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	Ben's Guide to U.S. Government

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP): About the CGP

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a search and retrieval service that provides bibliographic records of U.S. Government information products. Use it to link to Federal agency online resources or identify materials distributed to Federal depository libraries. Coverage begins with January 1994 and new records are added daily. New Electronic Titles contains online titles that are the latest entries in the Catalog or are in the queue to be added to it.

Scope | Features | Standards | History

Scope

The Catalog of United States Government Publications indexes print and electronic Government information products created by Federal agencies. Many of these products were distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program. The Catalog data set contains authoritative bibliographic records generated since January 1994 and is updated daily. For earlier indexing, consult the print counterpart of this index, Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications (MoCat), which dates from the passage of the Printing Act of 1895 and is available in most depository libraries. GPO produced a CD-ROM version of the MoCat from 1994-2000.

Features

The online environment provides an opportunity to enhance the features of the print and CD-ROM versions of the Catalog. Many records for Government information products available from agency web sites are included, with direct links to the electronic text of the document. GPO has established criteria for inclusion and treatment of Internet-accessible resources in the Catalog. GPO is among the leading institutions in the United States in cataloging Internet products.

Another added feature of this service is the ability to interact with other databases maintained by GPO for depository libraries. Once an information product is identified, a link is available to locate depository libraries that received that title. One may conveniently locate information from nearby Federal depository libraries using an area code or state search.

Publications with a GPO Stock Number may be available for purchase. Visit the U.S. Government Online Bookstore to determine if a publication is currently for sale from GPO. (Note the Title and Stock Number)

Standards

GPO is the authoritative national source for descriptive and subject cataloging for Federal Government documents. In creating the bibliographic records for the Catalog, GPO's Cataloging Branch adheres to the bibliographic standards set forth in the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition, Library of Congress Rule Interpretations, MARC21, CONSER, OCLC's Bibliographic Formats and Standards, 2nd ed., GPO Cataloging Guidelines, and other national standards. For more information about these standards, visit these web sites:

CONSER
GPO Cataloging Guidelines [ MS Word ] [ PDF ]
LC Cataloging Policy & Support Office
OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards
MARC21

History

The Printing Act of 1895 specified two products for the description and collocation of public documents. The Catalogue of the Public Documents of the [...] Congress and of All Departments of the Government of the United States (Document Catalogue) fulfilled the requirement for a "comprehensive index of public documents" to be prepared "at the close of each regular session of Congress." The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications (MoCat) met the stipulation for a "Monthly Catalogue...which shall show the publications printed during a month, where [those publications are] obtainable, and the price thereof." Thus the original relationship was of current awareness listing (MoCat) and permanent, authoritative, and comprehensive catalog (Document Catalogue).

In 1947, the cost and perennial difficulty of compiling the Document Catalogue led the Superintendent of Documents to recommend to the Joint Committee on Printing that the Catalogue be discontinued after the edition for 1940 was completed. The MoCat began to serve in the capacity of a single source for bibliographic information, fulfilling the requirements of the 1895 act which stand to this day in 44 USC §§1710-1711.

From 1895 until 1976, GPO arranged and described documents according to its own standards and systems. In July, 1976 along with a major revision of the appearance and functionality of the MoCat, GPO catalogers began producing machine-readable cataloging records (MARC 21) conforming to Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Ohio College Library Center (later Online Computer Library Center, OCLC) bibliographic standards and formats, and other applicable national level standards. Since that time, GPO has gradually expanded the emphasis of its cataloging and indexing program from the production of a single printed product to the creation and maintenance of a database of high-quality, standards-based bibliographic records which are used both inside GPO and out for an expanding array of bibliographic control activities.

As of 1999, GPO bibliographic data is being used to produce an abridged print edition of the MoCat, as well as a CD-ROM and a World Wide Web (WWW) edition, which employs the functionality of the WWW to link users directly from bibliographic citations to electronic publications, as well as providing information on locating information in depository libraries and through GPO Sales. In addition, GPO bibliographic data is available to individual libraries directly from GPO and from a variety of commercial sources for the creation of high quality local databases and public access catalogs.