GPO Partners with Google to Offer Federal E-Books
WASHINGTON, DC—Dec. 14, 2010—The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and Google have entered a partnership to offer the public, for the first time, federal government titles in an e-book format. The titles will appear on Google’s recently launched Google ebookstore, which can be searched, purchased and read on any connected device with a capable browser.
Currently the public can search for titles such as the appendix for the Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2011; Remembering the Space Age; Borden’s Dream (a history of Walter Reed Army Medical Center). GPO has about 100 titles in the catalog and will continue to add titles in the next several months, which will include the first volume of the Public Papers of President Barack Obama and the Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2012.
“GPO has a treasure trove of publications to keep Americans informed on the workings of the federal government and the agency is excited to offer them through another avenue,” said Public Printer Bob Tapella. “I congratulate GPO’s Publication and Information Sales team for their hard work in making this partnership with Google possible by using the latest technology to reach a larger audience.”
“GPO has been offering federal publications for more than 100 years and this partnership with Google opens the door for a new way to publicize the titles available from the federal government,” said Publication and Information Sales Managing Director Davita Vance-Cooks. “GPO has been looking for the best way to move into this new sales channel. And since Google did all the scanning and digital conversion, this didn’t cost GPO or the taxpayers any money.”
The GPO is the federal government’s primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing, authenticating, and preserving published U.S. government information in all its forms. GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the federal government. In addition to publication sales, GPO makes government information available at no cost to the public through GPO’s Federal Digital System (www.fdsys.gov) and through partnerships with approximately 1,220 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program.
For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov. Follow GPO on Twitter http://twitter.com/USGPO and on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/gpoprinter.
Source: Press release.