Collections of government, or official, publications have seen more radical change in the last ten years than many others. The publication of government information on disc and on the Web has had to revolutionise the organisation and management of collections. This US text assumes separate collections still exist where in the UK many are now integrated into the main library collection.
The Internet has brought with it new problems associated with the ever changing nature and cataloguing of URLs, as well as the equipment and the software required. Staff require expertise and user education is also then required. Problems of preservation and archiving also ensue from nationally accessible collections. Users have found that Web sites move and documents have “vanished”. Emphasis is therefore now being placed on local archiving with all the problems which this entails. Costs are no longer restricted to the purchasing, cataloguing and shelving of documents but involve IT equipment and software. Life is no longer determined by paper quality but by means of access to the media.
This collection of essays examines each aspect in turn having been ably introduced by Jim Gillespie. He sets the scene. Schuler and Sulzer take the definition wider to examine the concept and content of community information organisation projects based on the Illinois experience. Other chapters investigate specific digital offerings and the SCOUT project to build path‐finding tools for researchers. Collection management, both traditional and Web‐based, are examined as are a number of consortia attempting to improve access.
The overall text is clear and will aid many struggling to find a way to cope with the new methods of publication and distribution. This text only covers the US government publications but in doing so provides guidance on location and using much of that information. This slim but worthwhile volume is a taste of the future which was only recently addressed in the UK as many official publications librarians, at a seminar in May 2000, debated how to archive the documentation only published on the Internet and not necessarily available there permanently.
