CIC Supports GITCO CD-ROM Project

[Grace A York]

Handling the hundreds of CD-ROMS being distributed by the federal
government is one of the greatest challenges we documents librarians face.
That's the reason so many of us admire Rob Lopresti's visionary DocBase
and the Government Information Technology Committee's efforts to create a
data base of bibliographic, technical and user information.

The documents librarians of the Committee on Institutional
Cooperation (Big 10 schools plus Univ.Chicago and UIC) resolved last year
to support GITCO by converting to the web high priority technical
documentation appearing on the CD-ROMS themselves. Before launching the
project, we needed to know what was already available.

The initial phase is finally available on the web as:

CIC CD-ROM Technical Documentation Project
(http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/
cicdoc/cicdoc.htm)

It consists of four files accessible from that page.

1. A matrix of federal, commercial and international CD-ROM
titles. The tabular format lists title and SUDOCS number
when applicable, links to user guides, technical
documentation, and the corresponding web version. The
links to the user guides are being coordinated with the
web version of the GODORT Handout Exchange. The column
for UMich call numbers should be ignored by all but UMich
staff. The matrix is considered a working document for
the CIC but the information could be more generally
applicable.

2. National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988.
Technical documentation.

3. Income and Poverty: 1995. Technical documentation,
including Cross Tab installation instructions.

4. 1990 Census Public Use Microdata Samples - 5% Files.
This includes Quick Tab instructions and the Public
Use Microdata Areas (PUMAS) for all 50 states and the
District of Columbia.

Future documentation projects may include additional NCES
CD-ROMs, selected 1990 Census Subject Summary Tape Files, and the
definition of PUMS 1% PUMAS.

Were we to wait for perfection, no one would ever know about the
project, so we're announcing this with an invitation to suggest
corrections.

Grace York, Coordinator
Documents Center
The University of Michigan Library
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1205

Phone: (734) 936-2378
Fax: (734) 764-0259
E-Mail: grac...@umich.edu
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/
govweb.html