GPO and Library Of Congress to digitize historic documents

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Press release from the issuing company

Washington - The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and Library of Congress (LOC) are collaborating to digitize some of our nation's most important legal and legislative documents after receiving approval from the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP). The digitization project will include the public and private laws, and proposed constitutional amendments passed by Congress as published in the official Statutes at Large from 1951-2002. GPO and LOC will also work on digitizing official debates of Congress from the permanent volumes of the Congressional Record from 1873-1998. These laws and documents will be authenticated and available to the public on GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) and the Library of Congress's THOMAS legislative information system.

GPO and LOC have also been given approval by JCP on a project to provide enhanced public online access to the Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN), a Senate Document that analyzes Supreme Court cases relevant to the Constitution. The project involves creating an enhanced version of CONAN, where updates to the publication will be made available on FDsys as soon as they are prepared. In addition to more timely access to these updates, new online features will also be added, including greater ease of searching and authentication.

GPO authenticates the documents on FDsys by digital signature. These authenticated documents are also available on the Library's THOMAS system. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered since receipt by GPO. A digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document's integrity and authenticity.

"GPO has been Keeping America Informed on the three branches of the Federal Government for 150 years. It is the agency's goal to provide Americans with access to Government documents and we are excited to add historic, landmark congressional documents to our digital repository," said Superintendent of Documents Mary Alice Baish.

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