U.S. Federal Government Information

Core Documents / Finding U.S. Government Information / Resources by Topic
Statistics / U.S. Government Web Sites / U.S. Research Guides

About U.S. Federal Information at The University of Iowa Libraries

Core U.S. Documents - These publications represent a core group of current and historic primary documents that define principles of the United States government.

Finding U.S. Government Information

Historical Resources

Historical Statistics of the United States (pre-colonial - present) contains both narrative and numeric descriptions of populations, work, economic issues, governance and international relations.

Indexes to Historical U.S. Federal Government Publications This guide to local resources includes date coverage, content description, and call numbers necessary to locate individual titles.  There are no online equivalents of these indexes nor does InfoHawk provide title or subject access to many older publications.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional (1789 - present) This digital index identifies and includes some full-text of congressional publications. Choose 'Advanced Search' to select appropriate date coverage.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set (1789 to 1980 - when complete) provides advanced search and browsing options for full-text retrieval of historical Congressional reports and documents including maps and images. American State Papers is a component of this Archive of Americana from Readex.

Recent Resources

Catalog of  U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a comprehensive index of U.S. federal publications issued from 1976 to present.  Most recent publications are available in full-text.  A growing number of older records and publications are being added to expand the scope and date coverage.

InfoHawk provides reliable coverage of government issued titles which are available in the UI Libraries collection from the early 1990's to the present with limited cataloging for older publications.

LexisNexis Government Periodicals Index (1988-present) locates articles from journals and magazines published by U.S. government agencies on issues on relating to public policy, commerce, and science-based topics of general interest for consumers and researchers.  For coverage of 1970-1988, use Index to U.S. Government Periodicals (Gov. Publications Collection Z1223 .Z7 I6).

Online By Topic

Agriculture

Agricola (AGRICultural OnLine Access) is a bibliographic database of citations to agricultural literature created by the National Agricultural Library and its partners.

Soil Surveys by State - This Web site lists soil surveys that have been published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 1899. Many are available digitally.  In print: Iowa.  Soil Survey Reports 1917-1947 (Gov. Pubs. S599.I8 I6); U.S. Soil Surveys (Gov. Pubs. S591 .A22 (1923-1961); S591. A221 (1962-1993). Natural Resources Conservation Service homepage.

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Business & Trade

EDGAR provides all foreign and domestic filings and forms from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stat-USA Internet provides access to current and historical economic, trade and financial data for the U.S. and the world markets.

Congress

CQ Electronic Library (CQEL) is an extensive reference resource comprised of fourteen separate modules, each with its own focus, for researching American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional (1789 - present) This digital index identifies congressional publications and related resources. From 1988 to present, many publications are in full-text.

Thomas is a full-text database of federal legislative information freely available to the public.  Coverage of some components date from 1973.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set provides advanced search and/or browsing options for full-text retrieval of historical Congressional reports and documents from 1789 to 1980 (when complete) includes maps and images.

Women in Congress, 1917 - 2006 is a revision of earlier editions of this biographical directory that includes portraits, narrative bibliographical references and index.

Economics

Economic Indicators includes statistics on total output, income and spending, employment, unemployment and wages, production and business activity, prices, money, and federal finance.

Economic Report of the President is the annual report of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Appendix B contains historical tables (from 1959 or earlier) on aspects of income, production, prices, employment, investment, taxes and transfers, and money and finance.

Energy

ADAMS, from the Nuclear Regulatory, provides access to public documents released from 1999 to present.

Energy Citations Database contains bibliographic records for energy and energy-related scientific and technical information from the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies.

Energy Technology Data Exchange is a searchable database of documents from the international scientific and technical literature in the field of energy and related topics. Abstracts, articles, and links to full text publications on the environmental impact of energy production and use, climate change, and more.

Education

ERIC an index of education literature with may publications available in full-text.

Environment

National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP) is a database containing over 24,000 publications on environmental topics available to search, retrieve and download without charge.

Genealogy

Genealogical Resources in U.S. Federal Depository Libraries (courtesy of the Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries)

Government

Executive Branch Resources on GPO Access information provided by the Government Printing Office

Judicial Branch Resources on GPO Access information provided by the Government Printing Office

Legislative Branch Resources on GPO Access information provided by the Government Printing Office

United States Government Manual is a narrative description of federal agencies, organizational charts, their statutory origin, mission, key officials, with directory and contact information.

Population & Demographics

American Factfinder Primarily a replacement for the 2000 Census, this Bureau of the Census site accesses population, housing, economic, and geographic data through tables and maps. It assumes that the user has knowledge of census publication structure and geographic areas.

Census Bureau Home Page includes census information, statistics, demographic and economic surveys, and specialized reports.

Languages other than English is a collection of federal agency web site that are particularly strong emphasis on languages other than English, however, most federal agencies have a Spanish language version.

Older Populations is a collection of local resources and federal agency web sites providing information for and about older populations.

Younger students, parents, and educators is a topically arranged collection of federal agency web sites providing information for and about younger populations, their parents, and educators.

Public Policy

Legislative Studies Quarterly, (1976 - ) published by the Comparative Legislative Research Center at The University of Iowa, this scholarly journal publishes research on representative (legislative/parliamentary) assemblies worldwide.

National Journal Group's Policy Central includes press reports, polls/surveys, legislative tracking, and commentary on politics and policy.

OMB Watcher, a publication of OMB Watch, an non-profit "watchdog" organization whose mission it is to promote open government, accountability, and citizen participation.

PAIS International  covers the literature of public affairs including political, economic and social issues.

World News Connection an online foreign news service valuable for its perspective of world events.

Science & Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), an index to reports from 1962 to present.  Many documents are available in the UI Libraries' Media Services.

National Technical Information Services (NTIS) and DARTS (password required, ask librarian)

TRIS Online an online index with some full-text of transportation research reports including conference proceedings, articles, books and continuing research.

Security

Army Field Manuals are technical and training manuals used by the U.S. Dept. of the Army.

Homeland Security Digital Library a collection of national security policy and strategy related documents.

Statistics

Bureau of Economic Analysis provides most current information about the U.S. economy relating to the domestic, international, industry, and regional accounts. 

Bureau of Justice Statistics provides information on crime, law enforcement, prosecution and the justice system.

Bureau of Labor Statistics includes most recent data of Consumer Price Index, unemployment, wages, productivity, inflation calculator and much more.

FedStats Serves as a gateway to over 100 federal agencies that collect statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States

Lexis-Nexis Statistical provides abstracts and indexes of statistical information from over 100,000 U.S. government publications from 1973, including some links to full-text publications.

National Center of Education Statistics collects and analyzes data related to education.

Statistical Abstract of the United States is a summary of statistics collected from all federal data-collecting agencies providing social, political, economic information in table format.

U.S. Government Web Sites

GPOAccess , a searchable full-text database created by the Government Printing Office in order to disseminate information from the three branches of government.

Science.Gov a collection of science-based indexes, databases, full-text publications arranged in broad topic categories for consumers and researchers. 

Thomas indexes and provides full-text access to congressional legislative information.

USA.gov - The U.S. government's official web portal

return to Government Information page

Revised, M. Mason
August 2007