ARCHIVED—Minutes of the Depository Services Program Library Advisory Committee (DSP-LAC) Teleconference, January 10, 2013

Teleconference Date

January 10, 2013

List of participants

• Karen Adams (CARL—U of M)
• Diane Beattie (LAC)
• Louise Carpentier (ASTED)
• Carolyn Franklin (Guildford Public Library)
• Ted Goshulak (TWU)
• Carla Graebner (CARL – SFU)
• Siobhan Hanratty (UNB)
• Joanne Joanisse (PDS)
• Gay Lepkey (PDS)
• Sylvie Nadeau (ASTED – NBPLS)
• Jennifer Pagnotta (StatCan)
• Chantal Poliquin (LoP)
• John Sadler (CALL – Western University)
• Maxine Tedesco (U of L)
• Nadia Villeneuve (UQAC)
• Amanda Wakaruk (CLA – U of A)

Observers

• Deidre Follett (LoP)
• Anne Gélinas (LoP)
• Carmen Laferrière (LoP)
• Jacqueline Luffman (StatCan)
• Brent Roe (CARL)
• Belia Velho (StatCan)
• Hafid Zoumhani (LoP)

Meeting summary

1. The meeting was called to order at approximately 1:35 pm with Gay Lepkey as Chairperson
2. Opening remarks were delivered by Joanne Joanisse and round table introductions were conducted
3. The Minutes of the 2011 Annual Meeting were reviewed and approved with minor changes
4. The Agenda for the meeting was discussed and approved without change
5. Joanne addressed the effect of the DRAP on DSP operations, noting that DSP would cease distribution of print (hard copy) publications officially by March 31, 2014 but it would continue to acquire, catalogue and provide access to electronic publications. In addition, there have been no reductions in DSP staff and none are planned
6. Gay added that the DSP would continue to acquire and catalogue print publications but it would not distribute them. Print distribution would cease gradually as of the end of 2013. DSP is uncertain at this time how this occur in detail but depository libraries will be kept informed. DSP is already seeing changes to departmental published patterns and DSP has seen a decline print production over the past five to six years
7. Siobhan Hanratty asked if libraries had advocates who could intercede with departments to request print copies of certain publications. Gay suggested this issue be discussed under a subsequent agenda item
8. Addressing the agenda item regarding the possible effect of proposed changes at LAC on the DSP, Gay noted that effects were more likely to be on LAC operations as a result of changes at the DSP. DSP supply of legal deposit copies to LAC will cease with the end of DSP distribution and the effect with regard to electronic publications is uncertain given that LAC does not necessarily depend upon DSP for the acquisition of such formats. Gay noted that during a previous DSP-LAC meeting, LAC had announced that it would no longer ingest GC publications in tangible formats if electronic editions were also available. There would then be no LAC catalogue records for GC print publications not acquired. This would have an impact on MARC batch files supplied by LAC to DSP. Diane Beattie agreed to make inquiries and provide some clarification on these points
9. Also, under this agenda item, Gay noted that as a result of changes at both DSP and LAC, all foreign exchanges agreements in which DSP, LAC and LoP were partners, will be ending by March 31, 2014. LAC has decided to withdraw from all foreign exchange arrangements, although DSP has not received formal notification of this (Diane to inquire) and DSP will cease to be a supplier of print publications to foreign exchange partners. DSP has yet to officially notify foreign national institutions that are foreign exchange partners

10. There was much discussion of the next agenda item; namely, the ongoing and future access to Statistics Canada publications published only in HTML format. Gay noted that it is DSP's current practice to catalogue and link to StatCan publications available in HTML only. However, there are problems with broken links, revised content and re-directs

    1. This was raised and discussed during a previous DSP-LAC meeting. Carla Graebner reported that she had inquired with StatCan about Health Indicators and that StatCan had agreed to send legacy issues in a “bundled” HTML format. To date, the file has not been received
    2. Belia Velho advised that in the case of Health Indicators, legacy content had been archived off-line but was still available upon request. Health Indicators was a collaborative information resource with data provided by a number of departments and was not a publication as such, but a “module”. In adopting this approach, StatCan was addressing a concern that obsolete data might be used a basis for decisions. Several members expressed concern about potential loss of access to legacy data which is of interest to researchers even if obsolete
    3. There was some discussion of the possibility of DSP creating a catalogue link to a dynamic online information resource or to the StatCan library catalogue record. However, this would not be in accord with DSP cataloguing practice or collection management policy. Belia agreed to provide Gay with a sample file of a “bundled” resource to see if such a thing could be included in the DSP e-collection
    4. Some concern was expressed about the lack of information provided to users of modular resources (a relatively new web publishing approach). StatCan representatives agreed to relay these concerns to the appropriate authorities
    5. Louise Carpentier raised some concerns regarding the offline archiving of tables once contained in Historical Census Data or their absorption into EStat. Louise suggested that the historical tables be made available as a separate digitized product. Louise and Belia agreed to have further conversations on the issue and report back to the Committee members

11. As an introduction to discuss of the next agenda item, the DSP role in access to published government information, Joanne a brief update on what was known about changes to the Treasury Board Communication Policy and web site management within the GC domain

    1. Under the proposed new policy, Government organizations will not be allowed to produce print publications unless in specific cases, this is required under legislation, or unless Deputy Minister approval has been obtained. Departments will be required to provide DSP with copies of their electronic published resources. Publications will be available to the public on a “print on demand” basis and in black and white only. It is possible that accessible PDF will be an approved electronic publishing format which then would reduce the problems that DSP has with PDF publications
    2. Joanne and Gay also mentioned possible plans for GC web site consolidation, with a significant reduction in the number of sites, possibly as few as six. The UK has a pilot project online that adopts this model. Nothing has been officially announced but inter-departmental discussions and planning are underway
    3. The question raised earlier by Siobhan regarding a possible advocacy role for the DSP on behalf of libraries wishing to acquire archived publications was discussed. Whatever the merits of this idea, DSP does not at the moment have the authority or resources to assume this responsibility in a comprehensive way
    4. Siobhan asked for clarification regarding Crown Copyright and the re-use of GC online information. Joanne confirmed that there were now no restrictions on downloading, copying, reproducing or re-purposing such resources
    5. Amanda asked whether or not LAC was receiving electronic publications from the DSP. Gay responded that LAC had never been dependant upon DSP for GC electronic publications and that DSP had never “pushed” them to LAC. DSP has no clear information about LAC practices in this area
    6. Amanda noted that in the circumstances the responsibility for long-term “stewardship” of electronic resources was unclear. She suggested that LAC should carry out a final harvest of the entire GC domain before the proposed GC web convergence is implemented. Diane agreed to make inquiries at LAC and report back to the Committee
12. Gay provided an update on the DSP ILS Project. Essentially, responsibility for the project has been taken over by Shared Services Canada and the IT Branch of PWGSC as a result of a major change in government policy regarding the management of IT infrastructure. This constitutes a significant set-back and a major disappointment for the DSP but implementation of a new system is planned for early in 2014
13. Gay reported there has been an increase in departmental digitization projects and that DSP is working on a substantial collection of digitized Census monographs and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada publications. One Checklist Supplement has been published listing documents produced by the 1996 Census
14. Siobhan inquired about the DSP Retention Guideline stipulation of DSP, LAC and StatCan servers as reliable hosts. Gay confirmed that there has been no reason to change this
15. Gay, Carla and Amanda reported that the Canadian Government Documents Private LOCKSS Network project is progressing. Database reports from the DSP catalogue should be available by the end of January. These will be used as a basis for an automated harvest and to provide metadata for the collection
16. The DSP-LAC Terms of Reference were brought up for possible review. Gay and Joanne suggested that this might be more usefully carried out at the end of 2013 when the structure of DSP operations and its mandate would be clearer. This recommendation was accepted by the Committee. However, Gay suggested two immediate modifications; namely, the deletion of paragraph 4 under Committee Operations – the requirement to maintain a listserver for the sole use of the Committee and a change under Chairperson that would allow the Director of PDS to assign a delegate to act as Chairperson
17. After some discussion it was decided that the next teleconference would be tentatively scheduled for August 2013 with a final decision dependant upon there being a sufficient number of substantive agenda items
18. The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 pm