Clearinghouse Committee Report, Nov. 1974

Jaia Heymann

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Vol. 3, Number 2, November 1974, which is the first DttP issue available online (https://purl.stanford.edu/ng908xy2537).

Clearinghouse Committee is a very structured sounding name for a very unstructured group. You are a member of the committee if you are a past chairperson, a task force liaison person, or anyone who has shown some interest in the activities of the clearinghouse. The Committee has never met though I did send out one letter to members last August. A time slot has been set aside for a meeting during Midwinter Conference 1975. I look forward to some discussion of the role of the clearinghouse.

DttP has almost totally consume all the time and energies of all GODORT Chairpersons. The experience of those of us who have served in this position suggests that editorship of the newsletter and head of the clearinghouse should be divided into two jobs. Such divided responsibility would allow for considerable expansion of the role of the Clearinghouse.

A source for hard to locate journal articles in our area of interest? Editing of a monographic series? A true clearinghouse of information of on-going research, surveys, projects in the field of government produced information, both within GODORT and in other organizations?

If the two jobs were split, should both the positions be filled through an election or by appointment?

The Committee also needs to think out the role of Documents to the People. Should it remain a newsletter? Should it include reviews? Or only a checklist of reviews which have appeared in other sources? How about a checklist of articles on documents which have appeared in journals not covered by Library Literature?

By putting them to paper I do not mean to suggest that the above ideas are ones we should adopt. They are only some of the suggestions made and questions raised about the Clearinghouse and the newsletter. I hope it will start you, the entire membership, thinking about what you do or don’t want included in our range of activities. I hope this report will bring new members to our small committee. Send me your ideas. I will add you to my mailing list.

In the meantime, there are several immediate needs. We desperately need volunteers to help gather advertising for DttP. This year the newsletter is being produced at the expense of the round table. The last issue cost just over $600 for 1500 copies. Publishers have already indicated their willingness to advertise. But I need help in the coordination of this effort.

Also, a volunteer from Chicago, who could help with the DttP subscription mailing would be fantastic!

Mary Sanders has volunteered to prepare an index to volumes 1-3 of DttP. It will appear in the June 1975 issue.

Under consideration is a checklist of documents publications such as Monthly Catalog, Monthly Checklist, Government Publications Review, etc. It would list issues which had appeared in the previous two months and hopefully eliminate some paranoid tendencies some of us exhibit. If you have suggestions and/or wish to help in the preperation [sic] of such a checklist, contact: Sandra Sadow, Documents Librarian, Rutgers Law Library, 5th and Penn Sts., Camden, N.J. 08102.

I would appreciate receiving feedback from the readers of DttP. First, what kinds of news or articles would you like to see in the newsletter? Second, let me know if you are receiving the newsletter late in the month. We may wish to reconsider using the bulk mail rate if it is delaying receipt of the newsletter.

GODORT members: this is your newsletter. If you have announcements or wish to communicate with the membership, feel free to send material to me. Space permitting, it will appear in the next issue. Deadlines are the first of the month preceeding [sic] the issue date.