December, 1998 — Volume 16 Number 12

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Members Gather to Kickoff FY99

DTP Notes—The Basics of Desktop Publishing: Part I

OCLC News

Staff Profile—McCoy Heads FEDLINK Contracts Section

Editorial Staff

Members Gather to Kickoff FY99

Almost 75 members attended the FEDLINK Fall Membership Meeting, held October 28, 1998, to hear the accomplishments of the past year and the changes anticipated in FY99. The morning session also reviewed the issue of access and ownership and how they influenced integrating electronic materials into library operations. The remainder of the meeting highlighted six FLICC Working Groups and their ongoing efforts in the federal library and information center community.

Fred Rettenmaier, Chair of the FEDLINK Advisory Council (FAC), opened the meeting and thanked FEDLINK staff and FAC members for their cooperation throughout the past year. He then introduced Joyce L. Ogburn, Assistant University Librarian for Information Resources and Systems at Old Dominion University, as the meeting's guest speaker. She outlined the complicated process of integrating electronic materials into library operations. "No actions or decisions occur in isolation—legal issues permeate everything," said Ogburn. She defined the functions involved in the integration, including selection, acquisition, processing, service, and other consortia work stressing that "electronic" does not necessarily mean "equivalent" to print versions. She then reviewed the other issues involved in electronic integration, reminding members of the complexity of issues such as staffing, privacy, ownership, and use policies. "Understanding licensing agreements and ILS (Integrated Library Systems) is now a necessity," said Ogburn.

Marcia Talley, a FEDLINK member and delegate to the 1998 OCLC Users' Council, reported technology was the watch word at the October council meeting held in Dublin, Ohio. The meeting focus was "Digital Libraries: Looking at the Future of the Information Industry" which was followed by discussions on how all types of libraries are balancing new and traditional collections and services. Talley reported that the key strategy for libraries is to provide information in all formats to all users as part of an effort to create, promote, and market an expanded vision of future libraries. To respond to this vision, OCLC Users Council members suggested that libraries should explore potential partnerships, among libraries individually and with networks, as well as working with OCLC to share digitized and unique primary resources. Council members also counseled that staff and end-users will need additional training in technical skills to ensure library and research flexibility.

Updates on FLICC Working Groups

Several leaders from FLICC's working groups updated FEDLINK members on the latest initiatives underway. Dorothy Fisher Weed, chair of the LC Bicentennial Working Group, announced the group's plans for working in concert with the upcoming LC Bicentennial in 2000. Hoping that all federal libraries and information centers will take the opportunity to promote their programs in conjunction with LC, Weed described several projects her working group has underway, including a status report on the working group's press tool kit, plans for a poster to commemorate the event in member libraries, a "Web almanac" on federal libraries and information centers, and plans for a Blue Ribbon panel to identify possible federal materials for digitization.

Amy DeGroff, chair of the Education Working Group, outlined her working group's efforts to work with the Personnel Working Group to establish a list of core competencies for federal librarians that could be used to establish formal staff training plans and assist library managers when they are drafting position descriptions. She also mentioned the working group's plan to release a Handbook of Federal Librarianship, a reference for new and contract staff that will assist them in applying basic information science within the federal context. DeGroff also promoted the new and expanded FLICC Great Escapes Program, which offers tours, presentations, and onsite demonstrations at a number of federal libraries and information centers. (The next Great Escape on January 21, 1999, features a tour of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's library and a demonstration of the services available on its Web site.) She also mentioned preliminary plans for a series of "brown bag" luncheons to follow-up recent FLICC educational events and plans for a Joint Spring Workshop on managing Web access.

Amparo R. Torres, chair of the Preservation Working Group, spoke about the costs and the amount of time it takes to prepare, clean, bind, stabilize, and digitize deteriorating library collections. She stressed the urgency of conducting a public fund raising campaign to support these efforts and hoped that Congress might consider funding measures to improve preservation efforts in federal libraries and information centers. She said that 1991 legislation had already addressed the need to "preserve cultural services" and this legislation may lay the groundwork for funding future federal preservation efforts.

Susan M. Tarr, Executive Director of FLICC, reported on the progress of the Personnel Working Group. The working group has developed a series of sample Knowledge, Skill, and Ability (KSA) statements including those for public service, systems, and cataloging librarians. Tarr said that these KSAs are available on the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site and that the working group intends to add KSAs for acquisition, serials, administrative, and supervisory librarians by the spring. She also reminded FEDLINK members that the Office of Personnel Management has not yet informed federal library personnel offices that tests are no longer administered for librarian positions.

Program Updates

The final segment of the FEDLINK fall membership meeting consisted of FLICC/FEDLINK program updates. Tarr began this part of the program reporting on FEDLINK's successful return of operations and staff to Capitol Hill. Tarr was already pleased with the greater visibility FLICC/FEDLINK receives within the Library of Congress since its return to Capitol Hill and she looks forward to increasing FLICC and FEDLINK's participation in Library of Congress programs and activities, such as the National Digital Library and the LC Bicentennial.

She then announced that programming for the Annual FLICC Forum on Federal Information Policies is well underway and that Pat Schroeder, formerly a U.S. Representative for the state of Colorado, and currently the President and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, has agreed to be the keynote speaker. Tarr also said that after a few preliminary planning meetings, Elizabeth Pugh, Library of Congress General Counsel, has suggested that the first General Counsel's Forum to focus on legal and copyright issues and the impact of new laws on federal information centers.

Milton MeGee, FEDLINK Network Coordinator, updated members on the status of activities in the FEDLINK Network Operations Office. He reported that FEDLINK had sponsored fewer OCLC and Internet classes in FY98 as compared with previous years but at the same time, FEDLINK Network staff had increased their participation in preparing the variety of week-long educational institutes. MeGee said that FNO staff is currently planning an automation institute, a map cataloging institute, and a federal library financial institute for 1999.

Financial Matters

Joan McCoy, Head of FEDLINK Contracts Section, said her office had processed more than 5,000 contract actions with over 97 vendors in FY98, obtaining the best services for FEDLINK members at the best possible prices. McCoy also mentioned a number of changes for FY99 such as reducing transfer pay fees and streamlining the direct pay process. Joe Banks, Business Manager for FLICC/FEDLINK, presented statistical data to compare key financial indicators for the fourth quarter from FY96 through FY98. By service, Banks reported that transfer pay services amounted to $53,199,347 and direct pay amounted to $64,838,892 in FY98. He also said that FEDLINK Fiscal Operations had issued 91,769 financial statements from October 1997 through September 1998 and processed more than 57,000 invoices. Banks ended the half-day FEDLINK Fall Membership Meeting on an optimistic financial note for FY99. For more information on any of the presentations of the Fall Membership Meeting, please call Milton MeGee at (202)-707-4848.

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DTP Notes—The Basics of Desktop Publishing: Part I

How to Communicate Information Visually

By Mitchell Harrison

Many libraries, government agencies, and private sector enterprises often assign printing and publishing projects to staff members inexperienced in creating effective flyers, brochures, and newsletters. Such assignments can be daunting, but if you have created a poster or sign for a community event, prepared your resume, or inserted sections or tables into a report with word processing software, you are already familiar with a few of the basics of graphic arts and design. Translating what you intuitively know to your desktop publishing projects involves envisioning the best way to introduce your information to your specific audience.

Apple's Macintosh started the desktop publishing wave late in the 1980's, going beyond anything word processing had ever offered. Since then, desktop publishing applications have become available for Windows platforms; yet many design studios and production shops remain Mac-based.

Whether you are a Mac or Windows user, effective print layout and design are less about art and beauty and more about expressing information. Design intimidates some new desktop publishers who decide to emphasize content over the layout, allowing the text to do all the work. Others overstress design, convinced the message will be lost without many eye-catching elements. Most effective desktop publishers stress achieving a balance between these two points-of-view.

Purpose

Before you start creating a format, define the nature of your project. What is its purpose? Is your flyer, brochure, or newsletter intended to sell a product, announce an event, solicit survey or registration information, or provide reference data? With that answer, you can define your target audience and decide how best to motivate them to read your message. Once you define the image you want to project and decide how to reflect your organization's mission, you have set your design goals and can begin to meet your objectives.

You may also be the writer of the project's text or coordinating text coming from different sources, but as the designer your concerns have to shift to layout and format. A designer's priorities center around managing the exact placement and style of text, illustrations, and photographs so that the reader receives your message.

Six concepts graphic designers often consider when approaching effective layout and design are: Simplicity, Unity, Organization, Focus, Contrast, and Communication.

Simplicity

Simplicity implies a clean and crisp look to publications. Cramming a page with illustrations, boxes, pull quotes, a half-dozen FONTS in a variety of sizes, BULLETS, tables, and charts all at once—overwhelms your readers and your printer. If you view text as building blocks and graphics and other type styling as detailing, arrange your information in an order and pattern that allows the reader's eye to flow naturally across the page. You can ease transitions between blocks of text by limiting fonts to two or three complementary styles per page.

The same is true when using SPOT COLOR or SCREENS. Too many colors or shaded areas can distract readers and make it difficult to determine which information is most important. Using more than one graphic image per page, such as illustrations or photographs, can cause your images to compete for the reader's attention. Try grouping photos or graphics across one or two pages or combining several photos over a single caption.

A photo, illustration, or other graphic element such as a table or chart, can simplify your project by replacing text and expressing your information with images. But typographical elements and styling can also add impact to your message. A simple way to emphasize important information is to set shorter and related information into SIDEBARS by boxing their text or using a RULE. Be careful to reduce other typographical or graphic elements on that page or spread. Other typographical elements such as bullets, fonts, and subheads can highlight critical elements, but if overused, they can detract from other graphic elements or text.

Unity

Unity in design creates a single printed environment, making it easier for the reader to assimilate an array of issues. Consistency helps communicate your publication's message in a document filled with a variety of elements, especially content-heavy pieces in which white space is limited.

Establishing unity begins with a constant margin, column, and GUTTER size throughout. Select one type face for the body copy and one for headlines and subheads. Make one a SERIF font, the other SANS SERIF. If you require a third type face, limit it to boxes for announcements and reminders. Use the same body type face for captions and JUMP CUTS, changing the size or the WEIGHT.

When you do want to change or add something new to your format, make sure the element justifies the departure. Does this special emphasis justify a new type face or radical change in POINT SIZE or LINE SPACING? Will the reader find the issue clear or confusing? If the attention is inappropriate, the reader might skip it or stop right there. Decide at the outset what should receive emphasis and what should not.

Most desktop publishing software applications have similar design tools: templates, style libraries, and palettes. These tools assist the desktop publisher in maintaining unity, so that they have more time to concentrate on text accuracy, organization, special design challenges, and fine-tuning the final product.

Templates are formatted files for common projects already set with predetermined margins, column layouts, and gutters. They can contain folio or master page numbering formats, as well as mastheads or cover pages. If you publish documents in sequence, such as newsletters or announcements, templates can save formats and time for future issues.

Software style libraries are used to define, name, and store previously selected typefaces, sizes, line spacing, and a variety of other specifications. These styles can be applied with one mouse click or keyboard shortcut every time a newsletter or press release template is opened.

Palettes are the same as style libraries and contain color and tint specifications. You can choose from a wide selection of standard colors or mix your own. Before you detail too much of your project in color, take the time to become informed about such things as inks, separations, color matching, and how to communicate your choices to your production provider. In a later article we will take up specifying color and some of its complexities.

The basic design principles we discuss in this series are intended to aid the novice desktop publisher. In upcoming articles we will go more deeply into how layout, graphics and typography can organize and focus ideas and information visually.

Glossary

• FONTS: the complete family of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, etc. of a particular style of type

• BULLETS: one of the characters found in nearly every font; a round dot, sometimes solid, sometimes not, used to mark items in lists

• SPOT COLOR: the use of one more color besides a publication's primary color (usually black or the color used for type) for accent and highlighting

• SCREENS: the application of dot structure using a halftone screen with graded density to any designated space in a printed document; used to apply tints of gray or any other color to such things as boxes, subheads, or lists for accent and highlight

• SIDEBAR: a story or article on a related topic written to accompany and amplify the primary story; often boxed or separated by rules or white space

• RULE: a straight line or bar which can have its size and weight designated by the desktop publisher

• GUTTER: the empty space between any printing area such as columns or the margin

• SERIF: a type font with cross-lines and curls in the ascenders and descenders of any character; an example is Times Roman

• SANS SERIF: a type font without cross-lines and curls in the ascenders and descenders of any character; an example is Helvetica

• JUMP CUTS: information that directs the reader from page to page in a continuing story or article

• WEIGHT: the designation of such things as bold, regular, italic, in any combination when specifying type

• POINT SIZE: the unit of measurement along with picas used by printers and desktop publishers when specifying type; 12 points to one pica; 72 points per inch

• LINE SPACING: the distance between lines of type usually measured in points.

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OCLC News

FirstSearch Update Planned

To help library managers and staff get a head start on 1999 changes to FirstSearch, OCLC is releasing an early version of its new interface this summer. OCLC's FirstSearch provides access to over 70 popular and unique reference databases. Libraries can subscribe to all or any portion of the databases and can customize FirstSearch features.

FirstSearch will be migrating to a new interface later in 1999, and OCLC hopes an early release of the new software this summer will allow library staffs additional time to set up their new Administrative module and become familiar with the newest version. The next FEDLINK OCLC Users Meeting, scheduled for May 26, 1999, will provide detailed information and a demonstration of the new FirstSearch interface and its administration. To learn more about the new FirstSearch, visit OCLC's Web page at http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/ for more details. The FirstSearch-L, OCLC's FirstSearch Internet list, also provides timely information regarding the system migration and new functions. To subscribe to the list, go to http://www.oclc.org/app/listserv/.

OCLC has also added information to their home page ( http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/support/inyourlibrary/) to assist libraries providing bibliographic instruction to end users of FirstSearch. This information will become more important next year, when FirstSearch migrates to the new interface.

FEDLINK Keeps OCLC Users Up-to-Date

For the latest OCLC news, FEDLINK has created an OCLC listserv called OCLCFED. To subscribe, visit the OCLC Network Services section of the FLICC Web site or navigate to http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc/listsrvs.html#oclcfed. If you have questions about subscribing, send an email message to askocfno@loc.gov and FEDLINK staff will manually subscribe you to the list.

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Staff Profile—McCoy Heads FEDLINK Contracts Section

FEDLINK is pleased to report that Joan McCoy is the new head of the FEDLINK Contract Section of the Library of Congress's Contracts and Logistics Services (LC/C&L). McCoy, who has been serving in a rotating position as acting head of the section since October 1997, joined LC/C&L in 1989 to help develop and implement FEDLINK's current contract policies and procedures.

As the head of the contract section, McCoy is responsible for the contractual support of the FEDLINK program including the negotiation and administration of all FEDLINK contracts.

Staff of Seven

She supervises a staff of seven who last year processed more than 5,000 contract actions with 97 vendors, totaling more than 113 million dollars. Specifically, McCoy assists in the development, guidance, direction, monitoring, and coordination of plans, policies, procedures involved in the selection and awarding of contracts. She also develops criteria for the comparative analysis, technical validation, evaluation and comparative selection of proposals from various commercial institutions. She has the full authority to recruit, hire, counsel, train and coordinate the complete range of personnel management requirements. McCoy directs pre-solicitation , pre-bid, pre-award planning conferences to discuss terms of purchase, technical competence, financial responsibility, and management. She selects the type of contract best suited to the procurement requirements and conducts negotiation conferences and negotiates contracts most advantageous to the Library of Congress in price, terms and technical scope.

Key to Mutual Success

McCoy intends to ensure that FEDLINK members obtain the best possible prices for their purchases and to ease the interactions between FEDLINK members and vendors. "The key to our mutual success is our ability to give our customers the service and products that they need at the best possible prices in the most timely and efficient manner," said McCoy at the 1999 FEDLINK Vendor Briefing. She encourages both members and vendors to contact her at jmccoy@loc.gov if they have questions or concerns with FEDLINK contracting policies and procedures.

Preparation

McCoy graduated from the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore campus with a degree in hotel and restaurant management and worked for both the Marriott and Grand Hyatt Hotels for several years before she sought employment with the federal government. At that time, an old family friend, Lawrence Robinson, Assistant Director for Preservation (now retired from LC), encouraged her to apply for a position in the Library of Congress. Her educational background and work experience in the private sector proved to be excellent preparation for FEDLINK's Contract Section. After she joined the Library, she pursued training in federal contracting at the GSA Interagency Training Center, the USDA Graduate School, and in the George Washington University Law School's Government Contracts Program.

Outside Activities

Outside the office, McCoy spends her time raising her six-year-old child with her evenings and weekends revolving around soccer, baseball, football, and basketball. She is also committed to the work of her church, finding strength and inspiration in her strong religious convictions. She is a camera operator for a television ministry and is also active in the Women's Ministry.

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Editorial Staff

FEDLINK Technical Notes is published by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee. Send suggestions of areas for FLICC attention or for inclusion in FEDLINK Technical Notes to:

FLICC was established in 1965 (as the Federal Library Committee) by the Library of Congress and the Bureau of the Budget for the purpose of concentrating the intellectual resources of the federal library and related information community. FLICC's mission is to foster excellence in federal library and information services through interagency cooperation and to provide guidance and direction for the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK).

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