GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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GPO’s Online Initiatives Printing continues to serve an important purpose in the Federal Government. Congressional documents, offi cial reports, pamphlets, books, regulations and statutes, passports, tax and census forms, statistical data, and more—in printed form these documents represent a major avenue of communication and information transaction between the Government and the public. In the 21st century, the Government Printing Offi ce (GPO) is committed to providing printed information products for Congress, Federal agencies, and the courts as effi ciently, creatively, and cost-eff ectively as the most modern technology will allow. With the advent of the electronic information age, GPO has also assumed the responsibility for providing public access to the online versions of most of the offi cial documents it prints, as well as—to the greatest extent possi- ble—the online versions of Government publications that are not printed but are otherwise made available on other Federal Web sites. GPO recog- nizes that a Federal author today oft en begins the content creation process at a personal computer, and frequently publishes the fi nal document on the Web, without creating a print version that will make its way to a user’s hands or a library’s shelves. Many Government publications are now born digital and published to the Web, with few if any copies printed for traditional pub- lic access via bookstores or libraries. To accommodate this transition in Federal publishing strategies while pre- serving the core responsibility for ensuring public access to Government publications, in 1993 Congress enacted Public Law 103–40, the Government Printing Offi ce Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act, which re- quired GPO to establish online access to key Government publications and provide a system of storage to ensure permanent public access to the infor- mation they contain. Since then, the number of publications featured by the resulting Web site, GPO Access, at www.gpoaccess.gov, has grown exponen- tially, as has its use by the public. A decade later the National Archives and Records Administration formally recognized GPO as an affi liated archive for the digital content on the GPO Access site. To meet continued public demand for online access to Government publi- cations, provide for an increased range of search and retrieval options, and ix Preliminary-CD.indd ixPreliminary-CD.indd ix 3/4/09 10:18:05 AM3/4/09 10:18:05 AM