Government Book Talk Reaches 1 Million Views

August 27, 2018

Since its inception in late April of 2010, Government Book Talk’s mission has been to “spotlight the amazing variety of Government publications and their impact on ourselves and our world – and have fun while doing it.” Well, over one million page views (and counting) later, we have done just that.

Over the past eight years, Government Book Talk has featured over 438 new and popular Federal publications covering current events and topics that affect the lives of all Americans, from military history, to smart health tips on improving one’s diet, to important news and guidance on issues affecting our daily lives such as personal finances, education, and much more.

According to our page views, here is a list of the top 20 subjects highlighting publications featured in Government Book Talk:

  1. Hawks vs. Doves: The Joint Chiefs and the Cuban Missile Crisis (31,176)
  2. Quiz and History for Bill of Rights Day December 15  (28,316)
  3. Radio 101: Operating Two-Way Radios Every Day and in Emergencies (25,616)
  4. Gettysburg: America’s Bloodiest Battle (19,221)
  5. Tracking “Big Red One”: NORAD’s Secret Santa Mission (18,122)
  6. The Underground Railroad Leaves its Tracks in History (16,199)
  7. Arming the Fleet: The Compelling Story of a Secret Naval Base in the Desert (16,044)
  8. The U.S. Military Storms to the Rescue in Foreign Disaster Relief (14,446)
  9. Reagan, Intelligence, and the End of the Cold War (11,318)
  10. The History of eBooks from 1930’s “Readies” to Today’s GPO eBook Services (9,783)
  11. A Plum Book of Political Positions (9,288)
  12. Going “GAGAS” for the GAO Yellow Book (8,168)
  13. Go-to-Guide on Hazardous Materials for First Responders (7,560)
  14. Code Talkers: How American Indians Have Helped Fight Wars (7,129)
  15. Fun With the GPO Style Manual (6,675)
  16. The All-in-One Guide to All Federal Assistance Programs (5,875)
  17. Quiz: Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grade Civics Student?  (5,613)
  18. A Top Ten List of Funny Federal Titles (5,474)
  19. The Privacy Act: What the Government Can Collect and Disclose About You (5,378)
  20. CIA’s Word Factbook: Global Intelligence for Every Thinker, Traveler, Soldier, Spy (5,169)

Federal publications offer a wealth of knowledge to help us understand and appreciate the world we live in. And Government Book Talk is a great place to get you up to speed on the latest and greatest titles the government has to offer. You can also visit the U.S. Government Bookstore website here to find all the publications (and more) featured in Government Book Talk.

Thanks for reading our blog!

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

Find more than a million official Federal Government publications from all three branches at www.govinfo.gov.

About the author: Trudy Hawkins, Senior Marketing and Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publication & Information Sales Division supporting the U.S. Government Online Bookstore (http://bookstore.gpo.gov).

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Posted by Trudy Hawkins

Our year in blogging: 2010

January 5, 2011

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow!

Government Book Talk  just received some year-end data on how it’s been doing. Here’s a high- level summary of our overall blog health that we’d like to share with you:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 5 days for that many people to see it.

The busiest day of the year was March 30th with 3,197 views. The most popular post that day was Welcome!.

Where did our readers come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were links.govdelivery.com, voices.washingtonpost.com, federalnewsradio.com, gpo.gov, and google.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for gpo style manual 2010, government book talk, charley harper posters, and gpo style manual.

We now have 1,078 subscribers.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Welcome! March 2010
25 comments

2

A Comic Book History of Printing September 2010
11 comments

3

100 GPO Years Revisited June 2010
20 comments

4

Bookstore Grand Reopening August 2010
9 comments

5

An Award-Winning Blog? October 2010
14 comments

We’d like to thank all of you who read, commented, and mentioned Government Book Talk in 2010. In 2011, we promise to do our best to keep on highlighting the almost infinite variety of Federal Government publications past and present. Let’s keep reading!

5 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO), Uncategorized | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by govbooktalk

An Award-Winning Blog?

October 27, 2010

That’s what we are, courtesy of the Metropolitan Washington, DC chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) – the largest IABC chapter in the country.. Specifically, last night Government Book Talk received a Silver Inkwell Award of Merit in the Government and Military Communication category. We were one of 21 winners out of more than 300 nominations submitted.

I mention this, not because we’re pleased and proud to receive such an award – although we are – but because it tells us that we’re on the right track in creating a venue in which Government publications get some of the attention they deserve, not as stereotypical dull doorstops, but as vital, information-packed, and often entertaining books that simultaneously open up the multifaceted and invaluable work of the Federal Government to the public at large.

Well, we’re not here to win awards, but to get the word out about the best of Government publications, past and present. I’m heading back to the vast Government Book talk vaults for more reading matter and, as always, I’ll be sharing what I find with you. Thanks for following us!

19 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO) | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by govbooktalk

Six Months of Government Book Talk

September 30, 2010

When I started writing for Government Book Talk six months ago today, I had no idea where it was going, or whether anyone would be interested in what I was interested in. With some relief, I can now say that quite a few people are. As of this morning, this blog has had 72,941 page views. Our guest bloggers and I have put up 53 posts and received 330 comments (truth in advertising: this total includes my replies to questions and comments, so subtract 10 or so), and 850 of you have subscribed.  Thanks for your interest in Federal Government publications – and I hope you’ve been enjoying this blog as much as we have!

What I appreciate most are the interesting and insightful comments we receive. As a result of those comments, we’ve instituted some improvements (RSS feeds, references to WorldCat so you can find a book in a local library), made a couple of corrections (Dr. Seuss was not a private, the Bismarck was not a pocket battleship), and generally enjoyed your feedback. A favorite: “Thank you so much for making this available online! It is so interesting and I want to add it to my collection. Without this blog, who knows what treasure I would miss?” We hope to keep on unearthing more of those treasures as we move forward.

In the coming months, we hope to continue talking about Government publications new and old, print and online, free and paid, popular and offbeat. As always, we welcome your suggestions and comments. Thanks for reading!

19 Comments | Government Printing Office (GPO) | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by govbooktalk