access to electronic government documents in Tripod
Since last Monday, the Government Printing Office (GPO) has been experiencing problems with its PURL server. What this means is that most electronic government publications (the ones that come from GPO) can't be accessed through Tripod (at least not in the usual, obvious way; see below). Here's the announcement from FDLP:
http://www.fdlp.gov/component/content/article/19-general/483-purl-server-update2
In the meantime, if you need an electronic government document, look in the Note section of the item record in Tripod. While the "Click on the following" link doesn't work (that's the one that points to http://purl.access.gpo.gov), there should be an alternate URL in the Note section. In some--but not all!--cases, copying and pasting that URL (the one that begins with http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov) into your browser will take you to the document. This won't work for everything, but if you need a document in a hurry, you may want to try it out.
