Core Documents of U.S. Democracy
Provides American citizens direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society - a core group of current and historical Government publications - for free, permanent, public access.
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Core Indexes and Databases, 1774-present
- Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, September 5, 1774-March 4, 1881
Arranged chronologically, with general index. Continued by Ames' Comprehensive index to the publications of the United States government, 1881-1893 (2 vols., 1905) and by the Catalogue of public documents, 53d- Congress, 1893- issued by the superintendent of documents (the "Document catalogue")
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Public Documents Masterfile
Finding tool for public documents, combining bibliographic and index information from a variety of historic and current tools. 1789-present
- Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government, 1881-1893
Arragement is alphabetical, by subject and has a personal name index. Serial Set volume numbers are given under the heading "Congressional Documents".
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Catalog of the Public Documents of the Congress and of All Departments of the Government of the United States
Includes indexing by personal and governmental author, subject and sometimes title. Presidential proclamations and executive orders are indexed, as are articles in periodicals that were regularly published. Starting with the 56th Congress (1899), Serial Set volume numbers are also included.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library (US Ref Indexes) Row G 1895-1940
- Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of United States Government publications, 1900-1971
• Location(s): Law Library Z1223.A18 1973x Regular Loan
TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (Ref Indexes) Quarto J83 .C86x 1973 Non-Circulating
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications 1895-present
• Location(s):
- MarciveWeb Docs (Catalog of U.S. Government Publications)
Catalog of U.S. government publications from 1976 to the present, based on the Government Printing Office's cataloging records. Updated monthly.
If you know that you need a U.S. government publication, this database can be easier to use than MNCAT, which contains records for publications of all kinds of governments.
- Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (U.S. GPO)
Produced by the Government Printing Office, 1976 to the present, the Catalog of United States Government publications includes print and electronic Government information products created by Federal agencies and is updated daily.
- MNCAT Classic
Search with MNCAT Classic to find books, journals, etc. owned by the library. Search by keyword, subject, title, or author for materials on your topic. MNCAT Classic lacks the faceted searching of MNCAT Plus, but can be easier to use if you already have a good idea of what you're looking for.
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Indexes and Databases
- ADAMS
The ADAMS system is back up, but not all documents have been restored.
ADAMS has the full text of regulatory and technical documents and reports written by NRC, NRC contractors, or NRC licensees. Documents include NRC regulatory guides, NUREG-series reports, correspondence, inspection reports, and others, all searchable and accessible from the NRC Web Site.
- Army Electronic Library
Consolidated index of Army publications & blank forms; electronic libraries of publications & forms provide official electronic versions of Army forms & publications. Search by entering key words or publication numbers such as "AR 1-1". Users may also use the Series Title and Proponent Collection pulldown boxes.
- Digital National Security Archive
Access primary documents central to United States foreign and military policy since 1945. Material is arranged by topical collection produced by the National Security Archives at George Washington University. Each collection contains a diverse range of policy documents including presidential directives, memos, briefing papers, White House communications, email, confidential letters and more.
- Energy Citations Database
Energy Citations contains bibliographic records for energy and energy-related scientific and technical information from the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies, the Energy Research & Development Administration (ERDA) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Includes bibliographic records of literature in related disciplines such as chemistry, physics, materials, environmental science, geology, engineering, mathematics, climatology, oceanography, and computer science. Includes links to the full text of some recent publications.
- Environmental Impact Statements: Full-text and Digests
Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) are documents that help the government and the general public understand the effects of developments on the environment and to decide whether developments should go ahead.Full text statements are available from 2003-present and digests (summaries) are available from 1985-present.
- Federal Agency Internet Sites
Based on the entries in the US Government Manual, this site includes a very complete listing of federal agency sites.
- GPO Access
GPO Access is a service of the US Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on this site is the official, published version and the information retrieved from GPO Access can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted.
- Google U.S. Government Search
Google's Government Search appears to search the vast majority of government websites. It certainly includes all *.gov, *.state.*.us, *.mil and some *.org sites.
To use it most effectively, limit your keyword searches by government or agency like this
- "site:state.mn.us higher education" searches all MN web sites for higher education information and
- "site:ed.gov arts funding" searches the U.S. Department of Education for arts funding information.
Note: state governments use a mix of naming conventions - see State and Local Government on the Net to get the base address for the state you're looking for.
- Homeland Security Digital Library
The HSDL collection provides quick access to important U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources such as theses and reports from various universities, organizations and local and state agencies.
- Index to Current Urban Documents
Index to selective reports and research generated by local government agencies, civic organizations, academic and research organizations, public libraries, and metropolitan and regional planning agencies in approximately 500 selected cities in the United States and Canada. State documents that deal specifically with an eligible city or county may be included.
- Congressional Research Digital Collection - Prospective Service
The LexisNexis Congressional Research Digital Collection (CRDC) provides full-text access to more than 5,000 Congressional committee prints published from 2004 to present and more than 23,000 Congressional Research Service reports published from 2004-present. The bibliographic records provide controlled-vocabulary indexing, including citations for bills, public laws, and Statutes at Large, and analytical abstracts of the documents. Also includes links to political parties and organizations, news sources, etc. See Overview/Help for useful information on the legislative process.
- LexisNexis Government Periodicals
Provides bibliographical information about articles in US government periodicals in all fields, and provides links to the web sites for most of the titles. Check periodical title in MNCAT to locate copies in the Libraries.
- LexisNexis Statistical
Index to statistical publications from US and state government agencies, international intergovernmental organizations, professional and trade organizations, business organizations, commercial publishers, independent research organizations, and universities. Comprised of three indexes--the American Statistics Index (ASI)--Index to International Statistics (IIS)-- and Statistical Resources Index (SRI) that give bibliographic citations, abstracts, and links to selected full-text tables and web sites when available. The Government Publications Library has the companion microfiche collections which include copies of almost all the publications indexed in this database.
- Migrating Government Publications
This page from the University of Memphis is an attempt to track printed government publications that are migrating to the Internet. This list includes those publications in dual format and in electronic(Internet) format only. It is arranged by title and by Superintendent of Documents classification number.
- NASA Technical Reports Server
Provides citation with abstracts mostly to technical reports relating to aerospace research. Covers NASA documents published since 1962, and NACA documents from 1915-1960. Many of the reports indexed can be found on microfiche in the Science and Engineering Library.
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 150,000 criminal justice publications, including Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and
unpublished research.
- NTIS National Technical Information Service
NTIS indexes government-sponsored U.S. and worldwide scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related publications with over 2.0 million bibliographic records since 1964. Contents include research reports, computer products, software, video and audio. See the NTIS Website for an overview of subject coverage and document delivery services.
- Public STINET
Public STINET provides access to citations to unclassified documents that have been entered into the Defense Technical Information Center's (DTIC) Technical Reports Collection since December 1974 as well as some full text reports for those citations.
- Staff College Automated Military Periodicals Index (SCAMPI)
This database serves as a current guide to articles on military and naval art and science, operational warfare, joint planning, national and international politics, and other areas researched by Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) faculty, staff, and students. Library staff members regularly scan the weekly news magazines, monthly and bimonthly journals such as Military Review, Armed Forces Journal, and quarterly publications, including NATO's Nations and Partners for Peace, RUSI Journal, and the Naval War College Review. Miscellaneous reports from RAND and the General Accounting Office are also indexed for SCAMPI. The index is updated quarterly and more records, current and past are being added. The journals included in the database can be found at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/scampi/list.html.
- Thomas
This web site maintained by the Library of Congress contains the full-text of U.S. Public Laws, bill texts, committee reports and other legislative information from the 101st Congress (1989) to the present and citations to the same from the 93rd Congress (1973) through the 101st.
- TRIS Online
TRIS (Transportation Research Information Services) Online contains well over half a million records of references to (and some full-text links to ) books, technical reports, conference proceedings, journal articles and on-going research in the field of transportation.
- USA.gov
FirstGov is the world wide web information portal for the United States Federal Government. FirstGov is intended to be your first resource to find any government information on the Internet.
- Washington Information Directory
Washington Information Directory (WID)is a key directory of US government and non-governmental organizations, offering capsule information with addresses and contact names. It is searchable by keyword, by public policy topic and by organization type. There are links to the organization directly from the WID records, and a Your Profile function to permanently save favorite records.
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
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Historical U.S. Government Publications on the Web
- Full-Text Historical Databases Containing Government Publications
- Nineteenth Century Masterfile
Current Contents of 19th Century Masterfile:
Series I: Multi-Title Periodical Indexes
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Index to Legal Periodical Literature (Jones and Chipman), Catalogue of Scientific Papers, the Religion Index and more.
Series II: Indexes to Books
ALA Index to General Literature, 19th-century bibliographic database and more.
Series III: Indexes to Newspapers
New York Times Index, New York Daily Tribune Index, Palmer's Index and more.
Series IV: Indexes to Individual Periodicals
Harpers Weekly, Atlantic Monthly, North American Reviews (with free links to full text)
Series V: US and UK Government Documents Indexes and US Patent Index
Congressional Record, Papers of the President, Hansard's Parliamentary Indexes and more.
- Early American Imprints Series I. Evans (1639-1800) Digital Edition
Every book, pamphlet, serial, and other printed work of signficance
published in America 1639 - 1800, 36,000 items, 2. 4 million page images when complete. Based on Charles Evans, American Bibliography with additions from Roger Bristol's Supplement. The file allows searching by author, title, key words in titles, publication years and places, and subject and format categories. A sub-group of 6000 works re-keyed and marked up by the Text Creation Partnership will allow full-text searching by all words in the text.
- Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA)
The Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820. Open to the public for research and teaching purposes, EADA is published and supported by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) under the general editorship of Professor Ralph Bauer, at the University of Maryland at College Park. Intended as a long-term and inter-disciplinary project in progress committed to exploring the intersections between traditional humanities research and digital technologies, it invites scholars from all disciplines to submit their editions of early American texts for publication on this site.
- Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. Select from either the Michigan site or the Cornell site.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000
This site is intended to serve as a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, the website seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding at the same time that it makes the insights of women's history accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools.
- United States Government Manuals 1935-1951
As the official handbook of the U.S. federal government, the United States Government Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The Manual also includes information on quasi-official agencies; international organizations in which the United States participates; and boards, commissions, and committees.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Short Loan) GS 4.109: 1935 - present. See MNCAT for additional holdings.
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Since its inception in 1957 the United States Commission on Civil Rights has been at the forefront of efforts by the Federal government and state governments to examine and resolve issues related to race, ethnicity, religion and, more recently, sexual orientation. The Thurgood Marshall Law Library offers access to the historical record of this important federal agency by archiving and/or digitizing many of its publications.
- Continental Congress & Constitutional Convention
- Elliot's Debates
The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution is a five-volume collection compiled by Jonathan Elliot in the mid-nineteenth century. The volumes remain the best source for materials about the national government's transitional period between the closing of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787 and the opening of the First Federal Congress in March 1789.
• Location(s): TC Law Library KF4502 .E56 1891 Regular Loan
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Farrand's Records
Published in 1911, Farrand's work gathered the documentary records of the Constitutional Convention into four volumes--three of which are included in this online collection--containing the materials necessary to study the workings of the Constitutional Convention.
• Location(s): TC Law Library US and State Laws (Obsolete)
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Journals of the Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress met from September 5 to October 26, 1774. The Second Continental Congress ran from May 10, 1775, to March 2, 1789. The Journals of the Continental Congress are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as kept by the office of its secretary, Charles Thomson. The Journals were printed contemporaneously in different editions and in several subsequent reprint editions. None of these editions, however, includes the "Secret Journals," confidential sections of the records, which were not published until 1821.
This complete edition, published by the Library of Congress from 1904 to 1937, is based on the manuscript Journals and other manuscript records of the Continental Congress in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
- Letters of Delegates to Congress
The twenty-six volumes of the Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 aims to make available all the documents written by delegates that bear directly upon their work during their years of actual service in the First and Second Continental Congresses, 1774-1789.
- Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States
The Annals of Congress, formally known as The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, cover the 1st Congress through the first session of the 18th Congress, from 1789 to 1824. The Annals were not published contemporaneously, but were compiled between 1834 and 1856, using the best records available, primarily newspaper accounts. Speeches are paraphrased rather than presented verbatim, but the record of debate is nonetheless fuller than that available from the House and Senate Journals.
• Location(s): TC Law Library Microform Collection (US Docs) Mfiche X1-41
TC Law Library Rare Books US-X1-42 Non-Circulating
TC Wilson Library Annex X 43 - X 71
TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Mfiche) X 43 - X 71
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- Register of debates in Congress
The Register of Debates is a record of the congressional debates of the 18th Congress, 2nd Session through the 25th Congress, 1st Session (1824-37). It is the second of the four series of publications containing the debates of Congress. It was preceded by the Annals of Congress and succeeded by the Congressional Globe.
• Location(s): TC Law Library Rare Books US-X43-X71 Non-Circulating
TC Wilson Library Annex X 43 - X 71
TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Mfiche) X 43 - X 71
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Congressional Globe
The Globe is the third of the four series of publications containing the debates of Congress. It was preceded by the Annals of Congress and the Register of Debates and succeeded by the Congressional Record. The first five volumes of the Globe (23rd Congress, 1st Session through 25th Congress, 1st Session, 1833-37) overlap with the Register of Debates. Initially the Globe contained a "condensed report" or abstract rather than a verbatim report of the debates and proceedings. With the 32nd Congress (1851), however, the Globe began to provide something approaching verbatim transcription.
• Location(s): TC Law Library Rare Books US-X72-180 Non-Circulating
TC Wilson Library Annex X 72 - X 180
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Congressional Record - Century of Lawmaking
The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Printed by the Government Printing Office, it is the fourth and final series of publications containing the debates of Congress. (It was preceded by the Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, and Congressional Globe.) The Record is far more comprehensive than its predecessors in reporting Congressional debates. Appendixes appear in most volumes, the earlier ones limited mainly to speeches of members.
- Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America.
From its inaugural session, in addition to its legislative journal, the Senate has maintained a separate record of its executive proceedings that relate to its functions of confirming presidential nominees and consenting to the making of treaties. The Senate Executive Journal was not made public until 1828, when the Senate decided to print and publish the proceedings for all the previous Congresses and thereafter to publish the journal for each session at its close.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Docs) Y 1.3/4:
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Journal of the Senate of the United States of America.
The Journal should be seen as the minutes of floor action. It notes the matters considered by the Senate and the votes and other actions taken. It does not record the actual debates, which can be consulted through the "Link to date-related documents" in the full text transcription of the Journal.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Annex Sub-Basement 328.731 Un3sl Regular Loan
TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Congress Serials) XJS: Three Day Loan
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- Maclay's Journal
William Maclay was one of the first two senators from Pennsylvania. Within two months of the opening of the first session, he had begun to keep a diary, which he continued almost daily for the three sessions of the 1st Congress. Because Senate sessions were closed to the public until 1795, his is one of the few accounts of Senate floor activity in the early Congresses.
- Foreign Relations of the United States
The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication. The series is produced by the State Department's Office of the Historian. The years 1863-1958 have been selectively digitized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with the intent of eventually creating a complete online edition).
The State Department also makes available the volumes from 1945 - present at Volumes Online.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Docs) S 1.1: Regular Loan 1870 - present
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Laws and Other Legislative Materials
- American State Papers
The American State Papers, comprising a total of thirty-eight physical volumes, contain the legislative and executive documents of Congress during the period 1789 to 1838. The collection includes documents that cover the critical historical gap from 1789 to the printing of the first volume of the U.S. Serial Set in 1817.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (Reference) Mfilm 72
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
- Bills and Resolutions
This web site provides digitized versions of bills and resolutions introduced into Congress between 1799 and 1871.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set
The Serial Set contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports. The reports are usually from congressional committees dealing with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. The documents include all other papers ordered printed by the House or Senate. Documents cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, executive-branch materials were also published in the Serial Set.
• Location(s): For print versions, ask at the Business and Government Information Reference Desk.
- U.S. Statutes at Large
Every law, public and private, ever enacted by the Congress is published in the Statutes at Large in order of the date of its passage. Until 1948, all treaties and international agreements approved by the Senate were also published in the set. In addition, the Statutes at Large includes the text of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, treaties with Indians and foreign nations, and presidential proclamations.
• Location(s): TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Legal) AE 2.111: 1789 - present.
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- Minerals Yearbook
"...an annual publication that reviews the mineral and material industries of the United States and foreign countries. The Yearbook contains statistical data on materials and minerals and includes information on economic and technical trends and development. The Minerals Yearbook includes chapters on approximately 90 commodities and over 175 countries."
• Check MNCAT Record for Location and Availability
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Official U.S. Government Web Sites
- Federal Agency Internet Sites
Based on the entries in the US Government Manual, this site includes a very complete listing of federal agency sites.
- {Topics}.gov
Often, multiple agencies have duties that fall within a single broad topic. Because it can be very difficult to determine which agencies do which work within a topic, the Federal government has been working to create "cross-agency" portals that do the detective work for you. These portals emphasize the public service aspects of the agencies included. Currently, these portals are:
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Statistics About the United States
- Bureau of Economic Analysis
BEA's national, regional, and international
economic accounts present basic information on such key issues as U.S. economic growth, regional economic development, and the Nation's position in
the world economy. Access to their statistics and the data used to derive the statistics comes in multiple forms, from static tables to downloadable data files for statistical analysis.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
The BJS web site provides access to statistical information by subject, publications in print and online and links to the most current versions of the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
On this site you can view statistical tables, extract statistics and read reports covering the methodology and meaning of the data collected by the Bureau of Labor.
- Fastats: Health Statistics A-Z
Quick access to health statistics such as: accidents, outpatient department visits and work loss days from the National Center for Health Statistics. This subject index gives users a summary of the most current figures; links to "Comprehensive Data", typically statistical time-series in PDF format and links to related web sites including other government web sites and occasionally including private, non-profit sources.
- FedStats
More than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. This site provides easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use.
- Green Book - House Ways & Means Committee
The Green Book provides program descriptions and historical data on a wide variety of social and economic topics, including Social Security, employment, earnings, welfare, child support, health insurance, the elderly, families with children, poverty, and taxation. The first edition was released in 1981 and online editions begin with 1996. Online editions can be searched or browsed and file formats are either text or *.pdf.
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- Historical Statistics of the U.S.
The Historical Statistics of the United States Millenium Edition is a compendium of statistics about the United States produced by the United States Census Bureau since 1790 with additions, revisions and analysis by noted social scientists. This edition includes numerous new topic areas including statistics on migration, poverty, nonprofit organizations, slavery and Native Americans. Tables may be searched and downloaded in Excel or other formats, either individually or in large groups. Users may create custom tables and graphs. Citations may also be downloaded in multiple formats.
- National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States and other nations.
- Quick Stats: Agricultural Statistics Data Base
U.S., State, and County level agricultural statistics for many commodities and data series with querying ability by commodity, state(s) and year(s) from 1866-. Results can be downloaded as Microsoft Excel-compatible comma-separated value (*.csv) files.
- Statistical Abstract of the United States
As the National Data Book it contains a collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States. Selected international data are also included. The Abstract is also your Guide to sources of other data from the Census Bureau, other Federal agencies, and private organizations (see example table). The online version has full text from 1995-, although the series as a whole starts in 1878.
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- USA QuickFacts
Easy access to demographic, business and geographic statistics. Links to more detailed information are built into the system.
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Page Coordinator: Kirsten Clark clark881@umn.edu
This URL: http://www.lib.umn.edu/libdata/page.phtml?page_id=1804
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