PDF tax-forms: links or download locally and link

[George Porter]

As several people have observed, the IRS website, and the Internet
connections between it and the rest of the country, tend to become saturated
as demand for the forms increases.  In years past, I've made a point of
nabbing a CD from the IRS at ALA Midwinter.  I missed it this year.

The pattern has been to mount the CD on a network server, January-April, and
provide links to the appropriate state and federal websites, as well as a
link to a batch file to load and run the CD.  The CD link would be clearly
labeled as only useful within the library network.  Reception from a
university clientele has been quite warm.

As Andrew Mutch noted, harvesting the forms from their home websites for
local vending is an iterative process.  I wouldn't want to take it on.

For the last several years, the Caltech Library System website has featured,
in a What's New highlights area, links to the tax forms.  The links go up in
January to aid those eager, early filers and then wander in and out of being
a focus on the main web page until late March, when they become a steady
fixture until after the filing deadlines.

Even libraries that do not want to mess with reproducibles or distributing
boxes of free forms should very seriously consider providing this service
for their clientele.  For those afraid of printing demand, consider the
number of outside accesses to your website.  This is a reason for people to
visit the library's website from home, even if they don't want to look
something up in the catalog.  Give people additional reasons to visit your
website, it will only result in increased support for the library as an
institution serving the community.

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA  91125
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681