update on the GPO snafu

This was a happy announcement/email to come back to. The following was quoted from ALACOUN, the ALA Council listserv.

As you know, on July 22, 2004, a notice was posted to FDLP-L advising depository libraries that the Department of Justice had requested the withdrawal of five publications that were intended for internal use only.

In response to the Government Printing Office’s further inquiry into this matter, the Department of Justice has requested that I advise depository libraries to disregard the previous instructions to withdraw these publications. In making this request, the Department of Justice said, although these materials were “intended only for the internal training use of Department of Justice personnel and, as such, were inappropriately distributed to depository libraries through an administrative oversight,” the Department has determined that these materials are “not sufficiently sensitive to require removal from the depository library system.”

Since 1995, GPO has issued recall letters for 20 publications at the request of the publishing agencies. Seven of these publications were recalled because they were for official use or internal use only, as occurred in this instance.

Both GPO and the Department of Justice regret any inconvenience resulting from the initial request for withdrawal.

Judy Russell

Judith C. Russell (jrussell@gpo.gov)
Managing Director, Information Dissemination (Superintendent of Documents)
U.S. Government Printing Office
Phone: 202-512-0571
Fax: 202-512-1434

hi – 25jul

Hi. I’m off to Boston for five days today. Updates here will be sparse after today. Updates on the DNC blog should be much more frequent.

Posted in hi

why review books?

This is the entry I was trying to link to: On Reviewing Books by Michael McGrorty. I heartily concur. My book reviews are online here.

A librarian should review books because the product of that effort is a useful tool; because the exercise is an expression of the special relationship between the librarian and the book, and because the practice provides proof, practice and reinforcement of the librarian’s essential role.