LibGuides: U.S. Government Information: Home

Getting Started

Please note that resources tagged with a blue lock symbol are available remotely only to UC San Diego affiliates. Anyone may access these resources using library computers, though.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
Lists and describes federal publications (primarily 1976- ) and provides direct links to those that are available online. Search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general keyword. (See next tab for pre-1976 documents.)
Google
You know you're going to use it, so use it efficiently: add site:.gov (site colon dot gov) to your keywords to limit searching to government websites. You can also limit searches to a specific department's or agency's website, such as site:dhs.gov (site colon dhs dot gov) to find only results from the Department of Homeland Security.
govinfo
Presents 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. For a complete list of currently available titles and priority titles to be added in the future, see Appendix B & C of GPO’s System of Online Access Collection Development Plan.
GovSpeak: A Guide to U.S. Government Acronyms & Abbreviations
Lists 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)
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. (Print only.)
HeinOnline
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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.

Databases available:
American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Brennan Center for Justice Publications at NYU School of Law
Cataloging Legal Literature
Code of Federal Regulations
COVID-19 in America: Response, Issues, and Law
Criminal Justice & Criminology
Executive Privilege
Federal Register Library
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
GAO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions
Gun Regulation and Legislation in America
History of International Law
History of Supreme Court Nominations
John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection
Law Journal Library
Legal Classics
National Survey of State Laws
Pentagon Papers
Prestatehood Legal Materials
Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases
Religion and the Law
Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory Bodies
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
Subject Compilations of State Laws
U.S. Code
U.S. Congressional Documents
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals
U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
U.S. Presidential Library
U.S. Presidential Impeachment Library
U.S. Statutes at Large
U.S. Supreme Court Library
U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library
Women and the Law (Peggy)
World Constitutions Illustrated
World Treaty Library
MetaLib
A 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.
Roger: the UCSD Library Catalog
Use 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.
Statistical Abstract of the United States, ProQuest
Authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. Print only, 2013- . (Replaces the previously-free Census Bureau publication, which are available online).
United States Government Documents Registry (HathiTrust)
The Registry is intended to include item-level metadata for the comprehensive corpus of U.S. federal documents produced from 1789 to the present.
United States Government Manual
This 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. (Historical editions to 1935 available via govinfo.)
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. (1817-1980)
USA.gov
Official 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.

Links go the UCSD Library catalog, which provides call number and location information for these print resources. See the online Catalog of U.S. Government Publications for titles published primarily 1976- .

1774-1881 Descriptive Catalog of the Government Publications of the United States (Poore) (also online)
1789-1909 Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909 (also online)
1789-1970 Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1970. Indexes.
1789-1976 Cumulative Title Index to United States Public Documents
1881-1893 Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government, 1881-1893 (Ames)
1885-1894 United States Government Publications (Hickcox) (online)
1893-1940 Catalog of the Public Documents of the Congress and of All Departments of the Government of the United States
1895-2004 Monthly Catalog of United States Publications (click "prior title" info to link to earlier volumes)
1900-1971 Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog

Congressional and Federal Government Web Harvests
Since 2006, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has harvested Congressional web sites at the end of each Congress. They also did a wider harvest of federal websites for the 2004 Presidential transition.
CyberCemetery
An archive of government websites that have ceased operation (usually websites of defunct government agencies and commissions that have issued a final report).
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Not specific to government publications, but offers access to digital content from a number of partners including the National Archives, HathiTrust, Internet Archive, Government Publishing Office, Library of Congress, and more.
Digitization Projects Registry
Decommissioned 12/18. Contents archived at the FDLP Web Archive.
DocumentCloud
Searchable collection of primary source documents uploaded to DocumentCloud. Includes many government-related documents requested via FOIA.
End of Term (EOT) Web Archive
Captures and saves U.S. government websites at the end of presidential administrations. EOT has thus far preserved websites from administration changes in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Web Archive
To provide permanent public access to federal agency web content, the FDLP harvests and preserves select federal websites.
Fish & Wildlife Service National Digital Library
Access text documents, images, audio, video, and map files.
FRASER
Digital library of U.S. economic, financial, and banking history. Includes several titles that provide access to historical statistics.
Google Books
Includes 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.
GovermentAttic.org
Provides electronic copies of thousands of federal government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Govinfo.gov
Digitized materials from all three branches of government.
HathiTrust
This large-scale digital repository is generally a first-stop resource when looking for older government documents. (See also the U.S. Federal Documents Collections page.)
History Vault - Government Documents
Historical collection of government publications, dating back to 1695.
Internet Archive GovDocs
Collection of federal government documents. See also the FedLink collection and the End of Term Web Crawls.
Law Library of Congress
American Indian constitutions and legal materials, military legal resources, serial set, piracy trials, United States treaties, and more.
Library of Congress Web Archiving
The Library has been archiving select born-digital web content since 2000. Their collection includes, but is not limited to, federal government information.
LLMC Digital
Collection of legal titles and government documents. Includes the Statutes at Large and US federal, US state, and foreign legislative, executive, and judicial materials.
The Memory Hole 2
Saves and preserves important documents that have been, or are at risk of being, deleted from government websites.
National Archives
Access to a large and varied collection of documents. Not all items are available online. Search the library catalog for specific titles; results will include links to online material if available.
National Agricultural Library
Access to a wide variety of historical Department of Agriculture publications.
National Library of Medicine Digital Collections
Repository of biomedical resources including books, still images, videos, and maps.
National Transportation Library
Transportation-related publications.
National Security Archive
Non-governmental archive of declassified U.S. documents. Founded by journalists and scholars to fight government secrecy.
NOAA Collections
Coral Reef Database System (CoRIS) Coral Data & Publications Catalog, National Marine Fisheries Service's Voices Oral History Archives, Office of Coast Survey's Historical Map & Chart Collection, National Sea Grant Library publications, and National Weather Service Heritage documents.
TRAIL: Technical Report Archive and Image Library
Collection of technical reports published by federal agencies.
University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries
Access to a large number of digitized documents, arranged in several distinct collections.
Wayback Machine
Captures and preserves websites, including federal government websites. Search by URL.

Demand Progress
Works toward progressive policy changes, with emphasis on internet freedom, open government, and political finance reform.
EDGI: Environmental Data & Governance Initiative
Works to preserve data and web pages from EPA, DOE, NOAA, OSHA, NASA, USDA, DOI, and USGS. Monitors federal websites for changes made to environmental content.
Government Web & Data Archive
Extension of previous End of Term projects, which archived government websites and data. Project end date 9/1/19.
Open the Government
A "nonpartisan coalition that works to strengthen our democracy and empower the public by advancing policies that create a more open, accountable, and responsive government."
Project on Government Oversight
Nonpartisan organization that "investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing."
Sunlight Foundation
Works to make government more transparent and accountable.
Wayback Machine
Easy DIY web archiving. Use the "save page now" feature to archive a web page.

Research Help

Kelly L. Smith

Contact:

UC San Diego Library
9500 Gilman Dr. 0175R
La Jolla, CA 92093-0175
858-534-6712
k5smith@ucsd.edu
pronouns: she, her, hers

Subjects:Environmental Studies, Government Information, Urban Studies & Planning

Recent topical guides

Open Access for Federally-Funded Research

White House Memorandum
February 22, 2013 memo from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), directing federal agencies to develop a plan to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the federal government.
SPARC/JHU: Data Sharing Requirements by Federal Agency
Resource for tracking, comparing, and understanding federally funded research data sharing policies.
University of California response to publisher letter opposing immediate open access to federally funded research
See the December 19, 2019 open letter in question.