"Issued for Gratuitous Distribution" - The History of Fugitive Documents and the FDLP

The US government is the largest publisher in the world. Everyone quotes James Madison — or misquotes him for good cause — in philosophizing about and arguing for free public access to government information. In fact, this is one of the foundations on which is built the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The FDLP has been in place in one form or another since 1813 when the US Congress found it necessary and expedient to enlist libraries to the cause of public access to public information by and about the US government. And for almost five decades, this system of public access to privately published documents stayed intact. The Government Publishing Office (GPO), then known as the Government Printing Office, began operations on March 4, 1861 because of the inherent problems, varying quality, and increasing expense of relying on private publishers for public information. The Printing Act of 1895 sought to tighten control of the expanding world of government publishing.