EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Task Group on Depository Program Review was established by the Canadian Government Publishing Centre in November of 1988 to evaluate the Depository Services Program (DSP), identify problems, define possible solutions and determine the best structure for carrying the program into the next decade cost-effectively and efficiently.

A Task Group, consisting of some members of the Library Advisory Committee (LAC), staff and a Treasury Board observer, was formed to conduct the Review. The Task Group spent more than a year gathering, compiling and analyzing opinions and information about the DSP. In the course of this, briefs were requested from all national library associations in Canada, as well as from provincial and regional library associations. In addition, a detailed survey about the program was sent to all depository libraries. The survey not only identified major strengths and weaknesses but also provided detailed feedback on important issues. Round table sessions on current issues were held with government documents librarians in four regions. The Task Group considered feedback from the round tables as well.

The Task Group determined that the program's overall design is still fundamentally sound. It serves its end users well and meets government's requirements and objectives. However, the program needs some adjustment to make it more responsive to its changing information environment and to ensure that it remains a vital information delivery vehicle. Three key issues needed to be addressed in this context: inadequate and inflexible funding tied to inaccurate government assumptions about program accountability and effectiveness; non-comprehensiveness in the scope of the program's information capture which potentially jeopardizes program relevance; and inequity in access which threatens program support.

The Task Group made thirty-five (35) recommendations. From these recommendations the Task Group developed a number of models for a revised DSP structure. Key features of these models include:

• A commitment to ensure program integrity, public access, program scope and accountability;

• delineation of the program's functions into its two basic components:

• public access and support for government's information needs;

• an emphasis on public access over the government information role and on domestic over foreign depositories;

• the pruning of inactive or inappropriate elements after consultations and review;

• rationalization of selectives into full depositories where acquisition and use warrants;

• refinement of the present structure to provide service to the print handicapped;

• establishment of resource libraries to provide access to electronic information products and to serve as a support node for the dissemination of government information;

• the use of memoranda of understanding to formalize the relationship between the DSP and its participants and to establish clearly defined mutual obligations;

• inclusion of electronic formats in the DSP;

• requirement for minimum core collections.

The Task Group concluded that the DSP is a cost-effective and useful program that yields major access benefits from a relatively small investment. While the DSP is less expensive and more comprehensive than developing alternate means of distributing the government's message, it still requires upgrading in some areas in order to fulfill its mandate.

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