Guides and References

Government Information - Government Resources

Directories, Guides and Search Engines | Full Text Collections | Census and Statistical Information | Other General Statistics | Specialized Statistics

Directories, Guides, and Search Engines

• Catalog of United States Government Documents (index to federal publications available through the Federal Depository Library Program, of which Sprague Library is a participant. Some records contain links to the web version of a document. This is a good place to search for federal publications on a particular subject)
• Federal Government Resources on the Web (excellent site maintained by the Univ. of Michigan Library. This is a good place to begin a subject search of federal agency web sites)
• FedLaw ("a select group of references of particular use to those persons doing Federal legal research")
• Federal Web Locator ("one-stop shopping point for federal information on the World Wide Web;" maintained by the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy)
• FedWorld ("a comprehensive central access point for… government and business information")
• FirstGov (official U.S. Government portal to government information, services, and online transactions)
• GPO’s Browse Topics (provides topical pathfinders to U.S. Government information)
• Library of Congress Guides
  • The Legislative Branch
  • Official U.S. Executive Branch Web Sites
  • U.S. Judicial Branch Resources
• LSU Libraries Federal Agencies Directory (comprehensive list of federal agency sites on the Internet arranged according to the U.S. Government Manual; maintained by the Louisiana State University Library. This is a good place to begin to find the web site of a specific federal agency)
• SciTechResources.gov (comprehensive guide to government science and technology resources)
• U.S. Government Information on the Web Subject Index (contains links to guides on a subject maintained by various libraries or organizations)

Full Text Collections

Guides and General Collections | Specialized Collections

Guides and General Collections

• Catalog of United States Government Documents (index to federal publications available through the Federal Depository Library Program, of which Sprague Library is a participant with links to the web version of publications. This is a good place to find U.S. government publications on a particular subject)
• Free Searchable Public Records Databases (links to free international, U.S., and state public records databases; maintained by Pacific Resources Inc.)
• GPO Access (database of the official version of federal documents from all three branches of government. This is a good place to find links to databases that search the text of important executive and legislative branch publications)
• Science & Technology Research Publications and Studies (subject guide to full text of federal science and technology publications; from the SciTechResources.gov site)
• Selected United States Government Full-text Documents (bookmarks to popular full text U. S. government documents; maintained by the U. of Penn Library)
• THOMAS (database of Congressional documents)
• Uncle Sam: Migrating Government Publications (this site links to the full text of U.S. Government serials and periodicals; maintained by the U. of Memphis Library)
• U.S. Government Documents Ready Reference Collection (bookmarks to regularly used government documents; maintained by the Columbia University Library)
• U.S. Government Periodicals on the Web (maintained by the Univ. of Louisville Library)

Specialized Full Text Collections

• Congressional Research Service WWW Accessible Reports (guide to sites that link to CRS reports; maintained by Gary Price, George Washington University)
• DOSFAN Electronic Research Collection (site "mainly includes the archived electronic documents from the US State Department website and US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency")
• GAO Reports (General Accounting Office reports)http://www.gao.gov/audit.htm
• Specialized Collections of Full Text Information (provides links to full text collections of U.S. Federal Government information. Some require a password; call the Documents Librarian at 973-655-7145 for appointment)
• STAT-USA (A database of reports and statistics for the U.S. business, economic and trade community; available only in the Library)
• U.S. Patent Full Text Database (full-text database of all US patents issued from January 1976 to the most recent weekly issue date)

U. S. Census and Statistical Information

Census Information | Other General Statistical Sources | Specialized Statistics

U.S. Census Bureau Statistics Sources

• American FactFinder (contains data from the 2000 and 1990 censuses; maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the place to begin to find the most recent information from the 2000 decennial census)
• CensusScope: Your Portal to Census 2000 Data ("an easy-to-use tool for U.S. demographic trends, brought to you by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) at the University of Michiga").
• Selected Historical Census Data (maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau)
• U.S. Census Bureau
• U.S. Census Subjects A – Z (Census reports arranged by subject)
• United States Historical Census Data Browser of the U.S. (U.S. Census data from 1790 to 1970)
• 1990 Census Data (from the Social Science and Government Data Library at the Univ. of California Berkeley)
• 1990 Census Lookup (data from the following 1990 U.S. Census Summary Tape Files)

Other General Statistical Sources

• Economic Statistics Briefing Room (White House site designed to provide "easy access" to current federal economic statistics)
• FedStats (key statistics from over 100 federal agencies)
• Government Information Sharing Project (covers major federal databases; maintained by the Univ. of Oregon Library)
• Social Statistics Briefing Room (White House site designed to provide "easy access" to current federal social statistics)
• Statistical Abstract of the United States
• Statistical Resources on the Web (from the U. of Michigan Documents Center)
• U.S. Government Statistical Sources (provides links to major federal statistical sources; maintained by the U. of Pennsylvania Library)

Specialized Statistical Sources

• Encyclopedia of ED stats (data from several National Center for Education Statistics sources)
• Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center (data on the Federal criminal justice system)
• National Center for Health Statistics
• National Science Foundation Statistical Division (science and engineering statistics)
• Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Online (data on all aspects of U.S. criminal justice)

Send suggestions and comments to: Steven Shapiro

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