People forget that one of the biggest publishers in this country is the United States Government," said Kelly Janousek, the librarian who heads the CSULB government-documents department. "And there's a reason for that -- people in a democracy need to know what's going on."

DuBois, Janousek and other librarians agree the Internet's role will continue to grow, and that most federal documents eventually will be available only on the Internet.

Just this week, Vice President Al Gore called for expanding the government's presence online extensively by the year 2003. However, they strongly believe that day remains years away.

"The road of progress is strewn with technologies that are obsolete, with data that can no longer be read because the medium in which it is stored is out of date," DuBois said.

DuBois said the government began publishing extensively in CD-ROM format well before that technology was well established, and the result was "chaos."

Sue Curzon, the dean of the library at Cal State Northridge, said if the government is serious, then it must work with the nation's librarians to develop an orderly transition.

"If the government's intent is to go digital, why not have a strategic plan?" she said. "This proposal will only widen the digital divide and disenfranchise those who can't afford or can't access technology."

Eleanore Schmidt, the director of the library for the City of Long Beach, wrote a letter expressing her concern to Rep. Steve Horn, R-Lakewood.

In it, she said the depository program is "one of the great bargains of government. The government printing office supplies the publications, but librarians provide the space to house them, the staff to help the public and the computers, photocopiers and other equipment needed to use that information."

"If you look at the people of Long Beach, you can easily see that there remains a technological divide.
? Eleanore Schmidt,  director of the library for the City of Long Beach

"The (proposed) cut is so drastic that it would essentially eliminate the depository program," Schmidt said in an interview. "If you look at the people of Long Beach, you can easily see that there remains a technological divide.

People everywhere yet do not have the wherewithal to access the Internet, or to access or even understand specialized databases where much of the information that is already available online is kept. We have people who come here who don't even know how to use a mouse."

Schmidt, whose library counts 192,000 active patrons, cited a recent example of a computer-savvy attorney who was researching the U.S. Code for a case. He finally came to the library to look at the printed version because conducting the research online was too cumbersome.

"Many of these databases just don't yet have the ‘browse-ability' that a book does," Schmidt said.

Horn, who was president of CSULB for 17 years, opposes the proposal, according to Craig Smith, the professor who heads CSULB's First Amendment Center.

"I spoke with Steve this week and he's against it," Smith said. "He would like to keep it because he knows it makes our library more prestigious."

Smith, though, also believes the documents are eventually bound for the Internet.

"This is certainly not a First Amendment issue here," he said. "It's a freedom of information issue, and right now (abolishing the program) would not protect that. As technology improves, that will change."

But centralizing the documents via the Internet does raise another concern.

"What worries me if that when you have your own collection, you have control. If someone else keeps the collection, it's out of your control," said Diane Erdelyi, the librarian in charge of government documents for the City of Long Beach. "Someone else decides what information you will have access to. Someone else will decide when it's time to hit the delete button."

"That's our role in society," said CSULB's Janousek, "to preserve the American memory."