Carnegie Mellon Libraries: Public Policy Management: Government Documents

Government Documents

Databases	United States Government	State Governments
Local Governments	Foreign Governments	International Agencies

Government Locators and Search Engines

The University of Michigan Documents Center and the Northwestern University Library offer excellent access points for government documents. Links to their resources are included in the appropriate sections. The other links are to CMU databases, print reference sources, or resources of particular interest to researchers at Carnegie Mellon.

Databases

LexisNexis Congressional (Carnegie Mellon Users Only)
This database provides comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information. It includes members and committees, the Congressional Record, proposed bills, bill tracking, testimony, legislative histories, federal laws from 1789 on (Statutes at Large), regulations, and more. Documents are available in full text; the years of coverage vary by document type.
Federal Register
The Federal Register is a U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) publication that lists U.S. federal agency announcements and information, such as presidential documents, agency meetings, grant opportunities, and proposed federal regulations.
Thomas
Legislative information from the Library of Congress
GPO Monthly Catalog Carnegie Mellon Users Only)
The Monthly Catalog provides access to over one-half million records on all subjects of interest to the U. S. government, primarily from the executive and legislative branches. Hunt Library has the corresponding Monthly Catalog of U. S. Government Publications for the years 1919 though 1996 in print.
Index to Current Urban Documents (Carnegie Mellon Users Only)
The Index is a guide to the reports and research that are generated by local government agencies, civic organizations, academic and research organizations, public libraries, and metropolitan and regional planning agencies in approximately 500 selected cities in the United States and Canada. Check Cameo to determine if Hunt Library has a copy of Pennsylvania state or local documents. If not, documents can be acquired through interlibrary loan or purchased online. Hunt Library holds the print indexes from 1975 to the present.
Leadership Directories
These directories are a "who's who" of people at the federal, federal regional, state, and municipal levels of government. Contact information is provided for individuals and agencies.

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United States Government

Federal Government Resources on the Web (University of Michigan Documents Center)
GPO Access
This Government Printing Office site contains links to a variety of federal agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget, National Council on Disability, and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The site provides access through multiple means such as an alphabetical list of all databases or by branch of government. Users can search multiple databases individually or in combination.
National Archives and Records Administration
The Access to Archival Databases (AAD) System gives you online access to electronic records that are highly structured, such as in databases. The initial release of AAD contains material from more than 30 archival series of electronic records, which include over 350 data files totaling well over 50 million unique records. Available series include casualty lists from the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Ownership Reporting System, 1978-1998 records, Port of New York ship passenger lists,1846-1851 (Irish Famine database), etc. The system eventually will expand to over 500 databases.
National Science Foundation
The NSF is an independent U.S. government agency responsible for promoting science and engineering. It annually invests over $3 billion to support research and education projects related to these fields.
Uncle Sam Migrating Government Publications
This page tracks printed government publications that are migrating to the Internet by identifying URLs and linking them directly to the electronic documents. The scope of this list is limited to serials and periodicals and includes those publications in dual format and in electronic (Internet) format only.
The United States Government Manual
The Manual contains descriptions of government agencies, primary members of each agency, and contact information. Hunt Library has print editions from 1973/74 to the present. The Manual is arranged in the following manner:
- Legislative Branch
- Judicial Branch
- Executive Branch (with Departments)
- Independent Agencies
- Quasi Official Agencies
- Federal Boards, Commissions and Committees
- Non-Governmental Federally Related Sites
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State Governments

Pennsylvania
- Government in Pennsylvania (State of Pennsylvania)
  The "Agencies, Authorities, Boards, Commissions, Councils, Departments, and Offices" section provides links to a wide variety of executive branch offices.
- Pennsylvania General Assembly
  In addition to general information regarding the legislature, the House of Representative and Senate links contain information on legislative members and committee assignments.
  - Electronic Bill Room This page allows you to search the full-text of House and Senate bills from 1971 to the present. The bill tracking feature began in 1999. You can also view House and Senate Schedules and Calendars.
- Pennsylvania Manual (2001)
  The Manual provides information regarding the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the state government. There also are sections on local government, elections, and Pennsylvania history. Earlier editions (1949-) are available in Hunt Library.
State Governments - General
- State Government and Politics (University of Michigan Documents Center)
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Local Governments

Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania's Local Governments' Websites
  Contains links to counties, cities, townships, boroughs, and villages that have active web sites.
  - Allegheny County
  - City of Pittsburgh
- Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors
  PSATS attempts to preserve and strengthen township government and to secure greater visibility and involvement for townships in the state and federal political arenas.
Local Governments - General
- Local Governments and Politics (University of Michigan Documents Center)
- State and Local Governments (Library of Congress)
- Municipal Codes (Seattle Public Library)
  Codes are available for selected U.S. municipalities. Currently there are no listings in Pennsylvania.
- National Association of Counties (NACo)
  NACo includes information on demographics, funding data for programs such as the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), and public affairs programs.
- The National League of Cities
  The NLC's direct members include 49 state municipal leagues and 1,500 communities of all sizes. Through the membership of the state municipal leagues, NLC represents more than 18,000 municipalities.
- The U.S. Conference of Mayors
  This is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are about 1,050 such cities in the country.
- Municipal Year Book (annual)
  REF-1 JS344 .C5 A24 VOL. 75 2008
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Foreign Governments

Foreign Government Resources on the Web (University of Michigan Documents Center)
Foreign Governments (Northwestern University Library)
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International Agencies

International Agencies and Information on the Web (University of Michigan Documents Center)
This page contains links to intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), treaty information, and some non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
International Governmental Organizations (Northwestern University Library)

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Government Locators and Search Engines

Government Information on the Internet (2000)
REF-1 ZA5075 .G68 2000
Contains information on federal, state, local, and foreign government sites.

Many government pages are not available on commercial websites or retrieved by general search engines. These specific sites and search engines are designed to provide access to a much wider range of government information.

Locators
- USA.gov
  This site is the primary portal for the Federal Government. This resource connnects users to millions of web pages - from the federal government, local and tribal governments, and to foreign nations around the world. Users can search more than 50 million web pages. Most of these pages are not available on commercial websites.
- FedWorld.gov (U.S. Department of Commerce)
  Users can search for federal government jobs, locate scientific and technical studies, obtain tax forms, and much more.
Commercial Search Engines
- GoogleGovernment
- SearchGov.com
- SearchMil.com
  
  Together, these search engines index any pages ending in the federal government ".gov" and ".mil" domains.
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