Print On Demand

Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology that allows books to be produced one or two at a time or in small lots, rather than in large offset print runs.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) explored the use of POD technology to broaden its title offerings, to ensure lasting availability of publications, and to avoid the heavy expense associated with surplus inventory.

Benefits to Federal Depository Libraries

For over a year, GPO discussed the possibility of providing a POD allowance for depository libraries to be used as a tool to augment depository library collections with paper versions of depository titles. GPO is still in the process of evaluating different options but one possible scenario is that the depository library could use an allowance to quickly order and receive a printed copy of a publication regardless of its item number. The policies being developed for use of a POD allowance may permit libraries to order multiple copies, replacement copies, or to supplement item selections with print publications that are of interest. A POD allowance might make the selection process of some print titles from GPO more like using a book dealer. For example, libraries would not have to guess in advance what titles will be issued under certain item numbers and then take everything issued under those item numbers. They could wait until the items are issued and then order only the titles they actually want.

POD technology was also examined as a way to produce tangible copies of titles that are not otherwise available to the Federal depository library community in print. These items would have to be suitable for replication using POD technology, which means that they have to be within certain standard sizes, not contain excessive color or artwork (such as a coffee table art book), or any other attributes that are not suitable for the POD equipment. Since many of these titles would not otherwise be available to Federal Depository Libraries except in electronic form, POD would provide an option for obtaining printed copies for a tangible collection.

GPO tested potential vendors to see exactly what capabilities are practicable now, as well as those coming in the future. The results were encouraging in most cases, and the ability to deliver quality reproductions through POD is available to take advantage of right now. The goal for the application of POD in the FDLP would be to offer POD publications as close to the original quality as possible, without sacrificing the ability to use the information. Quality access to authentic Government information remains an essential goal to GPO and will always be considered in the deliberations of how POD could be used to benefit the FDLP.

Survey Results

GPO conducted a survey of Federal depository libraries from September 8-27, 2004 to help gauge the future demand for print on demand (POD) publications. The survey presented two different hypothetical scenarios and enabled GPO to gather data regarding the level of interest for a representative sample of potential POD publications. For the purposes of the survey, the cost of each title was the estimated POD sale price, less a 25% (book dealer discount). To complete the survey, GPO asked depository librarians how many copies of each publication they would choose for their depositories under the following two hypothetical scenarios:

  1. How many copies of each publication would the depository select if each depository was given an annual allowance of $500.00 for POD publications?
  2. How many copies of each publication would the depository purchase with its own funds after the annual allowance of $500.00 was exhausted?

Survey Results

The Print on Demand Survey received a total of 402 unique responses from depository libraries which represents roughly 31% of the total number of libraries in the depository community. A representative sampling of 100 titles was listed on the survey in order to determine the types of items that libraries might have an interest in if they were printed on demand. Every title on the survey generated some selection activity from library respondents. For some of the titles, libraries expressed an interest in acquiring multiple copies for their collections.

Survey Repondents by Library Type
Type of Library # of Respondents
Academic General 230
Public Library 79
Academic Law 43
State Library 20
Community College 11
State Court 6
Special Library 5
Federal Agency 4
Federal Court 2
Medical Library 1
Agricultural Library 1
Service Academy 0
 Total 402
Top 10 Titles of Library Interest
 Print on Demand Title # of libraries that selected titles using an annual allowance of $500.00 for POD publications # of libraries that selected titles for purchase using own funds after the annual allowance of $500.00 for POD publications was exhausted
Crime in the United States (Annual) 335 163
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (Annual) 316 160 
Health, United States (Annual) 295 138
Condition of Education (Annual) 294  15 
Yearbook of Immigration Statistics (Annual) 267  118 
Safeguarding Privacy in the Fight Against Terrorism Report of the Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee, 2004 252  109 
Trends in the Well-Being of America’s Children and Youth (Annual) 247  101 
World Population Profile (Biennial) 239  90 
Demographic Trends in the 20th Century 236  95 
Gangs in Rural America: Final Report to the National Institute of Justice, 2001 230  104 

PURL Enhancement and Stabilization

Since March 1998, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has used persistent uniform resource locators (PURLs) to provide libraries and other parties stable URLs to online Federal information. GPO's PURL implementation is utilized by Federal depository libraries, Federal agencies, and others to provide persistent links to Federal resources.

In August 2009, GPO's PURL server experienced a significant hardware failure and was unavailable for an extended period. When this happened, all PURL links became inaccessible. The PURL system is a critical tool of the Federal Depository Library Program that fulfills its mission of providing permanent public access to Federal information resources. As a result of the outage, GPO took steps to ensure high availability and redundancy of the PURL application.

Rearchitecture of PURL Software and Hardware

In order to ensure high availability and redundancy, GPO migrated from the original OCLC PURL Resolver Software to the PURLZ Resolver Software, which is a re-architecture of the original OCLC PURL Resolver Software. Included with the migration is the implementation of an improved hosting solution that provides higher availability for the PURL application. Previously, (ro)bot traffic severely hindered the performance of the PURL application and prevented GPO staff from being able to access the system and add/modify PURLs. Under the new hosting solution, the public's and GPO's access is ensured, while still allowing access to traffic, which mostly consisted of link validators.

New PURL Web Address

A new URL of purl.fdlp.gov has been established due to the sunsetting of GPO Access. This new URL ties PURLs to the Federal Depository Library Program. As a result:

  • All new PURLs will use the purl.fdlp.gov address.
  • Direct requests to purl.fdlp.gov will go to a splash page. The domain is used to resolve to Federal resources.
  • All of the 125,000 PURLs that were created using the original OCLC PURL Resolver Software will continue to resolve. No changes will need to be made (at this time) to the existing records that have been made by Federal depository libraries or GPO.

Automated and Enhanced PURL Referral Reporting

As a follow-up from the November 2009 modification of the PURL referral definition and reporting system, an automated PURL referral reporting system was launched on December 1, 2010 that allows Federal depository libraries to view their institution's referrals by individual hostnames and/or IP addresses. The tool also provides a listing of the top fifty (50) referred PURL resources per hostname and/or IP address with:

  • The PURL path.
  • The full path of the target URL for each PURL.
  • The total requests for that individual PURL.
  • A search link utilizing the CGP to view cataloging records for the individual PURL.

GPO still releases monthly PURL referral reports; however, these reports include aggregate totals only. Referrals totals strip out bot traffic and focuses on patron requests.

The PURL Referral Reporting Tool is locked down to Federal depository libraries only. Data is current as of the previous day. Historical data is available for twelve months. Tool functionality may be expanded in the future to include greater historical data retention and additional functionality based on funding and community feedback.

Application Monitoring

The PURL application features high availability and failover services. Traffic routing has been optimized to permit PURL resolution as well as search engines and link checkers.

Learn how Federal depository libraries can utilize PURLs at their institution, more about how PURLs operate, and information on the PURL referral reporting tool, by reading Linking to Federal Resources Using Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs).

The National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information

The National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information fulfills the information needs of the public and ensures that Government information is available in perpetuity, when and where it is needed.

Whether in a library or online, our goal is to create, sustain, and enhance programs that ensure Federal Government information is acquired, cataloged, digitized, made findable, preserved for future generations, and disseminated broadly.

In order to achieve this vision, the National Plan sets the groundwork and provides long-term strategies for the success and growth of:

  • The Federal Depository Library Program (statutory program)
    The FDLP will continue its evolution to be agile, scalable, flexible, user-centric, and outcomes-based. Extensive partnerships with Federal depository libraries and other Federal agencies and organizations will be key to long-term growth and success. Providing depositories with a rich education program, new services, and flexibilities that will allow for serving diverse communities in the most comprehensive way possible are top goals of the FDLP.

  • The Cataloging and Indexing Program (statutory program)
    The C&I Program will continue to enhance its cataloging and metadata creation through the National Bibliographic Records Inventory and its lifecycle management of Government information processes. Acquiring, harvesting, cataloging, discovery tools, and preserving will all play roles in the achievement of a comprehensive Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, both historical and moving forward. Again, partnerships with Federal depository libraries and other Federal agencies and organizations will be key to long-term growth and success.

  • The Federal Information Preservation Network (GPO strategic initiative)
    The creation of FIPNet affords the public with guaranteed, long-term access to resources, materials, and expertise from libraries, Government entities, coalitions, and organizations. This program will ensure permanent public access to historic, at-risk publications and resources of significant value to the public. Depository libraries will benefit from the added resources and the sustainability of those resources for their patrons. Based on formal partnerships with GPO, FIPNet partners will provide an added guarantee that our rich history will be accessible for future generations to come. GPO is currently in the process of developing types of FIPNet partnerships, standards, guidelines, and best practices.  More information on FIPNet.

Background

Numerous factors and initiatives provided evidence of the need for a National Plan.

What began as the “National Plan for the Future of the Federal Depository Library Program,” has evolved into the broader picture of ensuring access to U.S. Government information, of which the FDLP plays one of three parts. For this reason, the National Plan is now formally known as the “National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information.”

Components of the National Plan

  1. Introduced FIPNet to the Library of Congress and National Libraries: March 2015
  2. Launched the website for the National Plan for Access to U.S. Government Information: April 2015
  3. Present the National Plan at the 2015 DLC Virtual Meeting: April 2015
  4. Present the National Plan at national library conferences: Summer 2015

Related Resources

National Plan Presentations

Back to Top

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings (e-LCSH)

In October 2005, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and Library of Congress Cataloging Distribution Service (CDS) investigated options for electronic dissemination of CDS cataloging publications to Federal depository libraries. At the spring 2005 Depository Library Council Meeting in Albuquerque, GPO staff demonstrated the e-LCSH—a PDF version of the Library of Congress Subject Headings, 28th edition. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) partners were then invited to review the e-LCSH and provide feedback by answering a brief survey on the value of LCSH in that format.

The survey results were later shared with CDS for the purpose of assessing the viability of this delivery mechanism and for identifying potential product improvements.

Since the completion of the survey, Library of Congress lists new and changed subject headings on a

Handles

In March 2007, representatives from several GPO business units formed a team to conduct a Handles pilot project. Results of the project were to support GPO’s Federal Digital System team on its implementation of Handles.

Handles, like PURLs, are persistent identifiers for Internet resources. Both PURLs and Handles resolve through an intermediary database which can be updated to reflect changes in the location of the internet resource.

At the request of GPO’s Chief Information Officer, Library Services and Content Management (LSCM) staff initiated the creation of Handles in August 2007. After conducting internal (alpha) tests, an external (beta) test was announced at the Depository Library Council Conference in October 2007.

The purpose of the beta test, which ended November 26, 2007, was to gauge the Federal depository library community’s response to Handles and to a range of possible naming conventions. The Handles naming conventions fell into two broad categories – intelligent (containing descriptive characteristics) and non-intelligent (containing no descriptive characteristics and created or assigned automatically).

Beta Test Results

The test, which was conducted from October 15, 2007 through November 26, 2007, revealed the following:

  • Access to the requested documents using the Handles was satisfactory.
  • There is less interest in the technical aspects of Handles creation and naming than in their utility and other aspects outside the scope of the survey.
  • Some libraries would prefer some descriptive content in Handles but not at the risk of jeopardizing their accuracy by increasing the likelihood of typographical errors.
  • Non-intelligent naming conventions would be acceptable.

Recommendations

  • Handles names should be easily (i.e., machine-) generated and have as much “intelligence” as possible without making them prone to error.
  • Handles should be assigned as early in the ingest process as possible.

Requirements

  • The library community requires a robust GPO initiative to resolve the problem of broken PURLs, especially in U.S. Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) records.
  • In order for PURLs to resolve through the Handle server, Handles need to be created for the approximately 90,000 PURLs that currently exist.

Conclusion

The depository community is more interested in the functionality of persistent names than the specific format utilized to create them.

  • Next stages of the PURLs to Handles transition require a coordinated planning effort between LSCM and other areas of GPO.
  • Security and support issues involved in continuing the use of PURLs emphasize the need to expedite the transition to Handles.
  • Implementation is planned via future FDsys releases.

GPO on the Go

The GPO on the Go initiative ran from 2015 – 2020.

The staff at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has been on the go, visiting Federal depository libraries around the country. This is part of our commitment to better support and engage with librarians and library staff at over 1,100 participating libraries in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).

The purpose of these visits is to meet with staff, provide FDLP consultation services, answer questions, and offer advice and support on any topic related to the administration and management of your depository.

We are interested in and excited to see your collections and talk with your staff, whom we regularly only get to meet via phone, email, and through FDLP Academy webinars.

If you are interested in a visit to your library by GPO staff, please complete our Request for GPO Participation form.

 

Date

Location

City

State

2021-07 Towson University, Albert S. Cook Library Towson MD
2020-03 University of California, San Diego; Geisel Library La Jolla CA
2020-03 San Diego Public Library San Diego CA
2020-03 LA Law Library Los Angeles CA
2020-03 Los Angeles Public Library, Central Library Los Angeles CA
2020-03 University of California, Los Angeles; Charles E. Young Research Library Los Angeles CA
2020-03 University of Southern California, Von Kleinsmid (VKC) Library Los Angeles CA
2020-03 Orange County Public Libraries, Garden Grove Main Library Garden Grove CA
2020-03 University of La Verne, College of Law Library Ontario CA
2020-02 California State Library Sacramento CA
2020-02 Austin Peay State University, Felix G. Woodward Library Clarksville TN
2020-02 Vanderbilt University, Massey Law Library Nashville TN
2020-02 Fisk University, Franklin Library Nashville TN
2020-02 Public Library of Nashville & Davidson County, Nashville Public Library Nashville TN
2020-02 Geogetown University Library, Lauinger Library Washington DC
2020-01 University of Pennsylvania, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center Philadelphia PA
2020-01 Rutgers University, Camden; Law Library Camden NJ
2020-01 Rutgers University, Camden; Paul Robeson Library Camden NJ
2020-01 University of Pennsylvania, Biddle Law Library Philadelphia PA
2020-01 Enoch Pratt Free Library/Central; State Library Resource Center Baltimore MD
2019-12 U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Central Library Silver Spring MD
2019-11 Lawrence University, Seeley G. Mudd Library Appleton WI
2019-11 Morgan State University, Earl S. Richardson Library Baltimore MD
2019-09 California State Library California CA
2019-09 Western New Mexico University, J. Cloyd Miller Library Silver City NM

Showing 1 to 25 of 636 entries

map on the go module image 2

See where GPO has traveled on our interactive map.

Depository Library Spotlight

Read about previous libraries that were highlighted in the Depository Library Spotlight.

GPO and the LOCKSS Alliance

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is a member of the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) Alliance. LOCKSS provides libraries with digital preservation tools and support so they can collect and preserve their own copies of authorized electronic content.

GPO’s work in this area is in keeping with our mission to provide permanent public access to official Federal Government publications in print and electronic formats through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The FDLP was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government’s information. Since 1813, depository libraries have safeguarded the public’s right to know by collecting, organizing, maintaining, preserving, and assisting users with information from the Federal Government.

In a July 2010 interview in Library Journal (LJ), Ric Davis, GPO's acting Superintendent of Documents, told LJ that libraries working with GPO have expressed interest in having FDsys established as a trusted digital repository as well as the possibility of having their own local copy of GPO content.

"The foundation of the Federal Depository Library Program was built on a distributed model, with tangible publications being held throughout the country," Davis said. "We're looking at how we can continue that activity in the electronic world."

GPO's participation in the LOCKSS alliance is a step toward fulfilling the interests that have been expressed by the Federal depository library community.

What is LOCKSS?

LOCKSS (for"Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe") is open source software that provides institutions with a way to collect, store, and preserve access to their own, local copy of content. LOCKSS was developed by Stanford University, and it is currently maintained by the Stanford University LOCKSS Program Management Office with support from the LOCKSS Alliance. LOCKSS runs on standard desktop hardware and requires minimal technical administration. Once installed, the LOCKSS software converts a personal computer into a digital preservation box that creates low-cost, persistent, accessible copies of e-journal content as it is published. The accuracy and completeness of content stored in a LOCKSS box is assured through a robust and secure, peer-to-peer polling and reputation system. A LOCKSS box performs the following four functions:

  • It collects newly published content from the target e-journals using a Web crawler similar to those used by search engines.
  • It continually compares the content it has collected with the same content collected by other boxes, and repairs any differences.
  • It acts as a Web proxy or cache, providing browsers in the institution's community with access to the publisher's content or the preserved content as appropriate.
  • It provides a Web-based administrative interface that allows the institution staff to target new journals for preservation, monitor the state of the journals being preserved, and control access to the preserved journals.

Collecting

Before LOCKSS boxes can preserve a journal, two things have to happen:

  • The publisher has to give permission for the LOCKSS system to collect and preserve the journal. They do this by adding a page to the journal's Web site containing a permission statement and links to the issues of the journal as they are published.
  • The LOCKSS box has to know where to find this page, how far to follow the chains of Web links so that it doesn't crawl off the edge of the journal and try to collect the whole Web, some bibliographic information, and so on. In order to add new publishing platforms, the LOCKSS system provides a fill-in-the-blanks tool that a librarian or administrator can use to collect this information and test that it is correct. The information is then saved in a file (the LOCKSS plug-in) and added to the publisher's Web site or to some other plug-in repository, so that it is available to all LOCKSS systems.

Preserving and Auditing

The LOCKSS boxes at libraries around the world use the Internet to audit, continually but very slowly, the content they are preserving. At intervals boxes take part in polls, voting on the digest of some part of the content they have in common. If the content in one box is damaged or incomplete that box will lose the poll, and it can repair the content from other boxes. This cooperation between the boxes avoids the need to back them up individually. It also provides unambiguous reassurance that the system is performing its function and that the correct content will be available to readers when they try to access it. The more organizations that preserve given content, the stronger the guarantee they each get of continued access.

Providing Access

LOCKSS boxes provide transparent access to the content they preserve. Institutions often run Web proxies, to allow off-campus users to access their journal subscriptions, and Web caches, to reduce the bandwidth cost of providing Web access to their community. Their LOCKSS box integrates with these systems, intercepting requests from the community's browsers to the journals being preserved. When a request for a page from a preserved journal arrives, it is first forwarded to the publisher. If the publisher returns content, that is what the browser gets. Otherwise the browser gets the preserved copy.

Administering

Staff administer their LOCKSS box via a Web user interface. It allows for targeting the appliance to preserve new journals, monitoring the preservation of existing journals, controlling access to the box and other functions.

Additional information about LOCKSS is available from the Stanford University LOCKSS Web site.

Pilot Project

GPO received numerous requests from research institutions, universities, depository libraries, and other Federal Government agencies to investigate using LOCKSS as a means to manage, disseminate, and preserve access to Web-based Federal Government e-journals that are within the scope of the FDLP and the IES. As a result, GPO conducted a 12 month pilot to make Federal Government e-journals available to select pilot libraries that are operating LOCKSS boxes. The following provide a summary of GPO's evaluation of the pilot project.

 pdfExecutive Summary (40 KB)

 pdfReport (282 KB)

GPO Historic Shelflist

The GPO Historic Shelflist is the U.S. Government Publishing Office's (GPO) historic card catalog covering tangible U.S. Government documents from the 1870s to October 1992. The cards were digitized in 2012, so that a copy of the Shelflist can be maintained for cataloging projects, and for any future internal processing needs. The GPO Historic Shelflist contains:

  • Over one million digitized 3x5 cards arranged in Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) order;
  • Bibliographic information for U.S. Government documents from all three branches of the Government in a variety of formats including monographs, maps, serials, microfiche, and posters;
  • Digitized cards representing documents that were distributed to libraries in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and documents that were not distributed but required by the Cataloging and Indexing Program, as required by U.S.C. Title 44;
  • An estimated 455,000 OCLC digitized cards that were produced by GPO through OCLC beginning in July 1976; and
  • An extensive collection of bibliographic information, but not a complete inventory of publications distributed through the FDLP.

Shelflist Projects and Descriptions

Project 1: Transcription of cards (Complete)

In January of 2010, the GPO began working with contract staff to transcribe the approximately 600,000 relevant cards into MARC 21 records. Contract staff created brief bib records, enhanced with one Library of Congress Subject Heading, and one corporate name authority. The project contract ended on 12/31/2018. Contract staff had cataloged 75% of the HSL drawers.

Project 2: Digitization of Cards (Complete)

As part of its records management requirement, GPO is planning for the eventual transfer of the Shelflist to the National Archives and Records Administration. By digitizing the Shelflist, GPO will be able to maintain a copy for any future internal processing needs. The digitization project was completed in April 2012.

Project 3: Cleaning Up the Catalog (In Progress)

GPO staff are working to create a clean and accurate resource in the CGP. This step involves the resolution of SuDoc classification problems and the identification and resolution of duplicate records that occur after Shelflist records are in the CGP. This is an ongoing project, and will continue into the foreseeable future.

Project 4: Cataloging of Cards (In Progress)

The scope of Project 4 is to catalog approximately 66,000 to 88,000 remaining cards into MARC 21 records. These records are then made available through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP). As part of the cataloging, holdings and item records for continuing resources are being created as well. GPO is also enhancing the records by adding one Library of Congress Subject Heading and one corporate name access point. Please note: the records are for tangible versions of the titles only.

Phase 1 ran from October 2021 to December 2023 with contract cataloging staff. Phase 2 began in August 2025 under a new contract and vendor. Contract staff are working through card images for the estimated 67 remaining drawers.

How to Locate and Retrieve Shelflist Records

The processed Historic Shelflist records are available through the CGP. The records are identifiable by the phrase "Historic Shelflist" in the 955 field of the MARC record display. Federal depository libraries are able to retrieve these records for their own use by searching the CGP (conduct an ‘expert’ search with the phrase “wcat=historic shelflist”), by searching OCLC, or via Z39.50. Historic Shelflist records are also included in the monthly CGP On GitHub record set (a specific record set of the Historic Shelflist is not yet available). For more information on utilizing these sources of GPO cataloging records, please see the Sources of GPO Cataloging Records webpage.

The CGP also has a dedicated collection for HSL records, which can be searched by specific criteria (see Catalogs to Search “Historic Shelfist” at the top of the CGP home page,). For example:

GPO Access to FDsys Transition

 

In 1993, Congress passed the U.S. Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act (Public Law 103-40), which expanded GPO's mission to provide electronic access to Federal Government information. In June 1994, GPO launched GPO Access, and in January 2009 GPO unveiled the next generation of Government information online with its Federal Digital System (FDsys). December 20, 2010 began the countdown to the shut-down of GPO Access when FDsys became GPO’s official system of record for free access to information and publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. In November 2011, GPO Access entered its “archive only” state and transitioned its status to historical reference archive. From that point forward, FDsys was GPO’s only resource for access to current, updated information. On March 16, 2012, after 16 years of Keeping America Informed, GPO Access was shut down. In honor of the Father of the Constitution, James Madison’s, birthday, GPO chose his birthday, March 16th, for the momentous occasion. URL redirects were enabled as of March 16th to send users to the FDsys equivalent of GPO Access resources. In other cases, where one-to-one redirects were not possible due to differences in site layout, users have been redirected to the best available FDsys equivalent or the FDsys homepage at www.fdsys.gov.

FDsys is:

  • A Content Management System
    FDsys provides free online access to official Federal Government publications and securely controls digital content throughout its lifecycle to ensure content integrity and authenticity.
  • A Preservation Repository
    The repository guarantees long-term preservation and access to digital Government content. To meet this critical need for permanent access to Federal Government information, FDsys follows archival system standards.
  • An Advanced Search Engine
    FDsys combines modern search technology with extensive metadata creation to ensure the highest quality search experience.

Through FDsys, you are able to:

  • Search for documents and publications: FDsys provides advanced search capabilities and the ability to refine and narrow your search for quick access to the information you need.
  • Browse for documents and publications: FDsys offers browsing by collection, Congressional committee, and date.
  • Access metadata about documents and publications: FDsys provides information about Government publications in standard XML formats.
  • Download documents and publications in multiple renditions or file formats: With FDsys, users can download a single file or download content and metadata packaged together in a compressed file.

Benefits of FDsys

In keeping with GPO’s mission of Keeping America Informed, FDsys continues to give the American people a one-stop site to authentic, published Government information, while enhancing the searching and browsing capabilities found on GPO Access.

FDsys provides key enhancements to GPO Access that will allow users to:

  • Easily search across multiple publications or collections of Government publications from a single search box.
  • Perform an advanced search against robust metadata about each publication from a single advanced search page.
  • Construct complex search queries using advanced Boolean and field operators.
  • Refine and narrow searches by applying filters, sorting search results, and searching within search results.
  • Retrieve individual Government documents and publications in seconds directly from each search result.
  • View more information about a publication and access multiple file formats from a "More Information" Web page that is available from each search result.
  • Access metadata or information about Government publications in standard formats such as MODS and PREMIS.
  • Download content and metadata packaged together as a single ZIP file.
  • Browse for a specific Government publication and browse within the publication using its table of contents.
  • Utilize enhanced help options including context specific field level help and a searchable online help system.

Effect on Federal Depository Libraries

As GPO transitioned from GPO Access to FDsys, depository libraries needed to update literature, presentations, Web pages, and other materials that were used to promote, teach, or utilize GPO Access. In addition, staff needed to learn the features and capabilities of FDsys. For instance:

Branding

Libraries should have planned for the following changes:

  • Replacing uses of the GPO Access name and logo to the FDsys branding.
  • Updating screenshots of GPO Access pages to reflect the FDsys pages.

New FDsys brochures and promotional materials were made available in spring 2012.

Web Links

URL redirects were enabled to send users to the FDsys equivalent of GPO Access resources on March 16, 2012. In other cases, where one-to-one redirects were not possible due to differences in site layout, users have been redirected to the best available FDsys equivalent or the FDsys homepage. Libraries were asked to update their bookmarks in spring 2012.

The transition from GPO Access to FDsys did not in any way affect the operation of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and PURLs in regard to record or resource retrieval.

Bookmarking in FDsys

All links in FDsys can be bookmarked, including links to search results, browse pages, individual documents, and “more information” pages.

Learn About FDsys Features and Functionality

In order to effectively point users to the Federal information on FDsys, librarians should learn more about the features and functionality that are available. Use the following resources to learn more about FDsys:

  • About FDsys
  • Training Manual

FDsys training videos will also be available in the coming months from www.fdsys.gov, www.gpo.gov, and www.fdlp.gov.

If you are in the Washington, D.C. area and would like to attend an Introduction to FDsys or Advanced Navigation in FDsys class at GPO, please visit for more information.

Finally, if you would like to request an FDsys class at your institution and you are in the Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, D.C. area, please use askGPO to make your request. Visit , and click on the Ask a Question tab. Choose “FDsys: Federal Digital System” as the category and “FDsys Training” as the sub-category. Also in the coming months, GPO will be offering live, virtual training on FDsys.

 

FDsys Promotional Graphics

FDsys logo graphics are provided for use on your Web site or for use in printed educational and public relations materials you develop. The graphics are available in a variety of formats, depending on whether the images are needed for print or electronic format. View and download the FDsys logo graphics here.

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