James noted that $25 million of that amount would be earmarked for technology and systems to support a strategic plan to move toward a digital future, describing his vision of the GPO as “the government’s primary resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing, and preserving its published information in all forms.”
Testifying on behalf of five library associations, American Association of Law Libraries President Janis L. Johnston cautioned that technological advances should not be made at the expense of access to government information. Congress should “be concerned that the move to an all-electronic program fails to meet the needs for those who live in rural or minority communities where there is no technological infrastructure and libraries may lack high-speed Internet access,” she said.
“Libraries are crucial partners in the GPO’s efforts to inform the American public,” Johnston said in a statement for AALL, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association. “While we welcome the change to a more electronic environment, we believe that the needs of the public should be taken into account when decisions are made about which format best serves the information needs of your constituents.”
“The GPO today is in a precarious financial position,” James said, explaining that the agency is making drastic changes in part to cope with dwindling profits. A report to be released in June by the General Accounting Office estimates the GPO has lost more than $90 million in the last five years, according to the April 29 edition of The Hill.
Posted April 30, 2004.