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Shipping List - Web Comparison: FSU Study
Robert Lopresti
December 2001

ANOTHER STUDY:

Is All The Material

Sent To Depository Libraries

Available On The Web?

Part 4

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 present her results here. To see a report on the original FSU study, click here. To see the October 2000 supplement, click here. To see the February 2001 update click here.

Methodology

The documents staff took a random sample of shipping lists from 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 2000 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 documents staff 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

During February 13-22 2001 documents staff searched a third time for the same publications using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * Govbot
    * Google Uncle Sam
    * GrayLit Net
    * GPO Access
    * FirstGov
    * usgovsearch
    * The home page of the authoring agency

During November 6-12 2001 documents staff searched again for the same publications using:
    * Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    * Govbot
    * Google Uncle Sam
    * GrayLit Net
    * GPO Access
    * FirstGov
    * usgovsearch
    * The home page of the authoring agency

Results

In June-July 2000, 45% of the material was found on the web, 55% was not. This was slightly worse than the results of Western Washington University's study. In October 2000, 64% of the material was found on the web; 36% was not. This was better than Western's results of 58%. In February 2001 65% of the material was found on the web, compared to 55% in Western's study. In the final round the figure stayed at 65%, while Western's rose to 59%. So the highest percentage of documents that the two studies taken together ever found on the web was 63% in November 2001.

June-July 2000 / October 2000 / February 2001 / November 2001

1. Available on the WWW

39 / 55 / 56 / 56

45% / 64% / 65% / 65%
(all percentages are rounded)

June-July 2000 / October 2000 / February 2001 / November 2001

2. Ordering Information only	1/1/3/0	1% / 1% / 3% / 0%
3. Partially Available @	1/3/4/1	1% / 3% / 5% / 1%
4. Abstract only available	1/0/1/1	1% / 0% / 1% / 1%
5. Available only to users in agency	0/1/1/0	0% / 1% / 1% / 0%
6. Newer issue only available #	0/0/0/1	0% / 0% / 0% / 1%
7. Not available	44/26/21/27	51% / 30% / 24% / 31%
TOTAL	47/31/30/30	55% / 36% / 35% / 35%

@ 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.

# 6. Newer issues only available: Issues being sent to depositories (including a January 2000 issue) of some periodicals have already been removed from the Web.

June-July 2000 / October 2000 / February 2001 / November 2001

AUTHORING AGENCY	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.
Agriculture Department	2/4/4/4						4/2/2/2
Central Intelligence Agency	1/1/1/1
Commerce Department	4/4/5/6		0/1/1/0				2/1/0/0
Congress	19/23/22/23		1/1/2/1	0/0/1/1			7/3/2/2
Defense Department	0/1/1/1	1/1/1/0	0/1/1/0				4/2/2/4
Education Department	0/1/1/1	0/0/1/0					2/1/0/1
Energy Department	1/1/1/1
Environmental Protection Agency	2/2/2/2						1/1/1/1
Federal Emergency Management Agency							3/3/3/3
General Services Administration	0/2/2/2						2/0/0/0
Health and Human Services Department	0/1/1/1						1/0/0/0
Housing and Urban Development				1/0/0/0	0/1/1/0		0/0/0/1
Interior Department	0/0/1/0					0/0/0/1	1/1/0/0
Justice Department	2/2/2/2
Judiciary	0/1/1/1						4/3/3/3
NASA	2/3/3/2						2/1/1/2
National Archives	4/5/5/5						2/1/1/1
Nuclear Regulatory Commission		0/0/1/0					3/3/2/3
Transportation Department	2/4/4/4						5/3/3/3
Treasury Department							1/1/1/1
TOTAL	39/55/56/56	1/1/3/0	1/3/4/1	1/0/1/1	0/1/1/0	0/0/0/1	44/26/21/27

For more information about this study, contact Marcia Gorin.

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