Bookbinding in the Digital Age

Earlier this week, The Washington Post released an article on U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) employees producing the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States for President Obama's first year in office (2009). The article discusses GPO's time-honored binding process, specifically the work of GPO's Head Forwarder, Peter K. James, as well as what materials are included and excluded from the bound editions. For instance, despite the digital nature of the Obama presidency, tweets, blogs, Facebook posts, and YouTube videos are not included in the bound edition.

The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States is compiled and published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Each volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the specified time period. The material is presented in chronological order and the dates shown in the headings are the dates of the documents or events.

The two three-pound volumes from Obama's first year in office will be hand-delivered to the President in January 2011. These volumes will then be made available on FDsys and distributed to Federal depository libraries nationwide. No distribution information is known at this time.