The GPO has issued a status update on the Google partnership that was announced last December, which is intended to provide greater transparency to the federal government by making available low cost ebook editions of reports and papers. When first announced, the Office said it intended to eventually have about 1,800 titles available, but that goal appears to be a distant one; last week’s press release (PDF) announced that there are now just over 200 titles. Still, it’s by far the cheapest option if you want to buy a GPO book. For example, volume 1 of “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Barack Obama” sells for $9.99 on Google, whereas it’s a whopping $127 if you want the bound version.
As far as I can tell, there’s no way to search for all GPO titles on Google Books or at gpo.gov. With poor discoverability and a tiny subset of titles, it looks like there’s still plenty of room for this partnership to grow.
Via INFOdocket
Maybe GPO will wise up and offer the yearly Federal Budget as an ebook (though, considering the size of it, you’d probably need to reserve an entire hard drive for it)…
Given that these books are in the Public Domain, why on earth should we be charged at all for an ebook version?