UL Professional Development

My Trip to the Federal Depository Council Meeting and Conference in Washington, D.C.
By Kellie Tilton

The Federal Depository Council Meeting and Conference in Washington, D.C., took place from Oct. 18 through Oct. 20.
The conference began with two introductory meetings: one for new attendees at the meeting and one for new depository librarians.

The introductory meeting to the conference provided information on what role the council played in the depository program and what distinguished the different sessions of the conference. At the new depository librarians meeting, the Outreach Librarians that work for GPO created a presentation that addressed some key things to remember as a new FDLP librarian. They also had a Q&A to answer any remaining questions.

This session was followed by the Council Session/GPO Welcome and Kick-off Meeting. At this meeting, Suzanne Sears (head of the Council), Robert Tapella (the Public Printer) and Ric Davis (Director of Library Services and Content) met to update the council and attendees on current GPO programs. There was a large focus on the 150th Anniversary of the Government Printing Office and how GPO plans to celebrate the anniversary and the implementation of FDSys. The Library of the Year award was handed out and the Council was able to ask questions about anything presented.

Three of my favorite sessions occurred over the next two days. The first was a session on efficient weeding and how to ensure that all weeding was done properly and legally. The second was about free databases produced by the government and how the University of Memphis included nearly 130 of these in their ERM. (Interestingly, MetaLib apparently is working on this.) The third session was how one librarian solved a conspiracy theory using a wide variety of government sources, both old and new.

Finally, there was an interesting council session about partnerships among depository libraries that was interesting, but many of the ideas and goals of these partnerships were still in their infancy and didn’t seem to apply to Bowling Green.

Overall, it was an incredibly informative conference. The sessions were practical and it was great to match faces to the names I have seen on a number of emails. It was also fantastic to discuss various aspects of the FDLP, like MARCIVE and weeding, with other depository librarians.