Published: February 3, 2021
On February 3, 2016, govinfo launched as a public beta website. Throughout the years, the website has reached many milestones. The govinfo website:
- became GPO's system of record upon the retirement of FDsys in December 2018;
- achieved and maintained the only ISO 16363 Trustworthy Digital Repository certification in the world;
- expanded the information made available from 1.3 to 2 million content packages over that time; and
- served and continues to serve as the go-to source for discovering information from all three branches of the U.S. Government, averaging 33 million retrievals per month.
Over the past five years, govinfo has continuously evolved and been enhanced through the deployment of over 20 major code releases with feature highlights including:
Transition Activities
- completion of the full breadth of over 50 content collections’ browse and landing pages;
- integrated, in-context, and searchable Help information providing robust tips and tools for users to locate and access content;
- new ways to search, browse, and utilize APIs to download relevant content;
- streamlined ways for presenting display of search box options, improved URLs, and other design enhancements for an optimal user experience;
Preservation and Infrastructure Improvements
- preservation-related efforts to facilitate content lifecycle tracking and monitoring to support the integrity of content;
- upgrades to improve functionality and ensure security and optimal performance of internal and external components;
- technology refreshes to increase application performance and reduce hardware footprints;
- hardware and software replacements to ensure compliance with best practices and maintain capacity growth into the future; and
New Features and Enhancements
- additional linkages incorporated into the related documents functionality between documents and across collections;
- bug fixes and fulfillment of user requests to add to or modify searchability, access, and display of content;
- creation of new collections and the addition of digitized historical content to collections such as the Bound Congressional Record, the Federal Register, and many more;
- tools to help users find and access what they are looking for more easily, such as bookmarkable links, sharing icons, sorting customizations, and specific collection toggles, to name a few;
- feature improvements for developers for Bulk Data, Sitemaps, RSS, Link Services, and Public API; and so much more!
The govinfo website will continue to grow and foster new and innovative ways for users to discover, access, and use information published by the U.S. Government. Keep up to date with new content, release updates, or other related govinfo news by checking out new Features on the homepage or searching the latest updates here.
Visit us here to ask a question or share feedback on ways to improve govinfo. We welcome your input!