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Shipping List - Web Comparison: FSU Study
Robert Lopresti
November 2000
Slightly revised February 2001

ANOTHER STUDY:

Is All The Material

Sent To Depository Libraries

Available On The Web?

Part 2

Marcia Gorin, a Documents Librarian at Strozier Library, Florida State University, attempted to replicate Western Washington University's study. She has given me permission to publish her results here. To see a report on the original FSU study, click here. To see a later supplement, click here.

Methodology

The documents staff took a random sample of shipping lists from the February-May 2000. (Shipping lists enumerate all the material sent to federal depository libraries by the Government Printing Office.) These included 26 shipping lists for paper documents, 56 for microfiche, and 4 for electronic products, which is roughly proportionate to the amount of shipping lists received.

From each of the selected shipping lists a document was randomly selected. During two weeks in June-July documents staff 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 October 2-20, 2000 we searched again for the same publications using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * Govbot
    * Google Uncle Sam
    * GrayLit Net
    * GPO Access
    * FirstGov
    * The home page of the authoring agency

Results

In June-July, 45% of the material was found on the web, 55% was not. This was slightly worse than Western Washington University found. In October, 64% of the material was found on the web; 36% was not. This was
about 5% better than Western's results.

June-July / October

1. Available on the WWW

39 / 55

45% / 64% (all percentages are rounded)

June-July / October

2. Ordering Information only	1/1	1% / 1%
3. Partially Available @	1 / 3	1% / 3%
4. Abstract only available	1/ 0	1% / 0%
5. Available only to users in agency	0 / 1	0% / 1%
6. Not available	44 / 26	51% / 30%
TOTAL	47/31	55% / 36%

@ 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 interaction between congresspersons and witnesses (actual questions and answers), are not.

June-July / October

AUTHORING AGENCY	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.
Agriculture Department	2/4					4/2
Central Intelligence Agency	1/1
Commerce Department	4/4		0/1			2/1
Congress	19/23		1/1			7/3
Defense Department	0/1	1/1	0/1			4/2
Education Department	0/1					2/1
Energy Department	1/1
Environmental Protection Agency	2/2					1/1
Federal Emergency Management Agency						3/3
General Services Administration	0/2					2/0
Health and Human Services Department	0/1					1/0
Housing and Urban Development				1/0	0/1
Interior Department						1/1
Justice Department	2/2
Judiciary	0/1					4/3
NASA	2/3					2/1
National Archives	4/5					2/1
Nuclear Regulatory Commission						3/3
Transportation Department	2/4					5/3
Treasury Department						1/1
TOTAL	39/55	1/1	1/3	1/0	0/1	44/26

For more information about this study, contact Marcia Gorin.

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