Since the early 1990s, GPO ( Government Printing Office ) provided "GPO Access" on the internet, a service that has provided free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. But over the years, GPO had failed to update its technological abilities to keep pace with changes in the information dissemination environment. The development of new technologies and new demands necessitated the development of a new information management and distribution system for government information.
The new system,”FDsys”, Federal Digital System, has been in development for several years. FDsys, should provide GPO with the technical and management capabilities to not only catch up the changes in it's environment but to aggressively move forward in the 21 Century. The two systems have been running in parallel, as data was migrated to FDsys. FDsys became the U.S. Government Printing Office's (GPO’s) system of record for online Federal Government information in December 2010. GPO is now in the process of a phased shutdown of GPO Access.
As of November 2011, GPO Access will be available only as an archive, with no new information added to it. While GPO Access will no longer be updated, it will remain accessible to the public. In the final phase, GPO Access will shut down permanently and will no longer be available for public use. A date has not yet been established for the final shutdown of GPO Access; however, it is slated for fiscal year 2012.
Libraries should take this opportunity (if they have not already done so) to review their Web sites, presentations, brochures, and other materials that reference GPO Access and work to update or replace these materials.
View instructions on how to create links to FDsys content ( For information on the URL structure for each collection, visit the Sample Searches and URLs page for the collections listed on this page)
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