Campus News

UK Libraries Signs Preservation Steward Agreement With GPO

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 24, 2017) University of Kentucky Libraries has signed a memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) to become the second Preservation Steward library in GPO’s Federal Information Preservation Network (FIPNet). Under this agreement, the libraries pledge to permanently preserve print collections of Works Progress/Work Projects Administration (WPA) and Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) publications.

The WPA collection contains more than 3,000 documents from the Great Depression relief program designed to provide work for Americans. The ARC documents show the commission’s efforts for economic development in Appalachia since the 1960s. The ARC publications provide a useful complement to the ARC archive in the UK Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). As part of the Bert T. Combs Appalachian Collection, the SCRC is the archival repository of the ARC, holding 325 cubic feet of records from 1965 on.

To help federal depository libraries meet the needs of efficient government document stewardship in the digital era, GPO has established Preservation Stewards to support continued public access to historic U.S. government documents. GPO welcomes all federal depository libraries that wish to participate as Preservation Stewards. The Norlin Library of the University of Colorado Boulder became the first Preservation Steward in October 2016.

Through the FDLP, GPO works with approximately 1,150 libraries nationwide to provide public access to authentic, published information from all three branches of the federal government in print and electronic formats. The program's antecedents can be traced back to the act of Congress dated Dec. 27, 1813 (3 Stat. 140), which provided that one copy of the journals and documents of the Senate and House be sent to each university and college and each historical society in each state. GPO has operated the FDLP since 1895. FIPNet is an initiative of the FDLP to expand public access to government information in depository library collections through collaboration with non-depository library institutions and resources that also possess collections of federal documents and publications. This effort will result in a National Collection of U.S. Government Information for the use of future generations, and will transform GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications into an index of that comprehensive body of federal information.

"GPO welcomes the University of Kentucky Libraries into this important program of maintaining government information in all platforms," said GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks. "I encourage more libraries to become part of this venture of preserving valuable print collections of government information.”

To learn more about becoming a Preservation Steward, or for any related questions, contact GPO at preservefedinfo@gpo.gov. For more information on UK Libraries work as a Preservation Steward, contact Sandra McAninch, head of the Federal Depository Unit and regional depository librarian at UK Libraries, at mcaninch@uky.edu