Key Tools to Locate Government Information
Please note that resources tagged with a red lock symbol are available remotely only to UC San Diego affiliates.
- Catalog of U.S. Government PublicationsLists and describes federal publications (1976- ) and provides direct links to those that are available online. Search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general keyword. (See next section for indexes to pre-1976 documents.)
- FDsysPresents online versions of major U.S. government publications, such as: the Congressional Record, congressional publications of all kinds, the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, Supreme Court decisions, executive branch documents and more.
- GoogleYou know you're going to use it, so use it efficiently: add site:.gov to your keywords to limit searching to governmental websites.
- Govspeak: A Guide to U.S. Government Acronyms & AbbreviationsLists acronyms and abbreviations commonly used by the United States federal government. Each is defined and links to the home page (or best alternative) of the identified entity.
- Guide to U.S. Government Publications (Andriot)(Print only.) Traces depository publications through agency changes and assigned SuDoc numbers. Entries include title, publication history, ISSN, frequency of distribution, short descriptions, and notes about changes. Provides agency, title, and keyword in title indexes. The "Agency Class Chronology" traces the history of all agencies current or defunct.
- HeinOnline
Offers access to a vast number of publications from all three branches of the federal government. Search across collections from this main page, or click on a collection link to browse titles. - MetaLibA federated search engine that searches multiple federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while linking to selected resources available online.
- ProQuest Congressional Indexes Congressional materials from 1789-present. Provides access to U.S. legislative information, including bills and pending legislation, legislative history, hearings, testimony, reports, documents, legislative calendars, committee rules of procedure, Congressional Record, CRS Reports, public laws, etc.
- UCSD Library catalogUse our catalog to find hard copy documents in our collection, as well as links to online documents. The advanced keyword search allows limiting to government publications.
- United States Government ManualThe official handbook of the federal government describes programs and activities of the legislative, judicial and executive branches. The Manual also includes information about quasi-official agencies, international organizations with U.S. membership, and federal boards, commissions, and committees.
- U.S. Government DatabasesSubject and alphabetical lists of databases for federal government information - much of which is not findable through a general web search.
- USA.govOfficial portal to government information and services provided by the federal government.
- WorldCat Over 50 million records of material cataloged by libraries. Often includes links to online full-text government publications.
Comments (0)
Indexes to pre-1976 Government Publications
Links go the UCSD Library catalog, which provides call number and location information for these print resources.
- 1774-1881 Descriptive Catalog of the Government Publications of the United States (Poore)
- 1789-1909 Checklist of United States Public Documents
- 1789-1970 Checklist of United States Public Documents. Indexes.
- 1789-1976 Cumulative Title Index to United States Public Documents
- 1881-1893 Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government (Ames)
- 1893-1940 Document Catalog
- 1895-1976 Monthly Catalog of United States Publications
- 1900-1971 Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog
Collections of Digitized Documents
The vast majority of government publications are now published directly to the web, ensuring widespread availability. However, access to most older government documents remains somewhat limited; these items are generally only available in libraries that are part of the depository program. Many libraries and other organizations, such as those noted below, are working to increase availability by creating digitized copies of these older documents.
- Digitization Projects RegistryDescribes and links to independent digitization projects for government documents.
- Google BooksIncludes government documents, as well as other items. To focus a search to government publications, try adding "Government Printing Office" or "G.P.O." in the publisher field.
- HathiTrustThis large-scale digital repository includes many government documents.
- Internet ArchiveCollection of more than 20,000 digitized government documents.
- TRAIL: Technical Report Archive and Image LibraryCollection of federal technical reports published pre-1975.
- University of North Texas (UNT) LibrariesAccess to a large number of digitized documents, arranged in several distinct collections.
Research Help |
 Kelly L. Smith Contact Info Government Information / Urban Studies & Planning Program Librarian UC San Diego 9500 Gilman Dr. 0175R La Jolla, CA 92093-0175 858-534-6712 Send Email Links: Profile & Guides |
Connect on Facebook
How to Cite Government Publications
- Citing Government DocumentsProvides guides to citing government sources in APA, Chicago, MLA and Turabian styles.
- DocsCiteProvides a template for creating government publication citations in APA or MLA format.
- General Guidelines for Citing Government PublicationsProvides good background material on deciphering the various elements of a government publication for citation.
Loading...
