GOVERNMENTDOCUMENTS

Information is the Currency of Democracy

– Thomas Jefferson

What is a Government Document?

Anything published by a government agency Can be extended to include NGOs

“Informational matter which is published as an individual document at government

expense, or as required by law”

–U.S. Code Title 44, Ch. 19, Sec. 1901. Types: laws, reports, documents, maps… Topics: Congressional, economic, health,

research, demographic, informative…

Formats: moving toward web-based

How Much?

U.S. government is the largest publisher in the world 30.5 million printed publications distributed in

fiscal year 2002 372 million documents were downloaded from

GPO Access in FY 2002 300,000 federal government document titles

are available to the public via the Internet at GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov.

Two Main Divisions

1. Government Printing Office (GPO)

2. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)

Some History

July 17, 1895 First Depository shipment 1895: There were 420 Depository

Libraries 1895: All depository libraries received

100% of publications and could only weed superseded items.

1895: Monthly Catalog appeared

Some History

1895-1903: SuDocs classification developed

1907: Land Grant colleges added to system.

1923: Libraries could select materials, not just receive 100%.

1923: 418 depositories.

The SuDoc Call Number System Based on the issuing agency. Titles are arranged by agency not subject matter:

• A = Agriculture• C = Commerce• D = Defense • E = Energy• ED = Education• EPA = Environmental Protection Agency• etc…

A 1.1: 975A 1.2: 43A 1.3: 6/1A 1.3: 6/2A 1.3: 6/4200A 1.4: AM 52A 1.4: AM 64A 1.4/2: AM 77A 1.4/2: 1A 1.5: B/3A 1.5/A: B/3

1988: First CD-ROM distributed to depository libraries.

1993 GPO Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act

Amended Title 44 to require online dissemination of information.

Some History

GPO Now Created primarily to satisfy

the printing needs of Congress,

GPO today is the focal point for printing, binding, and information dissemination for the entire Federal community.

In addition to Congress and the White House approximately 130 Federal departments and agencies rely on GPO’s services.

GPO Located in Washington, D.C. Title 44, United States Code

defines the laws enforcing the GPO’s role.

In FY 2000, GPO distributed 12.2

million copies of approximately

29,000 tangible products in print,

microform, and CD-ROM formats

to depository libraries.

Federal Depository Library Program

Administered by U.S. Code Title 44, Ch. 19

The FDLP is based upon three principles:1. With certain specified exceptions, all Federal

Government information products shall be made available to Federal depository libraries.

2. Federal depository libraries shall be located in each State and U.S. Congressional District in order to make Government information products widely available.

3. That Federal Government information in all media shall be available for the free use of the general public

Depository Libraries

53 Regional Libraries 1300+ Selective libraries Depositories are: -50% Academic -20% Public -11% Law -19% Other Federal depository libraries serve an estimated 9.5 million people each year.

Depository Libraries in Connecticut

Connecticut State Library Regional Bridgeport Public Library Hartford Public Library Wesleyan University Yale University University of Connecticut

Locating Federal Government Information on the WWW

USA.gov

GPO Access

Google Uncle Sam

What Is USA.gov? E-government: Front Door to Administration’s

citizen-centric eGovernment citizens can do business with government online

Interagency initiative administered by the U.S. General Services Administration

US Government’s “official Web portal” to all government information”

Search engine that reaches 51 million federal, state, and territorial Web pages

Helpful Features of USA.gov Easy to use A-Z Agency Index Reference Center Online Services for:

Citizens Business

A-Z Agency Index

What is GPO Access?

www.gpoaccesss.gov A service of the U.S. Government Printing

Office Free public access to electronic information

products produced by the Federal Government A collection of searchable databases

containing full-text publications of the executive, legislative and judicial branches

Committed to permanent public access of government information in electronic format

Facts about GPO Access

1. Contains over 147,000 electronic titles2. Points/links to 93,000 other titles3. Contains almost 2,800 databases4. Since 1994, retrievals have exceeded 1.6

billion5. Average size of document retrieved from

GPO Access is 49Kb (24.5 typewritten pages)

Go to GPO ACCESS to locate the full-text of:

Congressional Bills Congressional

Documents and Reports

Congressional Hearings (limited)

Public Laws Congressional

Record US Code

State of the Union Speech

Federal Register Code of Federal

Regulations Public Papers of the

Presidents Weekly Compilation

of Presidential Documents

Supreme Court Decisions

Helpful Features of GPO Access

A–Z Resource List Resources grouped by branch of government Alphabetical database list Advanced and field searching by database Ben’s Guide to US Government

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

What is Google Uncle Sam?

Subset of Google, a leading search engine Search engine for government sites Only searches domains ending with .gov

or .mil Tops for speed and accuracy!

Uncle Sam

Demographics and Statistics

Statistics: A Pollak Library Research Guide American FactFinder (Census Bureau)

http://factfinder.census.gov/ Statistical Abstract

http://www.census.gov/statab/www/ FedStats http://www.fedstats.gov/ City and County Databook

http://www.census.gov/prod/www/ccdb.html

Consumer Price Index Uniform Crime Reports/Crime in the Unite

d States Popular NCES Reports National Center for

Educational Statistics

More Statistics

Government and Law

White House www.whitehouse.gov Presidential Libraries Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/ Budget of the U.S. Government Core Documents of U.S. Democ

racy

More Government & Law

Supreme Court of the United States Congressional Directory Department of Homeland Security

Portals

students.gov www.students.gov

science.gov www.science.gov

Careers & Occupations

Occupational Outlook Handbook http://stats.bls.gov/oco/home.htm

Everything Else

American Memory www.loc.gov National Atlas http://www-atlas.usgs.gov/

Forms from the Feds http://exlibris.memphis.edu/govpubs/forms.htm

More Stuff

seniors.gov www.seniors.gov Write your Representative

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Find your Senators

http://www.senate.gov/

FedBizOpps http://www.fedbizopps.gov/

Fair Market Rents – FMRs http://www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html

Still More… U.S. Life Tables

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/life_tables.htm

Where to Write for Vital Records http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm healthfinder®

http://www.healthfinder.gov/ Federal Citizen Information Center

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/

More Stuff

Citizens Against Government Waste: U.S. Population Clock

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/popclock

Selected Reference Sites for Government Information

U.S. Depository Ready Reference Collection from Columbia University

Yale University Library Government Documents  Govdocs from Brooklyn College U.S. Government Documents Reference Shelf from Indiana

University Best Document Resources 

Selected Reference Sites for Government Information

FDTF Government Information Vanderbilt U U.S. Depository Ready Reference Collection UMichigan Documents Center

a central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international. Its web pages are a reference and instructional tool for government, political science, statistical data, and news.

Maps, maps, maps!

Map Collections What do you see?

Places in the News Earth as Art Language of the Land Geographical Fun Atlas National Atlases: Presenting the Nation's Cult

ural Geography Zoom into Maps Mapping My Spot in History