We are launching this resource as a portal to provide information and news about the ongoing work of the Library Technical Services staff, our initiatives, and our projects and major developments in the cataloging/metadata field that impact access to U.S. Federal Government publications.
Donna Kraemer, Library Technical Services Supervisory Librarian, presents a webcast on basic GPO cataloging. Viewers are introduced to basic cataloging and classification principles, with references to instructional guidance used during GPO’s cataloging of federal government publications. The webcast also covers GPO’s best practices including determining if a document is “in scope” of the Federal Depository Library Program. In parts two and three, the viewers have an opportunity to watch a demonstration of online monograph titles being cataloged in the OCLC Connexion bibliographic utility, the final bibliographic record(s) being exported to the GPO ILS and displayed in the Catalog U.S. Government Publications (CGP).
Link: Exploring Cataloging of Federal Government Documents at GPO
In March 2022, Library Services & Content Management’s Federal Depository Support Systems (FDSS) and Library Technical Services (LTS) collaborated on the creation and launch of the CGP Data Dashboard to visualize various aspects of CGP bibliographic records and to tell stories about Federal Government information, the Federal Depository Library Program, and LSCM’s work.
LTS has refreshed the dashboard with data from the approximately 8,800 records cataloged by LTS staff members from January through June 2022:
LTS will periodically add new data points and update the current ones.
Please send us your feedback and questions by submitting an inquiry in the “Cataloging/Metadata (Policy and Records)” category via askGPO.
On October 17, 2022, Library Technical Services launched a three-month test to assign terms from the Congressional Research Service’s Congress.gov Policy Areas terms list, which CRS uses for bills and resolutions on Congress.gov, in Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) records for Congressional publications. The terms provide a high-level facet that enhances the discoverability of our records and the identification of publications. We enter the terms in MARC 650 fields with the new MARC Subject Heading and Term Source Code, cgpa, in subfield 2. The records with the terms may be retrieved by this CGP expert mode search: wlts=PUBPOLTERMS. The fields can be seen in the MARC view of the records.
Example: CGP System No. 001203788
Women Who Worked on the Home Front World War II Memorial Act : report (to accompany H.R. 3531).
We have compiled preliminary data about the records that LTS staff members have cataloged in the first month of the test (10/17-11/28). LTS staff members have added terms to records for 299 publications. They have used 29 (90.6%) of the 32 terms in the list.
|
No. of Records |
% of Records |
|
|
Total records |
299 |
NA |
|
One term |
285 |
95.3% |
|
Two terms |
14 |
4.7% |
|
Documents |
2 |
0.7% |
|
Hearings |
128 |
42.8% |
|
Laws |
49 |
16.4% |
|
Reports |
119 |
39.8% |
|
Other |
1 |
0.3% |
|
Top 5 Terms (Alphabetical Order) |
|
Armed Forces and National Security |
|
Economics and Public Finance |
|
Government Operations and Politics |
|
Health |
|
Public Lands and Natural Resources |
After we conclude the test period, we will analyze the results and determine our next steps. Our goal is to enhance our records with this new metadata element that reflects a key characteristic of U.S. Federal Government publications.
Please submit your feedback and questions via askGPO in the category, “Cataloging/Metadata (Policy and Records)”.
Susan M. Golden, Technical Services Librarian, presents a 21-minute webcast about the Government Publishing Office Historic Shelflist and the history of cataloging at GPO. Learning outcomes include developing knowledge of and context for past GPO cataloging practices, which may aid in understanding bibliographic records representing Historic Shelflist items.
Link: Show & Tell – Cards of the Historic Shelf-list
LSCM staff members Oksana Osborne and David Hitchings recently worked onsite at the Library of Congress successfully creating metadata using BIBFRAME, a new system for cataloging.
Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)
732 North Capitol Street, NW • Washington, DC 20401