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serving the information needs of Congress, Federal agencies, and the public” and entails the ingest of current and historical content.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.
FY25 Accomplishments
- Launching the U.S. Reports collection
- 1,123 Serial Set volumes containing 55,347 reports and documents
- 154 digitized Congressional hearings
- 1,524 digitized Congressional Committee prints
- 633 Military Technical Manuals digitized in partnership with the University of North Texas
- 245 miscellaneous publications, predominately annual reports.
FY26 Plans
- Begin digitization of the Code of Federal Regulations
- Continued digitization of Congressional hearings
- Continued digitization of House and Senate Journals
- Continued digitization of executive agency annual reports
- Continued digitization of depository shipping lists
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”