oh shocking.

the government wants to charge us AGAIN for documents we've already paid for with our taxes. why am i not surprised? [EDIT: this article doesn't go so far as to say that the gpo will start charging for documents that have historically been provided to the public for free, however they do say this: "While recognizing that it cannot rely solely on Congress for funds it nevertheless plans to increase the scope of its role without any long-term guarantee of adequate funding." which leads me to believe that charging for documents is what they really want to do and they're just gonna be passive aggressive about it.]
http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/jj/fdlp/

"Government Information in the Digital Age: The Once and Future Federal Depository Library Program
by James A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, and Shinjoung Yeo
[Article to appear in Journal of Academic Librarianship, May 2005, http://www.esevier.com/locate/jacalib]

ABSTRACT:
Rapid technological change has caused some to question the need for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). We argue that the traditional roles of FDLP libraries in selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, and providing access to and services for government information are more important than ever in the digital age."