Dissemination Program

Document Discovery and Intent to Publish – two free ways to make your publications more visible

Federal agencies are required by statutory mandate to provide Federal publications to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and Cataloging & Indexing Program (44 U.S.C. §§ 1710, 1902-1903). Document Discovery and Intent to Publish are two methods to notify GPO of new publications produced by your agency.

GPO’s information dissemination programs make agency publications more visible to the general public. Publications are:

  • searchable through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and other GPO search tools
  • available to 1,100+ library collections across the country
  • accessible via persistent link in order to guarantee future access

Guidelines

Publications published through GPO are automatically evaluated for inclusion in GPO’s information dissemination programs. All other Federal agency publications published external to GPO, including online, need to be submitted for evaluation. GPO covers the cost of distributing eligible print and electronic publications to libraries nationwide.

All published Federal information dissemination products, regardless of format or medium (e.g., online, print, CD, DVD), which are of public interest or educational value, or produced using Federal funds, are to be provided to depository libraries for public use. Exceptions are those products that are:

  • For official use only, or for strictly administrative or operational purposes that are not of public interest or educational value.
  • Classified for reasons of national security.
  • The use of which is constrained by privacy considerations.
  • “Cooperative publications” which must be sold by the publishing agency in order to be self-sustaining.
  • Protected under copyright and the Government does not have rights to publish or otherwise use the work for Federal purposes.

Two Ways to Notify GPO of Publications

Document Discovery
Has your agency already published an information product of public interest or educational value, for which there is no record in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications? If so, please notify GPO through askGPO.

  1. If this is your first time submitting to askGPO, you’ll need to request an account. Select Federal Agency, and submit an inquiry using the category Request Login. You will receive an email when your account has been approved, with a link to create a password. Please complete the registration process within 24 hours.
  2. Log in to askGPO, and select Agency Content Submission.
  3. Use the radio buttons to select ONE publication or MULTIPLE publications. 
    • If you are submitting ONE publication, provide the requested information about the publication in the form.
    • If you are submitting MULTIPLE publications, download the CSV template and provide the requested information for each publication on a separate row.

       Please provide as much detail about the publication(s) as possible:

    • Title (required)
    • Publication URL (required)
    • Publishing Agency (required)
    • Publication Year
    • Series
    • Report Number
    • OCLC number
    • Additional information (e.g., new edition, corrected, reprinted)

  4. Submit your publication(s) to GPO.

For more information about submitting publications or inquiries through askGPO, please see the askGPO Training for Federal Agencies page.

Intent to Publish
Are you preparing to publish through a Regional GPO office or an outside publisher? Please notify GPO using one of the following mechanisms so we can evaluate for dissemination via the FDLP and/or inclusion in the Sales program and ride for copies as appropriate:

Once you have notified us, we will archive, catalog, and distribute your agency’s publications through the FDLP.

Contact

To discuss other mechanisms for submitting publications (e.g., API) please contact us through askGPO, using the category Dissemination Program Question.

View All Services