This library is a Congressionally designated depository for U.S. Government Documents. Public access to the Government Documents collection is guaranteed by public law (Title 44 United States Code). Since its establishment in 1813, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) has collected, organized, and preserved information produced by the government and assisted citizens in finding and using that information.
Accessing Government Information
All digital and most legacy Federal Government Documents (historic paper and microfilm format) can be located by searching the GS Libraries' catalog, GIL-Find, by subject, keyword, title, or other search limiters. You may sort your catalog search by using the "Refine Results" search limiters, e.g. format, date, (library) location, author, organization (agency), subject, etc. Each record will indicate whether the document is held physically (such as historic legacy items) at Henderson Library or available online.
Another helpful GS Libraries' search tool is the Discover search. You can sort your results listing, by date, resource type including primary sources, subject, and even publisher such as superintendent of documents to narrow down to federal resources.
All Government Documents are available for use by members of the Georgia Southern community as well as the general public, and most legacy materials are available for checkout. Ask the Government Documents Department for details, by emailing John Schlipp at jschlipp@GeorgiaSouthern.edu. The legacy Government Documents are located on the first floor of Henderson Library.
Access to digital government information on the internet is available for Georgia Southern students, faculty, staff, and retirees via the library computers, as well as anywhere internet service is available. Community guests are welcome to use the computers in the library to access government information. Ask at the Checkout Desk for details. Calendar and Hours: https://georgiasouthern.libguides.com/hours/
For research assistance or questions : Ask for assistance via Chat.
Onsite legacy Federal Government Documents are shelved using the Superintendent of Documents classification system, which is a provenance arrangement. This means that rather than a topical arrangement, items are shelved by authoring agency or committee. Call numbers are most commonly referred to as Sudocs under this arrangement.
The FDLP website provides a guide to understanding the SuDoc classification system.
USA.gov is an interagency initiative administered by the Federal Citizen Information Center, a division of the U.S. General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies.
Congress.gov Full-text of Congressional bill, Congressional Record and index, Bill Summaries and Status, Hot Legislation, the Constitution, and other House and Senate resources.
Numbered Senate and House Documents, Senate and House Reports. Contents include House and Senate Journals and reports of executive departments and agencies. .
CRS reports come in many forms, including: reports on major policy issues, tailored, confidential memoranda, seminars and workshops, expert congressional testimony, and responses to individual inquiry.
From the website: "Through NTRL, the National Technical Information Service provides a comprehensive offering that delivers high-quality government technical content in all subject areas directly and seamlessly to the user's desktop."
From the website: "The Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL) identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes and provides unrestricted access to U.S. government agency technical reports."
The CGP is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive information for historical and current publications as well as direct links to the full document, when available.
MetaLib is a federated search engine that searches multiple U.S. federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected online resources.
GovTrack.us is a tool by Civic Impulse, LLC to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education.
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories into user-friendly, online catalog. It is also available in 13 languages.
This unique guide provides subject access to U.S. federal websites, including agencies, committees, departments, programs, and other government entities.
Google Advanced Search (via top-level domain: .gov)
Try using Google's Advanced Search and enter .gov in the domain box. Or use the site shortcut syntax site:gov on the main Google page. These steps limit your searches to retreive only federal or state government pages.
