BEV BUTULA: Take a trip through FDsys

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Many of us seek out the Government Printing Office’s Federal Digital System to access the U.S. Code, Federal Register, and presidential documents. We go onto the website, grab the information we need, and move on. However, the purpose of my post today is to encourage you to explore the site a bit. There is quite an array of information located there.

First, let’s visit the FDsys tutorials. There are currently four tutorials to instruct users on searching the website. These comprehensive videos strive to improve the searchers overall experience on the site.

The next stop is the Browse Government Publications link. Here, researchers will discover various items available via the FDsys. There are more than 40 collections listed. For example, the FDsys houses education reports from ERIC for the years 1995 to 2004. You can also find the House Rules and Manuals from the 104th Congress forward and GAO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions from 1994 to the present.

Now, if you scroll down the page you will come to a section titled Other Resources. This list contains a variety of information found within and outside of the GPO. Links to the CyberCemetery of Federal Government Websites and Core Documents of Our Democracy are two of my favorites.

The final stop is the Additional Government Publications page. This list is described on the website as “publications that are not currently part of an existing FDsys collection.” Here, the researcher can find links to items ranging from the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection to the Government Printing Office Style Manual.

As a final note, West Texas A&M University’s Cornette Library offers a very nice A-Z resource list to the FDsys.