ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 85 0 / C&RL News ■ December 2002 F a s A n n t V i I e s Facts Public access to government information on the Web A recent U S. G overnm ent Accounting Office (GAO) report o n the quality’ and avail­ ability o f online governm ent information found that “not all materials required by e- FOIA [the 1996 Electronic Freedom o f Information Act] w ere available o n line as of May/June 2002. Further, certain information was difficult to find and w as not always continuously available o n Web sites.” The GAO review o f Web sites in 2002 found that seven of the 25 government agencies were not providing online access to all six of the information elements required by e-FOIA— “Agency final opinions, Policy statements/ interpretation, Administrative staff manuals, Frequently requested records, Index o f frequently requested records, FOIA annual reports.” U.S. General Accounting O ffice, In fo rm a tion M a n a g e m e n t: U p d ate on Im p lem e n ta tio n o f 199 Electroni c fre e d o m o f In fo rm a t ion Act Am endm ents, G AO -02-493. W ashin gton, D .C.: August 2002. h ttp ://w w w .g a o .g o v/ new .utem s/d02493.pdf. Oct. 30, 2002 state library agencies fiscal year 2001 T he State Library Agencies Survey conducted by the National C enter for Education Statistics for fiscal year 2001 reports eight state libraries with m ote than 100,000 total circulation transactions: Vermont, Montana, New Mexico, Maine, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee, and Washington, Elaine Kroe, Data File . State Library Agencies Survey Fiscal Year 2001. NCES 2003-342, U.S, Department of Education, National Center fo r Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.: 2002. h ttp ://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003342.pdf. Oct. 29, 2002 Usage of scholarly information on the Web Almost o n e-q u arter o f th e “659 data tables" from a major .study o f th e "scholarly information environm ent” recently com pleted by Outsell, Inc. for the Digital Library Federation (DLF) and Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR) are now available on the CUR Web site. According to a summary report of the findings by Amy Friedlander, “33.3 percent of the entire study sample [3,234 faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduate students] identified the library as one o f th e sources they consulted [for keeping current with developments in their field), and 32.8 percent rated it as the ‘most important’ source." Amy Friedlander, Dimensions Use of the Scholarl y Information Environment: Introduction to a Data Set, Version 10/14/02. Washington, D.C.; Digital Library Federation and Council o n Library and Information Resources, October 2 002. h ttp ://ww w .c l ir.org/pubs/abstract/p u b 110abst.ht m l. Oct. 3 0 ,2 0 0 2 ARL libraries resources per student T he latest annual statistics report for the m em bers o f th e Association o f Research libraries s hows an average yearly increase of 7 percent in interl ibrary loans per student from 1986 to 2001. In contrast, many o ther resources decreased during this period. Monograph acquisitions per student w ere 26 percent lower in 2001 than in 1986, and serials subscriptions per student fell 11 percent. The median num ber o f total staff per student decreased fr om 16 per 1,000 in 1986 to 13.7 in 2001. "Research Library Trends," Association o f Research Libraries, October 4,2 0 02 . http://w w w.arl .org /stats/arlstat/01pub/ intro.htm l. Nov. 1, 2002 A n n Viles is co o rd inator o f reference a n d instruction a t A p p a lachain State University in Boone, North Caro l i na, e-m ai/:vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu http://www.gao.gov/ http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003342.pdf http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub110abst.html http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/01pub/ mailto:vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu