LibGuides: Government Resources: Federal Government Resources

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)

The mission of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is to provide free, ready, and permanent public access to federal government information, now and for future generations. The FDLP was established by Congress and in order to help fulfill its mission the FDLP provides federal information at no cost to designated depository libraries throughout the United States and its territories. CSU Stanislaus became a congressionally designated selective depository library in 1964. As a Federal Depository Library, we provide free access to and reference service for selected publications issued by the federal government. Our Government Documents Collection is located on the first floor of the University Library in the mobile shelving area. Government Documents are shelved according to the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification. Public access to the government documents collection is guaranteed by public law. (Title 44 United States Code)

FDLP Basic Collection
The FDLP Basic Collection is a collection of core sources of information about the workings and essential activities of the U.S. Government such as the Budget of the United States Government, the Federal Register, Economic Indicators, the United States Government Manual, and more!
FDLP Content
FDLP content is a comprehensive guide describing and pointing to government resources and publications most useful to library users.
Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)
The Federal Depository Library Program provides webinars about finding government information, access to LibGuides pertaining to government information sources, and links to online government information resources.

Finding Tools for Federal Government Information

A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies
Find contact information for U.S. federal government departments and agencies including websites, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and more.
Assistance Listings
Assistance listings are detailed public descriptions of federal programs that provide grants, loans, scholarships, insurance, and other types of assistance awards. Users can enter keyword terms to search for assistance programs.
Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government
Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government is designed inform students, parents, and educators about the federal government. Users can play games to learn about the branches of government, how laws are made, and more.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)
Finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive information for historical and current publications as well as direct links to the full document, when available.
Census Data (United States Census Bureau)
Learn about America's communities through the Census Bureau's data profiles. They cover 100,000+ different geographies: states, counties, places, tribal areas, zip codes, and congressional districts.
Core Documents of Our Democracy
A collection of the Government Publishing Office which features cornerstone documents of the U.S. such as the Declaration of Independence.
Data.gov
Hosted by the U.S. General Services Administration, Technology Transformation Service. Find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.
Digital National Security Archive
Collection of significant primary source documents retrieved from U.S. government sources on specific topics in U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. You will need to log in with your Warrior ID to access this database.
Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI)
The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) documents, contextualizes, and analyzes current changes to environmental data and governance practices through multidisciplinary and cross-professional collaborative work. EDGI works to preserve data and web pages from EPA, DOE, NOAA, OSHA, NASA, USDA, DOI, and USGS. Monitors federal websites for changes made to environmental content.
Federal Register
Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Federal Register is the official daily journal of the United States. It is the publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. Also available on https://www.federalregister.gov/.
Google
You can also search for government documents on Google by adding site:.gov (site colon dot gov) to your search terms. For example, search for “renewable energy policy site:.gov” in the Google search bar. What this does is it searches for this term under the .gov domain and many federal agencies use this domain. However, some state and local agencies do so as well. Also some federal agencies do not use the .gov domain. You can also limit searches to a specific department or agency website, such as site:energy.gov (site colon energy dot gov) to find only results from the Department of Energy.
Government Web & Data Archive (Internet Archive)
This collaborative project of the Internet Archive is an extension of the 2016 End of Term project, intended to document the federal government's web presence by archiving government websites and data. As part of this preservation effort, URLs supplied from partner institutions, as well as nominated by the public, will be crawled regularly to provide an on-going view of federal agencies' web and social media presence.
GovInfo
A United States Government Publishing Office (GPO) service providing free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
GPO MetaLib
MetaLib, a service of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, is a federated search engine that searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online.
GPO Monthly Catalog
Covers all types of U.S. government documents, including Congressional reports, hearings, debates, and records; judiciary materials; documents issued by executive departments (Defense, State, Labor, Office of the President, etc.). GPO Monthly Catalog contains more than 600,000 records for documents printed by the U.S. government, providing citations.
Grants.gov
Grants.gov is the official government website for finding and applying for grants from federal government agencies.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. Search the catalog, browse digital collections, access teacher guides, and much more.
Military & Government Collection
The Military and Government Collection offers a thorough collection of periodicals, academic journals, and other content pertinent to the increasing needs of all branches of military. The database offers full-text articles from journals, and, indexing and abstracts.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
The National Archives preserves United States government documents, records, and publications. It also oversees the Presidential Libraries system. Users can search the National Archives records for historical and current government documents as well as research veterans' service records.
OneSearch
Use OneSearch (our catalog) to find physical documents in our collection, as well as links to online documents. Search by subject or keyword and use the facets menu to filter for Government Documents. Users can also search by SuDoc number.
Online Legal Information Resources - American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Advancing Access to Justice Special Committee (2021-2022) compiled information for law librarians, legal information professionals, and members of the public to easily locate free online primary legal materials. This site covers legal materials for U.S. states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, U.S. Federal Government, and Canada.
Sam.gov
The System for Award Management (SAM.gov) is an official website of the U.S. Government. Users can search for assistance listings, wage determinations, and contract data reports.
U.S Copyright Office
As part of the Library of Congress since 1870, the Copyright Office registers copyright claims, records information about copyright ownership, provides information to the public, and assists Congress and other parts of the government on a wide range of copyright issues. Search for copyright records, register your works, and learn about copyright law on their website.
United States Government Documents Registry (HathiTrust)
The HathiTrust US Federal Government Documents Registry is a database of metadata intended to represent the comprehensive corpus of U.S. federal documents produced from 1789 to the present. It is not yet a definitive set.
United States Government Manual
As the official handbook of the Federal Government, The United States Government Manual provides information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies; international organizations in which the United States participates; and boards, commissions, and committees. The Manual begins with reprints of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The Manual is published as a special edition of the Federal Register (see 1 CFR 9.1). Its focus is on programs and activities. Persons interested in detailed organizational structure, the regulatory documents of an agency, or Presidential documents should refer to the Federal Register or one of its other special editions.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Learn about the patent and trademark process and search for patents and trademarks through the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.
USA.gov
USA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal to all federal, state, and local government web resources and services.
Westlaw
Westlaw is an online legal research database that provides access to case law, state and federal statutes, administrative codes, newspaper and magazine articles, public records, law journals, law reviews, treatises, legal forms and other information resources. You will need to log in with your Warrior ID to access this database.
WorldCat
World's largest bibliographic database of books and other materials held in libraries around the nation (and selected libraries around the world). This also includes government publications. Most books and many other titles listed in WorldCat can be retrieved via Interlibrary Loan.

About the United States

Find answers to the most requested facts about the United States of America

Census Information

Census 2020
View the 2020 Census results as well as the data quality of the 2020 Census.

Library of Congress

Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. Search the catalog, browse digital collections, access teacher guides, and much more.

Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) Classification

At CSU Stanislaus the U.S. Government Documents are physically located in the mobile shelving area. The U.S. documents are shelved according to the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification scheme which has the effect of grouping publications by issuing agency. For example, A call numbers are for the Department of Agriculture, C is Commerce, D is Defense, and so on. There are exceptions to the straightforward letters as X and Y are used for various Congressional publications. The following are basic examples of a SuDocs number:

A 13.2:Si9/2

A=Department of Agriculture (First letter indicates issuing department)
13=Forest Service (First whole number before the dot indicates a subordinate office within that department)
.2:=General Publications (First whole number after the dot indicates a category of publication, series, or serial title)
Si9/2=Individual Publication: "Celebrating the Siuslaw: A Century of Growth, Siuslaw National Forest" (Numbers or letters and numbers after the colon represent individual publications, years, issues or editions)

I 49.135:2016

I=Department of the Interior (First letter indicates issuing department)
49=Fish and Wildlife Service (First whole number before the dot indicates a subordinate office within that department)
.135:=Serial Title “Swimming upstream” (First whole number after the dot indicates a category of publication, series, or serial title)
2016=Publication date (Numbers or letters and numbers after the colon represent individual publications, years, issues or editions)