SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE - ELECTRONIC INFORMATION AND THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM

Rapid technological advances have brought the relevance of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) into question. Technology has advan ced to the point that government information is so easy to distribute electronically, that it is seemingly available everywhere. Documents l ibrarians, and increasingly other librarians as well, must come to ter ms with how to handle the flood of electronic government information f rom a wide variety of sources while at the same time coping with the c hanges wrought by a fading FDLP. The slow and uneven response of the G overnment Printing Office (GPO) to accelerating technology and electro nic information, in part due to congressional and information policy i mpediments and in part due to its own reluctance to move beyond its tr aditional printing role, says much about the FDLP's current situation and what it will mean to be an electronic depository. This article exa mines the history of electronic products in the depository program, th e redefinition of dissemination of government information in an electr onic environment, the roles for the non-depository government informat ion services, and what the future may hold for public access to govern ment information in all formats. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.