Research Skills Tutorial
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Outcomes
Contents of this Module:
Learning Outcomes
Government Documents Defined
The Federal Depository Library Program
Federal Government Documents Online
Federal Government Statistics Online
Acquiring Federal Government Documents
Alabama State Documents
Information from Local Municipalities
By the end of this module, students should be able to:
- Know the types of information to be found in government documents.
- Identify useful government documents.
- Locate federal government documents in depository libraries.
- Access federal government documents online.
- Know how to acquire federal government documents.
- Identify and locate state government documents.
- Identify and locate municipal government documents.
Government documents are items published by federal, state or local government departments, agencies, committees, commissions, etc. Governments publish massive amounts of information on all topics. The U.S. federal government is, in fact, the largest publisher in the world. Our federal government’s various branches produce annual reports, directories, statistics, committee or other reports, laws, court opinions, bibliographies, periodicals, consumer information and public relations materials. State and local governments publish similar materials, focused on their respective constituencies.
Government documents offer the researcher a wealth of information. But, accessing these resources often differs from accessing other resources. These publications may not be found in the local library; if present in the library, they may not be listed in the online library catalog. These resources are worth the extra effort needed to identify and access them, as they can supply facts, statistics, authoritative decisions and current information that may not be available elsewhere.
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is responsible for making federal government documents available to the public at no charge, and it does so in many different ways. One method is through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). Through the FDLP, GPO supplies federal government documents to those libraries which agree to make the documents available to the general public. Some large libraries, such as AUM, are designated as regional depositories and receive all depository publications and must retain them permanently.
Libraries that receive government documents through the FDLP generally maintain them as a separate collection within the library. That is, they are shelved apart from other items in the library. The call numbers used for federal government documents maintained in such separate collections are unique to government documents and they can be confusing when first encountered.
Called "SuDoc" numbers, short for the "Superintendent of Documents," these call numbers start with letters that represent the department of the federal government which published the document. For example, SuDoc call numbers for documents published by the Justice Department start with "JU"; or by the Education Department, "ED"; or Health, "HE". SuDoc call numbers appear as a single string of characters, with slashes ( / ), colons ( : ), or other punctuation separating the discrete parts of the call number, rather than discrete parts of the call number appearing on separate lines, as is commonly found with Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress call numbers. A typical example is: ED 1.302: C37/3/993-94.
Federal government documents are published in a variety of physical formats: paper, microfiche, floppy disk, CD-ROM and online. Some documents may be distributed in several different formats, to enhance ease of access; other resources are made available in one format only. A few commercial publishers repackage information derived from government documents and make it available in paper or electronic versions. However, commercially available information must be purchased, while government documents are available free of charge. And finally, federal government documents are increasingly available on the Internet.
The GPO has established online access to the full-text version of many government documents, called "GPO Access." It is currently available via the World Wide Web (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html) and via a telnet (swais.access.gpo.gov [login as guest]). Documents available through GPO Access include the current federal budget, legislative information, the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, GAO reports, the U.S. Code, Public Laws, the Code of Federal Regulations and GILS (Government Information Locator Service) records. This information may be read online, printed, or downloaded.
The full text of federal legislative information, including Congressional bills and the Congressional Record, may also be found via "Thomas" (http://thomas.loc.gov).
The U.S. Department of Commerce provides online access to a variety of statistics via "StatUSA", including business, marketing, economic and trade data. In contrast to the widely available GPO Access group of databases, access to the StatUSA data is limited. At present, StatUSA may be accessed by subscription, or for fee via the World Wide Web in federal depository libraries. StatUSA is found on the Articles and Information page.
As of September 1, 2003, the U.S. Government Printing Office closed all of its bookstores nationwide, except for the main bookstore in Washington, DC. However, the researcher who wishes to obtain federal government documents may do so from the GPO Online Bookstore.
State governments also publish information. Many of the Alabama Government Documents may be found either on the main website alabama.gov or on an agency website.
As is the case with federal government documents, the publishing agency of the state government may be contacted directly with a request to provide information.
City governments also publish information. Most cities are less formal in their distribution of city government documents; i.e., cities rarely have formal depository systems for their documents. The most important or most sought-after titles will probably be available in the local public libraries. City web pages often provide numerous government documents online. And, of course, the publishing agency of the city may be contacted directly with a request to provide information.
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