LibGuides: Government Information: US

Tools to locate information produced by US government

Top Pick

Metalib
Searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online.
Maintained by US Government Printing Office.

Other search tools:

Carleton Library's Government Information Search Box
Custom Google Search. Can limit your initial search to US.
GovEngine
Federal, state and municipal level.
GovSpot
Links to federal and state resources.
Congressional Research Reports [Stanford's Archive-it Collection]
The Congressional Research Service produces excellent reports on a wide array of topics for US Congress members. Not all of these are made freely-available to the public, and they can be difficult to locate. This meta-site acts as an archive of publicly-available reports collected by many libraries and organizations.
EveryCRSReport.com
Another source of CRS reports.
US Government Information Sites
Very good portal to important US sources. Maintained by Saint Mary's University.
US Government Printing Office (GPO)
The official US Government publisher.

Quick US statistics sources

US Census Bureau
StateMaster
Wide range of searchable data, at the state and county level. Good visualization tools, such as charts and maps.

US in-depth data sources

Data.gov
Growing collection of 'raw' and geospatial data files from US federal government agencies, plus apps for working with the data.

Sources of information about US government

Major US Government Bodies:

How our Laws are Made
Excellent one-page visual presentation of US law-making process by Mike Wirth and Dr. Suzanne Cooper-Guasco.

Copyright on US government documents

Federal

US federal government publications are not copyright protected (17 U.S.C. § 105). They are in the public domain and are free for use by all.

States

Copyright laws for works produced by state governments vary by state. Use this interactive map produced by the Harvard Library to look up a specific state.

KPU Library

Government Information

Tools to locate information produced by US government

Quick US statistics sources

US in-depth data sources

Sources of information about US government

Copyright on US government documents