Doing Business With the Government Printing Office

Government Printing Office732 North Capitol St. NWWashington, D.C. 20401(202) 512-1991 June 23, 1860 Bruce James About 3,000 nationwide The Government Printing Office, part of the legislative branch of the federal government, produces and distributes information products and services in print, in electronic format and online via GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov). Congress, the White House about 130 federal departments and agencies rely on GPO. Tax forms, the annual budget, consumer information guides, regulations and reports are just some of what the GPO produces. It also furnishes printing supplies to government activities as ordered. There is a central office in the District of Columbia and a storage and distribution facility in the D.C. area. There is also a printing plant in Denver, a technical documentation facility in Atlantic City, N.J., a publication distribution facility in Pueblo, Colo., and regional and satellite procurement offices and bookstores nationwide. The GPO operates like a business. It makes a product and is paid its expenses by the customer. Therefore, there is no federal line item in the budget for this agency. It does get two appropriations: One pays for congressional printing, and the other pays for cataloging, indexing, distributing and online access to documents through the Federal Depository Library Program. For fiscal 2002, GPO had revenue of about $702 million. Its financial records are independently audited every year.XXXSPLITXXX- Manager of information resources management policy May 19 Alexandria, Va. Wife and two children. "I think work is what I have at the moment." "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared DiamondAttended University of Santa Barbara in CaliforniaSchweickhardt: We obviously have all of the normal requirements for business systems that agencies have. When we look at our printing responsibilities, we're really in a transition to information dissemination as being the mission of the agency. Printing is something that is diminishing as people increasingly go to the Web and look things up. So we need to worry about serving the public and Congress and other government agencies not only in the traditional printed form, but also in electronic databases and appropriate search and retrieval products.The other thing unique about GPO is we have a requirement for perpetual public access. Back when GPO got started in the 1800s, there was a requirement that as we were printing government publications, we made additional copies for inclusion in the depository library program, which then put government information out in the states and accessible to the citizens. Today, we have 1,250 depository libraries, and that is one way in addition to the GPOAccess Web site that we disseminate information to the public. As agencies shift to born-digital content, the library community has had to shift how it captures and makes that information accessible to patrons. It's ironic, but the publications we printed in the early 1800s, you can go to a regional depository and find them on the shelves almost 200 years later. As we switch to digital, how can we create that same environment for perpetual public access?Schweickhardt: We're taking a hard look at the problem. The other thing we're working on is implementation of the recent compact between OMB and GPO about how government printing will be procured in the future. One thing we're working on is an e-commerce site that will allow agencies, with support of GPO, to select printers for their needs. Part of what we're trying to solve is what we refer to as the fugitive document problem. The depository library system is only capturing about 50 percent of the appropriate publications. So half of appropriate, historical government information isn't making it into the system by which it's going to be acceptable in the future. Schweickhardt: Most of what we do supports Web sites for agencies, such as the Supreme Court. Most of what we put on the Web, however, comes to us because people want it both in print and in electronic form.Schweickhardt: We're looking for companies with a track record of success and that can help us solve the problems we're struggling with, and at same time, because we're concerned about perpetual public access, we really are looking for companies that have a track record and financial stability. For the complete interview with Reynold Schweickhardt, including the latest on , go to QuickFind at and type in 113.