The federal government is one of the largest producers of information on the planet. The different agencies publish information on every subject imaginable. However, most of the publications are going to be related to law, legislation, public policy, economics, statistics, and the sciences. Where you start depends upon whether you are looking for fairly recent government information, or whether you need historical information.
Recent Government Information | Our Print & Online Collection | Beyond Our Collection
Recent Government Information
A lot of the recent federal government’s publications are available online. In 2002, around 65% of what was officially disseminated was on the Internet, and that number is now much higher, with virtually all the most used material available online. The magic starting date for online information is usually 1995 -- if you need something older than that, then don't bother searching online as the first place to look.
See Government Information Online for links and descriptions to over 300 websites, from portal/multiple agency websites to specific publications, on agriculture, business, countries, environment, health, law, science, statistics, taxes, and terrorism.
Search Engines
- FirstGov -- official portal for the US Government; the search engine, which can be used for both federal and state agency websites, is in the upper-right hand corner. Or try their Advanced Search Screen to tailor your results more.
- Google U.S. Government Search -- you can use Google and narrow to mainly .gov and .mil sites, though it pulls up state agencies as well.
Directories
- Browse Topic -- a (very!) selective collection of useful websites on over 150 different topics, from accounting to zip codes.
- Federal Government Agencies -- comprehensive collection of federal agencies’ websites in an alphabetical and hierarchical structure. Includes executive, legislative and independent agencies. Compiled by Louisiana State University Libraries. (Hint: A lot of the URL's for a federal agency are quite simple. If you know the acronym they go by: USDA, NASA, CIA, FBI, etc., invariably the URL is just www.xxx.gov, xxx being the acronym. If the name of the department is short enough, they may just use that: energy.gov, labor.gov, etc.)
- Federal Government Resources on the Web -- portal designed by University of Michigan.
- Government Information Connection: Catalogs, Indexes & Databases -- portal designed by University of North Texas.
Full Text Databases
LexisNexis Congressional (UIS database) -- Has both searchable text and indexing to useful Congressional publications that cover all subject matter.
Click on CIS Index for citations to older Congressional publications, back to 1970. The Library has the publications in microfiche on Level 2.
Click on Publications to access the searchable text of:
- Committee Prints (1993-present) -- Publication from a particular committee that is not a Hearing, nor a Report. Usually consists of draft legislation, situation reports, statistical information, historical information, or legislative analyses.
- Congressional Reports (1989-present) -- Published findings of a House or Senate committee on an issue that passed the committee.
- Documents (1995-present) -- Presidential messages on legislation or vetoes, or special reports from Congressional committees or federal agencies.
Click on Testimony to access the searchable text of:
- Testimony in Congressional Hearings (1988-present, though 1988-1993 coverage is limited) -- Testimony, both prepared and discussion, where the House or Senate committee asked witnesses to testify on a subject. Witnesses can include persons from the Presidential Administration, sponsors or co-sponsors of the legislation, lobbyists, and others knowledgeable about the subject. Information provided by Federal News Service (FNS) and Federal Document Clearing House (FDCH). This database does not provide the entire contents of Congressional Hearings. To find a citation to an entire Hearing, click on CIS Index.
GPO Access -- Collection of 100 databases to 35 types of full text resources (most of the databases are separated by individual years of coverage). List of all the databases.
Form for searching more than one database.
Selected GPO Access databases (excluding law & legislation):
Our Print & Online Collection
Brookens Library is a depository for publications disseminated
by the federal government. Currently,
the library collects approximately 35% of what is distributed
by the federal government, concentrating in publications from
agencies for subjects taught at UIS, as well as subjects that
are useful for the Springfield
community. The call number for federal publications
housed in the library start with DOC, and they are located on Level 2. Rather than by subject, federal publications are arranged by the issuing agency.
- PrairieCat, the Library Catalog -- All of the UIS Library's government publications are cataloged and can be found when doing a subject search in the online catalog, and most of the titles can be checked out. There is a way of limiting your search in the to just searching government publications, if you click on the button More Limits. It's under the Location limit. If the item is available online,
a URL is provided.
Beyond Our Collection
If you can't find what you need in our collection, first try:
- I-Share Catalog -- Many of the libraries in the I-Share Catalog are federal and state depositories. (But if you search this database, there's no limiter to just documents unfortunately.) Once you find a particular document, click on the Request button to have it sent to the UIS Library, or whichever one is convenient.
If you cannot find what you need in the I-Share Catalog, then try:
- GPO Index (UIS Database: 1976-present; updated monthly) -- Covers federal government publications distributed by the Government Printing Office; if the publication is online, a hyperlink is provided. There's also a free to anyone version called the Catalog of United States Government Publications. This goes back to 1976 and they are working on incorporating publications that will go back into the 1800s.
- For historical information prior to 1976, use the Monthly Catalog, which goes back to 19th century (DOC GP 3.8, Level 2).
Once you have located a particular document, either:
- request it via our Interlibrary Loan form, or
- if you live in Springfield, contact the Illinois State Library (
217-782-7596)and have them pull it for you. The Illinois State Library is a Regional Depository, meaning that they collect all federal documents and never discard them.
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