Recognizing the need to centralize government printing and to establish a mechanism to provide US citizens with no-fee access to federal government information, Congress passed the Printing Act of 1895 that established the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) within the Government Printing Office (GPO). The FDLP has evolved over more than one hundred years to become one of the most effective and successful partnerships between the federal government and the American people. ARL works with the GPO, as well as others in the library community, on efforts to ensure that tangible US government documents are made perpetually available through online access to the public at no cost.
