Digital preservation framework, goals, and challenges at the U. S. Government Printing Office

Abstract

For nearly 150 years, the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) has kept America informed by producing and distributing Federal government information products. GPO combines conventional technology with state-of-the-art methods whether providing public access to Government information online, or producing or procuring printed publications that serve the information needs of the U. S. Congress, Federal agencies and the American public. Established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government's information, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) involves the acquisition, format conversion, and distribution of depository materials and the coordination of Federal depository libraries in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U. S. territories. The mission of the FDLP is to disseminate information products from all three branches of the Government to over 1,230 libraries nationwide.In response to the growing need to have a centralized repository of Federal Government content, GPO is developing the Federal Digital System (FDsys) (www.fdsys.gov), which manages, authenticates, preserves, and provides access to Federal Government information. The system went live in beta in January of 2009. When fully implemented, FDsys will provide the American people a one stop site to authentic, published government information. The system is envisioned as a comprehensive, systematic, and dynamic means for preserving any type of digital content, independent of specific hardware and/or software. Six months after launch, FDsys was named one of the top government websites by Government Computer News.This paper will give an overview of the current activities and future goals of the U. S. Government Printing Office in the acquisition, preservation, and providing of public access to digital content available through the FDLP via FDsys.GPO acquires digital content through three vehicles: deposit of publications directly from the authoring agency, conversion of content from print, and harvesting of content from the web. Through FDsys, GPO plans to expand its ability to directly accept digital government publications, and will maintain authenticity and digital provenance. In addition, GPO plans to acquire publications through automated harvesting of born digital content from Federal agency websites, and to embark on an effort to digitize the entire historical collection made available through the FDLP. Together, these three methods of capture will form a publicly accessible, comprehensive collection of Federal publications that fall within the scope of the FDLP. GPO will assist the public in finding these publications through the Catalog of U. S. Government Publications, a robust source of descriptive metadata, and through the state-of-the art search tools on FDsys. Additionally, XML of select publications is available for direct download.GPO employs sound practices to ensure its digital content will be usable and accessible in perpetuity to the general public. GPO is developing FDsys in accordance with the OAIS reference model and has crafted its requirements to meet the standards set forth in the Trusted Repository Audit Checklist once FDsys is fully implemented. Self describing Archival Information Packages are stored in a preservation repository that is separated from most used portions of the system. Preservation metadata is discerned and persisted using the PREMIS data dictionary, including a full record of provenance/authenticity information.