GPO Names Acting Public Printer, Issues Assurances About FDLP, FDsys Despite Budget Cuts
By Michael Kelley Jan 3, 2012(This story has been updated from an earlier version to include remarks from Nancy Robertson, the Michigan state librarian.)
The Government Printing Office today named Davita Vance-Cooks as the acting public printer. Vance-Cooks will be the first woman to hold the post, and she is taking office as the GPO prepares to deal with a reduced budget as well as complex issues affecting the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).
"I have great confidence and trust in Davita and her ability to serve as the leader of GPO," Bill Boarman, the 26th public printer, said in a statement.
As LJ reported, Boarman had to give up the position at the end of 2011 because he was only a recess appointee and his nomination eventually died in the Senate. Vance-Cooks has held a succession of senior management positions at GPO over the past eight years.
"I am honored and humbled to serve as GPO's acting public printer and I look forward to continue working with GPO employees as we serve the needs of Congress, federal agencies, and the public," Vance-Cooks said.
Vance-Cooks will have a full agenda. The agency is facing a reduction of 6.6 percent in its budget in FY12, to $126.2 million, as a result of the budget deal struck by Congress last month, as LJ reported. The stiffest cut was to the GPO Revolving Fund, which was appropriated at only $500,000, a 70 percent reduction. This fund helps to finance the development of the Federal Digital System (FDsys), the online system that provides permanent digital access to authenticated federal government information.
But Mary Alice Baish, the GPO's assistant public printer, superintendent of documents, said FDsys would be in good shape for FY12.
"We were very concerned last summer about FDsys," Baish said, referring to early budget proposals that envisioned more Draconian cuts. "But we are in a good position for FY12 and are continuing to develop FDsys," she said.
Baish said that "things are rolling as hoped," in part because the GPO was able to end FY11 with a $5.6 million surplus, as outlined in the FY11 annual report. The positive year resulted from an employee buyout program that cut the staff by 330 positions (to a total of about 1900) as well as the collection of about $12.5 million from customer agencies and a program that allowed Congressional offices to opt out of receiving printed documents. Gary Somerset, GPO's media and public relations manager, said no more staff reductions are anticipated in the coming year.
"When you take that net income and add to it the funding level the Senate approved, we were very pleased," Baish said.
Among the documents that FDsys will continue to ingest in FY12, Baish said, are the United States Courts Opinions (USCOURTS) collection, which is a pilot project between the GPO and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) to provide public access to opinions from selected federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.
She also pointed to a partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that is providing public access to the transcripts of President Richard Nixon's Watergate grand jury.
The portion of GPO's budget called the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation of the Superintendent of Documents covers four programs, but primarily it is for the cost of the FDLP. The FY12 appropriation is $35 million (down from $39.8 million as LJ reported), but GPO is also transferring $2.7 million from unused funds left over from FY05, bringing the total funding for FY12 to $37.7 million, a 5.4 percent cut. (The third element in the GPO's budget, the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation, was appropriated at $90.7 million, a cut of 3.1 percent).
Baish, again, was satisfied with this level of funding.
GPO is also taking steps to address some of the issues that have been swirling around the FDLP program. She said that she has a meeting scheduled on January 11 with Judy Russell, the Dean of University Libraries at the University of Florida. The meeting's topic will be the plan by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) to remake the federal depository library collections in the Southeast --- a plan that the GPO has objected to on several grounds.
Russell could not be reached for comment, but LJ has reported on her concerns, and a November email from her, available on the ASERL website along with other correspondence, recapitulates her position.
In addition, GPO is pursuing a plan to have the Indiana State Library act as the regional federal depository library for Michigan.
"We have begun discussions with them, absolutely," Baish said.
Baish and the GPO have been criticized for opposing an alternative multi-state arrangement that would allow the University of Minnesota libraries (UMN) to act as the regional federal depository library for the 43 selective depository libraries in Michigan. A lack of funding led the state library of Michigan to relinquish its regional status effective October 1, 2011 and created the need for an alternative arrangement.
"The Michigan Department of Education/Library of Michigan continue to believe that the preferred solution is to have the University of Minnesota Libraries provide regional federal depository library services for Michigan," said Nancy Robertson, Michigan's state librarian. "Of course, if that does not eventually work out, pending Senatorial designation and GPO implementation, it will be up to the Michigan selective federal depository library directors to determine alternative courses of action," she said.
The issue has stirred widespread concern and sharp comments. For example, Carol Pitts Diedrichs, the director of the Ohio State University Libraries, wrote on her blog:
We concur with our colleagues that GPO is not open to retooling obsolete practices, or to cooperating with the library community. Instead they are placing barriers in the way of progressive options which can overcome operational inertia and replace it with a more streamlined, technologically sophisticated, and service-oriented approach to distributing government information.
The GPO, however, did initiate, after the Depository Library Council Meeting and Federal Depository Library Conference held in October, a plan to identify pressing needs in the FDLP program. GPO is inviting input from stakeholders to develop a "State Forecast" and a "State Focused Action Plan" by June 2012.
In an unrelated note about government information, the federal budget proceedings did not provide any last minute change of heart regarding The Statistical Abstract of the United States. The Census Bureau had previously announced that it was terminating collecting and publishing this data effective October 1. The plan stirred many protests, as LJ reported, but the publication's headstone can officially read 1878-2011.
