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U.S. Government

Lists of Government websites by agency

U.S. Federal Government Agencies Page
A comprehensive list of agencies sites, this one created by the Louisiana State University in partnership with the Government Printing Office.  

Federal Government Resources on the Web
Created by the University of Michigan Documents Center, this site mixes agency lists with subject lists.

USA.gov
Formerly Firstgov.gov, this is the official portal of the U.S. federal government. Browse or search by topic or agency.  

Subject Indexes to Government Information on the Internet
A list of websites that have subject guides to government information on the net. Organized by institution, not by subject.

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Lists of Government websites by subject

Frequently Used Sites
Maintained by the Federal Documents Task Force of the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association.  

Federal Government Resources on the Web
Created by the University of Michigan Documents Center, this site mixes agency lists with subject lists. Of interest is their link Government Documents in the News, which covers "government making news headlines".  

Pathway Services, Browse Topics
Maintained by volunteer librarians and hosted by the Superintendent of Documents, this site arranges government Internet sites by subject topic. The list of topics is based upon the current Guide to U.S. Government Information, also known as The Subject Bibliographies (Case Indexes Z1223. A195)  

USA.gov
Formerly Firstgov.gov, this is the official portal of the U.S. federal government. Browse or search by topic or agency.

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Search Engines/Indexes

Colgate's Library Catalog
Contains cataloging records for documents from July 1976 to the present. Some older documents have been cataloged, including documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Civil Rights Commission, and Smithsonian.  

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
July 1976-- ; some older material

Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
Online July 1976--
Case Ref Document Z1223.A18 July 1924-76

Preceded by:
    Checklist of United States Public Documents 1789-1909
    (arranged by SuDocs number)
    Poore's 1774-1881 ()
    Ames 1881-1893 (Case Ref Document Z1223 .A114 1905)
    Document Catalog 1894-1939 )  

FDSys
Contains the full text of many congressional publications (including bills, documents and reports, the Congressional Record), and an increasing number of non-congressional publications, such as the Economic Report of the President, GAO Reports, and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Also provides links to other federal agency web pages.

Google Uncle Sam
Has a special search engine for .gov and .mil web sites. Searches .pdf files!  

USA.gov
Formerly Firstgov.gov, this is the official portal of the U.S. federal government. Browse or search by topic or agency.  

Uncle Sam: migrating government publications
Maintained by the regional depository library at University of Memphis, this site provides direct access to individual publications as they are converted to digital format by agencies. Can be browsed by title or by Superintendent of Documents number (agency).

CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909. Guide to Documents listed in the Checklist of U.S. Public Documents, 1789-1909, not printed in the U.S. Serial Set
Case Ref Documents Z1223 .A1134 1990 
Arranged by agency; subject and name indexes. Reference bibliography lists documents by SuDocs number.

CIS Index to U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1910-1932. Guide to documents not printed in the U.S. Serial Set.
Case Ref Documents Z1223 .A11346 1996 
Arranged by agency; subject and name indexes. Reference bibliography lists documents by SuDocs number.  

Congressional Research Service Reports search
Steve Stoft's custom Google search

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Legislative Information

Legislative Process help

ProQuest Congressional both brief and detailed descriptions of the legislative process
How our Laws are Made
Session Dates of the U.S. Congress
Numerical Lists of Documents & Reports and Schedule of Serial Set Volumes

Legislative Indexes/Search engines

Many government titles have their own indexes, not listed below. Ask at Reference Desk.

ProQuest Congressional
Online:  varies with portion of database (coverage chart)
Indexes and abstracts congressional publications. Also includes legislative histories, selected full text of house & senate documents and reports, committee prints, and the daily Congressional Record, prepared statements at hearings (not complete text); full text of bills and bill-tracking, U.S. Code  Service, current Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations, biographical and financial information and voting records of members of congress; committee rosters, charters, and schedules; news from the hill, including stories from the Washington Post, Roll Call, and The Hill; and links to hot bills/topics and other websites.

Tip: Use Numerical Lists of Documents & Reports in conjunction with LNCongressional to identify Serial Set volume numbers from 1970-

FDSys
Contains the full text of many congressional publications (including bills, documents and reports, the Congressional Record).

Thomas
Contains a wide range of legislative materials, including many that are also on FDsys. Better for  tracking bills and current legislative action than FDsys.

Legislative Branch Internet Resources
Comprehensive list of links to websites with legislative/congressional information, including FDsys and Thomas (see above).

U.S. Senate The official web site with links to members' pages, committees, roll call votes, and recent legislative activities.
Link directly to New York State's senators: Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton 

U.S. House of Representatives The official web site with links to members' pages, committees, roll call votes, and recent legislative activities.
Link directly to John M. McHugh representative of the 23rd Congressional District (Clinton, Essex (part), Franklin, Fulton (part), Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida (part), Oswego, St. Lawrence counties). District map

U.S. Congressional Bibliographies
Maintained by North Carolina State Univ., provides lists of meetings held by Senate and House committees (1985-- ), and of hearings, prints published by the Senate (1983-- ). Based on data from Congressional Record Daily Digest, and Senate Library information.  

C-Span Capitol Hearings Streaming video of televised hearings  

Legislative Histories (selected laws)

ProQuest Congressional 1988- 

U.S. Federal Legislative Histories (Hein Online)  

Thomas
Contains a wide range of legislative materials, including many that are also on FDsys. Better for  tracking bills and current legislative action than FDsys

Search Colgate University Catalog by popular name of law or by topic. Subject heading often includes phrase legislative history.

Legislative publications

Bills text  (Call number Y 1.4/ )
   Center for Research Libraries 1st-72nd congress (1789-1933)
        Micro; must be borrowed
   Center for Research Libraries 85th-89th congress (1957-1965)
       Paper; must be borrowed
    Case MFiche Docs  96th-106th congress (1979-2000)
   FDsys  103rd congress (1993)-
   Thomas  101st congress (1989)--
   LexisNexis Congressional  101st congress (1989)--

Bill tracking & summaries
    Digest of Public General Bills & Resolutions
        Case Ref Document LC 14.6:
        74th congress 2nd session--101st congress (1936--1990)
    Thomas  93rd congress (1973)--
    LexisNexis Congressional  101st congress (1989)--
        selected legislative histories
    U.S. Federal Legislative Histories (Hein Online)
        selected legislative histories

Committee hearings & prints
Indexes:
    ProQuest Congressional  1789--
Full text:
Case Documents
    1933--1980; 73rd--96th congresses
    1987--1988; 100th congress (titles not on microfiche)
    1989--2005; 101st--107th congresses
Case Microfiche Documents
    1979---1980; 96th congress (appropriations hearings only)
    1981--1986; 97th--99th congresses
    1987--1988; 100th congress (selected titles only)
FDsys  1997-- ; selected hearings & prints
Thomas  1997--  selected House hearings
ProQuest Congressional 
        1988-- ; prepared testimony of hearings only, not complete text
        1993-- ; selected prints

Committee reports & documents/Serial Set
Indexes:
   ProQuest Congressional
      for volumes published after 1969 use together with below to get
      Serial Set voume number:
   Numerical lists of documents and reports 85th congress (1957)--
   Numerical lists and schedule of volumes of the reports and documents
      73rd-96th congress (1933/34-1980)
Permanent ed.
    Case MFiche Documents Y 1.1/2:
        American State Papers--v.4555; 1st-57th congresses
    LASR Special Collections
        American State papers --v.5214; 1st--59th congresses
    LASR Gov't Document
        v.5217; 60th congress--
    FDsys  1995-- ; 104th congress--
    ProQuest Congressional  House & Senate reports 1990--
    Proquest Congressional  House & Senate documents 1995--
    Thomas reports only  1995-- ; 104th congress--
Slip ed.
    Case Documents Y 1.1/3:-- Y 1.1/8:
        retained until bound and then LASR

Congressional Record (1874-- ) and precursors Congressional Globe (1833--1873), Register of Debates in Congress (1824--1837), Annals of Congress (1789--1824)

Indexes (including History of Bills & Resolutions) and Daily Digest
    Case Ref Document X 1.1:
    ProQuest Congressional Record Digital (1789-1997)
    A Century of Lawmaking (1789-1873)
    FDsys  (1983)--
    Thomas  (Nov. 1989)--

Permanent ed.
    LASR Gov't Docs:
        1st--66th congresses (1789--1986)
            Call number X: , X 1. , X 1.0: , X 1.1:
    Case Microfiche Document:
        99th congress (1985--1986)
            Call number X 99
        100th congress (1987--1988)
            Call number X 100
        101st congress (1989)--
            Call number X 1.1:
    ProQuest Congressional Record Digital (1789-1997)
    Century of Lawmaking  Annals of Congress
        (1789-1824) minutes of proceedings, not debates
    Century of Lawmaking  Register of Debates
        (1824-183) summary of "leading debates and incidents"
    Century of Lawmaking  Congressional Globe
        (1833-73) summary until 1851, then "approaching verbatim"
    FDsys Congressional Record
        (1999)-

Daily ed.(paper)
    Case Ref Document X 1.1/A: (retained until Permanent ed.
        arrives on microfiche)
    LexisNexis Congressional  (1985)--
    Thomas (1989)--
    FDsys (1994)--

Laws
Statutes at Large
LASR Gov't Docs AE 2.111:
Contains laws arranged chronologically Each volume has an index.

Slip laws
    Case Ref Documents AE 2.110:
    ProQuest Congressional 1988-  
    FDsys 1951-2002
    FDsys 2003-2007
    FindLaw & other websites

United States Code (latest ed.)
CaseRef Documents Y 1.2/5:
Contains laws arranged by subject.

Roll Call Votes

Subject headings to search in the catalog:
    United States Congress Voting

Roll-call vote bookmarks on Delicious.

Congressional Research Service Reports

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Executive Branch

President

Guide to the Presidency
Case Ref JK516.G83 2008

Vital Statistics on the Presidency
CASE Ref JK516.R54 2009

Presidential election statistics
CASE REF JK522 - JK528

The White House President Obama.

Search Presidents as authors in catalog.

American Presidency Project
Full text of signing statements, Public Papers of the President, executive orders and proclamations, press conferences, and more. Only place to read signing statments.

Scripps Library and Multimedia Archive - Miller Center of Public Affairs
Contains online recordings and transcripts of interviews, speeches, meetings, etc. Of particular interest are the secret records and transcripts of FDR through Nixon. Amount of information varies widely for each President.

Weekly Compilations of Presidential Documents
    see Journal Finder

Public Papers of the President (Hoover, Truman- )
    Case Ref Documents AE 2.114:
    American Presidency Project

Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
(1789-1897, Washington-Cleveland)
    Case Ref Documents AE 2.113:
    LASR Main 353.03 Un31

Codification of Presidential proclamations and executive orders
(1945-89, Truman-Regan)
   Case Ref Documents AE 2.113:

Statements of Administration Policy on Non-Appropriations and Appropriations Bills
105th congress 1st session (1997)-
Full text of Presidential position statements about proposed legislation.

Presidential Directives
List of sources (some online) which contain presidential directives. Maintained by the staff of the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room of the Library of Congress.  

National Archives Executive Orders (1993- )

Index to executive proclamations and orders (1789-1980)
CIS Index to Presidential Executive Orders & Proclamations
Case Ref Documents Z1223.Z7 C65 1987
can borrow texts

Executive branch agencies

Library of Congress
Comprehensive list of links to executive branch websites, including the White House (see above). 

FDSys
Contains the full text of many congressional publications (including bills, documents and reports, the Congressional Record), and an increasing number of non-congressional publications, such as the Economic Report of the President, GAO Reports, and the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Also provides links to other federal agency web pages.

U.S. Attorney General Opinions (Hein Online)
1791-1982

Opinions of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice (Hein Online)
1977-1996

Regulations

RegInfo.gov 
Produced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA). Gathers and publishes information on Federal regulations through the semiannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions and the annual Regulatory Plan. The Plan identifies regulatory priorities and contains information about the most important significant regulatory actions that agencies expect to take in the coming year. Covers 1995--

RegInfo.gov
Search for proposed rules, final rules, and also submit comments on pending regulations. First-time visitors can get a feel for the site by looking at the "What's Hot" area, which features some of the most visited regulations. Other sections include "Newly Posted Regulations", "Your Voice in Action", and "Regulations with Comment Periods Closing Soon". Searching keyword or browse alphabetically (from "Abandoned Mine Reclamation Programs" to "Zones").

Federal Register
FDsys 1994-
Links to and help files at RegInfo.gov (see above)

Code of Federal Regulations
Case Ref Documents AE 2.106/3:
current year and all of Title 3 (the president)
LASR Gov't Docs AE 2.106/3:
FDsys 1996-

List of CFR Sections Affected
Online (FDsys):  1986--
Case Ref Document AE 2.106/2-2: 1973-2000

 

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Judiciary
See also Subject Guide - Law

United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court Opinions

United States Reports (each volume has an index)
LASR Gov't Docs JU 6.8: 

FDsys (1973-75, 1992-2000)

LexisNexis Academic Legal - Federal and State Cases (1790- )
Lawyers Ed. Includes annotated references.

Find Law & other websites

Briefs submitted by parties (Supreme Court)

Landmark briefs and arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States
Case Main KF101.9 .L36

LexisNexis Academic Legal - Federal and State Cases
Supreme Court merit briefs for cases granted cert., amicus curiae briefs, joint appendices and special masters beginning in January 1979, with selected coverage from 1936. All briefs for cases granted cert. begins after 1993. Also includes all briefs for cases petitioning for cert. after 2001.

FindLaw
For October 1999 term to the present includes petitioner, respondent, reply and amicus briefs in multiple formats.

Office of the Solicitor General (Dept. of Justice) From 7/1998 to present, all briefs filed by the Solicitor General, except responses to IFP cases. From 1993-1996, and 1986-1990 Solicitor General merits briefs and responses. From 1982-1985 Solicitor General merits briefs. Please see the web site for information on omissions, arrangement, and formats

Oral arguments

Supreme Court 2000-

Oyez varies

Links to other websites

U.S. Courts
Website of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Most interesting section are the statistical reports

Supreme Court Database
Contains statistical information about decisions from 1953- , with analysis tools and a tutorial.

Library of Congress
Comprehensive list of links to judiciary websites, including Supreme Court opinions.  

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Evaluating

General Accountability Office
the investigative arm of Congress" and "the congressional watchdog." GAO supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal government

Each executive branch agency has an Inspector General which issues special and/or annual reports. Check the agencies websites or do an advanced keyword search in the catalog for authors with the terms inspector general