Introducing the DSP
The Depository Services Program or DSP, was established in 1927 as an essential
link between the Canadian federal government and its clients - the Canadian
public, other governments, universities and businesses. Its primary objective
is to ensure that Canadians have ready and equal access to federal government
information. The DSP achieves this objective by supplying these materials to
a network of more than 790 libraries in Canada and to another 147 institutions
around the world holding collections of Canadian government publications. The
Program is administered by Public Works and Government Services Canada.
Today, the DSP is an arrangement with some 680 public and
academic libraries to house, catalogue and provide
reference services for the federal government
publications they acquire under the Program. These
depositories must make their DSP collections available to
all Canadians and for interlibrary loans. DSP also
includes depositories such as Parliamentarians, central
libraries of the federal government departments and press
libraries.
Currently fifty-two full depository libraries automatically
receive documents listed by the DSP. Due to their
special information mandates, the National Library and
the Library of Parliament also receive copies of each
publication. The balance of the depository
libraries are selective and choose only those
publications that meet the needs of their clients.
Federal departments and agencies play a key role in
ensuring the success of the Program by providing copies
of their publications to the DSP for distribution to the
depositories. The number of publications required for
the Program varies with the language, subject and
intended audience of the publication. As few as 75
copies may be requested for highly specialized
publications, whereas a publication of great popular
interest may warrant 400 to 500 copies.
Author departments assume only the incremental cost
associated with the DSP publications. The Program
absorbs all costs of operation and manages the
distribution of priced publications to government
depositories. Participating libraries are responsible
for all subsequent costs of housing and making the
information available to the public.
The DSP is an efficient way for government departments
and agencies to satisfy the principles of access and to
manage information holdings. The Program's strict
distribution controls ensure that only approved
depositories receive documents free of charge and then,
only those documents which meet the needs of their users.
As well, the additional services which depository
libraries provide result in users having access to
government publications at the least possible cost to the
taxpayer.
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