ACTION ALERT
Depository Program in Jeopardy
House FY2001 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill
Cuts Program by 61%
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED

On May 9, the House Appropriations Committee approved a drastic cut of
61% in the FY2001 budget for the Federal Depository Library Program
(FDLP). This was included in a 25.3% cut in the FY 2001 Government
Printing Office (GPO) budget, which is part of the FY 2001 Legislative
Branch appropriations bill.

Only the GPO Access web site would be funded, and all paper and other
tangible publications and 85 positions would be eliminated. The severe
cuts would decimate the Federal Depository Library Program. The House
will vote on the Legislative Branch appropriations bill on Thursday,
May 18.

The FDLP distributes government publications to over 1300 libraries
for use by the public. The program already is a great bargain to
government because the libraries supply the space to house the
publications, the staff to help the public, and the computers,
photocopiers, and other equipment needed to use the information

There are about 3 depository libraries per congressional district.
Over 50% of the depositories are in colleges and universities and 20%
are in public libraries, making the depository program a key component
of the national education system. FDLP serves an estimated 9.5 million
people in the aggregate each year, which is more than 7,000 per year
per library and more than 21,000 constituents per district per year.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW. Please call or fax a short letter to your
representative to urge him or her to OPPOSE the cuts and to vote for
COMPLETE FUNDING of the GPO budget at $115.3 million, including the
FDLP at $34.5 million.

If you can, please provide your representative information (local
statistics or spefici examples) that relates how your depository
library serves the constituents of your state and Congressional
district. In addition to providing the local examples, there is a
sample letter below, and the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT)
action alert page <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/GODORT/2001appro.html>
includes

* talking points
<http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/GODORT/2001approtalking.html>

* fact sheets, and

* more sample letters
<http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/GODORT/2001approletters.html>

Larry Romans
GODORT Chair

Sample Letter

The Honorable xxxxx
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative xxxxx,

Tuesday the House Appropriations Committee passed the appropriations
bill for legislative branch agencies that included a 61 percent cut
for the Salaries and Expenses budget of the Government Printing Office
(GPO). I urge you to vote for complete funding of the S &E budget at
$34.5 million when it comes to the floor of the House on May 18.

The proposed cut will have a drastic effect on the Federal Depository
Library Program (FDLP), which provides government information for
public use at more than 1300 depository libraries across the country.
It would limit the access by the American public to information that
they have already paid for with their tax dollars. This is information
people use to find jobs, to do home work, to start small businesses,
to learn what their government is doing, and to expand their horizons.

The depository program is one of the great bargains of government. GPO
supplies the publications, but the college and public libraries supply
the space to house them, the staff to help the public, and the
computers, photocopiers, and other equipment needed to use the
information. FDLP serves an estimated 9.5 million people each year,
which is more than 21,000 constituents per district per year.

This push to eliminate all print and other tangible publications from
the depository program and to institute an all-electronic depository
would be disastrous for public access.

* Many publications, such as maps and Congressional hearings, are not
available in electronic form. Hearings are among the most used
government publications at our depository.

* Relying solely on electronic information will increase the gap
between the information haves and the information have nots. Many
citizens do not have their own high-speed computer, are not connected
to the Internet, and can not figure out how to find the information
among the hundreds of thousands of government web pages and hundreds
of CD-ROMs.

* Books and other print publications are easy to use; almost anyone
can use a table of contents or an index to find information in a book.
Navigating through a maze of different CD-ROMs and web sites with
different software and search engines is a much more complicated
matter.

*Books and other print publications are relatively permanent; much
electronic information is not. Information available on the web often
stays there only a short time. Computer virus scares highlight the
vulnerability of electronic databases.

GPO already is moving much of its information to the Internet at a
rapid pace and in a responsible manner.  GPO Access, the most
user-friendly one-stop site for federal government information
provides access to 170,000 government publications. In a recent month
more than 21 million publications were downloaded from the site.

We urge you to oppose decreased funding for GPO. Congress should fund
the Government Printing Office and its print and electronic programs
at a high level that reflects your belief that your constituents'
access to government information is a cornerstone of democracy.

Sincerely,

Larry Romans,
Head, Government Information Services,
Central Library, Vanderbilt University,
Nashville TN 37240-0007
phone (615) 322-2838; FAX (615) 343-7451
E-mail: romans@LIBRARY.vanderbilt.edu