EIS Information: Goverment
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
JOMC 50/EIS Research Initiative
Last updated September 4, 1996.
Online EIS Class Handouts
Government
The Biggest Resource of Them All
The United States government is the single largest publisher in the world.
Every year, millions of documents are published by the Federal government,
from transcripts of speeches to how-to manuals to legal records. These
government documents can be of tremendous value to journalists and other
information gatherers, because they provide access to more detailed
information on more subjects than any other source. Although some US
documents are classified as "top secret," the vast majority are available
to the public.
Ways to Get US Government Documents
- Mail order the desired document from the Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office.
- Buy the document directly from the federal agency that created it.
- For Legislative information, you can use the "Thomas" WWW Site, which is maintainted by the Library of Congress, and houses a wealth of public documents.
- Contact your local congressperson and ask them to send the needed document to you.
- Locate the document using the Freedom of Information Act.
- Go to the nearest government depository, which for us is Davis library. However, even though this is the easiest way to get quick access to the document you are looking for, government depositories will not let you keep the document.
Indexes to Government Documents
- Monthly Catalog of US Government Publications: Available both as a
CD-ROM and online database, this index is the only one that attempts
(unsuccessfully) to catalog all of the documents produced by the Federal
Government.
- Congressional Information Service Index (CIS/Index): This privately
produced index catalogs most of the documents gathered by the US Congress,
and every document listed by CIS is available from them on microfiche.
- American Statistics Index (ASI): This index, which is available online
and is published by CIS, lists Federal sources for statistical information,
including the Census.
- Index to US Government Periodicals: Even though this index includes
listings of only 200 of the government's thousands of periodicals, it
is useful because of its extremely broad scope. All of the periodicals
listed in this index are either available from government depositories
or through the issuing agency.
- Government Reports, Announcements and Index (GRA&I): Available as
CD-ROM and online database, the GRA&I indexes the reports issued by the
National Technical Information Service, which was established in 1970
to simplify public access to information on physical and social sciences.
- CIS US Serial Set Index: The Serial Set is a collection of Congressional
documents that were created between 1789 and 1969. This time is divided
into 12 historical periods and the collection includes more than 325,000
titles.
- Congressional Record Index: This index, issued every two weeks,
catalogs the Congressional Record (CR). (Both the Congressional Record Index and the CR are found in the Thomas WWW Site.) The CR contains information submitted by the members of Congress, such as articles, editorials,
tributes and assorted trivia. The CR also contains a good deal of information
about the proceedings of the two houses of Congress and their schedules.
- CIS Federal Register Index: This index catalogs the Federal Register,
which is published every working day and contains information about Federal
regulatory activities and programs. This source provides information on
rules, proposed rules, meetings and reports from many Federal agencies.
- Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and Public Papers of
the President of the United States: Since 1965, the Weekly Compilation
has included the texts of proclamations, executive orders, addresses,
remarks, letters, messages, transcripts of news conferences, and communication
with Congress. The Public Papers is a bound publication of these
documents.