New Report: “Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age”

Title

Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age

Source

National Academy of Public Administration

From Summary:

The conference report to the 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act mandated that the National Academy of Public Administration (the Academy) conduct a broad operational review of GPO to (1) update past studies of GPO operations; (2) examine the feasibility of GPO continuing to perform executive branch printing; and (3) identify additional cost saving operational alternatives beyond those that GPO has already implemented.
The Academy formed a five-member Panel of Fellows to conduct a ten-month study of the agency’s current role, its operations, and its future direction. The Panel determined that the federal government in the digital age must continue to ensure that the public has permanent access to authentic government information and that GPO has a critical role to play in meeting this need. GPO leaders have made significant progress in “rebooting” the agency from a print-centric to a content-centric focus, but the agency needs to make further business and operational changes. GPO has achieved important cost savings to date and has additional opportunities to make cost reductions. To continue rebooting in an external environment that is changing rapidly, GPO will need to upgrade its strategic and human capital planning capabilities.
Key Findings and Recommendations
The Panel issued fifteen recommendations intended to position the federal government for the digital age, strengthen GPO’s business model, and further GPO’s continuing transformation. Among other things, the Panel recommended that Congress establish an inter-agency process to develop a government-wide strategy for managing the life-cycle of digital government information; GPO should provide an expanded set of services supporting the life cycle management of digital government information; GPO and Congress should explore alternative funding models for the Federal Digital System; and GPO should continue to perform executive branch printing, while further reducing costs and improving service to customers.

Direct to Full Text (166 pages; PDF)

Coverage and Commentary

• New GPO report suggests charging taxpayers twice for government info (via ALA Washington Office)
  February 12, 2013
• Report: GPO, federal government need digital info management strategy
  February 11, 2013
• NAPA releases report on GPO (via Free Government Info)
  February 6, 2013
• GPO Comments (PDF)

UPDATED: GPO Response to NAPA Report’s Recommendation to Charge for FDsys access (via FreeGovInfo)

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