The following list suggests the best sites to find government information available online for federal, state, international, and foreign levels of government.
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Documents at F&M
Franklin & Marshall College has been a selective depository for United States federal documents since 1895. The Federal Depository Library Program is a national network for providing public access to government produced information. The library's mission is to provide government information that supports the college's curriculum and to make this information available to residents of the 16th Congressional District in Pennsylvania. The library selects approximately 21% of the publications available from the U.S. Government. Strengths of the collection include legislative documents, census publications, statistical reports, and U.S. Geological Survey maps.
Government information can be found in a variety of formats: paper (or print); microfiche;
CD-Roms; and web documents on the Internet. Most of the paper collection is housed on the
Ground Floor of the Shadek-Fackenthal Library, arranged according to the Superintendent of
Documents Classification. Microfiche are housed in the Microforms Reading Room on Level One,
and CD-ROMs are housed in the Public Services Office, also on Level One. Scientific publications
(primarily from the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Interior, as well as the Environmental
Protection Agency and NASA) are housed in the Martin Library of the Sciences. Reference assistance
for the documents collection is available in both libraries.
Many federal documents are not contained in the Library Catalog. Indexes and other finding aids must be used to identify and locate these publications. A good place to begin is:
- Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.
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Federal Government:
General Information
- GPO Access (search and retrieve government information from the US Government Printing Office, with mirror, or Gateway, sites at over 20 universities, each with their own strengths.)
- USA.gov (browse US Government web sites and find consumer information)
- Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information (ALA GODORT FDTF)
- Documents Center (one-stop shopping from the University of Michigan)
- U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory (locate all federal agencies via LSU)
- INFOMINE (huge collection of government resources and guides from the University of California, Riverside)
- Oxford Guide to the United States Government
- US House of Representatives
- US Senate Home Page
- White House Home Page
- Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
- Public Papers of the President
- Recent State of the Union Addresses
- The American President (a non-partisan resource from the Miller Center for Public Affairs)
- Congressional Research Service Reports (for Homeland Security and Health Law & Policy)
- Wirtz Labor Digital Library (access to Labor Deppartment publications and statistical data)
- Internal Revenue Service Page (tax forms, instructions, and more from the IRS)
- FedStats (a gateway to statistical data from government agencies)
- Science.gov (a gateway to scientific and health information)
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Federal Government:
Legislative, Regulatory, and Judicial Information
- Congress.Org (searchable member directories and current awareness)
- Congressional Directory (the official directory for the 108th Congress, with the January 2004 update)
- Congressional Universe(indexing, abstracting, and some full-text of publications of the U.S. Congress, 1970 to the present)
- GPO Access (search and retrieve congressional information from the US Government Printing Office, with mirror, or Gateway, sites at over 20 universities, each with their own strengths.)
- Library of Congress (guide to the U.S. Legislative Branch)
- Thomas (search & retrieve legislation from the 103rd to current congresses)
- Congressional Record (search & retrieve proceedings and debates of the United States Congress from 1994 to the present)
- Federal Register (search & retrieve proposed and final regulations from 1994 to the present)
- Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register, updated annually)
- United States Code (the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States.)
- Selected CRS Reports (reports from the Congressional Research Service on terrorism, homeland security, and health law & policy)
- U. S. Government Accountability Office (reports, opinions, and testimonies on all facets of governmental activity)
- Federal Election Commission (includes campaign finance information)
- Supreme Court of the United States (information about the Court and links to recent opinions)
- Law Library of Congress (access to court cases, legal information, and legislative resources - from the Library of Congress)
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell University (Supreme Court Collection)
- FindLaw(links to executive, legislative, and judicial materials)
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Hot Topics and Current Issues
- 2007 Country Reports on Terrorism (US State Department)
- Combating Terrorism (GAO report on Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 4/17/08)
- National Defense University report on Iraq, April 2008
- Iraqi Perspectives Project: Saddam and Terrorism (Vol. 1 of a redacted Pentagon report)
- Public Health, Safety, and Security for Mass Gatherings (report from the House Committee on Homeland Security, May 2008)
- China's Military Power (reports from 2002 to 2008 from the U.S. Dept. of Defense)
- 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (from the U.S. Dept. of State)
- Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities (Nov. 2007 report from the National Intelligence Council)
- War at Any Price? The Total Economic Costs of the War Beyond the Federal Budget (Nov. 2007)
- The Global War on Terrorism: An Assessment (The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment) (note - this is 280 pages)
- Benchmark Assessment Report on Iraq (White House)
- General Petraeus' report to Congress, 9/10/07
- Ambassador Crocker's report to Congress, 9/10/07
- Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks (GAO Report, GAO-07-1220T, September 04, 2007)
- Defense Science Board reports, 1993 to the present
- CIA Inspector General's report on pre-9/11 intelligence
- Prospects for Iraq's Stability (report from the National Intelligence Council, August 2007)
- Prospects for Iraq's Stability (report from the National Intelligence Council, January 2007)
- The Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland (National Intelligence Estimate, July 2007 - 7 pages)
- Initial Benchmark Assessment Report on Iraq (The White House, July 12, 2007 - 25 pages)
- Report on the Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq Together With Additional Views (229 pages)
- Continuing Challenge of Building the Iraqi Security Forces (House Armed Services Committee report, June 2007 - 207 pages)
- The Iraq Study Group Report - released December 6, 2006
- Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq (March 2007) - the latest report from the Defense Department
- Congressional Restrictions on U. S. Military Operations...(Congressional Research Service report, Jan. 16, 2007)
- National Strategy for Homeland Security (Oct. 2007)
- 2008 State of the Union Address - and previous addresses back to 1992
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - currently features two lengthy reports on the use, and mis-use of intelligence about Iraq
- A Failure of Initiative: The Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and the Response to Hurricane Katrina
- The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned (The White House report)
- Fiscal Year 2008 Budget (the Bush Administration's 2008 Budget Proposal - and links to previous budgets)
- 2007 Economic Report of the President
- Justice Dept. White Paper on "intercepted communications"
- Climate Change 2007: The Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN and WMO) - perhaps the hottest topic of them all!"
- Congressional Research Service study on "Presidential Authority to Conduct Warrantless Electronic Surveillance..."
- Congressional Research Service study on "Restructuring EPA's Libraries"
- USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (the full text of the law - search for "public law 109-177")
- USA Patroit Act - A.L.A. Response (the American Library Association's guidelines and other analysis)
- Recent Congressional Bills (to find bills introduced on topics like Hurricane Katrina, lobbying reform, and homeland security)
- Recent U.S. Supreme Court Opinions (links to all the cases decided in the 2005 court term)
- Supreme Court Nominations - Confirmed (a list of nominees with links to all official documents)
- Supreme Court Nominations - Not Confirmed (a list of nominees with links to all official documents)
- Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities... (Congress' investigation into the 9/11 attacks)
- Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq (The full, 521-page report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)
- Conclusions of the Intelligence Report (The 30-page summary of the Senate Select Committee's report)
- Weapons of Mass Destruction - Commission Report (The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction)
- Report of the FBI's Handling of Intelligence Information Related to the September 11 Attacks
- Web Sites on Terrorism and Homeland Security (a list of web sites available at selective depository libraries)
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State Information
- The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- Consolidated Statutes of Pennsylvania
- The Pennsylvania State Data Center (links to census data on the state and county level)
- State Constitutions, Statutes and Related Legislative Information (Cornell University)
- State Government Collections -- try one of the following:
- American Law Sources On-Line (ALSO!)
- Virtual Law Library(Indiana University School of Law) From the "Browse by Information Type" menu, select "State Government Servers"
- FindLaw
- State Government Information Index
- Piper Resources
- Council of State Governments
- State Legislative Database(GoverNet Affairs)
- National Governors Association (news reports and links to information about all 50 Governors)
- StateList(the Electronic Source for State Publication Lists from UIUC)
- NASIRE StateSearch
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Local Information
- Lancaster County Government
- Lancaster City
- Lancaster Economy Atlas 2006 (prepared by the Local Economy Center at F&M)
- Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry
- National Association of Counties
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International and Foreign Information
- Country Studies(Library of Congress)
- Documents Center (University of Michigan)
- Foreign Governments(links to individual foreign government pages, Northwestern Univ.)
- Foreign National Governments, International Governmental Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizaions (ALA GODORT International Documents Task Force)
- International Governmental Organizations (Northwestern University)
- US State Department Home Page
- Background Notes(Factual publications that contain information on all the countries of the world with which the United States has relations)
- Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 1999-2007 (from the U.S. Dept. of State)
- United Nations
- Voting Practices at the United Nations(compiled by the U.S. State Department)
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Statistical Resources
- Fedstats (search engine for government statistics and data)
- Statistical Abstract of the U. S. (does not load completely in Explorer)
- US Census Bureau
- Census Bureau Economic Programs
- Economic Statistics Briefing Room (recent data on basic federal economic indicators)
- Social Statistics Briefing Room (recent data on crime, demography, education and health)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
- FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research) (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
- Business & Economics Numeric Data
- United Nations Statistics Division
- InfoNation (comparative country data from the United Nations)
- International Voter Turnout Statistics
- International Data Base (IDB) (from the U.S. Census Bureau)
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Additional Resources
- GODORT (Government Documents Round Table, ALA)
- "Agency Approach" To Locating Government Information on the Internet (tutorial)
- GPO Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (search for government documents)
- Documents Data Miner (a collection management tool for depository libraries)
- Resources of Use to Government Documents Librarians (GODORT)
- GODORT Information Clearinghouse and Handout Exchange
- Government Information in the 21st Century (useful guides and training materials from Web Junction)
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Last updated: 5/14/08 tk
contact Tom Karel for assistance, 291-3845