New govinfo Webcast Series

Six new govinfo webcasts are now available. These are part of a new series of tutorials that offers users introductory guidance in navigating GPO’s govinfo, performing various types of searches, narrowing search results, browsing, and using Help features. Recordings are brief—from two to seven minutes in length—and include:

• Introduction to govinfo
• What’s Available
• Introduction to Browsing
• Introduction to Basic Search
• Introduction to Advanced Search
• Introduction to Citation Search

No prerequisite knowledge is required, and GPO encourages all to share and post these brief educational webcasts on your web pages and social media.

More webcasts will be posted and announced throughout 2019.

GPO’s govinfo Makes History by Earning Global Certification for Trustworthiness

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) makes history by becoming the first organization in the United States and second organization in the world to achieve the highest global standard of excellence for digital repositories. The Primary Trustworthy Digital Repository Authorization Body Ltd. awarded GPO ISO 16363:2012 for govinfo, the one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. GPO achieved the certification by meeting official criteria for trustworthy repositories as defined by experts in the field.

ISO is the International Organization for Standardization and the world’s largest developer of international standards used by Government, business and new information technology companies. The standard achieved by GPO outlines the expectations for digital repositories to be certified as “trustworthy,” meaning that they are implementing digital preservation practices to ensure long-term preservation and access. Certification under ISO 16363 will provide assurance to the public that govinfo is a standards-compliant digital archive in which Government information will be preserved, accessible, and usable into the long-term future. The certification demonstrates that not only the documents themselves, but also the organizational structures and systems around those documents, maintain integrity.

“This certification reconfirms GPO’s mission of providing the public authentic, published information on the three branches of the Federal Government,” said GPO Acting Deputy Director Herbert H. Jackson, Jr. “I am proud of our employees for attaining this certification, which emphasizes the important work GPO does for our country.”
Certification has been a key GPO strategic initiative since 2015. GPO was evaluated against 109 criteria that assessed GPO’s organizational infrastructure (adequate staffing, staff knowledge, policies and procedures), digital object management (content management and access), and security risk management (plans in case of a system failure).

Partial Federal Government Shutdown – GPO Remains Open

As of the close of business today December 21, 2018 (5:30 pm EST), the GPO was notified that the U.S. Congress had not passed Federal Government appropriations to operate some Federal Government agencies beyond December 21, 2018. GPO, as a legislative branch agency, will be operating after December 21, 2018 because its operating budget was passed and signed by the President. In light of the shutdown, the following are updates on the statuses of GPO services.

• The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) will be available, however GPO cannot ensure that all PURLs pointing to other Federal agency resources will work during this time. PURLs may point to content on agency websites where funding has not been approved past the December 21, 2018 deadline. All other CGP functionality will continue as usual and will not be affected.
• FDLP.gov, govinfo, the FDLP Web Archive, and Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government will not be affected and will continue to operate as usual.

GPO will update the FDLP community as information becomes available on the status of Federal Government operations.

GPO Names Acting Inspector General

U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Acting Deputy Director Herbert H. Jackson, Jr. appoints James R. Ives as the Acting Inspector General for GPO. Ives will oversee the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which provides an independent and objective means of keeping the Agency Director and Congress informed about problems and deficiencies relating to the administration and operations of GPO. Ives has been detailed to GPO while the agency searches for a permanent Inspector General, following the departure of Melinda Miguel.
Ives has over 25 years of Inspector General experience, including nine years of senior executive experience. He is currently the Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Inspector General.
“James brings a wealth of Inspector General experience to GPO,” said Acting GPO Deputy Director Herbert H. Jackson, Jr. “I look forward to working with James and welcome his ideas for improving efficiency to GPO’s operations.”
Prior to joining NASA OIG, Ives served with the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General for 22 years. He held numerous positions of progressive responsibility at DoD IG, including Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Special Agent, Criminal Intelligence Program Manager, Assistant Deputy Director for National Security, Deputy Director of the Investigative Operations Directorate, Special Agent-in-Charge of the DCIS’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office, Acting Principal Director of DoD IG's Office of Professional Responsibility, Deputy Director of DCIS, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence and Special Program Assessments, and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations. Ives received DCIS's Manager of the Year Award in 2007, and on two separate occasions (2005 and 2014), he received DoD IG's Team Work Award. Upon departing DoD IG in 2015, he received the organization's Distinguished Career Achievement Award.
As a special agent assigned to DCIS’s Boston Resident Agency, Ives conducted criminal investigations of allegations impacting civilian and military DoD components. Investigations focused on allegations of bribery and kickbacks, anti-trust, corruption, environmental crimes, health care fraud, export violations, significant thefts of government property, internal affairs related issues, acquisition and procurement fraud, computer crimes, and other issues impacting DoD. Following September 11, 2001, he served as a representative to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston, conducting counterterrorism investigations. As a result of his efforts in Boston, Ives received several awards for investigative excellence, including the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency Award for Excellence, the Department of Health and Human Services' Award for Cooperative Achievement, and the U.S. Attorney's Office's Award for Investigative Excellence.
Ives is pursuing a Doctor of Criminal Justice degree at Saint Leo University. He is a 2005 graduate of Georgetown University, where he earned a Master of Public Policy degree; and a 1992 graduate of State University of New York, College at Brockport, where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Criminal Justice and a minor in Psychology. He is a 2017 graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives Fellows program. He is also an adjunct professorial lecturer at American University, and an adjunct associate professor at University of Maryland University College (UMUC). He currently serves as course chair for UMUC's Criminal Justice Ethics class.

GPO Awards New Contract for 2020 U.S. Census Materials

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has awarded the contract for 2020 Census printing materials and mailing services to R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD) following a competitive procurement process. RRD is a Chicago based company, and production will take place at several of its facilities across the country. The contract was awarded for $114,557,201.27, which is well within the U.S. Census Bureau’s budget. It covers the production of materials that will help the public respond to the 2020 Census, including questionnaires, letters, inserts, postcards, and envelopes. GPO and U.S. Census Bureau employees will conduct quality control and testing throughout the contract period.
GPO initially made an award in November 2017, but that contract was terminated following a settlement between the Department of Justice and the contractor in July 2018.
“GPO is committed to working with the U.S. Census Bureau on the successful production of the 2020 Census,” said GPO Acting Deputy Director Herbert H. Jackson, Jr. “This is another example of how our long-standing print procurement program meets the printing needs of Federal agencies through GPO’s partnerships with private-sector companies.”
GPO’s nationwide print procurement program provides significant economic opportunities for private sector companies to expand their business by providing services to Federal agency customers on a national level. Nearly 75% of all printing ordered by Federal agencies from GPO is performed by private sector firms working under contract with the agency. GPO typically awards contracts to about 700 printing contractors a year. Nearly 10,000 companies are registered to do business with the agency, using GPO as their one-stop shop for print contract opportunities. GPO's long-standing relationship with the private sector dates back to the 1940s.

POLO Series Available in Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

GPO recently cataloged 38 titles of the Central Intelligence Agency’s POLO series. Inspired by the threat of international communism, the Sino-Soviet Studies Group (SSG) was established in 1956 within the Office of Current Intelligence and was the office responsible for the POLO series.
Written between 1961 and 1973, these informal intelligence studies provide insight into the Chinese government under Mao Zedong. Topics include the Cultural Revolution, the Sino-Indian border dispute, leadership after Mao, and various purges.
Individual PURLs have been created for all 38 titles. One example:

• Title: Lin Piao and the Great Helmsman
• SuDoc: PREX 3.22:P 75/29
• System #: 1087974
• PURL

View all POLO series titles available in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) by entering ‘polo series’ in the Basic Search or ‘polo’ in the Series/Periodical keyword(s) Advanced Search.
To learn more about this and two related series, see the publication on the CAESAR, POLO & ESAU papers (also available at the GPO Bookstore) as well as the POLO collection on the CIA website.