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[Handout]

Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services Fall 2003 Federal Depository Library Conference and Depository

Since 1994, GPO Access retrievals have exceeded 1.7 billion, which is equivalent to over 41.7 billion typewritten pages, and reached an all-time monthly high of over 36.8 million document retrievals in January 2003.

The average number of monthly retrievals from GPO Access is currently 32 million and the average size of these documents is currently about 49kb. With 2kb equaling roughly one typewritten page, the average size of a document retrieved from GPO Access equates to some 24.5 typewritten pages and costs less than a penny per retrieval.

GPO Access contains over 153,000 electronic titles and points to over 101,000 others for a total of over 254,000 titles.

GPO Access provides use of almost 2,900 databases through more than 100 applications.

As part of ongoing efforts to provide users with the highest quality service, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is pleased to announce the launch of a new customer service tool, which can be found on the "help" page at < http://www.gpoaccess.gov/help >. This tool consists of a knowledge base that has been populated with answers to frequently asked questions related to the following services: GPO Access, the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, and the Federal Depository Library Program. Phone assistance is also available Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. eastern standard time at 888-293-6498 (toll-free) and 202-512-1530 (DC Metro area).

New business hours were initiated for the GPO Access User Support Team and GPO Publications Order Desk on September 9, 2003. The new hours are 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays). For assistance with a GPO Access database or the Online Bookstore, contact the GPO Access User Support Team at: Toll-Free: 1-888-293-6498, DC Area: 202-512-1530, Fax: 202-512-1262. To inquire about a publication or place an order, contact the GPO Order Desk at: Toll-Free: 1-866-512-1800, DC Area: 202-512-1800, Fax: 1-202-512-2250. Additional information is available at <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/help>.

In an effort to further promote the new design of GPO Access, GPO conducted a three-month campaign to have the GPO Access home page appear at the top of the search results on Google for selected keywords through Google's "Premium Sponsorships" program. A total of 40 keywords were bid on, such as "gpo access" and "federal regulations." The campaign was a huge success, bringing 94,000 Google users to the site in the three-month period. Similar campaigns are now underway on Google and Overture to promote the U.S. Government Online Bookstore.

Over the past several years, GPO has made a number of enhancements to the U.S. Government Online Bookstore to improve the customer experience in regard to searching and ordering Federal Government publications. In order to move forward with the "next generation" of services that customers are expecting from the Online Bookstore, GPO has nearly completed the process of procuring the services of a consultant who can identify an e-commerce solution and make a recommendation on how GPO should proceed with a commercial e-commerce solution. The consultant, once the procurement is finalized, will recommend a solution within a 60 work-day period.

GPO is continuing work as part of its Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) effort to assure customers that the information made available for permanent public access through GPO Access is "official" and "authentic." GPO recently approved and implemented a Certificate Policy and a PKI Architecture document. A Certification Practices Statement is currently under development. GPO plans to use this documentation as part of its effort to stand-up a PKI operation, and will seek cross-certification of its PKI with the Federal Bridge Certificate Authority. Once cross-certified, GPO staff working under the Chief Information Officer's (CIO) organization, will take steps to digitally sign all of the documents made available through GPO servers. GPO also plans to issue and validate digital certificates in the future as part of its services.

EIDS personnel will be attending and displaying the GPO booth and/or conducting training at the following venues:

October 22 - 26	American Association of School Librarians, 11th National Conference & Exhibition	Kansas City, MO
November 5	University of Nevada, Reno, Library, GPO Access Training	Reno, NV
December 9 - 13	National League of Cities Congress of Cities and Exposition	Nashville, TN

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES