GovInfo Reaches Record Number of Hits

Since 1994 the Government Publishing Office or GPO (formerly the Government Printing Office) has been providing trustworthy government information online for free to anyone.  The GPO is a government agency falling under the legislative branch of government and by law provides free access to government documents produced by all three branches of government.  Until the onset of electronic access, the only way to accomplish this was through the Federal Depository Library Program whereby documents are sent to designated government libraries across the country.  Now, in conjunction with the FDLP, government information is widely available online through the site GovInfo.gov.

Last year a record number of 1.15 billion retrievals were accessed through GovInfo.  This is an increase of 32% over 2022 and an increase of 215% over 2018! The most popular source of information in 2023 was the Federal Register (the Federal Register is a daily compilation of documents produced by the Executive branch including changes to federal regulations, notices from federal agencies, executive orders and other presidential documents).

The GPO’s electronic dissemination of information began in 1994 with the creation of GPOAccess.  In 2009 the next generation system, the Federal Digital System (FDsys), was introduced.  In 2016, the current site GovInfo was launched.  But the GPO is not only assigned the duty of spreading government information; it is also given the responsibility to preserve government documents for future posterity, including those documents born digital.  In 2019 GovInfo was the first US digital depository, and the second in the world, to be certified as having the “highest global standard of excellence possible” in providing access and preservation to these important materials. 

GPO Completes Digitization of 1,300 Congressional Hearings

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has digitized more than 1,300 historical Congressional Hearings dating back to 1958 and made them available on govinfo, GPO’s one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. Through these digitization efforts, the public can access records of Congressional Hearings for free. These include the transcripts from meetings or sessions of a Senate, House, joint, or special committee of Congress, in which elected officials obtained information and opinions on proposed legislation, conducted an investigation, or evaluated the activities of a government department or the implementation of a Federal law.
This project is part of a multi-year effort to digitize a collection of nearly 15,000 Congressional Hearings from Kansas State University Libraries, which serves the Nation as a Federal Depository Library. The digitized documents include many historical sessions. As part of this project, GPO plans to digitize nearly six million pages, of which approximately 230,000 pages have been completed.
Some interesting information the public can expect to find in the Congressional Hearings includes:

• Portions of the Watergate Hearings
• Hearings on how three paintings, including a Rembrandt, were stolen from Germany in 1922 and ended up in Ohio
• A 1961 Hearing on bills to prohibit shipment of goods to the U.S. from Cuba and to prohibit the shipment of goods to Cuba from the U.S.

“This project is another example of how GPO is embracing digital technology to provide the public easy access to Congressional documents,” said GPO Acting Deputy Director John Crawford. “GPO is proud to have brought these important moments in our Nation’s history to people on their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and personal computers.”
This is one of a series of recent projects in which GPO has worked to expand free public access to Congressional information in digital formats. Previously the agency digitized the Congressional Record back to 1873, the Federal Register back to 1936, and the Public Papers of the Presidents back to 1929. In collaboration with the Law Library of Congress, GPO has begun a large multi-year effort to digitize and make accessible volumes of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817.
The Congressional Hearings are available on govinfo at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/CHRG.

Public Papers of the Presidents available on govinfo

On July 10, 2019, GPO announced that digitized volumes of the Public Papers of the Presidents are available on govinfo. For selected volumes, we now have four or more geographically-dispersed Preservation Stewards, making the Public Papers of the Presidents the first title eligible for regional discard. A letter was sent to all Regional Federal depository libraries today, August 5, 2019.
Preservation Steward holdings for this title are available from the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. Click “All Items” to see the summary holdings for the Preservation Stewards, as well as item records and condition for each volume being preserved.
Any regional depository library that wishes to discard these volumes must submit a discard request and receive approval from the Superintendent of Documents.
To see the full list of eligible titles, see Superintendent of Documents Public Policies, Guidance, and Reports. For more information on the regional discard process or to submit a request, see the Regional Discards Policy page.

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).

World War I Documents Now Available on govinfo

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has digitized the 17-volume set, United States Army in the World War, 1917-1919, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the end of the conflict, and it is now available on govinfo. Published in 1948, this publication compiles key documents, maps, and records for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) from the start of the American involvement in World War I through the occupation of Germany.

• Volumes one and two focus on the formation and organization of the American Expeditionary Forces.
• Volume three looks at the training and use of American units in the British and French armies.
• Volumes four - eight provide documents on military operations.
• Volume nine focuses on operations in the Meuse-Argonne.
• Volumes 10 and 11 are documents related to the armistice and American occupation of Germany.
• Volumes 12-15 contain reports of the Commander-in-Chief, AEF.
• The final two volumes, 16 and 17, contain bulletins from the general headquarters of the AEF.

This publication offers a glimpse into the organization and operations of the AEF through primary source documents compiled by the Historical Division, U.S. Army.

FDsys Website Will be Retired on December 14

GPO plans to retire GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) website and replace it with govinfo on December 14, 2018.
govinfo provides access to the same publications and search functionality as FDsys, but has a new look and new features.
Read more information about the retirement of the FDsys website and transition to govinfo, including FAQs.
When the FDsys website is retired on December 14, existing links will automatically redirect to govinfo.
Other GPO websites, including the following, will not be affected by the FDsys retirement:

• GPO.gov
• The U.S. Government Bookstore
• The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
• FDLP.gov
• Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

GPO Issues Release Of Statute Compilations

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) releases an initial set of 40 Statute Compilations as a pilot on govinfo, GPO’s website that offers public access to Federal Government information. These publications are compilations of public laws that either do not appear in the U.S. Code or that have been classified to a title of the U.S. Code that has not been enacted into positive law. Each Statute Compilation incorporates the amendments made to the underlying statute since it was originally enacted.
GPO is partnering with various Congressional offices on this project, including the Office of the Legislative Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Legislative Counsel of the U.S. Senate, the Clerk of the House, and the Secretary of the Senate.
Additional Statute Compilations will be added to govinfo over the next several months. The next phase of this project will be to convert legacy Statute Compilations file formats into United States Legislative Markup (USLM) XML and provide access to those files as bulk data.
“The release of Statute Compilations on govinfo now gives the public easy access to these documents on smartphones, tablets, laptops and personal computers,” said GPO Acting Deputy Director Herbert H. Jackson, Jr. “This is another example of how GPO is working with Congress to provide digital access to the workings on the three branches of the Federal Government.”

FDsys Website to be Retired This December

This December, the transition from GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) to govinfo will be complete with the retirement of the FDsys website.
In preparation for the retirement of FDsys in December, the two most important things to know about the transition are the following:

1. Although the FDsys website is being replaced with the new, modern govinfo website, GPO remains committed to ensuring authenticity, integrity, and long term preservation for more than a million documents in our system. govinfo is simply a new front door to accessing the same authenticated and preserved content that you are used to accessing through the FDsys website.
2. When the FDsys website is retired in December, any existing links to FDsys, including PURLs, will automatically be redirected by GPO to govinfo. We encourage you to update your website links and references to govinfo as is feasible.

More information about the transition is available on govinfo. Feedback on govinfo is welcome at GPO’s online survey.

New Courts’ Opinions Available on govinfo

In recent months, GPO and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) have made available five new courts’ opinions in the U.S. Courts collection on govinfo. This effort began as a pilot project in 2011 to provide public access to opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.

The recently-added content includes opinions from the U.S. District Court for the District of Guam, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Washington, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and most recently this past June, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of Michigan.

These five courts’ opinions join an expanding corpus of judicial opinions available to search, browse, and download on govinfo. Opinions from 118 courts are now available in govinfo, and GPO will continue to add opinions as they are provided to GPO by the courts. As a provider of free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government, the U.S. Courts collection is one of the largest collections in govinfo. Explore the opinions at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/USCOURTS.

GPO's govinfo is Out of Beta

In February 2016, GPO debuted the modern, mobile-friendly govinfo as a beta website to eventually replace GPO’s Federal Digital System.
GPO is pleased to announce that govinfo is now out of beta. FDsys will remain available in the coming months and in December 2018, GPO will retire FDsys, and govinfo will take its place as GPO’s source for official Government information.
Learn more about the transition from FDsys to govinfo, including a handy chart on finding certain FDsys resources where they've been migrated to govinfo.

FDsys To Be Replaced by govinfo

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has provided online access to Government information from all three branches since 1994 when we created the GPO Access website. GPO continued to innovate by launching the Federal Digital System (FDsys) in 2009, and in 2016, GPO debuted the modern, mobile-friendly govinfo.

In December 2018, GPO plans to retire FDsys, and govinfo will take its place as GPO’s source for official Government information.

While FDsys will remain available until its retirement, users are encouraged to transition to govinfo. Immediately before FDsys is retired, redirects from FDsys to govinfo will be enabled, but users should prepare for the FDsys retirement by proactively updating their systems and links to point to govinfo instead of FDsys.

govinfo offers many enhancements over FDsys including: 

Optimization for display on mobile devices

More relevant and precise search results

Integrated social media sharing

New Related Documents feature

Curated content and new ways to browse

Developer tools and data feeds

Expanded help and resources

   

Learn more about govinfo and the transition from FDsys, or contact GPO for more information. And don’t forget to register to attend the free, live training webinar, govinfo – GPO’s Official System for Providing Free Public Access to U.S. Government Information, taking place Tuesday, February 13, 2018.