Finding the Government Online

The Best Government, Commercial & Educational Web Products

 

Search Engines/ Gateways Catalogs Statistics Subjects Three Branches of Government

 

Search Engines & Gateways

FirstGov.gov  <http://www.firstgov.gov/>

The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal - Provides topical and customer-focused links. Search more than 51 million web pages of federal, state, tribal and territorial governments. Select from 3 customer gateways: Citizens, Business and Government.

Google's Uncle Sam  <http://www.google.com/unclesam>

Best commercial search engine, limited to .gov and .mil sites

GPO Access   <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html>

From the Government Printing Office, the federal government's primary information reproducer and distributor.  Thousands of full-text materials permanently archived; many are searchable.

FedWorld  <http://www.fedworld.gov/>

From the Department of Commerce - Developed/maintained by NTIS beginning in 1992.  Extensive, annotated subject index to federal government web sites.

University of Michigan Documents Center  <http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/>

Best university-created central reference and referral point for government information. Click on "Federal Government" to get started.

 

Catalogs

Catalog of United States Government Publications (Monthly Catalog of the GPO Online since 1994- ) <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html>

MarciveWeb DOCS  (Monthly Catalog of the GPO since 1976- )

Commercial product with GPO Cataloging Division records.  <from the Library's Home Page, select "Electronic Databases," then Subject Area List, then Gov Docs>

WSU Library's Online Catalog  <http://libcat.wichita.edu/>

Contains records for over 250,000 government titles held in Ablah Library, mostly 1976-present.

 

Statistics

Comprehensive:

FedStats  <http://www.fedstats.gov/>

Gateway to statistics from 100 U.S. Federal agencies.  Access by agency name, topic, geography.  Note the "Statistical Reference Shelf."

Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe   

Commercial product encompassing a world of statistical information.  Search engine plus full-text.  Offers 1)  all U.S. Government statistics back to 1973 issued through CIS' American Statistics Index (ASI), 2) about 1,000 best statistical publications from private and state sources since 1980; 3) about 2,000 titles from international intergovernmental organizations from 1983 to present.  <from the Library's Home Page, select "Electronic Databases," then Subject Area List, then Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe.>

Statistical Abstract of the United States  <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract-us.html>

Core ready-reference publication compiling statistics from many federal agencies.

Business, Economic & International Trade Information:

STAT-USA

Commercial product from the U.S. Department of Commerce; available through subscription at WSU Library's "Electronic Databases" page <select Subject List, then Gov Docs>.  One-stop shopping for business, economic and international trade information.  Divided into two sections:  

State of the Nation  -  General Economic Indicators, Housing & Construction, Employment, Manufacturing and Industry, Monetary Policy, Economic Policy.  

GLOBUS and NTDB - Global Business Opportunities and the National Trade Data Bank provide daily trade leads, international market research, country analysis. 

Crime

Bureau of Justice Statistics  <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/>

Statistical materials and publications from the BJS, FBI, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  Links to related sites.

Defense

CIA World Factbook  <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html>

Fundamental and factual reference materials on foreign countries and issues.  Select a country, search the Fact Book, or download the publication from this site.

DefenseLINK  <http://www.defenselink.mil/>

From the U.S. Department of Defense:  Dozens of news releases, articles, and pub- lications.  Links to DOD sites.  Thousands of links to statistics (use the search box).  

Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics  <http://www.bls.gov/>

From the Department of Labor.  Begin here for statistics on consumer spending, wages, productivity, occupations, employment/unemployment, industries, business costs, geography and demographics.

Population

Census Bureau  <http://www.census.gov/>

Gateway to the incredible wealth of information from the Census Bureau, with "State & County QuickFacts" and "Latest Economic Indicators."  

American FactFinder  <http://factfinder.census.gov/>

Interactive, searchable database for 1990 and 2000 census information: population, housing, industry and business statistics.  Also includes the 1997 Economic Census and American Community Surveys  Offers tables, maps, data sets and customizable products.

United States Historical Census Data Browser  <http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/>

Data describes the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790-1960.

Vital Statistics

National Center for Health Statistics  <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/>

Comprehensive site for birth, marriage, divorce and death data.  Also pretabulated state tables. Trends in health and aging.  Numerous publications. Also check out the homepage for Center for Disease Control at http://www.cdc.gov/.

 

Subjects

Grants & Contracts Available

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance  <http://www.cfda.gov/>  

Describes federal programs providing funds to individuals, private organizations, state and local governments. 

Federal Business Opportunities  <http://www.eps.gov/spg/> 

Daily bid requests for goods and services by the Federal government.  Previously titled Commerce Business Daily, still available at http://cbdnet.access.gpo.gov/.

Federal Register via GPO Access <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html>

New regulations, proposed regulations, notices of grants, and agency hearings.
Non-Profit Gateway via FirstGov.gov  <http://www.firstgov.gov/Business/Nonprofit.shtml>
Search for Federal grants and other assistance by agency or keyword.

History

Library of Congress's American Memory Project  <http://memory.loc.gov/>

Gateway to rich primary source materials, offering over 7 million digital items from over 100 historical collections.  Of particular note:

Science/Technology 

NTIS through Cambridge Scientific Abstracts 

Commercial database which provides searching of NTIS database from 1964 to present.  From the Library's home page, choose "Electronic Databases," then "Subject" and "Engineering."  

Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINet)  <http://stinet.dtic.mil/>

Public utility of the Department of Defense allows searching unclassified DOD documents and citations from 1974 to present.

NASA  <http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html>

Several sites provide technical information from NASA

National Technical Information Service (NTIS)  <http://www.ntis.gov/>

Vast collection of technical reports from government-sponsored research, development and engineering contracts.  Indexed and sold by NTIS.  The NTIS Database includes over 2,000,000 titles since 1964, but this free search engine only offers searching from 1990 to present.

The Patent Office  <http://www.uspto.gov/>

Search the entire body of nearly 7 million U.S. patents from 1790 to present.  Tutorials on this database and workshops on the patent process can be scheduled through the Government Documents Office in the Library.

Three Branches of Government

Legislative 

GPO Access  <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html>

THOMAS  <http://thomas.loc.gov/>

Executive

GPO Access  <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/executive.html>

The Whitehouse <http://www.whitehouse.gov/> 

Presidential messages, major speeches, appointments, policies, news.  Information about First Family.  Tours.  Individual pages of President, First Lady, Vice President and his wife. 

Judicial

GPO Access  <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/judicial.html>

Lexis-Nexis/Academic Universe  

Choose "Legal Research" in this commercial search engine.  Full text of supreme, Circuit and District Court opinions, as well as tax, commerce and military courts.  Full text of law reviews.  Federal and state codes and regulations.  Includes Shepard's.  Access from WSU Library's home page.  Choose "Electronic Databases," then "Alphabetical," then Lexis-Nexis.

Last modified October 7, 2003.   For questions or comments, contact Nan Myers, Librarian for Government Documents, Patents and Trademarks