Mobile Friendly govinfo to replace GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys)

According to a February 3, 2016 news release, the Government Publishing Office has launched govinfo (www.govinfo.gov), a mobile friendly way to access government information on the three branches of the Federal Government.  In 2017 it will replace FDsys (Federal Digital System). In addition to being mobile friendly, govinfo provides an ABC list of collections and has quick links to popular publications. One feature likely to be popular is the ability to browse documents by the issuing Congressional committee.

Science.gov Celebrates 10th Birthday

According to a Dec. 5, 2012 press release, the U.S. Government's science information search and retrieval web portal has now been in service for 10 years. Science.gov was created in Dec. 2002 after "senior information managers representing 13 Federal agencies forged a consensus on how national science organizations could improve public access to the nation’s rich and diverse scientific research information" by partnering to create the web portal.

See the press release for more information. Also check out the "Cool Things" page to find odd facts and interesting history about the Science.gov Alliance members.

New Federated Government Search Tool

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications has just released a new MetaLib federated search tool. The tool searches across more than 50 U.S. Federal government databases with more to be added in the future. Use it to retrieve reports, articles and citations. MetaLib offers basic, advanced, and expert search and includes an A-Z resource list to locate specific databases and to create a personalized set of databases to search at a user's convenience. It also offers a session-based My-Eshelf so that users can create their own resource lists, save records, and define preferences for the display of results for that session only.

Finding Goverment Information - a Challenging Quest

OMB Watch and the Center for Democracy and Technology have released an 18 page report entitled Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found Through Commercial Search Engines. The Web sites of many federal agencies block web crawlers from commonly-used search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, and Ask. Even searches done on USA.gov can miss crucial information that Government Information Librarians know to find directly on agency Web sites, but the public might miss without expert help. To remedy the situation, the report makes the following recommendations:

• Congress should pass the E-Government reauthorization act, which would require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to create best practices to encourage searchability of federal Web sites.
• OMB should officially recognize the importance of commercial search engines to Internet users and work with the CIO Council to adopt policies to help users find information.
• Agencies should adopt an information policy that makes public accessibility of online content and resources a priority.
• Agencies should create Sitemaps of content on their sites, with special attention given to materials stored in databases and accessible only through drop-down menus. For example, many agencies have FAQ databases that are not accessible to search crawlers but contain very succinct and useful answers to common questions.
• Agencies should review their use of robots.txt files in order to ensure they are used in the least restrictive way possible. Every effort should be made to include, rather than exclude, materials from the website, whether materials were excluded purposefully or accidentally in the past.