The Library Services and Content Management (LSCM) business unit of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) began digital imaging works of the U.S. Government in 2016. The overall objective of digital imaging is to increase public access to historic Federal Government information by making it available digitally on GovInfo, and ultimately to make the entire National Collection of U.S. Government Information available digitally.
GPO’s System of Online Access Collection Development Plan support’s GovInfo to make it the “most comprehensive information repository serving the information needs of Congress, Federal agencies, and the public” and entails the ingest of current and historical content. LSCM reevaluates the Plan’s deliberate priority setting and planned collecting activities and goals annually.
LSCM utilizes two avenues to acquire digital images: digital imaging through contract vehicles and content digitally imaged by partners. Consider partnering with GPO to make the content you digitized more widely available. If you have a project that you would like to talk with GPO about, contact GPO’s partnership coordinator via askGPO; choose the GPO customer type, Federal Depository Library; and choose the category, Partnerships. To learn more about how to become a partner and see the list of current partners, visit the partnerships page.
Digital Imaging Specifications
- Follow the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative’s “Technical Guidelines for Digiting Cultural Heritage Materials” three-star level.
- Additional specifications include (exact specifications may differ based on the content being digitally imaged):
- 400 ppi (original document size) with 24-bit RGB color.
- Master file format: JPEG 2000 with up to a 20:1 lossless compression ratio.
- Searchable and optimized PDFs compliant to the PDF/A2-b format specification standard.
- OCR text saved as txt file format for each publication.
- Pages should have no visible skew (no more than between 0-1 degrees).
- Pages cropped so the page edge is showing with a border of no less than 1/16 inch and no larger than ¼ inch.
FY23 Accomplishments
- Completed the digitization of the Congressional Directory from the 41st to the 103rd Congress. 261 volumes added GovInfo.
- Added 23,733 reports and documents contained in 1,610 Serial Set volumes to GovInfo. For more information see the “Digitizing the United States Congressional Serial Set” project page.
- Digitized and added 11,137 daily depository shipping lists to GovInfo.
- Added 1,760 hearings to GovInfo. For more information, see the “Digitizing United States Congressional Hearings” project page.
- Added 36 publications digitized by Digital Contributor Partners to Govinfo.
- Digitized 111 volumes of the Statutes at Large. Awarded contract to digitize the U.S. Reports.
- Awarded contract to digitize a group of miscellaneous publications, including executive agency annual reports and House, Senate journals.
FY24 Efforts
- Continue to collaborate with the Law Library of Congress to make more digitized Serial Set volumes available on GovInfo.
- Complete the development of the digitized Statutes at Large collection on GovInfo and make the digitized volumes available.
- Complete the digitization of the miscellaneous documents contract awarded in FY23.
- Complete the digitization of the U.S. Reports.
- Add more Congressional hearings and prints to GovInfo.
FY25 Plans
- Continue to collaborate with the Law Library of Congress to make more digitized Serial Set volumes available on GovInfo.
- Complete the development of the digitized U.S. Reports collection on GovInfo, and make the digitized volumes available.
- Ongoing digitization of Congressional hearings.
- Digitization of additional depository shipping list, executive agency annual reports, and independent commission material.
Related Resources
- GPO Needs List
- “Digital Content Contributor Partnerships, Collaborating with GPO, Building the National Collection” webinar
- “Guidance for Digitally Imaging Content for Submission to GovInfo”