Electronic Documents
After 1996, government publications increasingly shifted to online formats; in addition, most Federal publications now originate online. Regional libraries still continue to collect information in a wide variety of formats, but nowadays many government documents are published exclusively online. Electronic documents positively impact issues such as storage, length of retention, and access, which can be enhanced with library networking.
Libraries may substitute electronic documents for tangible documents as the only copy of the item in the collection, as long as the electronic document is complete, official, and permanently accessible. Access to electronic documents is provided through Persistent Uniform Resources Locators (PURL) and is facilitated by GPO Access and the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP).
GPO Access is currently undergoing a renovation and will eventually become FDsys (GPO’s Federal Digital System), which will allow digital information to be handled more effectively and will help GPO manage documents from all branches of the Federal government. Main goals for the system are to allow Congress and Federal agencies to submit requests for publications online, manage version control and authentic government information, and provide for the preservation of Federal information through future technological changes.
Recently, federal agencies have been bypassing the GPO in lieu of publishing documents directly online. These documents, known as “fugitive documents,” are not published through GPO, and hence are not part of the FDLP program.
Read more about this topic: Federal Depository Library Program
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