This paper reports on a study of librarian initiated publications discovery (LIPD) in U.S. state digital depository programs using the OCLC Digital Archive to preserve web-based government publications for permanent public access. This paper describes a model of LIPD processes based on empirical investigations of four OCLC DA-based digital depositories. The model is composed of stages including "site visit," "site scan," "selection," "re-conceptualization," and two "bibliographic verification steps"; action strategies at each stage and the observed practices at each site are reported. This paper also describes how librarian perceptions of web publications as "discrete objects" and "bibliographic objects" influence the selection and retention of government web content. Finally, the paper discusses several problems associated with the observed LIPD methodologies and technologies. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)