Sources of GPO Cataloging Records

  • Last Updated: April 15, 2025
  • Published: November 05, 2021

General Information

The Government Publishing Office (GPO) makes its cataloging records available to libraries in several ways. Consult with your library’s or consortia’s cataloging, metadata, or systems staff to determine how to integrate catalog records into your local workflow or to modify an existing workflow. You may catalog as many or as few digital resources as needed for your users. Cataloging is only required for physical Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) materials received at your library.

Your library may also consider non-cataloging options for digital content management, such as curated LibGuides, web pages, and development of digital collections. You could provide links to resources such as DiscoverGov or your regional’s library catalog, if that makes the most sense for your user community. How your library decides to provide access to online Federal government resources is up to you.

The following GPO-managed and vendor resources are available to Federal depository libraries and explained in further detail on this page.

GPO-managed resources

Vendor or membership services

If you’re aware of an additional service, please notify GPO through askGPO. Additionally, your library platform’s discovery layer, other bibliographic utilities, database vendors, and/or consortia may have GPO catalog records available to access or turn on. You may consult with your library’s systems librarian or library system vendor to learn more.

MARCIVE, Inc., a cataloging services vendor, ceased operations in December 2024. One of the services they provided was the Cataloging Record Distribution Program. GPO thanks MARCIVE for over 40 years of contributions to the FDLP community.

GPO managed resources

FDLP Data Manager (FDM)

FDLP Data Manager (FDM) is a tool that combines List of Classes information, selection profile information, and GPO-created MARC catalog records. Depository libraries may freely download catalog records in .mrc format.

Filters are available to limit record sets, including limiting records to those that match the library’s current item selection profile.  If you’re interested in acquiring records this way, see the FDM Tutorial: How to download catalog records based off your library’s current item selection profile. More tutorials related to cataloging are also available. If want a list or spreadsheet of catalog records that match your search parameters, in both the Get MARC and Get MARC URL queries, you can download a spreadsheet. Standard fields in the spreadsheet include the OCLC number, Title, Item number, SuDoc, etc. The Get MARC URL query will also display the URLs found in each catalog record, so you do not have to click into each catalog record to see links.

CGP on GitHub and GitHub Repositories

In 2017, GPO launched the CGP on GitHub repository to post monthly files of new and changed bibliographic records in the CGP as well as additional focused catalog record collections.  The records are available for downloading free of charge.

GitHub is a web-based computer source code sharing and publishing service. A GitHub account is not required for downloading the records and other resources from the repositories. Please see the “Obtaining Files” section in the instructions for more information.

Examples of catalog record repositories are:

Z 39.50 (CGP)

Federal depositories libraries have access to Z39.50 in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. See instructions for setup and use.

Z39.50 is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ National Information Standards Organization (NISO) communications protocol. It is used to search and retrieve bibliographic records in online databases of library holdings. It also allows you to download bibliographic records in MARC format and load into your library’s bibliographical database at no cost. There is a limit of 10,000 records per download.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP), including New Titles

From the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, you can send up to 20 catalog records per email. You may select from various email formats, including MARC tags, and various types of encodings. More about the processes for obtaining records from the CGP is described in the “Working with Results” section of the CGP help page.

The New Titles page of the CGP offers lists of various types and formats of records, such as electronic resources, serials, and integrated resources, compiled in the previous week, two weeks, month, and three months. New electronic titles, in monthly archived files, are also available in a .csv format.

Federal depository libraries have a custom login feature, the FDLP Login. The username is your depository library number, and the password is the case sensitive FDLP library password. Capabilities only available to Federal depository libraries include saving search results to a local computer, setting up Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) alerts, and obtaining search results which include item numbers.

Vendor or membership services

OCLC

OCLC, a global membership-based library cooperative, includes GPO catalog records that are available in various ways. Member libraries may:

  • Copy catalog GPO records into their local catalog.
  • Use OCLC’s automatic holdings feeds for GPO print and electronic titles in WorldShare Collection Manager. See the OCLC documentation page or <oc.lc/govdocs> for instructions.
  • Choose to receive records for all GPO electronic titles from OCLC by selecting the “U.S. Government Documents – Electronic” knowledge base collection in Collection Manager and setting up MARC record delivery. Setup of this is by self-service.

Please note:

  • See an OCLC article about criteria for new, update, delete and merged records.
  • When GPO catalogs large batches of records for a project, there may be a delay between the time when the records are cataloged by GPO and in the CGP and the time when they are available in OCLC.