Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 24, no. 10 GP 3.16/3-2:24/10 August 15, 2003 

HIGHLIGHTS 

GPO/NARA 

Agreement 1 

Reliability of 

Online Docs 2 

Fugitive 

Documents 4 

Needs & 

Offers 8 

Sales Catalogs 

Online 9 

Regulations. 

gov 9 

GPO & National Archives 

Unite in Support of 

Permanent Online Public Access 

Agreement Names GPO a NARA Affiliated 

Archives and Sets Framework for 

Collaboration Between the Two Agencies 

Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin and United States Public 

Printer Bruce R. James announced today an agreement whereby the 

Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives and 

Records Administration (NARA) will ensure the documents you see today 

on GPO Access <www.gpoaccess.gov>, the GPO Web site that provides 

free online public access to more than 250,000 Federal Government titles, 

will remain available permanently.

“GPO is committed to providing permanent public access to the online 

versions of the most important Government publications. That is why we 

are honored that NARA has recognized our commitment to making this 

information available today and to preserving it for future generations by 

making us an archival affiliate,” said Public Printer James.

Archivist Carlin said “Preserving the essential evidence of our 

Government’s work is a serious responsibility and we feel confident that 

working together with GPO will enable us to ensure that these records will 

continue to be available for all to use.” 

Librarians, including members of the Association of Research Libraries 

and the American Association of Law Libraries, have long been concerned 

about the need to ensure permanent public access to and preservation of 

electronic government information. 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

2 

“This new agreement is a critically important 

step that demonstrates the Federal 

Government's commitment to these concerns. 

We applaud GPO and NARA for working 

collaboratively so that the public will have 

access to this valuable information, both 

today and in the future,” said Janis L. 

Johnston, President of American Association 

of Law Libraries. 

The GPO-NARA agreement covers the 

content on GPO Access including the online 

versions of the Congressional Record, the 

Federal Register, the Code of Federal 

Regulations, and other electronic publications 

distributed by the Superintendent of 

Documents. GPO Access provides free 

online public access to more than 250,000 

Federal Government titles. 

In addition, persons without Internet access at 

home, school, or office may access these 

publications through GPO’s nationwide 

network of more than 1,200 Federal 

depository libraries, which provide 

specialized assistance and services to local 

users. 

Physical Copy vs. Web: How Reliable Are 

Online Versions of U.S. Federal Publications? 

Permanent public access (PPA) to Federal 

publications was historically provided 

through the Federal Depository Library 

Program (FDLP) with its network of partner 

libraries located across the United States and 

in U.S. territories. In recent years with the 

emergence of the online environment, the 

implementation of GPO Access and the 

transition to an electronic depository library 

program, this responsibility has shifted to the 

U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). 

While clearly not the only Federal agency 

with a responsibility for the permanence of 

information, GPO has been a leader in 

establishing a broader understanding of the 

PPA commitment in the Federal information 

community. 

GPO made a strong commitment in the early 

stages of electronic information to provide 

permanent public access to online Federal 

publications. PPA is achieved by 

maintaining GPO Access files, archiving 

publications from other agency Web sites at 

the time of cataloging and by entering into 

partnerships with Federal agencies and 

depository libraries. This strategy is 

described in "Managing the FDLP Electronic 

Collection: A Policy and Planning 

Document" that is online at <http://www. 

access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/ecplan. 

html>. 

One of the avenues for including a Web 

publication in the FDLP Electronic 

Collection is GPO bringing that publication 

under bibliographic control. GPO cataloging 

records for Web publications include 

persistent links to the online content. These 

Persistent Uniform Resource Locators 

(PURLs) are verified on an ongoing basis, 

and any nonfunctioning links are restored. In 

addition, GPO downloads and archives a 

copy of any Web publication that lacks a 

tangible counterpart in the FDLP. 

At present more than 60% of the publications 

made available through the FDLP are online 

publications. Public Printer Bruce R. James 

recently forecasted that soon this percentage 

would reach 95%. Online publications are 

accessible through the hyperlinks contained 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

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in the bibliographic records of the Catalog of 

U.S. Government Publications (CGP), 

available at 

<http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html>. 

The New Electronic Titles (NET) service 

alerts users to online titles that were recently 

added to the CGP. NET is online at 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators/

net/index.html. 

Depository libraries are permitted to 

substitute online versions for their tangible 

copies, provided certain stipulations are met. 

PPA is one of those stipulations. The 

substitution guidelines, which were 

implemented in May 1999, are online at 

<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/col

l-dev/subguide.html>. 

Currently GPO is working with the 

depository library at the University of 

Arizona on a pilot project to develop an 

electronic depository collection. The 

University's selection profile is used as the 

basis for this project. The yearlong project, 

which began September 1, 2002, focuses on 

identifying and changing formats to online 

electronic resources whenever possible. For 

more information on the University of 

Arizona/GPO pilot see: <http://www.library. 

arizona.edu/library/teams/sst/pol/guide/gpopilot/index.html>. 

Title 44 of the United States Code is the 

statutory authority for GPO's Federal 

Depository Library Program, the Cataloging 

and Indexing Program, and current and 

permanent access to Federal electronic 

information. GPO takes this mandate very 

seriously and would not consider taking 

action that might jeopardize the public's 

access to its Government's information. If 

GPO questioned the reliability and stability of 

online information, the transition to an 

electronic depository library program would 

not be happening, electronic depository 

collections would not be considered and 

libraries would not be allowed to substitute 

tangible materials for online publications. In 

fact the online environment allows GPO and 

depositories to provide increased access to 

publications referred to as "fugitive 

documents." In the tangible publication 

paradigm, documents whose printing was 

procured outside of GPO frequently were not 

available for distribution to depository 

libraries. Today, in the online era, 

publications formerly unobtainable in 

tangible format are identified, cataloged, 

archived and made accessible to the public. 

If there are any questions about online 

Federal publications or related issues, please 

send them to askLPS@gpo.gov. 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

4 

Fugitive Documents−On the Loose or 

On the Run 

Presentation by Gil Baldwin 

Director, Library Programs Service, GPO 

American Association of Law Libraries Conference 

Seattle, WA, July 15, 2003 

I want to thank Mark Bartlett for asking me 

to be part of your program this year. I have 

spent many years trying to get a handle on the 

fugitive documents problem, and it has 

generally been a source of a lot of frustration: 

for you, for library users who expect 

publications to be available, and for my staff, 

who try to track them down. 

In the past, fugitive documents have been 

rounded up one by one, often at great expense 

of time and effort. Usually we found out 

about a title well after publication, so our 

chances of getting a copy in the program 

were slim. But now there may a light at the 

end of tunnel. The recent GPO-OMB 

agreement on printing has the potential to 

change things for the better. 

Definition and Scope 

First, though, it is useful to define what we 

mean when we are talking about fugitives. I 

wonder if all of us in this room share a 

common definition of this oft-used term? In 

GPO’s view, the definition of fugitive 

document depends upon whether you are 

talking about tangible products or online 

publications. In the tangible world, and this 

is the traditional view, a fugitive is defined as 

a U.S. Government publication that falls 

within the scope of the Federal Depository 

Library Program (FDLP), but has not been 

included in the FDLP. These publications 

include tangible products such as ink-onpaper, microforms, tapes, films, CD-ROMs, 

or DVDs. Anything in which content is 

recorded upon a substrate. The transition to a 

predominantly electronic FDLP has spawned 

a second major category of fugitive 

documents, the online fugitives. Today, 

many agencies choose to publish online, 

typically via agency Web sites, without using 

GPO or perhaps without producing any 

analogous print edition. In such cases, the 

online publication is incorporated in the 

FDLP by the processes of GPO cataloging 

and archiving the digital object. In the 

absence of any notification coming from the 

publishing agency, GPO is obliged to rely 

upon time-intensive Web site “mining,” input 

from the library community, stories in the 

news media, and cues from print publications 

to discover Web publications that would 

otherwise be fugitive from the FDLP. 

How Fugitives Happen 

Fugitive documents most commonly occur 

when Federal agencies print or procure the 

printing of their publications on their own, 

without going through GPO. Tangible 

publications in the FDLP are usually obtained 

through a “rider” process, in which the 

Superintendent of Documents adds the 

number of copies required for GPO’s 

dissemination programs to an agency’s 

printing requisition to GPO. By law, the cost 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

5 

of FDLP copies is borne by the 

Superintendent of Documents when the 

publication has been requisitioned from GPO. 

When an agency obtains printing other than 

through GPO, the agency should notify GPO 

as to what has been printed, supply a copy for 

the Cataloging and Indexing Program, and 

bear the cost of those copies required for the 

FDLP. In practice, these legal requirements 

are rarely met. Because GPO has always 

lacked enforcement authority, the ability to 

remedy the situation was limited. 

How Many Are There? 

The number of fugitive print documents has 

been estimated as about 50% of the universe 

of Federal printing, but this estimate may be 

conservative. A 1998 Inspector General 

review of the National Institutes of Health’s 

(NIH) compliance with depository 

requirements found that 78% of NIH's 

publications that qualified for depository 

distribution were not being provided to the 

Superintendent of Documents as required by 

law. Compliance varies among agencies and 

disciplines as well, as scientific and technical 

information has long been underrepresented 

in the FDLP. In January 2000, a former 

director of the National Technical 

Information Service (NTIS) stated that there 

were as many “50,000 gray literature NTIS 

titles” that were fugitives from the FDLP. 

The number of online fugitive publications at 

this time could be in the vicinity of 250,000. 

This is a very “iffy” number, in spite of our 

best efforts to get a handle on it. We know 

there are far more Federal Web pages than 

that, but a lot of what’s out there does not 

meet the Title 44 definition of “publication” 

so it is not in scope for the FDLP. Federal 

Web pages do not necessarily equate to 

online fugitives, but we do not know what the 

ratio is so we can develop a decent 

“guesstimate.” 

What Do We Do About Fugitives? 

The key to dealing with fugitives is 

awareness. GPO has to know about a 

publication before we can acquire it for the 

FDLP. This seems terribly obvious, but 

usually it is the first point where things break 

down. In the print paradigm, awareness came 

from monitoring printing orders that came 

through GPO. If we did not get to see a print 

order, the odds were high the title went 

fugitive; it was “on the loose.” Almost never 

did agencies notify us about publications 

being produced outside of GPO. In these 

cases where documents escaped our scrutiny, 

the only recourse was to contact the agency 

and beg for copies. There was no penalty to 

the agency, as no enforcement authority was 

vested in GPO. Often the best we could do 

was to obtain a copy to convert to microfiche. 

In the electronic world, the fugitive situation 

still relies upon awareness. Once we know 

about an online publication, we classify it, 

catalog it, assign an item number, and in 

many cases download a copy into our digital 

archive. These acts make the publications 

part of the FDLP Electronic Collection. As 

such, GPO’s commitment to permanent 

public access takes over, and we are 

committed to keeping that title accessible in 

perpetuity. 

The awareness factor is why our partners in 

the depository community are such a vital 

part of the fugitive publications solution. The 

AALL Fugitive & Electronic Documents 

Committee, the Electronic Documents 

Working Group (EDWG) that spontaneously 

arose from the Depository Library Council, 

and lots of individual documents librarians 

have been extremely helpful and productive 

in bringing fugitives to our attention. Your 

submissions have been helpful and 

constructive, and we appreciate the thought 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

6 

that has been put into them. We almost never 

see a submission that is out-of-scope for the 

program, and your recommendations about 

dissemination format are generally consistent 

with the guidelines that we use. When these 

groups got started, I was concerned that we 

might be swamped by submissions, and 

develop a backlog in processing them. But 

this has not happened and projects have 

somehow scaled themselves nicely. 

Another interesting side effect happens when 

you call our attention to a title. Sometimes 

we go on to identify a whole cluster of related 

fugitives, and on occasion we have found an 

entire fugitive agency, a government 

publisher we did not know about. Examples 

of previously fugitive agencies include: 

• Defense Science Board 

• US Commission on International 

Religious Freedom 

• Technology Administration, Dept. of 

Commerce 

• National Museum of the American Indian 

• National Intelligence Council, CIA 

• National Drug Intelligence Center 

• Office of the National Counterintelligence 

Executive 

But all of this is retail trade; we’re dealing 

with fugitives one at a time, and perpetually 

behind the curve. How can we get in a 

proactive position, dealing with groups of 

publications on a wholesale basis, with a 

program with teeth? These seemed like 

insoluble questions until the “deal with 

OMB,” more formally known as the 

GPO/OMB compact. [For more information 

on the compact, see Administrative Notes, v. 

24, # 7, 6/15/03.] 

OMB Compact 

GPO is working on a number of pilot projects 

to test various services that GPO may offer in 

the future. Perhaps the most exciting one, 

and certainly the one that has received the 

most press, is the agreement between the 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 

and GPO. This agreement is truly a win for 

all concerned. It is an innovative approach to 

contracting for Executive Branch printing 

that is completely within GPO’s statutory 

responsibility under Title 44. 

Under the agreement, an agency may choose 

its own commercial printers using standard 

contracts issued by GPO. The publishing 

agency will pay GPO, and GPO will pay the 

printer, less a modest 3% fee to cover GPO’s 

contracting and administrative costs. 

However, the printer will not be paid until the 

Superintendent of Documents has received 

two print copies and one electronic copy. 

This will give GPO an electronic copy, in a 

format specified by GPO, of each publication 

for dissemination to the public, directly and 

through the FDLP. It will also give us two 

copies of last resort so GPO can, if necessary, 

create a new digital copy in the future if the 

electronic copy can no longer be used due to 

changes in technology or other problems. 

The agreement also preserves the right of the 

Superintendent of Documents to purchase 

from the printer, at GPO’s expense, 

additional copies for sale or depository 

distribution. And, as if that wasn’t enough, 

OMB will limit agency use of in-house and 

other Executive Branch printing capability 

and seek to have all appropriate publications 

from such facilities provided to the 

Superintendent of Documents as required by 

Title 44. 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

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This agreement will be tested with a single 

agency during FY 2004, which begins this 

October 1. If after a year of testing it is 

successful, it will be extended to other 

agencies in FY 2005. The agency has not yet 

been designated, but we expect to know 

within the next few weeks what agency OMB 

has chosen for the pilot project. 

The agreement should go a long way toward 

eliminating the fugitive document problem 

and bring many more titles into the FDLP. 

The Public Printer, Bruce James, deserves 

enormous credit for listening to the concerns 

of OMB and the Executive Branch agencies 

and making them an offer that addresses their 

concerns, stays within the legal requirements 

of Title 44, and improves public access to 

government information. 

Mr. James is rightfully proud that he was able 

to work with OMB to address their concerns 

and develop a new approach for Federal 

printing that fits the 21st century. Had OMB 

published the revised FAR regulations 

enabling executive branch agencies to buy 

their printing directly, by-passing the GPO, it 

would have had disastrous consequences for 

GPO and set up a potential legal battle 

between the legislative and executive 

branches. Instead, this new agreement helps 

to ensure that GPO remains the focal point 

for Federal document printing and processing 

in the 21st century, and ensures compliance 

so that GPO can reduce the fugitive 

document problem. 

Permanent Public Access 

Electronic fugitives, once rounded up, require 

constant vigilance to make sure they don’t 

escape again. This is what permanent public 

access, PPA, is all about. GPO’s 

commitment to permanent public access to 

electronic resources requires that we manage 

and preserve the FDLP Electronic Collection 

for current and future public use. This 

responsibility dovetails with the continuity of 

government concerns in the post-9/11 era. 

GPO’s computer backup and mirror site 

facilities in Pueblo, CO and the Alternative 

Congressional Facility ensure the continued 

availability of this vital content and metadata. 

GPO is negotiating an agreement with the 

National Archives and Records 

Administration (NARA), making GPO an 

official "archival affiliate." All of the GPO 

Access databases are considered the official 

archival copies as if they had been transferred 

to NARA, but GPO will continue to maintain 

them for permanent public access. This 

agreement also has the potential to reduce 

fugitive documents. 

In the future the agreement may be expanded 

to make GPO Access databases the official 

archival copy, not just as a record of GPO’s 

actions, but also as the official record of the 

publishing agency’s actions in producing the 

information. If that occurs, then an agency 

could deposit an electronic copy with GPO 

once and meet not just its responsibilities to 

the Federal Depository Library Program, but 

also the requirements of the Federal Records 

Act and the Electronic Records Act. This 

would be a powerful incentive for agencies to 

provide electronic content to GPO for public 

access and preservation. 

GPO has also decided to re-establish a 

comprehensive collection of tangible and 

electronic documents as a collection of last 

resort for the program, and to facilitate 

repurposing of digital content such as keeping 

publications from going “out-of-print.” 

These are examples of the kind of innovation 

you will continue to see from GPO, and the 

agreements with OMB and NARA should 

give you every reason to be encouraged about 

our ability to work together to define a bright 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

8 

future for the Federal Depository Library 

Program and other public information 

dissemination services of the Government 

Printing Office. 

National Needs and Offers List: An Important 

Collection Development Tool 

[Taken from an announcement by Bill Gordon, 

the Needs and Offers list coordinator, on 

GOVDOC-L.] 

Everyone is a winner at 

<http://www.und.edu/fdlp/>! 

Looking for a great way to cut down on the email traffic? Compile your list of needs and 

offers, and then, offer them weekly right here. 

Check out <http://www.und.edu/fdlp/ 

about_no.html> to see how easy it is to get 

your lists on line. 

Regional libraries do you have a link from the 

"National Needs and Offers List" to your 

listings? The "National Needs and Offers 

List" is on line twenty four hours a day, seven 

days a week at <http://www.und.edu/fdlp/>. 

The National Needs and Offers list is updated 

weekly. 

The N&O list is a tool used by depository 

librarians for collection development 

purposes, in which selective depositories 

seeking to dispose of publications withdrawn 

from their collections may place publications 

with other depositories. 

Depository libraries can offer their discards 

here, after they are over 5 years old and after 

they have first offered them to their Regional 

library, according to their Regional's 

implementation procedures of the FDLP 

weeding regulations, as explained in Chapter 

4 of the Instructions to Depository Libraries. 

Submit lists, or a URL that links to a list on 

your library's Web site, by e-mail or e-mail 

attachment, to William (Bill) Gordon at 

william.gordon@mail.und.nodak.edu. Please 

use "GovDoc Exchange List" as the subject 

line. Lists will be posted for 90 days, or less 

if the library that submitted the list requests 

that their list be removed before the 90 days 

are completed. Please include contact 

information somewhere either at the top or 

bottom of the list, in addition to the e-mail 

message. 

Recommendations: 

Include SuDocs classification numbers, titles, 

item numbers and publication dates; list titles 

in SuDocs number order, and include in the 

list any special instructions you feel are 

pertinent (e.g. "reimburse postage only in 

stamps, please") and, again contact 

information.(e.g. Federal Depository number, 

Library name, State and e-mail contact 

address). 

• Please check your lists at: 

<http://www.und.edu/fdlp/about_no.html> 

should your list be linked. Please ensure 

it's updated. 

• Looking for Government Documents? 

Look no more, check the selection we 

have at <http://www.und.edu/fdlp/#o> 

• Need to see if someone can use your old 

Government Documents, look no more; 

check out this list at: 

<http://www.und.edu/fdlp/index.html#n> 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

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• To add your library's Needs and/or Offers 

Lists to this listing please refer to: 

<http://www.und.edu/fdlp/about_no.html> 

If you would like a Needs or Offers list taken 

off of the national list before the 90-day 

period is up, simply e-mail me at 

<william.gordon@mail.und.nodak.edu>. Use 

GovDocs Exchange List as your subject. Let 

me know if you want it removed. It's that 

easy! 

University of North Dakota 

Chester Fritz Library 

P.O. Box 9000 

3051 University Avenue 

Grand Forks, N.D. 58202 

ATTN: Bill Gordon/GovDocs 

1-701-777-4628 

Fax 1-701-777-4811 

william.gordon@mail.und.nodak.edu

Documents Sales Catalogs Now Online Only 

Due to the popularity of the GPO Online 

Bookstore, the demand for a printed version 

of Documents sales catalogs has decreased. 

The Fall 2003 issue of the U.S. Government 

Subscription catalog will be the last issue of 

the printed catalog. GPO has also stopped 

printing issues of the Subject Bibliographies. 

The bibliographies are still available as 

“Browse a Topic” on the home page of the 

U.S. Government Online Bookstore 

<http://bookstore.gpo.gov>. The 

Subscriptions catalog is also available on the 

home page. 

Remarks by Judy Russell 

Superintendent of Documents 

Narrative to accompany PowerPoint Presentation on Regulations.gov 

E-GOV 2003, June 12, 2003 

PowerPoint Presentation: www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/egov-053003.html

Text-only version of PowerPoint Presentation: www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/adnotes/egov-053003.txt

[Russell portion of presentation covered slides 6 through 9] 

• Federal regulations implement Federal laws 

and establish the rights and obligations of 

the public and government under specific 

legislative authority. Before a Federal 

agency may adopt new regulations, it is 

required to notify the public about its 

intentions and solicit comments on 

proposed rules. 

• Since 1934 that system has been 

administered by the Office of the Federal 

Register and proposed and final regulations 

have been promulgated through the Federal 

Register and codified in the Code of 

Federal Regulations (CFR). This provides 

a centralized system that insures public 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

10 

notice of proposed regulations and public 

access to existing regulations. 

• In 1994, the Federal Register was made 

available for free public access on GPO 

Access <www.gpoaccess.gov>. In 1996, 

the CFR became available on GPO Access. 

Currently, an average of 4 million Federal 

Register documents and 7.5 million CFR 

documents are downloaded from GPO 

Access each month. This service has vastly 

expanded timely public access to official 

regulatory information. The day a proposed 

rule is published, it is available on GPO 

Access and can be viewed and downloaded 

from anywhere in the world. People who 

are remote from Washington are no longer 

disadvantaged by the need to wait for the 

paper copies to arrive days after 

publication.

• In order to implement laws passed by 

Congress, more than 4,000 new rules are 

created each year by approximately 160 

different Federal agencies. As many as 500 

rules can be open for comment at any given 

time. 

• In 2001, more than 23 million people and 

organizations submitted comments on 

proposed rules. Over 80,000 pages of 

notices, proposed and final rules were 

published in the Federal Register in 2002. 

• Regulations.gov Web site 

<www.regulations.gov> is the first 

milestone in reaching the goals of the 

President’s eRulemaking Initiative, one of 

the President’s Management Initiatives. 

The eRulemaking Initiative is focused on 

creating a simple web-based tool for 

viewing and commenting on proposed 

rules. The Regulations.gov Web site was 

created as a first step in this process. 

• Regulations.gov can be traced back to an 

effort by the interagency E-Government 

Task Force, a group of about 80 Federal 

employees from across the Government, 

which was created to develop an action plan 

for implementing the President’s EGovernment Initiative. 

• The E-Government Task Force gathered 

input from government employees 

conducting over 71 interviews with more 

that 150 senior Government officials and 

identifying 200 possible project ideas from 

e-mails sent by Federal employees. As a 

result, the E-Government Task Force found 

that the Federal Government could 

significantly improve customer service over 

the next 18-24 months by focusing on 24 Egovernment initiatives. 

• One of the 24 identified E-government 

initiatives to improve citizen service, make 

Government more efficient and save 

taxpayer money was the Online 

Rulemaking initiative. Regulations.gov is 

the first phase of this effort. Our vision is 

to make sure that citizens can easily access 

and participate in a high quality, efficient 

and open rulemaking process. The goals 

for the initial module are: 

3⁄4 Improved citizen and 

intergovernmental participation in the 

full lifecycle of rulemaking; 

3⁄4 Improved regulatory policies and 

outcomes through greater quality, 

management efficiency, and 

transparency in the rulemaking 

process (collaboration, effectiveness); 

and 

3⁄4 Provide an easy and consistent way 

for the public to search, view and 

comment on proposed Federal rules 

• The goal for Module 2 is to create a 

centralized Federal Government docket 

system. 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

11 

• The goal for Module 3 is to build a 

seamless, integrated, unified, and costeffective regulatory management system. 

• As with many Federal initiatives, the 

Regulations.gov Web site is the result of a 

unique collaborative effort of five agencies 

and six different contracting firms. 

3⁄4 EPA is the Managing Partner for the 

overall eRulemaking Initiative, and 

hosts the comment portion. 

3⁄4 NARA/OFR designed the Web site, 

search function and database 

application that tracks rules for 

comment. 

3⁄4 GPO provides the full text of the 

proposed rules and user support 

through the GPO Access User 

Support Team and hosts the Web site 

for identification of proposed rules. 

3⁄4 HHS/FDA provided the initial 

comment application that was further 

modified specifically for this site and 

technical support to launch. 

3⁄4 DOL and several other agencies are 

providing additional technical support 

for XML documentation/registry and 

testing. 

3⁄4 In addition, all agencies including the 

DOT, USDA, FCC, GSA, DOJ, and 

HUD provided extensive in-house and 

contractual support. 

3⁄4 This effort involved collaboration and 

teamwork, with each participating 

agency working from its strengths and 

contributing some of its resources. 

• Regulations.gov efficiently employs the 

power of the existing information systems 

at GPO and NARA. The same Federal 

Register documents that GPO provides 

online through GPO Access are also used to 

keep Regulations.gov up-to-date. 

Therefore, Regulations.gov is updated 

every business day as new regulations are 

proposed. All the rules that are open for 

comment are cataloged and then posted to 

the site. Via Regulations.gov, citizens have 

easy, manageable access and the ability to 

comment on these proposed rules at one 

Web site. 

• The successful public launch of this Web 

site was accomplished on January 23, 2003 

with dignitaries participating from OMB, 

EPA, HHS/FDA, NARA/FR and GPO. 

Since its launch on January 23, 2003, there 

have been over 750,000 connections to the 

Web site, averaging 8,000 hits per day. 

John Moses from EPA will show a 

demonstration of the site, and we encourage 

you to stop at the booth to try the 

Regulations.gov service yourself after this 

presentation. 
AN-v24-#10-8/15/03 

12 

Table of Contents 

GPO and National Archives Unite To Guarantee Future of Online Public Access...................... 1 

Physical Copy vs. Web: How Reliable Are Online Versions 

 of U.S. Federal Publications?...................................................................................................... 2 

Fugitive Documents–On the Loose or On the Run / Baldwin, AALL, 2003 ............................... 4 

National Needs and Offers List: An Important Collection Development Tool............................ 8 

Documents Sales Catalogs Now Online Only .............................................................................. 9 

Remarks on Regulations.gov / Russell, E-GOV 2003.................................................................. 9 

Administrative Notes Cumulative Table of Contents 

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