The University of Iowa Libraries

Information Resources (07B:202)

Course Instructors: Kathy Magarrell / Dottie Persson
Librarian Instructors: Brett Cloyd / Marianne Mason
September 19, 2008

Government Information Resources

United States Federal Information

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.

LexisNexis Congressional is a comprehensive index to U.S. Congressional materials including members and committees information, bills, laws, hearing transcripts, committee prints, documents, the Congressional Record, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Code, and Congressional Research Service reports.  Many full-text documents.

Serial Set When completed in 2009, this digital full-text edition will contain all documents, maps, and illustrations contained in the Serial Set from 1817 to 1980.   One may search by keyword, individual name, date, and full-text or browse by subject, publication type, committee, and Congress.  Links to related topics are included with each search.

Federal Agency Information 1789 - present

Statistics from Federal Agencies

FedStats
Historical Statistics of the United States
StatUSA

State source of information

State Data Center of Iowa . Demographic data, educational data, housing data statistics. By place, by type of data. Also of note: Quick Facts.

Iowa Publications On-line. Digitized documents and publications from state agencies in Iowa.

Legislative Services Agency Publications.

International Information

    Some Statistical Sources

UN Statistics Division. Clearinghouse for statistics compiled by the United Nations. The new UN Data portal attempts to present data in a Google-like fashion.  

Millennium Development Goals Indicators. Measures progress countries are making to meet the Millennium development goals - efforts to improve standard of living and quality of life around the globe.

             

World Development Indicators. 737 data series. There is not data for every series for every country for every year, but years of coverage tend to be longer than the UN Data portal. The notes button will give you information about the series, country, or aggregate. 

• Countries. You can select individual countries, groups of countries, etc. Pick a few countries to try to compare them.
• Series. Topics, browse, or search.

    Reports, Publications, Speeches

AccessUN.  Indexes a variety of United Nations publications. Recent example: interview with Desmond Tutu in the UN Chronicle. Includes some full-text, many more things available in the Government Publications collection. Indexes all microfiche collections plus much of the Libraries’ print collection.

UNBISNet has the best index for discovering who spoke to United Nations committees and what they said.

World Bank E-Library. Full-text database of World Bank publications.  Titles report on various themes and detail progress in developing countries.