LibGuides: U.S. Government Information: Home

Getting Started

Please note that resources tagged with a blue/gold 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.)
Congressionally Mandated Reports
Reports required by statute to be submitted by federal agencies to Congress; now required to also be submitted to GPO after Congress.
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.
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)
(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
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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

Historic Documents
U.S. and international documents on the most significant events of the year. Includes presidential speeches, international agreements, Supreme Court decisions, governmental reports, scientific findings, cultural discussions, etc. 100 new documents per year, 1972-

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.
Statistical Abstract of the United States, ProQuest
(Print only.) Authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. (Replaces the previously-free Census Bureau publications, which are available online).
UC Library Search
Use our catalog to find hard copy documents in our collection, as well as links to online documents. Use the "browse search" in the top menu to search by SuDoc number. Click the Library Catalog bubble at top to exclude journal articles, course reserves, and other items unlikely to be federal materials.
United States Government Documents Registry (HathiTrust)
(Note: this resource has been retired.) 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.

VoxGov
Includes a broad range of official and ephemeral information resources issued by federal agencies, individual officials and candidates, and other organizations from all branches of the U.S. federal government. Includes social media, official media releases, legislation, regulations, and more.

Worldcat
Over 50 million records of material cataloged by libraries. Often includes links to online full-text government publications.

Links for print volumes go the UCSD Library catalog, which provides call number and location information for these 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)
1789-1909 Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909
1789-1970 Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1970. Indexes. (print vols.)
1789-1976 Cumulative Title Index to United States Public Documents (print vols.)
1881-1893 Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government, 1881-1893 (Ames)
1885-1894 United States Government Publications (Hickcox)
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
1900-1971 Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog (print vols.)

Congress.gov
Congressional materials back to 1951.
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, 2016, and 2020 and are searchable via the Internet Archive's collection search.
End Of Term 2020 Web Crawls
Includes pre-election to inauguration crawls and post-inauguration crawls.
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.
Homeland Security Digital Library
Collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. Sponsored by the DHS National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA, and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
Internet Archive GovDocs
Collection of federal government documents. See also the FedLink collection, the End of Term Web Crawls, and the Democracy's Library collection.
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 Digital Collections
Includes texts, maps, photographs, letters, newspapers, and more.
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Among the many collections are:
1) Executive Branch Federal Government Web Archive
2) Federal Advisory Committee Web Archive
3) Legislative Branch Web Archive
4) United States Congressional Web Archive
5) Federal Courts Web Archive
6) United States Congressional Serial Set (Bound House and Senate Documents and Reports)
7) Military Legal Resources
8) Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials
9) United States Treaties and Other International Agreements
10) Selected Digitized Books, which includes an alphabetical index of contributors; most federal sources will be found at "U.S." or "United States"
Library of Congress Web Archives
The Library has been archiving select born-digital web content since 2000. Their collection includes, but is not limited to, federal government information.
The Memory Hole 2
Saves and preserves important documents that have been, or are at risk of being, deleted from government websites.
MSHA Digital Library
Materials related to the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s mission of ensuring the health and safety of the nation’s miners. Includes historical and modern mining photographs, research materials, videos, and mine fatality reports back to the 1840s.
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 Security Archive
Non-governmental archive of declassified U.S. documents. Founded by journalists and scholars to fight government secrecy.
National Transportation Library
Transportation-related publications.
NIST Digital Archives
Publications, historic photos, and museum artifacts from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Archives and the NIST Museum.
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.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set
Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. (1817-1980)

USACE Digital Library
Includes information by and about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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.
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 (email strongly preferred)
k5smith@ucsd.edu
pronouns: she/her

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

Topical guides

Citing Government Resources

While many government publications may be cited similarly to other works, there are some special issues that may need to be considered. The resources below can help provide guidance.

Cite it with Style! How to Cite Government Information Resources Like a Pro
Presentation by Bobby Griffith, Government Information Reference Specialist at the University of North Texas Libraries. (via USC Libraries)
The complete guide to citing government information resources: a manual for social science & business research
How to Cite - Tools, Tricks, & Tips for Managing Citations
Bluebook
Introduction to Basic Legal Citation