United States Research Guide  Tags: united_states statistics government_documents history law_government_documents political_science_public_admin mathematics_statistics  

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is an index of electronic and print publications of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. The CGP has over 500,000 entries from 1976 to the present, and is updated daily. To find records for government documents published before 1976, consult the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications. CGP allows users to narrow their search results by type of document requested (including maps, Congressional documents, and Internet publications). If there is an online version of the publication, CGP will link to the full text from the database’s citation information.

Contains abstracts, legislative histories and indexes for Congressional hearings, committee prints and public laws as well as the numbered House and Senate reports and documents contained in the Serial Set. For the most part, CIS has superseded the Monthly Catalog as THE index for Congressional materials issued since 1970. The MSU Library houses the complete CIS Microfiche Collection therefore everything listed in this index is available to patrons.

GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) will soon take the place of GPO Access. Currently the information from the old platform is being migrated to this new system on a collection-by-collection basis and should be complete by the end of 2009. The Government Printing Office is the Federal Government‘s primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing, authenticating, and preserving published U.S. Government information in all its forms, and the FDsys platform provides a huge step for the American people to access the documents of government.

A central access point for searching, locating, ordering and acquiring government and business information. Many specific government databases can be searched from this page. It includes a rather eclectic selection of resources, and by no means does it demonstrate the entire breadth of government resources. The difficulty with FedWorld is knowing what data and resources are available from it as opposed to other sites.

GPO Access is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on this site is the official, published version. Information retrieved from GPO Access can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted. Most documents are full-text. The information on GPO Access is in the process of being migrated to GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys). The migration is occurring on a collection-by-collection basis and the information on GPO Access will remain current and continue to be available until the migration is complete

This database is a reputable source for essays and quantitative data on American history, covering a wide variety of topics. The database allows users to download informative data tables and customize them to their individual areas of interest.

InfoMine is a database developed by the librarians at the University of California, Riverside. It is easy to use and currently contains over 9,500 records covering most academic disciplines with a large section devoted to government information. It is known globally for its high quality scholarly and educational collection. Allows searching and browsing by subject, keyword, or title.

LexisNexis Congressional allows you to explore Congress in action with the most comprehensive online resource available for congressional publications and legislative research. Items covered comprise Committee Prints and Misc. Publications (1830-present); Hearings (1824-present); House and Senate Documents (1817-present); House and Senate Reports (1819-present); Legislative Histories (1969-present); and the Serial Set (1789-1969).

This is THE BASIC INDEX for government publications. Titles are arranged by classification number under issuing agency. Periodicals and various other series are listed annually in the Serials supplement. Indexing is by subject, title, keyword, author, series number and various other access points.

The official U.S. gateway to all government information and is the catalyst for a growing electronic government. Users can search more than 51 million web pages from federal and state governments, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Most of these pages are not available on commercial websites. USA.gov has the most comprehensive searching capabilities of government information anywhere on the Internet.

Five and ten year cumulative subject indexes to the Monthly Catalog. Conveniently merged the indexing from multiple annual indexes and added original indexing for thirty issues of the Monthly Catalog that were never indexed by subject.

A fifteen-volume, single alphabet index. The BEST subject index for this time period.

Commonly known as the Documents Catalog. An alphabetical subject (or inverted title) listing for congressional documents and reports contained in the Serial Set.

A dictionary catalog listing publications by agency, subject, title, and author. The Documents Catalogue provides the best subject approach to government publication for the period covered. Each volume of the title covers approximately two years of government publishing activity. Gives Serial Set numbers, but not SuDoc call numbers.

Commonly known as Ames for the author, John Griffith Ames. Originally issued as Serial Set 4745-4746 (58th Congress, 2nd Session, House Document 754). The arrangement is alphabetical by subject and includes a personal author index. No SuDoc call numbers and Serial Set numbers are under “Congressional Documents.”

Covers published hearings from the earliest years (early 1800s) through 1969. Provides comprehensive index access to the subject matter and issues covered in all hearings held during this period, including bills and laws discussed, the Federal agencies concerned, the witnesses who testified and the organizations they represented.

This 16 volume set is a single alphabet listing of document titles compiled from the shelflist of the Public Documents Library of the Government Printing Office. Unfortunately it includes only those titles which have been assigned a documents classification number, thus excluding the numbered reports and documents of Congress which are included in the Serial Set.

(13 parts in 40 volumes) Includes indexing for the American State Papers and Index by Reported Bill Numbers. Has Subject Indexes and Finding Lists for each group of years. Contains an on-going collection of the basic publications of Congress, i.e., reports of private and public bills, as well as a variety of documentation which Congress has decided to incorporate. The collection is particularly important in the 18th and 19th centuries when most government publications were either originally published as part of the Serial Set or were reprinted in it. Access to the Serial Set volumes appearing after 1969 is found in CIS, the Monthly Catalog, and other tools.

[1st -- 14th Congresses, 1789 - 1816] Some consider this the predecessor to, others consider it a part of, the Serial Set. It is a separate 38-volume set with publication categories such as Foreign Relations, Indian Affairs, Finance, Public Lands, and Miscellaneous Documents.

15th Congress to present. The longest-running series in the United States. Sequentially numbered bound volumes of congressional reports and documents. Besides committee reports relating to pending legislation, the Serial Set includes the House and Senate Journals from 1818-1954. In the 19th century, approximately fifty-percent of Senate and House Documents were reprints of executive branch or departmental publications. It is worth considering the Serial Set as a source of all types of government publications into the first quarter of the 20th century.

Commonly known as Poore’s for the author, Ben Perley Poore. Originally issued as Serial Set 2268 (48th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Misc. Document 67). A chronological list which gives author, title, and date for each document. The subject and name index in the rear of the volume refers the user to the page on which the document is listed. The page must then be scanned to locate one or more entries on the subject being researched. No class numbers for executive department documents and no Serial Set numbers for congressional publications are given.

The official listing of publications available for selection by depository libraries participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. Arranged by SuDoc number and designed to group together publications by the same government author. Also accessible from this web site are Inactive or Discontinued Items, List of Active Items and Class Stems, Classes No Longer Active, and an Alphabetic Listing of Government Authors.

Commonly known as Andriot after the original editor and publisher. An excellent guide to document series and periodicals (not monographs), tracing changes in SuDocs classes. Not the source to use if looking for individual Congressional documents, reports, etc. Supplements and complements the Lists of Classes. Includes annotations, title index, more complete agency index, and an agency class chronology.

Provides access to the Congressional Serial Set for this period.

Commonly known as the 1909 Checklist. Arranged by SuDoc class with agency index. This title is the basic source for SuDoc numbers prior to the 20th century. Although there is no subject approach to documents, the volume is useful for scanning the publishing output of governmental agencies and for identifying various editions of the same document. Lists individual titles as well as series.