Tuesday 6 November 2007

Federal Gov. information

GPO Access, the website of the General Printing Office, is undergoing a transformation. The new website, which is being developed in phases, is called "FDSys" (pronounced "fed sis"). FDsys is intended to make it easy for federal agencies to create and submit content to the website that can then be preserved, managed and delivered upon request. When it is completed, FDsys will include all Federal Government documents within the scope of GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), whether printed or electronic. Content will include text, graphics, audio, and video files. It will be available for online searching and viewing, downloading and printing, and as document masters for conventional and on-demand printing.
A summary powerpoint presentation of the development of Fedsys is on the GPO website. There's also a FDsys blog where you can keep up to date and share ideas.

How the heck are they going to organize all this digital information so we can find it, you may be asking. Well, they are also testing various "naming structures" to identify information that will be entered into the bib records. If you're a cataloging librarian, or just love organizing stuff, you can check out the naming structures and comment on them (by Nov. 26) on the FDLP website.

I've added a page of useful federal forms links to our library website. If there are forms that aren't there let me know and I'll add them.

Hat tip to Pat Roncevich for the info about FDsys and the federal forms.

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