LibGuides: Government Documents & Information: Some Basic Search Tools

Important Library Databases for Government Publications & Information

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) This link opens in a new window
Indexes and links (when possible) to the text of publications from U.S. federal agencies.
Updated daily. Provides an index to print and electronic publications created by Federal agencies. When available, links are provided to the full text of these publications.
Govinfo.gov This link opens in a new window
"Discover U.S. government information." Links to regulatory material, presidential and congressional documents, economic information, and more.
Updated daily. Govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Valuable source for access to U.S. regulatory material, statues, and court information. Also a source for legal journals.
Updated regularly. Provides a collection of legal periodicals, reproducing the original image of each article. Includes over 1,200 law review journals containing more than 600,000 articles from 21,000 volumes.

Also provides access to the following:
- Federal Register
- Statutes at Large (the official source for the laws and resolutions passed by Congress, browseable by volume, popular name or treaty)
- U.S. Supreme Court Library
Access to this resource is funded by the Tarlton Law Library at the Jamail Center for Legal Research.

Restricted to current UT students, faculty and staff. Not available to Official UT Retirees
WorldCat Advanced Search This link opens in a new window
Indexes documents (and points to owning libraries) from around the world, with an emphasis on holdings of libraries in the U.S. Especially important for older materials.
Updated continually. Provides access to the world's most comprehensive bibliography, with over 49 million bibliographic records for audio-visual materials, books, maps, musical scores, newspapers, and periodicals in 370 languages and covering information from 4,000 years of knowledge. Many of the holdings for materials at the University of Texas Libraries are included, as well as holdings for other libraries in Texas, the United States and worldwide.

Congressional Research Service: Search CRS Reports
Research prepared for Congress to assist members of Congress and their staff. Freely available to others. Also includes a current “Appropriations Status Table.”
National Archives and Records Administration
"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever." (Still a large number.)
Library of Congress
The United States represented through book collections, music, photographs, and more. Many digital collections.
Federal Library Directory
"The Federal Library Directory, now in an updated second edition, profiles federal libraries and information centers in the United States and abroad. Presented with an interactive map, the directory displays geographic and collections data from nearly 1,400 federal libraries."

Basic General Search-Tools for Finding Government Information

These databases help provide access to government information (usually) without requiring special knowledge of the provider of the information. Other databases may be better for specialized coverage.

Use Google with a site limit. Add: site:gov

Search.gov
Make an inquiry across search-boxes on over 2,000 U.S. federal websites.
USA.gov
"Search all government." The emphasis here is on finding practical information as supplied by federal government agencies.
USAGov en Español
Search websites of the U.S. federal agencies with a Spanish interface.