Printing continues to serve an important purpose in the Federal Government. Congressional documents, official reports, pamphlets, books, regulations and statutes, passports, tax and census forms, statistical data, and more—in printed form these documents represent a major avenue of communication and information transaction between the Government and the public. In the 21st century, the Government Printing Office (GPO) is committed to providing printed information products for Congress, Federal agencies, and the courts as efficiently, creatively, and cost-effectively as the most modern technology will allow.
With the advent of the electronic information age, GPO has also assumed the responsibility for providing public access to the online versions of most of the official documents it prints, as well as—to the greatest extent possible—the online versions of Government publications that are not printed but are otherwise made available on other Federal Web sites. GPO recognizes that a Federal author today often begins the content creation process at a personal computer, and frequently publishes the final document on the Web, without creating a print version that will make its way to a user's hands or a library's shelves. Many Government publications are now born digital and published to the Web, with few if any copies printed for traditional public access via bookstores or libraries.
To accommodate this transition in Federal publishing strategies while preserving the core responsibility for ensuring public access to Government publications, in 1993 Congress enacted Public Law 103-40, the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act, which required GPO to establish online access to key Government publications and provide a system of storage to ensure permanent public access to the information they contain. Since then, the number of publications featured by the resulting Web site, GPO Access, at www.gpoaccess.gov, has grown exponentially, as has its use by the public. A decade later the National Archives and Records Administration formally recognized GPO as an affiliated archive for the digital content on the GPO Access site.
To meet continued public demand for online access to Government publications, provide for an increased range of search and retrieval options, and
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