Not to be "picky" but I think the original question re: electronic Federal
Register access was for "free" services.  Counterpoint and Infoed are
excellent "value-added" services in that they've improved the access to
"free" government documents by adding various search capabilities, etc.
which attempt to make the information more powerful and useful.  But being
"value-added" there are fees for their sources.

The GPO likewise offers the electronic Fed Reg to all of us for a small fee
(I think less than either of the private sources above), but some of you
who have direct experience with this source will have to respond as to
whether that source offers the same ease and extent of searches as the
private competition.

Finally, the person who responded that a library is a good source for
electronic Fed Register is correct.  Every state has libraries which are
"designated government document repositories", and lately those designated
libraries have been given access free of charge.  What we are currently
investigating is whether our campus library (which is one of the gov.
repositories) can extend our license to offer the  free GPO service
through our gopher or web page.  Does anyone out there know the answer to
that one????

For the time being, I was happy to learn about the telnet address (that
same person previously offered) & the "clue" that you can access that info
under the login "library".   My opinion is there's always going to be room for
the private providers to offer a commercial service (for a fee) because they
will work harder at improving the ease of use, the detail of the abstracts,
the usefullness of the the info, etc.  But that you're going to have to pay
for.  This is something each institution has to evaluate based on how they
use the information and what purpose it serves.

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*       Jane E. Prudhomme, Director      *
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*       University of New Orleans        *
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