F e d e r a l    D e p o s i t o r y    L i b r a r y    P r o g r a m

Handout
GPO Access Update
Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services
2003 ALA/CLA Annual Conference

GPO Access Statistical Measures

• Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have exceeded 1.6 billion, which is equivalent to over 39.2 billion typewritten pages, and reached an all-time monthly high of over 36.8 million document retrievals in January 2003.

• The average number of monthly retrievals from GPO Access is currently 32 million and the average size of these documents is currently about 49Kb. With 2Kb equaling roughly one typewritten page, the average size of a document retrieved from GPO Access equates to some 24.5 typewritten pages and costs less than a penny per retrieval.

• GPO Access contains over 149,000 electronic titles and points to over 98,000 others for a total of over 248,000 titles.

• GPO Access provides use of almost 2,900 databases through more than 80 applications.

• GPO is taking steps to "Akamaize" popular files on GPO Access so that they can be delivered through the Akamai content delivery network, effectively spreading the load to local servers and lessening the burden on the main GPO Access system. In addition to the Federal Register Table of Contents daily files, the browse feature beginning with the 2003 Code of Federal Regulations now includes "Akamaized" Text and PDF files.

• Work continues towards procuring a new platform to replace the WAIS search and retrieval software for GPO Access in order to improve system performance and enhance customer usability. GPO has a specialized team that is currently working on the procurement details of the WAIS replacement project.

• Through the use of Keynote Systems Inc., a performance measurement service, we are continuing to monitor system performance from 10 major cities in the United States. Daily monitoring is conducted on the GPO Access home page, the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, and a transaction in the Code of Federal Regulations database. Recently, Regulations.gov <http://www.regulations.gov> has been included among the pages monitored. The information gained is being used to work toward improved performance. Through this continued monitoring, GPO has increased its weekly rank on Keynote's Government 40 Index, <http://www.keynote.com/solutions/performance_indices/government _index/government_40.html>. GPO Access is now one of the fastest-loading Government Web pages on Keynote's list of popular government sites, having moved up consistently in the rankings for the last few months. As part of our commitment to serving our user community, GPO is searching for ways to improve our load time even further.

• "Special Values" is a new program offering selected publications at significantly lower prices from the Superintendent of Documents. Publications that are deemed excess to current sales program needs but still contain useful information are eligible for the Special Value category. This special collection is featured on the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at <http://bookstore.gpo.gov/values>. Currently, 19 publications are available at greatly reduced prices, but quantities are limited. These publications vary in subject matter and include popular titles, such as Crime in the United States, 1999: Uniform Crime Reports and Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board. Additional titles will be added to the Special Values page as the Sales Program continues to review its inventory. No discounts are available for any Special Value publications.

• Selected Congressional Hearings and Reports from the Challenger Space Shuttle Accident are now available on GPO Access at <www.gpoaccess.gov/challenger>.

• The Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 1953-54), Volumes 1-5 (S. Prt. 107-84), are now available for direct download on GPO Access at <http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html>. The hearings are also searchable from the Congressional Committee Reports on GPO Access at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cprints/search.html>.

• Volume I of the 2001 Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush is now available on GPO Access at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers>.

• The May 2003 edition of the Unified Agenda is now available on GPO Access at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/ua>.

• The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (H.R. 2) is available on GPO Access at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills>. It can also be accessed as a Conference Report (H. Rept. 108-126) via GPO Access at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports>.

• Regulations.gov was recognized with an E-Gov 2003 "Pioneer" award. This prestigious award is given to Government organizations that demonstrate exemplary achievements in e-Government. The Government Printing Office’s contributions to the Regulations.gov cross-agency initiative include: testing, hosting, and providing user support for the site via the GPO Access User Support Team. Regulations.gov received the award as a result of an E-Government Best Practice application that was submitted to the Government Solutions Center Selection Committee. The award was presented in conjunction with the Government Solutions Center portion of the E-Gov 2003 Exposition. Regulations.gov was selected out of 253 nominations for this top award category.

• In an effort to further promote the new design of GPO Access, GPO has launched a three-month campaign to have the GPO Access home page appear at the top of the search results on Google (the most popular Internet search engine) for selected keywords through Google’s "Premium Sponsorships" program. A total of 40 keywords are being bid on, such as "gpo access" and "federal regulations." Google has estimated that GPO Access will be seen by 1.5 million Google searchers over the three-month period.

• Work has begun to implement the RightNow eService Center software package that will provide an electronic knowledge base to help answer frequently asked questions, and also will provide Web chat functionality in real-time. This is a CRM application that will help the GPO Access User Support Team and askLPS. Complete implementation is expected for FY 04.

• Over the past several years, GPO has made a number of enhancements to the U.S. Government Online Bookstore to improve the customer experience in regard to searching and ordering Federal Government publications. In order to move forward with the "next generation" of services that customers are expecting from the Online Bookstore, GPO recently placed a Request for Information (RFI) in FedBizOpps. The purpose is to procure the services of a consultant who can identify an e-commerce solution and make a recommendation on how GPO should proceed with a commercial e-commerce product solution.

• GPO plans to implement Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology that will include the use of digital signatures for congressional and other information made available through GPO Access. This will help ensure the protection of data against unauthorized modification or substitution of information. It will also enable GPO customers to verify the authenticity and integrity of the information they are using from GPO Access. Customers with a free software reader will be able to confirm that information was approved for submission to GPO by the appropriate Federal agency and that it has not been altered since it was signed.

EIDS personnel will be attending and displaying the GPO booth and/or conducting training at the following venues: