1909 Checklist: (Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789 - 1909) is an index of government documents titles that were published from 1789 – 1909. A good source of information for finding titles published during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Access: providing for free public access to Federal Government information products regardless of format. Access involves making Federal Government information products available and usable for all users, including those with disabilities. It also involves but is not necessarily limited to bibliographic, physical building, tangible collection, Internet, and onsite computer access. It is the degree to which the public is able to retrieve or obtain the information products, either through the FDLP or directly through a digital information service established and maintained by a Government agency or its authorized agent or other delivery channels, in a useful format or medium, and in a time frame whereby the information has utility.

Accessibility: making tools and content available and usable for all users including those with disabilities; the degree to which the public is able to retrieve or obtain Government publications, either through the FDLP or directly through an digital information service established and maintained by a Government agency or its authorized agent or other delivery channels, in a useful format or medium and in a time frame whereby the information has utility.

Administrative Notes: bimonthly FDLP newsletter of the FDLP (GP 3.16/3-2:) providing information on topics related to Federal Government information.

Administrative Notes Technical Supplement (ANTS): bimonthly newsletter containing updates and corrections for item numbers, SuDocs classification numbers, etc. (GP 3.16/3-3:).

Andriot’s (Andriot’s Guide to U.S. Government Publication): an index that gives a history of the organization of the U.S. Federal Government. The index, published annually by Gale, details the birth and end of government agencies, agency relocation (including its publications) when an agency is disbanded or transferred, and SuDoc call numbers for each publication or series.

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules: rules designed for use in the construction of catalogues and other lists in general libraries of all sizes. The rules cover the description of, and the provision of access points for, all library materials commonly collected at the present time.

Annual: a title published once a year

ANSI standard: American National Standards (ANS) facilitates the development of standards by accrediting the procedures of standards developing organizations. These groups work cooperatively to develop voluntary national consensus standards. Accreditation by ANSI signifies that the procedures used by the standards body in connection with the development of American National Standards meet the Institute’s essential requirements for openness, balance, consensus & due proces.

askGPO: the contact web page from the Government Printing Office (GPO) that allows depository coordinators and members of the public to ask questions of or send comments to GPO staff.

Assessments: see Public Access Assessments

Atlas: a bound collection of maps often including illustrations, informative tables, or textual matter

Biannual: twice a year (e.g. a title published twice a year)

Biennial: every two years (e.g. a title published every two years)

Biennial Survey: survey of conditions in depository libraries conducted every two years.

Bimonthly: every two months (e.g. a title published every two months)

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications(CGP): finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historic and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online; continues the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Cataloging and indexing: cataloging is comprised of the processes involved in constructing a catalog - describing information or documents to identify or characterize them and providing "entry points" (terms) peculiar to the information or document (e.g., author, title, subject, and format information, by which the information can be located and retrieved). The immediate product of cataloging is a bibliographic record. Bibliographic records compiled to create catalogs. Indexing is the process of compiling a set of identifiers that characterize a document or other piece of information by analyzing the content of the item and expressing it in the terms of a particular system of indexing. In the GPO context, cataloging and indexing is the statutory term for the processes that produce the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and its indexes.

Cataloging and Indexing Program: program, mandated by 44 USC§1710-1711, to develop a comprehensive and authoritative national bibliography of U.S. Government Publications to increase the visibility and use of Government information products, and to develop a premier destination for information searchers.

CD-ROM: (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) is a compact disc containing data that can be read by a computer.

Census: an official, usually periodic enumeration of a population, often including the collection of related demographic information.

Claim: depository library’s request for an item rightfully due if selected under the FDLP but either not initially received or damaged in shipment. See also Web Claim form.

Classification: a system devised to categorize publications. In the case of the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification system, the publishing agency is used as a way to organize Federal documents.

Collection Development: the systematic process, usually described in a collection development policy, by which the depository library will select materials to be added to their collection in order to satisfy user needs.

Collections: collection development and maintenance of the Federal Government information products, including those entrusted to the individual depository’s care, so they are accessible and meet the Federal Government information needs of the general public.

Congressional Serial Set, U.S.: is the permanent historical collection of the U.S House of Representatives and U.S. Senate documents and reports.

Cooperative Publication: Government publication required to be self-sustaining (cost recovery) through sale or published in cooperation with a non-governmental author; not available for free distribution through the FDLP.

Core Collection: lists of suggested titles for academic, public, and law libraries selecting in all subject areas in order to provide the necessary service to the general public (see appendix A of this Handbook).

Cumulative Title Index to U.S. Public Documents, 1789 – 1976: an index of government documents that can be found by looking up the title of the documents (GP 3.812:1-16).

Decennial: every ten years (such as the census).

Deep web: content that is not part of the “surface web” i.e. indexed by search engines. Deep web consists of databases that are constructed by webcrawlers or spiders.

Depository Library Council (DLC): group of information professionals selected to assist the Government Printing Office in identifying and evaluating alternatives for improving public access to government information through the Depository Library Program (DLP) and for optimizing resources available for operating the Program.

Depository Library Number: Unique number assigned to each depository library to record selections, distribute materials, maintain directory information, etc.

Designation: the process by which a library or institution is made an official Federal Depository Library. See chapter 3 in this Handbook for a discussion of Federal depository status or the Designation Handbook for Federal Depository Libraries.

Direct Mail: Depository material mailed directly to the library from the printing contractor, i.e., not in shipment boxes or listed on a shipping list.

Discards: unwanted materials disposed of through a regional depository after retaining 5 years or superceded.

Discontinued: a title that is no longer distributed to depository libraries or published by the publishing agency.

Documents Data Miner (DDM/DDM2): a search engine combining files from the latest version of the List of Classes of United States Government Publications available for Selection by Depository Libraries, the Item Lister's Current Item Number Selection Profiles for Depository Libraries, and the Federal Depository Library Directory.

DVD-ROM: (Digital Video Disc): a high-capacity optical disk format or an optical disk using such a format and containing especially a video recording (as a movie) or computer data

Electronic Collection (EC): the digital Government publications that GPO holds in storage for permanent public access through the FDLP, or that are held by libraries and/or other institutions operating in partnership with the FDLP. These digital publications may be remotely accessible online publications, or tangible publications such as CD-ROMs maintained in depository library collections. The four categories of publications in the EC include core legislative and regulatory publications which reside on GPO servers, available through GPO Access; products directly managed for other agencies on GPO servers, or through formal agreements with other institutions, and available through GPO Access; publications identified, described, and linked to through GPO services, but which remain under the control of originating agencies, with access through GPO's locator tools and services; and tangible electronic products (such as CD/ROM, DVD, or others) distributed to Federal depository libraries.

Essential Titles for Public Use in Paper or Other Tangible Format: list containing publications that will remain available for selection in paper format, so long as they are published in paper by the originating agency.

Federal Bulletin Board (FBB): a free electronic bulletin board service of the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The FBB enables Federal agencies to provide to the public self-service access to Federal information in electronic form.

Federal depository library: library designated under the provisions of 44 U.S.C. §19 which maintains a depository collection for use and local access by the general public and which offers professional assistance in locating and using Government information products and services.

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP): program established by Congress to ensure that the American people have access to its Government's information.

Federal Government information products: discrete units of Government information in all formats.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP): a communications protocol governing the transfer of files from one computer to another over a network.

Five Year Retention Rule: (see Retention, 5-Year).

Format: a particular physical presentation of an item.

Free public access: perpetual, no fee, and ready access to Federal Government information products without impediments is available to the general public.

Fugitive documents (LostDocs): those documents of public interest or educational value, and not classified for reasons of national security, which have not been acquired for distribution to Federal depository libraries or disseminated through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP).

Future Digital System (FDsys): system to allow federal content creators to easily create and submit content that can then be preserved, authenticated, managed and delivered upon request. FDsys will form the core of GPO’s future operations.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS): a computer-based system that stores geographically referenced data linked to textual attributes (a database) and allows for mapping, display, analysis, and modeling.

Government publication: a work of the United States Government, regardless of form or format, which is created or compiled in whole or in part at Government expense, or as required by law. Government publications not distributed though the FDLP include: those which are required for official use only, are for strictly operational or administrative purposes having no public interest or educational value, or are classified for reasons of national security.

GPO Access: a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office, required by 44 U.S.C Chapter 41, to provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government.

Guidelines for the Federal Depository Library Program: program and performance goals for Federal depository libraries and GPO.

Inactive: 1) a title that has been discontinued, ceased, replaced, deemed non-depository; 2) a title that hasn't been published in a long time but not linked to a formal statement from the publisher about discontinuation, cessation, replacement, or out-of-scope; one reason for inactivity could be due to lack of funding for printing; 3) item numbers and SuDocs classes can also be inactive

Instructions to Depository Libraries: Superseded official rules and regulations of the FDLP (GP 3.26: D 44/) replaced by the Federal Depository Library Handbook.

Integrating Resource: bibliographic resource that is added to or changed by means of updates that do not remain discrete and are integrated into the whole; integrating resources can be finite or continuing. Examples of integrating resources include updating loose-leafs and updating Web sites.

Internet Use Policy Guidelines: depository libraries should have a written access policy that addresses issues regarding obtaining FDLP information on the internet.

Item Lister: web collection management tool that lists an individual library’s selected (or non-selected) item numbers.

Item Number: Control number assigned by GPO to titles or groups of titles (by agency) that are available for selection in the FDLP

Item selection mechanism: the process and tools used by depository libraries to select tangible and electronic titles

Joint Committee on Printing: the Congressional committee that oversees the activities of the Government Printing Office and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)

Journal: A publication, issued on a regular basis, which contains scholarly research published as articles, papers, research reports, or technical reports.