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Federal Government Information: Find Federal Documents

How to find federal government information

GovInfo

   

GovInfoGovInfo is the Government Publishing Office's main web portal for providing "free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.". 

Through Govinfo, you are able to

    * Search for documents and publications
      
    * Browse for documents and publications
      
    * Access metadata about documents and publications
     
    * Download documents and publications in multiple renditions or file formats

Historical Federal Documents

The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, 1895-1976 was established by the Printing Act of January 12, 1895. It is issued each month by the Superintendent of Documents for the Government Printing Office, and catalogs all publications of the United States government, including those of the Congress and all executive departments (with the exception of administrative and confidential or restricted documents). The government prints thousands of documents each year, and many of these are sent to depository libraries.

Records for all publications since July 1976 have been available online at the GPO's website link to external site, this link will open in a new window, but earlier issues have generally only been available in print or on microfilm. This online version will make all issues of the Monthly Catalog from 1895 to June 1976 available online, both as keyed full text records and as page images of the original printed catalog.

Issues of the Monthly Catalog up to June 1976 are arranged alphabetically by department or issuing agency. Publications sent to depository libraries are identified, and the record for each publication includes two or more identification numbers. The entry number for each item (together with the year) allows it to be located within the catalog. These are a simple numeric series with the first item appearing in the January catalog each year being number 1. Each item is also given a Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification number. This is a unique identifier for each publication which begins with an alphabetic identifier for the issuing department.

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