CIRCULAR LETTER NO. 802

December 21, 2010

TO: Printing and Publishing Officials of the Federal Government

SUBJECT: GPOAccess is transforming to FDsys

TThe many Federal Agencies and the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) have always been strong collaborators in Keeping America Informed. We invite you to continue that strong tradition today by working with GPO to inform your constituents about GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), <www.fdsys.gov>.

In 1993, Congress passed the U.S. Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act (Public Law 103-40), which expanded GPO's mission to provide electronic access to Federal Government information. In June 1994, GPO launched GPO Access, and now GPO is unveiling the next generation of Government information online with FDsys. December 20, 2010 begins the countdown to the sunset of GPO Access. For the next several months, GPO Access will continue to be updated in parallel with FDsys, and in mid-2011, GPO Access will be officially retired.

FDsys provides key enhancements to GPO Access that will allow users to:

• Easily search across multiple publications or collections of Government publications from a single search box.
• Perform an advanced search against robust metadata about each publication from a single advanced search page.
• Construct complex search queries using advanced Boolean and field operators.
• Refine and narrow searches by applying filters, sorting search results, and searching within search results.
• Retrieve individual Government documents and publications in seconds directly from each search result.
• View more information about a publication and access multiple file formats from a "More Information" Web page that is available from each search result.
• Access metadata or information about Government publications in standard formats such as MODS and PREMIS.
• Download content and metadata packaged together as a single ZIP file.
• Browse for a specific Government publications and browse within the publication using its table of contents.
• Utilize enhanced help options including context specific field level help and a searchable online help system.

For more information on FDsys, visit <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsysinfo/aboutfdsys.htm >.

Thank you,

DR. RICARDO GARCIA
Managing Director, Print Procurement