Collaborations play a crucial role in supporting GPO’s vision America Informed. Working together with Federal depository libraries, Federal agencies, academic institutions, library associations, and other engaged FDLP stakeholders, GPO builds collaborative relationships that:
- Foster cooperation to grow and preserve the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information.
- Develop services and resources to improve access to information produced by the U.S. Government.
- Enable an exchange of ideas and information.
Institutions with a project, resource, or service related to U.S. Government information are encouraged to collaborate with GPO. These collaborations and knowledge sharing initiatives enhance access to Federal Government information and ensure the preservation of these important materials for future generations.
The United States Government is the largest publisher in the world, and GPO is the largest distributor of Federal Government information. GPO’s GovInfo is one of two ISO certified trustworthy digital repositories in the world. Collaborating with GPO benefits your organization by bringing national recognition and enhanced credibility to your institution and services. Your organization can take pride in your important role in helping to ensure permanent, no-fee public access to Federal Government information.
Join the Superintendent of Documents and GPO’s Library Services & Content Management in our mission to serve the public to discover trusted U.S. Government information.
Collaborations include:
- Partnerships (formal institutional agreements)
- Cataloging and Metadata Contributor
- Digital Access Partner
- Digital Content Contributor
- Digital Preservation Steward
- Preservation Steward
- Other/Specialized: GPO will consider all partnership proposals that support free public access to U.S. Government information.
- Interagency Agreements
- NARA AFFILIATE ARCHIVE: GPO has an agreement with the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) to serve as a NARA Affiliate Archive. Affiliate Archives are established when it is determined that physical custody of the records by an organization other than NARA is more beneficial for preservation and access. Physical custody of GovInfo content remains with GPO, though NARA accepts legal ownership in accordance with the GPO retention schedule. Once transferred to the NARA records schedule, the content will be retained “until the end of the Republic.” Legal responsibility also ensures that NARA assumes physical custody if for any reason GPO can no longer maintain the records. GPO became a NARA Affiliate Archive in 2003, the first Affiliate Archive for digital content.
- Cataloging Initiatives
- Congressional Research Service
- In 2018, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and Library Technical Services began collaborating on the cataloging of the reports available on their website. CRS provides a monthly spreadsheet of information about new and updated reports. Since the beginning of the partnership, LTS has cataloged over 10,000 reports and posts files of the records on GitHub.
- Congressional Research Service
- Networking – GPO collaborates with many organizations to exchange ideas and information. Examples include:
- American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)
- Civics Renewal Network (CRN)
- Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
- Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Preservation Working Group
- Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK)
- Federal Web Archiving Interest Group
- National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)
- National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)
- Society of American Archivists (SAA)
- Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T)
- Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL)
- Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association
Please contact us via askGPO to learn more about how your institution can participate. When submitting a question, select the category, “Partnerships.”