FDLP Content: About the CGP

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)

GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications contains bibliographic records for U.S. Government publications cataloged by GPO since July 1976 for both the Federal Depository Library Program and the Cataloging and Indexing Program.  Many of the records within the CGP contain direct links through PURLs to publications available online. The catalog is updated daily with new and historic publication records, making the CGP the central point for locating descriptive information about new and historical Government publications. 

The CGP is the authoritative source of all GPO bibliographic records and cataloging activity. GPO records obtained from other sources may have been modified by other cataloging/metadata agencies and thus are not the authoritative versions of the records. With some exceptions, GPO maintains its bibliographic records only in the CGP.

Select sections of the CGP include:

• Catalogs to Search: These catalogs contain record subsets of the CGP. They may provide a first step for narrowing a search and also contain indexing specific to the content.  These Catalogs are:
  • Congressional Serial Set
  • Congressional Publications
  • Historic Shelflist
  • Electronic Titles
  • FDLP Web Archive
  • Gov eBooks
  • Serials
• New Titles: The New Titles page is an easy way to find all the latest resources added to the CGP. It provides access to new catalog records for publications in different formats, such as print documents, electronic documents, or eBooks, and in varying timeframes.
• MetaLib: CGP’s MetaLib is a federated search engine that searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases.  Searches retrieve reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online. Browse the A-Z Resource List to see all the resources included.
• CGP FDLP Login:  This is a custom login feature for Federal depository librarians. The username is your depository library number, and the password is the case sensitive FDLP library password.  The CGP capabilities only available to Federal depository libraries are:
  • Configure personal preferences (e.g., record sorting, record format).
  • Create and save personal sets of records using “My Bookshelf - Folder Management.”
  • Save from search results to a local computer.
  • Email and/or RSS alerts of recently added or updated records using Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI).
  • Access preferences and SDI profiles using the Library Card.
  • Find additional access to item numbers, which have replaced author in the brief results list and in the dynamic new titles searches.

Log on to find more information about these capabilities in CGP Help.

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