GPO Access marked a quiet revolution in government transparency...
In March 2012, the Government Printing Office (GPO) shut down GPO Access, the online tool that had connected diverse groups of users--scholars, politicians, students, and citizens--with U.S. government information since 1994.
GPO Access was developed as a result of the GPO Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-40), which, in its official title, called for "a means of enhancing electronic public access to a wide range of Federal electronic information." While depositories like Yale University Library continue to provide access to government information, the creation of GPO Access and the proliferation of digital documents has almost certainly changed the way that members of the public learn about and engage with the federal government.
GPO's new site, FDsys, has actually been around since 2009, when the transition away from GPO Access began. Now FDsys is the official site for federal government information, and home to essential resources like the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the U.S. Code, and the Compilation of Presidential Documents.