Published: June 8, 2023
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) recently surpassed ten billion retrievals of Government information since the Agency started publishing information online. The achievement comes as GPO celebrates the 30th anniversary of the signing of the GPO Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act. On June 8, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the act into law, enabling GPO to put Government information online for the first time. A year later, GPO made the Congressional Record and Federal Register digitally available for the public to access. Today, GovInfo serves as the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government that dates back to the 19th century.
GPO’s digital transformation began in June 1994, when GPO first began making Government information available online with GPO Access. In January 2009, GPO unveiled the next generation system of online Government information with the Federal Digital System (FDsys). GPO launched GovInfo in February 2016 to replace FDsys. In 2019, GPO made history by becoming the first organization in the United States and second organization in the world to achieve the highest global standard of excellence possible for digital repositories. The Primary Trustworthy Digital Repository Authorization Body Ltd. awarded GPO ISO 16363:2012 certification for GovInfo. This certification reinforces GovInfo as a trustworthy source that performs digital preservation practices to ensure long-term preservation of and access to official Federal Government information.
Read more about the history of the system that was GPO Access, then FDsys, and finally, GovInfo.