Imagine sitting down at your computer to research a project with a looming deadline. You need access to published Government information and you need it fast. If you were holding a book volume, you could see where the information originated, who wrote it and when. In a digital world, how would you know for sure the document on your screen had not been altered since the author wrote it? You might also wonder when it was last updated. Today the U.S. Government Printing Office took a major step towards ensuring the American public has a one-stop site to access Government information that is authentic, version-controlled and permanently-available by announcing the selection of Harris Corporation to help develop a world-class
Future Digital System.
Content will be entered into the system, authenticated and catalogued according to GPO selected metadata and standards. The variety of content will range from text and associated graphics to video, audio, and other forms of content that emerge. This wealth of information will be available for Web searching, Internet viewing, downloading and printing, and as document masters for conventional printing, on-demand printing, and other dissemination methods.
* Public Printer Bruce James establishes the Office of Innovation and New
Technology (INT) in May 2003 to develop a plan to transform the Government
Printing Office (GPO) into the Digital Age.
* During 2003-2004, INT gathers research and information to create FDsys.
This becomes GPO's project for creating a state-of-the-art digital platform
for ingesting, storing, authenticating, and providing public access to
Government information.
* Throughout 2005, and continuing today, GPO consults with the Congress,
the Library of Congress, GPO customers in Federal agencies, and library
community partners on FDsys.
* Industry days were held at GPO in October of 2005 and January of 2006 to
communicate GPO's plans for developing FDsys.
* Proposals for the Master Integrator contract (MI) were accepted by GPO in
the spring of 2006. The MI is a company that will be awarded a contract to
work with GPO to design, develop and deploy FDsys.
* Harris was awarded the MI contract in August 2006.
* The estimated cost of FDsys is $29 million.
* The initial stage of FDsys is projected to go live in 2007.
* Included in FDsys will be all known Federal Government documents within the scope of GPO's Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), whether printed or born digital. This content will be entered into the system and then authenticated and catalogued according to GPO metadata and document creation standards. Content will be available for Web searching and Internet viewing, downloading and printing.
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