GPO’s National Collection and the National Digital Collection

Earlier this month, the Government Publishing Office (GPO) posted a press release announcing GPO and Libraries Set Goal to Make Every U.S. Government Document Accessible. In the press release, GPO offers a broad and ambitious commitment “to capture and make publicly accessible every U.S. Government document through the National Collection of U.S. Government Public Information (National Collection)...by digitizing documents and making them accessible on govinfo and the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP), as well as partnering with Federal depository libraries who serve as stewards for all tangible materials.” 

The PEGI Project applauds the GPO’s efforts to improve and expand access to the historical tangible documents and publications included in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). At the same time, we encourage GPO to extend this initiative to include collecting, preserving, and making accessible born-digital government information. 

The historical, tangible National Collection housed in FDLP libraries is a distinct and small subset of the burgeoning born-digital National Collection. These equally valuable born-digital federal information resources are of a much more ephemeral nature, and warrant a concerted effort (a moonshot if you will!) by GPO, FDLP libraries, and other trusted partners. 

The PEGI Project originally coalesced around thorny issues related to collecting, preserving, and providing access to born-digital government information. We have spent the last four years expanding the discussion and stakeholder engagement. We encourage GPO to lead a strong and focused initiative on expanding official partnerships to collect and preserve born-digital government information, and are ready to assist with making this dream a reality. 

For more background on born-digital federal government information, see the PEGI Project’s environmental scan. To see how the PEGI Project is laying groundwork for future efforts, see our recent backbone plan highlighting opportunities, strategies, and hopeful outcomes.