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Intro to Government Information

This guide will orient patron and librarians to the types of government information available, where to find government information, and how to use government information to answer reference questions.

How to use government information in reference

Here are things to consider when searching for government documents to assist with reference questions:

Databases of interest:

  • Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) - The CGP is the 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. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general keywords, or click on "Advanced Search" for more options.
  • MetaLib - MetaLib is a service of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP). MetaLib 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.
  • DiscoverGov - DiscoverGov provides simple, one-stop searching across multiple U.S. Federal Government databases including GPO's Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and GovInfo.
  • USA.gov - The USAGov program creates and organizes timely, needed government information and services and makes them accessible anytime, anywhere, via your channel of choice.
  • ERIC - Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research and information. It is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences within the U.S. Department of Education.
  • PubMed - PubMed® comprises more than 37 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
  • GovInfo.gov - GovInfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

Sample Reference Questions

Here are some sample reference questions. How would you approach them?

  1. I am looking for voting patterns by county in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado from 1920-1985.
  2. What are the education levels of the homeowners in Phoenix?
  3. Where can I find more information about Operation Encore?
  4. What is the difference between a migrant and an immigrant?
  5. I need to find a document on mammal relationships to plants published in 1980 by the Parks Service.  I think it has something to do with Gateway recreation area.
  6. Where can I find more information about past presidential funerals?
  7. I'm trying to decide on a new career. What is the job outlook for...?

Potential ways to approach the above reference questions:

  1. Voting patterns by county in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado from 1920 – 1985

1st thing to examine is who is likely to gather this data?

What is meant by patterns?

What publications will help such as City-County Data Book? Terminology:  voting behavior?

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/series/23

https://www.usa.gov/election-results

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/series/59/publications

  1. What are the education levels of the homeowners in Phoenix?

Google search - https://data.census.gov/profile?q=phoenix%20education

  1. Need information about Project Encore?

What is Project Encore?  Do a Google or Wikipedia search if you are unfamiliar with the project or if your patron is unsure – in this case my student had no idea as they were assigned to investigate it.  In this case, there are 3 potential “Project Encores”

  1. Operation Encore, 1945 WWII allied offensive
  2. Project Encore, 2001, related to Executive Order 14040
  3. Operation Encore, a Veterans Music Project

  1. What is the difference between a migrant and an immigrant

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) usually defines terms for the U.S. federal government for regulatory purposes.  These definitions may be found in the Federal Register or in the Code.  For this case, look at the Glossary at Homeland Security https://ohss.dhs.gov/glossary#I

  1. Need a 1980 document related to mammal relationships to plants from Gateway recreation area from NPS.

Searching through the NPS site using keywords to find https://npshistory.com/publications/gate/sea-gateway.pdf Where can I find more information about past presidential funerals?

  1. Where can I find more information about past presidential funerals?

Search on USA.gov for "presidential funeral." Top results include a Congressional Research Service report called "Presidential Funeral and Burials: Selected Resources" from 2019. Go to the Congressional Research Service website to see if there is an updated version of this report. As of January 9, 2025, you will find an updated version from December 30, 2024.

  1. I'm trying to decide on a new career. What is the job outlook for...?

Government documents are a great place for statistical data. If you can't remember the exact name of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you could open a search engine and search for "occupation forecasts site:.gov" Adding site:.gov to the end of your search phrase will limit the results to government websites. You will find the Bureau of Labor Statistics site with employment projections, and links to their most requested tables including fasting growing occupations and occupational projections and worker characteristics. You can also find the Occupational Outlook Handbooks which contain a Summary, What They Do, Work Environment, How to Become One, Pay, Job Outlook, State and Area Data, Similar Occupations, and Contacts for More Information for each occupation.