Metadata and Collection Services (MCS), formerly Library Technical Services (LTS), of Library Services & Content Management (LSCM), United States Government Publishing Office (GPO) developed and maintains this repository. This repository offers files of MARC bibliographic records of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) for downloading free of charge. The CGP is the GPO’s finding tool for publications of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, and other entities of the U.S. Federal Government. The CGP records comprise the National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications and contain descriptive and subject information to enable the discovery of these resources. Many CGP records provide PURL (persistent uniform resource locator) links to the online versions of publications. For more information, please visit the CGP help pages.
In conjunction with the CGP Records Monthly Files collection, LSCM produces an annual set of files of the new and changed CGP records of each calendar year. MCS generally posts the files of the records during the following February. MCS posts the files in these repositories: All CGP Records (MARC) and All CGP Records (MARC XML). MCS retains the monthly files in the CGP Records Monthly Files collection of this repository posted during the year between each annual set of all CGP records.
The collections in this repository include files that can be used for cataloging/metadata maintenance and collection management purposes, such as adding new records, replacing changed records, and removing records that LSCM deleted from the CGP.
The collections contain one or more of these resources:
- MARC record files
- MARC UTF-8
- MARC XML
- MARC-8
- CSV files of multiple major metadata elements of the records
- PDFs of multiple major metadata elements of the records and the titles linked to the PURLs and the CGP record numbers link to the records
- Record display pages of several major metadata elements and the titles linked to the PURLs and the CGP numbers linked to the records
To download the files, use the “Code” button in the right-hand section of this page and select “Download ZIP.” The ZIP file contains all of the files in the repository.
To provide more specific sets of records, we have added separate sets of online records and tangible records:
- Online changed records
- Online new records
- Tangible changed records
- Tangible new records
| Name | No. of Records | Last Update | Record Formats | Cataloging Dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CGP Records Monthly Files | 14,040 | 1/08/2025 | All | 1/2024-11/2024 |
| CGP Records with PURLs | 262,901 | 8/17/2023 | Online | All |
| Congressional Bills and Resolutions | 4,746 | 10/17/2023 | All | 8/2023 |
| Discontinuation of Microfiche Distribution to FDLP Libraries | 391 | 6/21/2023 | MF | All |
| Online Version Records without Item Numbers | 35,444 | 9/19/2024 | Online | All |
| Congressionally Mandated Reports | 201 | 9/4/2024 | Online | All |
| Total Number of Records | 317,723 |
LSCM develops and maintains other repositories:
- All CGP Records (MARC UTF-8)
- All CGP Records (MARC XML)
- CGP Geographic-Based Record Sets
- CGP on GitHub
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set Project (MARC UTF-8)
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set Project (MARC XML)
GitHub uses a versioning system to provide access to the iterations of a repository. This enables a user to return to the state of a repository before the various changes ("commits" in GitHub terminology) that were made to it.
To see a list of versions of the repository as a whole, follow these steps:
- Click or tap on "commits" in the top right-hand section of the page
- On the "Commits" page, choose the date of the version to be retrieved and then click or tap the "Browse the repository at this point in the history" link.
- The resources in the repository on that date will be available for viewing and downloading.
To see a list of versions of a particular collection, follow these steps:
- Click or tap on the name of a collection in the Collections List.
- Click or tap on "History" in the top right-hand corner of the collection page.
- On the "History" page, choose the date of the version to be retrieved.
- Click or tap on the "Browse the repository at this point in the history" icon.
- The main page of the repository on that date will be displayed.
- The resources in the repository on that date will be available for viewing and downloading.
Please send your feedback and questions about our repository and records to MCS by submitting an inquiry in the Cataloging/Metadata (Policy and Records) category via askGPO.