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American politics & government: US governments' information & legal resources
US federal government information sources
By law, the US Government Publishing Office is the "official, digital, and secure source for producing, protecting, preserving, and distributing the official publications and information products of the federal government," making it the world's largest publisher.
Most GPO publications have been published online since the late 1990s and are listed in our library's Discovery Search (Primo) catalog. For most of a century, Virginia Tech automatically received most GPO output in print "docs," identified by GPO's unique "SuDoc" call number system ... but didn't catalog most of them.
The SuDoc number is crucial for getting your hands on physical government publications in the library (Newman Library 5th floor), from library storage, or via ILLiad. Most of our printed federal publications are arranged by SuDoc number on the 5th floor of Newman Library. Don't be reluctant to ask a librarian for help.
Extensive digitization of older documents has been done by government agencies, by commercial database vendors (Voxgov, HeinOnline, ProQuest, Readex), and by nonprofits (LLMC-Digital, HathiTrust, Internet Archive). Many of those digitized documents remain invisible to Discovery Search but can be located and read on those prodivers platforms. (See the library's Databases A-Z directory.
Records in the GPO catalog and Voxgov databases should provide SuDoc class numbers back to the 1970s-80s. For earlier SuDoc numbers, GovInfo.gov provides PDF indexes of US government documents, notably the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, 1895-2004. Those PDFs are cumbersome to work with; you might might find it faster to use the print indexes shelved near the Docs stacks (start at call no Z1223 .A183) to find citation and SuDoc information to request documents from VT storage or ILLiad.
- United States Government Manual, 1935 to Present
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"The United States Government Manual, the official handbook of the Federal Government, 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." Searchable and browseable.
- VoxGovVoxGov is an interesting application of “big data” to tracking the outputs – traditional documents and also official social media -- of persons and agencies of the US government. Coverage of some official print outputs extends back to the late 1970s. The content is updated every 15 minutes. Visualizations are simple but effective. The advanced search interface gives a sense of the scope of coverage and the many dimensions for filtering and comparing the data. You can also browse by policy categories, compare members of Congress, and track outputs from the last presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional elections.
- UK Government Web Archive has a similar function to "capture, preserve, and make accessible UK central government information published on the web. The web archive includes videos, tweets, images and websites dating from 1996 to present.." From the UK National Archives.
- GovInfo.Gov: Discover US Government InformationGovinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the US federal government. When you search the content available on Govinfo, you will be able to download the full text of publications. But you won’t see records for documents that are not stored on Govinfo -- use GPO's official Catalog of US Government Publications (CGP; formerly Monthly Catalog, MoCat) for persistent links and "SuDoc" call numbers of physical documents. GovInfo has an extensive set of how-to video tutorials.
- U.S. Government Information: Weekly Roundup (UC San Diego)This attempt to provide current awareness of federal government reports and activities" is part of a very extensive, carefully curated portal to information resources by and about the federal government. Useful complement to the fast, powerful VoxGov database.
- SAM.gov (from US General Services Administration) US government system for discovering "contract opportunities" (formerly FBO.gov); "assistance" ( formerly CFDA.gov: descriptions of federal grants/awards/loans of all sorts, not only social welfare); reports and data about grants and contracts awarded and also about "entities" seeking or receiving them; wage determinations (was WDOL.gov); and more. Portions require registration to access.
- HathiTrust The HathiTrust Digital Library contains over 17 million scanned items and over six billion pages of scanned books, government documents, and other materials from academic and research libraries. Nearly 40% of Hathi content is in the public domain and accessible to you. Read onscreen or download book scans (use the yellow Log In button and select Virginia Tech as your "partner institution.") Most of the book scans were made available by Internet Archive and Google Book, with regular library cataloging added. Content is available in several image formats, text, and PDF. Covers 1200s-present. Affiliated HathiTrust Research Center enables computational analysis of works in the HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL) to facilitate nonprofit research and educational uses of the collection. .
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- HeinOnline U.S. Congressional Documents Library This collection features documents spanning the legislative and oversight functions of the Congress: Congressional Record (including its predecessors, Annals of Congress [1789-1824], Register of Debates [1824-1837] Congressional Globe [1833-1873]), Congressional Budget Office, selected CRS Reports [Congressional Research Service],Congressional Hearings, Committee Prints, Rules & Precedents, and additional primary sources, bibliographies, and manuals. Many Hein topical collections include these document types. The HeinOnline Portal offers a large and wide-ranging collection of historical and contemporary legal materials, including codes, treaties, constitutions, topical collections of historical documents, law reviews, and legal treatises from the US, Canada, and the UK.
- Congress.gov The official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. Replaced the THOMAS congressional portal, which was shut down in summer 2016. Congressional documents from the first 100 years of the U.S. Congress (1774-1875) can be accessed through A Century of Lawmaking.
- Congressional Serial Set (from ProQuest) Don’t be misled by the title: as the official historical record of the U.S. government, these resources are essential for any historical, political, or cultural research of the United States. The US Congressional Serial Set(incorporating American State Papers,1789-1838, and maps,1789-1969) includes documents on virtually every topic the US Congress has taken an interest in – which can be just about anything anywhere in the world -- since 1789 both for law-making and for oversight of executive-branch agencies: congressional reports on public and private legislation considered during each Congress (example); reports of investigations commissioned or conducted by Congress or its parts (example); reports from federal executive agencies (including land surveys, research and statistical publications, and reports of scientific investigations and explorations) submitted to Congress (example); budgets of the United States (since 1923) (example); treaties presented to the Senate (since 1979) (example); and reports and other documents of select nongovernmental organizations (example), from the Red Cross to the Smithsonian and the American Legion to the American Historical Association. Comprising only documents Congress has declared to be particularly important, the Serial Set does not (usually) include text of bills and resolutions, hearings, nor committee prints. See ProQuest's Serial Set guide. Alternative access to the Serials Set: HeinOnline. Our existing Hein databases have always contained substantial portions of the Serial Set, including the American State Papers, comprehensive coverage of Foreign Relations of the United States, and thousands of House and Senate reports and documents inside compiled federal legislative histories.
- How to Make a FOIA Request (from National Security Archive) Landing page includes links to "The National Security Archive User's Guide to the FOIA," tips and tricks, and sample letters for requesting documents from US federal agencies.
Legal databases
- HeinOnline PortalHeinOnline provides full-text primary and secondary sources in law and governance, organized into "libraries." Primary sources emphasize public law and policy, eg, Legal Classics; US Congressional Documents; US Code; US Statutes at Large; US Federal Legislative History; Code of Federal Regulations; Federal Register; US Presidential Documents; US Treaties and Agreements; World Constitutions Illustrated. Law Journal archives are like JSTOR for scholarship on legal aspects of virtually anything. Topical collections include Military and Government; Women and the Law; Pentagon Papers; Gun Regulation and Legislation in America; Slavery in America and the World. A few Canadian, UK primary-source collections, but otherwise limited international coverage. 1200s-present.
- LLMC DigitalImportant archive of historical legal and government documents from US and other jurisdictions including indigenous communities: constitutions, codes, statutes, court reporters, treatises. Searchable. Displays original documents in full page image; reader interface resembles HathiTrust. Formerly Law Library Microfilm Collaborative.
- FastcaseFastcase provides access to primary law (state and federal), cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and constitutions. You can search by case or keyword. You can view how many times a case has been cited.
- LegalTrac from Gale LegalTrac indexes citations and some fuill text of law reviews and journals, legal newspapers, federal and state case law, laws and regulations, legal practice and taxation, and international law. 1980-present.
- Legal Collection from EBSCOhost The Legal Collection indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text journal articles and case studies. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources. Full text presented in HTML and PDF. 1965-present.
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- Military Legal Resources (from Hein Online) The US Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library in Charlottesville holds extensive collections of primary source materials and publications in the field of military law. Hein's collection replaces the Military Legal Resources collection previously hosted by the Library of Congress.
- LII: Legal Information Institute (Cornell) Open-access portal to statutory, administrative, and case law of the United States, US states and dependencies, and foreign jurisdictions. Includes the Wex legal encyclopedia. University-based, but includes advertising.
- Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective: 1908-1981 from EBSCOhost The Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective indexes citations to articles and summaries in annual surveys of laws and courts, legal journals, and legal yearbooks. 1908-1981.
US state governance information sources
- Council of State Governments: Our Work ('Book of the States' etc)Portal to products and services from CSG’s policy group: data and analyses from the Book of the States, documents of national and regional meetings, fact sheets, interactive websites, interstate compact legislation, policy projects assisting states in the creation of policy, and numerous educational efforts tied to key issues.
- HeinOnlineThe library's principal provider of public-law information, HeinOnline includes collections directly bearing on state laws:
- National Survey of State Laws
- Session Laws Library
- State Statutes: A Historical Archive.
- State Agencies' Databases Portal to searchable, publicly accessible state-level information. Browse either by state or by agency/policy categories. Maintained as a volunteer project by GODORT, an organization of government-information librarians. Here are shortcuts for Virginia and adjacent jurisdictions: Virginia Maryland District of Columbia North Carolina Tennessee Kentucky West Virginia
- OpenStates "Open States strives to improve civic engagement at the state level by providing data and tools regarding state legislatures" by aggregating legislative information from official sources in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. In addition to state-by-state searching through the website, researchers can acquire legislative data through an API and bulk download.
- Policy Commons The "cities" module in Policy Commons preserves the full text of over five million pages of surveys, budgets, statistical records, case studies, planning documents, training manuals, policy guidelines, reports, and news from the 500 largest cities in North America. It also includes select materials from hundreds of related agencies and non-governmental organizations.
- County Explorer (National Association of Counties)NACo County Explorer is an online interactive tool that aggregates more than 800 data points for profiling and comparing US counties (excluding Virginia independent cities): governance, economics, housing, education, and more.
Acquiring records under state open records/open meetings laws
State laws vary from one another and from the federal Freedom of Information Act. The following guides have different strengths; compare their coverage before requesting a state or local record.
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Open Government Guide provides detailed descriptions of the coverage of each state's law.
- National Freedom of Information Coalition (University of Missouri) State Freedom of Information Laws includes sample request letters and summarizes resources for all US states.
Official numerical and geospatial data portals for Virginia and nearby states
- Virginia Open Data Portal
- Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN)
- Virginia View: Geospatial framework data for Virginia and beyond (VT)
- Maryland's Open Data Portal
- Maryland's Mapping and GIS Data Portal
- Open Data DC
- DC Map Data
- Map West Virginia
- WV State GIS Data Clearinghouse
- [Kentucky] KyGovMaps Open Data Portal
- Tennessee Open Data Portal
- Transparent Tennessee OpenMaps
- TNMap Open Data Portal
- LINC: Log Into North Carolina
- NC OneMap
- Library of Virginia Digital Collections The Library of Virginia provides digitized Virginia and local government publications and records, along with many other primary-source materials. Collection of particular interest for politics/policy research: State Government Publications State Archives Collections County & City Records. Use the advanced search function, as the individual collections can only be browsed.
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