Research Guides: American Government Information: A Federal Depository Library

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Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP)

FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM (FDLP)

Cook Library celebrates 30 years as member of the Federal Depository Library Program, providing Federal online books, reports, articles, databases, interactive web sites, maps, GIS data, and authoritative research.

NEW: Storymap of Adelaide Hasse, librarian of the U.S. Government Printing Office, 1896-1919.

Congress.gov - Law & Legislation from the Library of Congress

Congress.gov - Search Here for Federal Law & Legislation

Main Catalogs for Searching Federal Documents

All Hot Topics - U.S. Govt. Publishing Office Library Guides Federal guides on current events.
Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) (GP 3.8/8-9) Comprehensive catalog of federal reports, eBooks, and serials.
Catalog USMAI Find books and electronic documents in the University System of Maryland.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Reports to Congress on current and contemporary national social, economic, scientific, international, issues, as well as policy options.
Constitution Annotated (United States) Comprehensive overview of Constitutional interpretations over time.
Cook LIbrary Catalog Federal government articles, and e-books on science, economics, social science, homeland security, history and politics.
Cook One Search Discovery Tool E-books, chapters, articles, references, and government documents from Cook Library.
A Guide to the Federal Library Core Collection Directory of core U.S. government books, journals, and databases.
United States Government Manual Directory of federal agencies large and small.

Major Federal Publication Portals

Census Bureau: Historical Statistics of the United States from Colonial Times to 1970 America's social, political, economic, and geographical development from 1610 to 1970.
Explore Census Data (Data.Census.Gov) Main Portal to the Census Bureau's social, economic, geographic, and demographic data.
Govinfo: Free Public Access to Federal Publications (GP 3.43/2:) Federal Government publications : legislation, regulations, economy and society.
U.S. Patent Databases Search for patents for inventions and designs back to 1976.
Search Trademark Database Database of commercial trademarks associated with U.S. businesses.
USA.gov Official web portal to United States federal government information, for student research or to answer residents' needs.

Federal Document Repositories

Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window An invaluable resource for scholars of early American history, British colonial history, Caribbean history, maritime history, Atlantic trade, plantations, and slavery, the Colonial State Papers database offers access to over 7,000 hand-written documents and more than 40,000 bibliographic records. Dates of coverage: 1574-1757.
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Digital National Security Archive This link opens in a new window From the award-winning, nongovernmental National Security Archive, this resource consists of expertly curated, and meticulously indexed, declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events – including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions – from 1945 to the present. Each collection is assembled by foreign policy experts and features chronologies, glossaries, bibliographies, and scholarly overviews to provide unparalleled access to the defining international issues of our time.
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ERIC- EBSCO This link opens in a new window Contains materials in all areas of education and at all levels from preschool through college. Provides citation and abstract information from over 750 educational journals and related documents from the Educational Resource Information Center educational symposium report literature dating back to 1967. Also includes full text ERIC Digest records, along with references for additional information breakdown of the 16 ERIC clearinghouses.
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GreenFILE This link opens in a new window This resource indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports, and offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, this database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.
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HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository which provides long-term preservation and access services for content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. The repository includes digitized and fully searchable online copies of public domain and in-copyright books and other publications.
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Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window Collection of military titles, trade publications and newsweeklies. Includes abstracts and indexing for over 430 titles providing cover to cover full text for over 285.
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Race Relations in America This link opens in a new window Sourced from the records of the Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, housed at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, this resource provides access to a wealth of documents highlighting different responses to the challenges of overcoming prejudice, segregation and racial tensions. These range from survey material, including interviews and statistics, to educational pamphlets, administrative correspondence, and photographs and speeches from the Annual Race Relations Institutes.
Security Issues Online This link opens in a new window Security Issues Online delves into conflicts, policies, and relationships that have impacted the global arena throughout modern history. It is organized around more than forty events and areas and includes a wide array of themes such as terrorism and counterterrorism, insurgency and counterinsurgency, cybersecurity, ethnic conflicts and resolution, and nuclear threats. This collection will include at completion 150 hours of video and 100,000 pages of printed materials (personal papers, organizations, government documents, journals, reports, monographs, and speeches).
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