The Federal Digital System

Citation

Latham, B. (2010), "The Federal Digital System", Reference Reviews, Vol. 24 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/rr.2010.09924gag.001

The Federal Digital System

Article Type: Eye on the net: new and notable From: Reference Reviews, Volume 24, Issue 7

Just like everything else, the US Federal Government has increasingly moved its information environment from print to digital. The adoption of digital publishing practices by both the Government Printing Office (GPO) and federal agencies ensures that digital information is of increasing significance to government information collections. Approximately 92 percent of all new government information is published in digital format (US Government Printing Office, 2010), leaving the GP, traditionally the gatekeeper of government information, in something of a predicament. Management of digital information collections engenders a host of issues their tangible counterparts do not and, as the GPO’s system for organization, control, and dissemination of government information has remained virtually unchanged for decades, it was/is ill-equipped to meet these challenges. However, the GPO has finally implemented a system to attempt to address some of these issues – in January 2009, the Federal Digital System (FDsys; see www.gpo.gov/fdsys) was launched to replace the outdated GPOAccess web portal. Though it has yet to realize its full potential, FDsys may eventually have a significant impact on government information collections and the librarians who manage them.

It is, of course, not the case with e-journal content or e-books, but there is a tendency by librarians to view digital information created by the government as “free”. All arguments about taxpayer dollars aside, the Federal Government does not charge for access to the majority of the information its agencies create (though there are exceptions, such as the STAT-USA database). For government information librarians, shelf space, cost per piece to label/secure, etc., is not a consideration. However, the staff time to catalogue, process, and most importantly, maintain digital information can be extremely expensive, sometimes surpassing that of tangible collections. In addition to these considerations, there is also what should be the reference and collection development librarian’s main concern: does the information I am acquiring meet the needs of my user base? In the case of digital government information, much of it is intensely technical or out of scope. Thus, collection development and definition of access for digital government information is just as important as that pursued for tangible, traditional collections. Libraries must set forth the scope of their digital government information collections, as well as make decisions regarding preservation and access. FDsys has the potential to help with this.

FDsys attempts to migrate all the content from GPOAccess into a system where publications can be organized by collection under a common interface, along with some Web 2.0 bells and whistles, such as blogs and RSS feeds. But more than that, it is meant to be an all-encompassing system for both seekers of information, managers of information, and those who wish to have information published: agencies can use FDsys to submit orders electronically for GPO print jobs or electronic distribution of digital documents; it will eventually aggregate all this information through a single portal for easy searching and access, and it also allows for authentication, version control and preservation. How FDsys will be used in GPO’s preservation initiatives has not been specifically stated, but the implication is that GPO will guarantee preservation since these documents are now within their purview – they actually reside within the system rather than, as in the past with GPOAccess, being merely links to documents that reside on the agency’s server. What this means is more stability for librarians attempting to provide permanent access to digital government information.

As of this writing, 29 of the 40 collections (e.g. Budget of the United States Government) contained within the legacy system had been migrated into the FDsys. Though completion was set for July 2010, it remains to be seen if that goal will be met. Once it has, GPO can begin adding collections outside the original scope of the legacy system, expanding permanent access to these new collections, and perhaps even eventually providing a one-stop shop for all manner of authenticated digital government information.

Bethany LathamInternet Editor, Reference Reviews , and Assistant Professor and Electronic Resources/Documents Librarian, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama, USA