Government Information Services

Getting Started: Web Tutorials on Government Information

Using Search Engines and Directories to Locate U.S. Government Information … An Introductory Workshop by Edward Herman, SUNY Buffalo
“The Agency Approach” to Locating Government Information on the Internet" Univ. of Western Ill.)
American Factfinder Tutorial (Vanderbilt University)
American Factfinder and Census 2000 (University of Michigan)
Census Report Tutorial (Vanderbilt University)
Historical Census Browser Tutorial (Vanderbilt University)
Historical Census Publications (University of Michigan)
SUDOCS Basics: Tutorial and Quiz (Michigan State Univ.)
Congressional Research Tutorials (Univ. of California/Berkeley)

Specialized Search Engines, subject indexes and Meta-sites

USA.gov Official portal to federal agencies – good starting point for broad topical search with a search engine for more specific searches.
Google U.S. Government Search Focus your Google search on .gov and .mil sites only
GPO ACCESS Brings together more than 80 databases from all branches of government, including full text of the Federal Register, Congressional Record, Congressional Bills, public laws, administrative decisions, and such "Core Documents of Democracy" as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Includes GILS (Government/Global Information Locator Service), a subject index to files on GPO Access and other servers.
Documents Center via University of Michigan. Absolutely the most comprehensive depository web-site for all levels of government: federal, international, foreign, state, local. Current and easy to navigate. A good starting point for both novices and experts.
INFOMINE "The University of California at Riverside's INFOMINE index offers users an extensive meta-index of local, state, and federal government resources and agencies which are reachable through the Internet." (Magellan review)
FEDSTATS Great meta-site for federal statistics.

Other Federal Depository Libraries on the World Wide Web

Government Information Resources via University of Virginia (check out "Virtual Reference Shelf")
Government Publications Department via the University of Louisville (for hot topics, subject guides, online periodicals)
Uncle Sam via University of Memphis (Internet Resource Guides)
Government Publications Library via University of Colorado, Boulder (for subject guides)

Where to Purchase Government Documents

Bernan Press Bernan deals with U.S. and selected foreign national documents; and those published by selected international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations and UNESCO.
Claitors Claitors (Baton Rouge, LA) is a law book publisher. Its Web site includes GPO's Sales Product Catalog and provides an online order facility.
U.S. Government Online Bookstore (U.S. Government Printing Office) GPO maintains a large sales operation. Be certain to note titles and stock numbers (S/Ns) when purchasing items from GPO. The warehouse stock number is comparable to ISBN and ISSN numbers. Search the Sales Product Catalog, GPO's documents in print, at this site.

Citing Electronic (and other) Resources

Citing Government Documents (Columbia University)