Government Documents: Databases & Search Engines

A key index to over 500,000 federal publications, some going back as far as 1976. Includes descriptions of historical and current publications and provides links to those available online. Plans are underway to include documents going back to the early 1800s. Search by agency, title, subject, and general key word.

GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) is an advanced digital system that will enable GPO to manage digital information from all three branches of the U.S. Government. As a state-of-the-art digital content management system, FDsys will contain information gathered through three methods:

Files submitted by Congress & Federal agencies

Information gathered from Federal agencies’ web sites (often referred to as “harvesting” information)

Digital files

"Simultaneously searches more than 50 federal government publication catalogs, federal librarycatalogs, and specialized indexes. The varied list of resources includes the Defense Technical Information Center’s Public Technical Reports, Data.gov, Geodata.gov, ERIC, Energy Citations Database, the National Archives’ Archival Research Catalog, USA.gov, and Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Publications from the U.S. Geological Survey."

A restrospective index to government documents from 1895 - 1970. This links to pdf copies of the original Monthly Catalog.

More recent government publications can be located using the:

National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database. Provides summaries of more than 190,000 criminal justice publications. About 7000 full text publications are available through the NCJRS Virtual Library.

"A gateway to 47 million pages of government science information."

(formerly FirstGov)

Conceived as "the official U.S. gateway to all government information," this search engine and subject directory provide ways to locate information across millions of government web sites. Directories for citizens, businesses, federal employees, and governments.