2022 Fall DLC: Librarianship at the Government Accountability Office: GAO Products and Center for Library Science Initiatives to Improve Discoverability

The GAO serves the United States Congress and people by providing “timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can be used to improve Government and save taxpayers billions of dollars.” As part of the Applied Research and Methods Team, the Center for Library Science works to provide research and reference services to the agency mission teams, other Government agencies, and the public. A major part of our work is to provide the various GAO products consistently published to internal and external requestors. To complete this work, GAO products must be properly cataloged, organized, and made publicly accessible in a manner that allows for quick and easy access. To make this possible, the Center for Library Science must regularly imagine new ways to streamline the organizational process through collaboration with other GAO mission teams and Government agencies.

The first part of this presentation will detail the types of products that GAO releases, as well as how requestors can use the public GAO website and library services to find the GAO products they need. The second part of the presentation will provide an overview of current library initiatives to effectively organize and make available the plethora of GAO products available for Government and public use. This includes projects to improve GAO internal and public-facing database search capabilities and working groups to create cohesive cataloging principles to better organize GAO products intuitively by type and content. At the end of this presentation, attendees will have a better understanding of the many GAO products available to the public, as well as an introduction to the ways in which the Center for Library Science operates to improve accessibility for all of its patrons—the public, GAO, and the Government at large.