How Do I Find Government Documents - To look for government documents located in Joyner Library, use the Joyner Library Online Catalog . Items that are located in the Documents Collection will have "Joyner Docs. Stacks" as their location. The Documents Stacks collection, located in the basement of Joyner Library, includes over 535,000 items, with another 575,000 documents available on microfiche ("Joyner Docs. Microforms"). To search just for government documents, select the Advanced search option, and limit your search to "Federal Document".
- Please be aware that a large portion of our Government Documents collection is not yet listed in our library catalog. Most of what we have in print, with some exceptions, was published between 1950-present. While everything produced from mid 1994 to the present is in the catalog, most of what was published prior to this period is not.
 - To search for government documents not listed in Joyner Library's catalog, use the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, produced by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The GPO Catalog contains approximately 500,000 citations to publications of U.S. government agencies, the U.S. Congress, and the federal judiciary, with links to those publications that are available on the Web. Coverage is from 1976-present.
- The GPO Catalog will allow you to find documents held by other libraries, which you can then obtain via Interlibrary Loan. In addition, the GPO Catalog includes records for many documents available in Joyner Docs Stacks that are not listed in the Joyner online catalog.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of federal government publications available online that are not included in either the Joyner Library or GPO catalogs. To find these publications, try the following: - GPO Access is a good place to begin. GPO Access offers free electronic access to over 300,000 full-text government publications, including the Federal Register; the Code of Federal Regulations; public and private laws; the U.S. Code; Congressional Record; Commerce Business Daily; congressional bills, hearings, documents and reports; the GAO blue books, and the Economic Indicators.
- Use a Web search engine. There are several that search only federal and state government Web sites. The best of these is Google Uncle Sam . Another search engine, FirstGov , is the federal government's official search engine. FirstGov also offers a comprehensive Web portal to federal government sites.
- Use a cross-agency Web portal: browse or search government Web sites and databases from multiple agencies covering a particular subject. Examples of such resources include Science.gov , and Kids.gov . Cross-agency portals are especially useful for finding online government information not indexed by search engines like Google. Joyner Library's Government Information Web Directory is a good source for finding cross-agency portals.
- Try the "agency approach": browse or search the Web site of a government agency that publishes material on your topic. Louisiana State University has created a comprehensive list of agency Web sites. A great tutorial on how to use this approach is available from Western Illinois University.
These resources are good starting points for specialized government information research: - Government & Law Electronic Resources: provides links to over 20 databases useful for finding journal articles, federal documents, congressional information, laws and regulations, court cases, and statistics.
- Government Information Subject Guides: Offer detailed explanations for how to find information on a variety of topics, both within Joyner Library and on the Web. Subjects covered include election information, international studies, census information, and genealogical material.
- Pirate Source: Find essential reference sources, both print and electronic, in over 65 subject areas. Areas featuring government information include Law, Political Science, and History-American.
Return to the Government Documents Home Page Return to the Joyner Library Home Page The URL for this page is: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/govdoc/howdoi.cfm |
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