External Consultant

The U.S. Government Printing Office, (GPO), in coordination with Library Services & Content Management (LSCM), intends to release a Request for Proposal for the continuation of the strategic planning process for the future of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). Identified goals are to determine a sustainable model or models for delivering FDLP collections and services to the American public in the online Federal Government information environment. The use of digital information technologies by FDLP libraries; the general public; and Federal agencies, to publish and provide citizen-centric, dynamic, and participatory e-government services, presents opportunities for unprecedented access to Government information. Fundamental aspects of ensuring that the American public has current and future access to Federal information, however, are hindered by the existing structure of the FDLP, based primarily on a 19th century model of print production and distribution. To be relevant in the electronic era, the FDLP must develop other working models to fulfill its programmatic mission and outline the roles that each of the depository partners play in making Government information widely and publicly accessible. GPO and various library communities have devoted considerable attention to the study and discussion of these important issues since the early 1990s. From GPO's 1996 Report to Congress to the recently published Ithaka Report, Documents for a Digital Democracy: A Model for the Federal Depository Library Program in the 21st Century, substantial work has been done by a variety of stakeholders to address many key issues surrounding public access to Government information in the digital age. There is broad consensus in the depository library community on the values and principles of the FDLP. This requirement supports GPO objectives, constraints, requirements, and deliverables needed to develop practical and sustainable models for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) in the digital era. GPO intends to award a contract in support of LSCM to develop practical and sustainable models for meeting the primary objectives of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) in an information environment dominated by digital technologies. The deliverables will include an environmental scan, proposed changes to the program that are within the current legislative framework for the FDLP, as well as models that will require proposed changes to the law where the existing language is found to be inhibiting the practical exercise of the FDLP's purpose and goals.