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Why You Need Them
Who Publishes Them
Their Formats
The Information in Them
Tracking Them Down
Printable Checklist
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Checklist
- Government documents are the publications of government agencies -- federal, state, local, or even international.
- Government documents are absolutely necessary for many kinds of research. They are especially good sources for statistics.
- Government documents also include:
- Congressional hearings and committee reports
- bills, laws, regulations
- court cases
- patents and trademarks
- consumer information
- reports by agencies, commissions, and other institutions
- historical documents
- The more you can learn about how governments work, the easier it will be for you to track down government information.
- Most recent government documents are available for free on the Web. However, many important documents are available only in other formats, such as print, video, or non-Web electronic formats.
- There are several places you can start for general online searching of government documents:
- Use the one that seems best for your needs.
- For statistics:
- Also for statistics:
- For Congressional information:
- For legal citations:
- For patent and trademark information:
- For print resources, especially historical records:
- For other historical records:
- For non-federal depositories of historical government records:
- Public access to government documents is guaranteed by law and is your right as a member of a democracy.

Cunningham Memorial Library, 650 Sycamore St., Terre Haute, IN 47809 812.237.2580
June 15, 2005 Maintained by: Tutorial Task Force
Copyright © 2005 Indiana State University Comments and Feedback
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