Government Publications Interest Group November 29, 1995 The Government Publications Interest Group met at the University of Denver on November 29, 1995. Attending: Lisa Stomberg, Mines; Louise Treff Gengler, Marit MacArthur, Auraria; Lisa Harris, Craig Smith, Allison Cowgill, and Tom Tyler, DU; Rob Jackson, DPL; Peggy Jobe, Debbie Hollis, Martha Jo Sani, and Tim Byrne, CU-Boulder. 1. Allison's office NOT toured 2. Announcements deferred to the end of the meeting 3. Acceptance of minutes deferred to next meeting. 4. The next meeting was set for January 10, at Denver Public Library 5. Steve Thergesen (303-866-6902) of ACLIN talked about ACLIN's efforts to identify and make available electronic versions of state publications. Steve sought suggestions about information content for electronic conversion. ACLIN continues to look for libraries which can code (convert into html format) and host documents on library servers. Information should be Colorado centric and not compete with private sector information products. Steve advised the group that the Colorado Revised Statutes (with annotations) should be available on a PPLD web server in the near future. 6. The group had a lively discussion about how to provide service to patrons with electronic information products such as "State and Local Government Finance" from Census when the data is only available in comma-delimited ASCII text. In a college or university context, it was suggested that librarians work closely with curriculum development to make sure students are learning the spreadsheet and word-processing skills necessary to manipulate the data. It was anticipated that third-party, fee-based services will manipulate and publish the data in a useful format. The group was advised to check Larry's Census Links at http://www.clark.net/pub/lschank/web/cendos.html#pubs to find hypertext links to the new distribution formats. 7. The group continued lively discussion of what to do with this s***. 8. Lisa Stomberg at Mines reported that the Marcive shipping lists are being loaded on a weekly basis to a test file. Problems with the shipping list loads seem to have been resolved although no full record overlays have been tested. Tim Byrne of CU reported that the Marcive load is proceeding, although at a slower pace than earlier anticpated. Load may be complete into the Chinook database by January 1. CU is not loading weekly shipping lists until a problem with the contract can be resolved by the CU buying and contracting office. Louise Treff-Gangler and Tim Byrne intend to submit a proposal for a new subscription to the shipping list service to be housed as a separate database on CARL. 9. No CARL gossip. 10. Tim Byrne advised the group that another battle over funding for the Federal Depository Library Program may be looming in December as the temporary spending bills expire. 11. CU-Boulder and Auraria both waiting on logins, passwords for CEDIS. Becky Picasso (303-866-3120) is still trying to obtain no-cost access to CEDIS for affiliates. ANNOUNCEMENTS 12. CU-Boulder will be closed to the public from 1 p.m. December 22 until January 2, 1996. Auraria, as is its custom, will close December 22-Jan 1. LIBRARY SIGNIFICANT EVENTS Auraria testing its homepage which should be up in a couple of weeks. DU testing its homepage. The group viewed the work-in-progress. DPL has moved about 80% of the documents collection into the new downtown building. DPL will be weeding the collection. Libraries looking for information by agency, content should contact Rob Jackson who will keep their needs in mind as he weeds. By sometime in January, the State of Colorado homepage should have pointers to ACLIN's new government resources. Respectfully submitted, Peggy Jobe