This tutorial is intended to give you a very broad overview of government documents, what they are, and how to search for them.
This is a text-only printer-friendly version of the Online Catalog - Advanced Searching Tutorial. It does not include picture examples provided in the primary version of this tutorial.
Government Documents
What are they?
"Government documents" is a catchall term for any and all information produced by any government agency. Although the term usually refers to documents put out by the federal government, local, state, and international organizations and agencies also issue documents. The word "document" is actually misleading, since government documents come in a variety of forms. Books, pamphlets, posters, periodicals, and online databases are all government documents if they are produced by a government agency.
A hint:
The first commandment of any kind of documents research is this: Know Your Government or Organization. The more you know about the US Government, the United Nations, state governments, or local governments, the better you will be able to figure out what kind of information they produce and how to find it. This is especially true of legal research. If you do not understand the legislative or judicial process at the local, state, federal, or international level, you will have a harder time locating information on bills, laws, and court cases, and you will have a harder time understanding what you do find.
U.S. Government Documents
What are they?
Materials issued by the various agencies of the United States federal government.
Where are they?
Middleton Library is a Regional Depository, which means that it receives copies of all government documents issued through the Government Printing Office's Federal Depository Library Program. The LSU Government Documents Department is located in the basement, room 53.
How are they arranged?
Government documents have their own system of call numbers called SuDoc numbers. Unlike Dewey Decimal numbers or Library of Congress numbers, SuDoc numbers are not arranged by subject, but by the agency that issues the documents.
What are they good for?
The US Government publishes information on a wide variety of topics, everything from pet care to technical research. In general, government documents will be of most use to those doing research in the social sciences and sciences. You might want to look for government documents if you need any of the following:
- Statistics: The government publishes a huge amount of statistics on every conceivable subject. For more on statistics, take a look at the statistics section of our Reference Tools module.
- Social Issues: Examples include world hunger, population, abortion, or unemployment.
- Legal Research: If you need to track legislation or look up laws or court cases, then you'll be using government documents.
- History: There is much government information of interest to students of both local, American and international history.
- Scientific Research: Government agencies spend billions of dollars each year on scientific research, and most of the reports on this research are available for free.
Resources on the federal government
The United States Government Manual
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/index.html
Also Shelved at the Middleton Reference Desk., Call number: AE 2.108/2:
This is your ultimate resource for understanding the US Government. It includes the text of the Constitution and Amendments in the front, and explains the powers and functions of each and every government agency, from the three main branches to the various agencies, departments, and quasi-official organizations.
How our laws are made
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html
How a bill becomes a law
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/govdocs/subject/bill/
If you need to do legal research and don't know how laws are made, then work through either one (or better yet, both) of these web sites. You'll save yourself time and frustration.
The federal judiciary home page
http://www.uscourts.gov/about.html
If you need to do research on court cases, look here first to understand the federal court system.
U.S. Federal Government Agencies
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html
Our own directory of official web pages for the various agencies and branches of the U.S. federal government. Most agencies have descriptions of the types of documents they publish on their web pages.
In the Online Catalog
There are a number of ways to find government documents in the online catalog. If you need a government publication on a particular topic, then try an "Advanced Search" on your topic, then scroll down the screen to the "library:" option and choose "Government Documents/Microforms, Middleton". There are a few Government Documents housed in other collections which this search might not find, but most documents will be searched.
For instance:
keywords anywhere - seat belts; choose library - Government Documents/Microforms, Middleton
or
keywords anywhere - gun control; choose library - Government Documents/Microforms, Middleton
If you are looking for a specific document, then try searching for it by title. Documents often have very long names, and people usually refer to them by a shortened version or nickname. The Warren Report, for example, is actually Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This is particularly true of regulations and laws. If your title search doesn't pull anything up, then try a search like the ones above on the subject of the document.
You can also try looking up documents by the department that issued them (this is why it's helpful to know the government and what each department and agency produces). The form for an author search for government documents in the online catalog will usually look like this:
For instance:
author - united states. bureau of labor statistics.
author - united states. environmental protection agency
author - united states. department of the army
Important!
The online catalog only has records for government documents published on or after 1976. If you need a specific document from an earlier time, then it won't be in the online catalog. Ask a librarian to help you find it, or call the reference desk.
GPO Access
What is it?
GPO Access is the "mother lode" of government information. GPO access covers just about anything and everything, including the US Budget, legislative information, an electronic version of the US Government Manual, regulations, and papers of the president.
Most of GPO is full-text, but most databases only cover the last few years.
Where is it?
GPO Access is available from any location with Internet access.
Louisiana State Publications
What are they?
Materials issued by the various agencies of the Louisiana State Government. Other states have similar document systems, but you won't find many of their documents at LSU. This includes reports, pamphlets, and legislative documents.
Where are they?
The state has its own depository system, which is separate from that of the federal government. Hill Memorial Library is a state depository library. Middleton Library also has many state documents in the reference and regular collection.
How are they arranged?
In both Middleton and Hill Libraries, state documents are given Library of Congress call numbers, just like books, and are shelved with the regular collection.
What are they good for?
The state government puts out a great deal of information on:
- Business: The state puts out directories of area businesses, studies and statistics on industry and labor, and other business-related information.
- Agriculture: The Cooperative Extension Program puts out reams of documents on all aspects of agriculture and farming, and a good bit about nutrition as well.
- Legal Research: If you need to track state legislation or look up state court cases, then you'll be using state government documents.
- Culture and Tourism: the State Office of Tourism puts out a respectable number of directories to cultural events, and produces materials for tourists.
- Professional Codes: Professional ethics codes, requirements for professionals, and documents for licensing are all state documents.
State Government Information
Info Louisiana
http://www.state.la.us/
This is a good entry point for learning about the state government of Louisiana. It has plenty of links to official government pages like the governor's page, the state legislature page, etc. If you are doing legal research, be sure to visit the legislatures home page and do some reading on the state legislative process.
Louisiana Government Agency Index
http://www.state.la.us/gov_agency.htm
List of links to the home pages of just about every state agency on the net. Again, the more you know about and agency, the more likely you are to be able to guess what kinds of documents it puts out.
Louisiana State Government Links
http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/state/la-gov.html
A compilation of useful links related to all aspects of Louisiana State Government compiled by the Library of Congress.
LexisNexis Academic
What is it?
LexisNexis Academic is a full-text legal and periodical database. This is the best place to start doing state legal research.
Where is it?
- Go to the LSU Libraries home page.
- Click on Indexes and Databases under Research Tools .
- Click on the letter L.
- You will see a list of databases. Scroll down until you see LexisNexis Academic.
- Choose the appropriate option to connect to LexisNexis Academic.
- You are now looking at the LexisNexis Academic main screen. Along the left hand column, click on "Legal Research."
- If you are looking for a state court case, click on state case law. If you are looking for state laws, click on state codes.
- Pick a state and click on it.
- You can now start your research.
How do I use it?
All searching in either case law or code is done by keyword. In case law, pay attention to the date field. It is set by default to the last six months. In the code, pay attention to the drop-down option box under the search fields. Generally, if you are looking for a law, you will want to set it to your state code. You can also search the state constitution or the opinions of the state attorney general.
State Documents in the Online Catalog
State documents are cataloged the LSU online catalog, just like books. If you have the title of a document, then all you have to do is look it up by title. Be careful, sometimes state documents are referred to by shorthand names in the media that are not their real titles.
If you know what agency puts the document out, then you might try looking the document up by author.
For instance:
author - louisiana. dept. of education
author - louisiana. dept. of agriculture and forestry
author - louisiana. dept. of commerce and industry
Unlike federal government documents, there is no way to get the online catalog to display all state documents in the library at once.
United Nations Documents
What are they?
Publications issued by the United Nations (UN) on a variety of topics.
Where are they?
The UN has its own depository system. Until 1996, Middleton Library was a UN Depository Library. Middleton continues to get microfiche and print copies of many UN documents. Middleton also gets the Readex Set, which is a microfiche set of UN documents. Both microfiche and the paper copies of most UN documents are in the Documents Department in the basement, Room 53.
How are they arranged?
Most paper copies of UN documents arranged by UN Call Number. Documents shelved in the stacks will have a Library of Congress Number. The Readex microfiche set is arranged by Readex number.
What are they good for?
The UN is a huge organization whose activities run from peacekeeping operations to AIDS research to world banking. If you are doing research on any of the following, you might use UN documents:
- International business and banking: the UN is involved in making loans to developing countries and offering economic and business advice, and does a lot of studies on emerging economies.
- Social issues: From international drug trafficking to the AIDS crisis, the UN's various arms are involved in collecting information about all kinds of international social issues.
- International statistics: Like the federal government, the UN collects and disseminates statistics on agriculture, economy, population, etc.
- International legal issues: The UN provides a forum for countries wishing to take legal action against one another, and various department adjudicate different aspects of international law, from intellectual property rights to trade law.
United Nations Information
United Nations Home Page
http://www.un.org
This should be the first place you visit if you need to know about the UN. It has a wealth of information on the UN and its various sub-organizations, and links to their respective home pages. Most pages have documents or publications links that you can use to see the documents which that agency puts out.
The encyclopedia of the United Nations and international agreements
Call number: JX 1977 O8213 1990
A good place for brief information on the United Nations, its branches, and international treaties and incidents. It includes many citations at the end of the articles to UN documents.
United Nations Documents: Research Guide
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/
A mammoth site on UN government documents, maintained by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, the principal library of the United Nations.
Access UN
What is it?
Access UN is a database of citations to United Nations documents. It covers documents from 1966 to the present, with some documents available full-text .
Where is it?
Access UN can only be used on-campus.
- Go to the LSU Libraries Home page.
- Click on Indexes and Databases under Electronic resources.
- Click on the letter A.
- Click on AccessUN.
- Again, click on AccessUN .
How do I use it?
The interface is pretty self-explanatory. You can search for terms in all fields (keyword searching), or in a specific part of the record. You might want to look at the searching techniques tutorial on our web site, for hints on online searching. Some tips on using Access UN:
- The Truncation symbol is an asterisk(*) at the end of the word and a question mark(?) within the word.
- If you need statistics, search for vital statistics in the subject of the document.
- If you need information on a specific country, search for that countries' name in the subject of the document.
- You can look up branches of the UN as authors. For instance, if you know UNICEF is likely to have issued documents on your topic, you can look for UNICEF as the author of the document.
- To locate the item, look near the top of the citation. If there is a year next to Readex year, then the item is on the Readex microfiche set in the Documents Room (bring the citation with you when you go there). If it was published previous to 1995, then look to see if it has a document number. Take that number to the Documents Room to get the paper copy. If you have trouble, ask at the reference desk for help.
United Nations Documents in the Online Catalog
In addition to the documents downstairs in the Documents Room, many UN publications are shelved and cataloged with the regular collection. There are several ways to access
UN documents in LSU Libraries' online catalog. If you need a UN publication on a particular topic, then try an "Advanced Search" on your topic and united nations as author. This will search for documents with that word somewhere in the record, and the phrase "united nations" as an author.
For instance:
keywords anywhere - aids, and author - united nations
or
keywords anywhere - abortion, and author - united nations
If you are looking for a specific document, then try searching for it by title. Documents often have very long names, and people usually refer to them by a shortened version or nickname. If your title search doesn't pull anything up, then try searches like the example above on the subject of the document.
You can also try looking up documents by the branch of the UN that issued them. This is why it's helpful to know the UN and what each branch produces. Since the UN has a bewildering array of branches and sub-organizations, the form for the search will vary. Some agencies, like UNICEF, can be looked up by acronym alone. Some, like the World Health organization, need to be spelled out. Some branches need the phrase "United Nations" ahead of them. You may have to experiment to get the right documents to come up, and you can always ask at the reference desk for help.
For instance:
author - unicef
author - world health organization
author - united nations trusteeship council
Important!
The UN documents on microfiche and paper in the Documents Room are not cataloged in LSU Libraries' online catalog. Use Access UN to find these documents.
THE END
Remember, if you are going to be working extensively with government documents, especially if you are tracking legislation or doing legal research, then it is well-worth your time to learn something about that government or organization and how it works.
This tutorial is just the tip of the iceberg-there is much more to know about federal, state, and UN documents. If you have any questions, ask at the Middleton Reference desk, or call 578-5652.
