Purpose

There are approximately 1,300 federal depository libraries in the United States.  They receive federal publications for free, in return for making them available to the public.  This study attempts to determine whether the material sent to depositories is also available to the public, for free, over the World Wide Web.

This study is the basis for the following article:

Lopresti, Robert and Marcia Gorin.  "The availability of US government depository publications on the World Wide Web."  Journal of Government Information.  29 (2002) 17-29.
 

Methodology

From each of the selected shipping lists we then randomly selected a document.  (A random number generator was used in both cases.)

On June 13-14, 2000 we searched for the documents  on the World Wide Web using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * Govbot
    * The home page of the authoring agency

During  September 18-29, 2000 we searched again for the same publications using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * FirstGov
    * Google Uncle Sam
    * Govbot

    * GPO Access
    * GrayLit Net
    * The home page of the authoring agency

During  January 3-11, 2001 we searched again for the same publications using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * FirstGov
    * Govbot
    * Google Uncle Sam
    * GPO Access
    * GrayLit Net
    * Usgovsearch
    * The home page of the authoring agency

During  November 19-29, 2001 we searched again for the same publications using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * FirstGov
    * Govbot
    * Google Uncle Sam
    * GPO Access
    * GrayLit Net
    * usgovsearch
    * The home page of the authoring agency
 

Results

In September 2000:
Almost sixty percent (58%) of the sample material was available on the World Wide Web.  Significant changes were as follows:
    * Three documents that we could not find in June showed up in September.  Two of these were found using search engines or databases we did not use in June,  so it is possible they were there all along. This is also true of the older issue of CFR listed in row 5 below.
    * One hearing which was partially available in June was fully available in September.  One hearing which was not available in June was partially available in September.
     * In June we were able to find newer issues of two periodicals, but not the issues we were looking for.  In September we were able to find NO issues for one of those periodicals.

In January 2001:
The publications available dropped slightly from 58% to 55%.  This drop was largely the result of two publications being replaced on the Web with newer editions.  Significant changes included:
    * One  publication that was on the Web in September could not be found in January.
    * Two publications were  replaced by newer editions.
    * One document was found on the Web for the first time.
    * One document that had previously been found on the web in a different format (category 2 below) was now found in a form identical to that sent to depository libraries (category 1).

In November 2001:
The publications available rose from  55% to 59%.   Significant changes included:
    * One  publication that was on the Web in January could not be found in November.
    * Two publications were  replaced by newer editions.
    *  Two documents were found on the Web for the first time.
    * Five documents that had not been found before were available, but  in a different format from those sent to depository libraries (category 2 below)
    * Two congressional hearings that were partially available (category 3) were now fully available.
 

                                                  June 00 / September 00 / January 01 / November 01

1. Available on the WWW	25 / 31 / 30 / 34	39%  / 47% / 46% / 53% (all percentages are rounded)
2. Available in different format *	6 / 6 / 5 / 4	9% / 9% / 8% / 6%
TOTAL	31/ 37 / 35 / 38	48% / 58% / 55% / 59%

 

3. Partially Available @	3 / 3 / 3 / 1	5% / 5% / 5% / 2%
4. Newer issues only available #	2 / 1 / 3 / 5	3% / 2% / 5% / 8%
5. Older issues only available +	1 / 0 / 0 / 0	2% / 0% / 0% / 0%
6. By paid subscription only	1 / 1 / 1 / 1	2% / 2% / 2% / 2%
7. Abstract only available	2 /  2 / 2 / 0	3% / 3% / 2% / 0%
8. Not available	24 / 20 / 20 / 19	37% / 31% / 31% / 30%
TOTAL	33 / 27 / 29 / 26	52% / 42% / 45% / 41%

* 2. Available in different format: The content of the publication is available on the website, but the publication itself is not.
@ 3. Partially available: In the case of some congressional hearings the written statements of witnesses are available on the Web, but the hearing transcripts, with the interaction between congresspersons and witnesses (actual questions and answers), are not.
# 4. Newer issues only available: Issues being sent to depositories of some  periodicals  have already  been removed from the Web.
+ 5. Older issues only available: In June 2000 the 1998 version of a volume of the Code of Federal Regulations was on    the Web, but not the 1999 version which was being sent to depository  libraries.
 

For more information about this study, contact Rob Lopresti.

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last updated 2/05