Information on Documents in the Seeley G. Mudd Library and on the World Wide Web
Lawrence University has been part of the Federal Depository Library Program since 1869. Lawrence is a "partial depository," which means that we receive some of the thousands of documents published by the Government Printing Office (GPO). Lawrence currently receives approximately 30% of all the available documents produced in multiple formats by the GPO. Even receiving only 30% of the government's output, our document collection takes up most of the second floor of the library.
Government documents are organized by the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification system.
The Federal Government is in the process of converting documents to electronic format. There are many sites that help you locate Government Information on the WWW. Links to selected government document sites can be located on this page. If you need more information, or would like help locating a specific document, please ask a reference librarian.
Lawrence University is also a Wisconsin Document Depository Library.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School - documents in law, history and diplomacy. Includes treaties and documents of all kinds, not just U.S. government documents.
Federal Resources by Topic - from the Government Publications Office
Core Documents of U.S. Democracy - "basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society"
FirstGov.gov: The official U.S. government Web portal. Includes the very helpful Reference Center, which has acronyms, directories, data, forms, photos, laws, libraries, publications, regulations, and more.
Frequently used sites from the Government Documents Round Table. Links to popular and useful government information.
Government Periodicals - from the University of Louisville.
GPO Access: The main site for the U.S. Government Printing Office. Sections for the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches.
Meta-Subject Index to Government Information
Subject Areas - from the University of Louisville. Search for government publications on topics from abortion to youth violence
University of Michigan Documents Center - Excellent source for govdoc reference and referral
Information About Our Elected Officials
U.S. House of Representatives
Includes Find Your Representative and Search features.
U.S. Senate
Includes Find your Senators search feature. The Reference link leads to the
Virtual Reference Desk, which provides general information on the Senate.
WI Legislature
Includes Who Are My Legislators?
To find Wisconsin State Senators or Representatives consult the
State of Wisconsin Blue Book.
The Blue Book is also available in paper at JK6031 in the Ready Reference Collection.
Other links of interest:
Governor
http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/
City of Appleton
http://www.appleton.org
Mayor's office
http://www.appleton.org/departments/mayor/
Listed below are the agencies of the executive branch, and some major departments, and useful links. For a complete listing of all Executive branch agencies, please see the listing from Louisiana State University.
Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service | Economic Research Service | National Agricultural Statistics Service | Farm Service Agency | Forest Service
| Natural Resources Conservation Service
Department of Education
FAFSA | ERIC resources | National Center for Education Statistics
Department of Energy
Energy Information Administration | Los
Alamos National Laboratory | Office of Science (human genome research, climate research information science)
Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Food
and Drug Administration | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) | National Institutes of Health
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control | Housing Agencies/ Tribes
Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs | Bureau of Land Management | Fish and Wildlife Service | National Park Service | Office of Surface Mining | U.S. Geological Survey
Department of Justice
Bureau of Justice Statistics |
Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS) |
Federal Bureau of Investigation |
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) |
Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics | Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs |
Information about the World
Trade Organization - Permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001 |
Trade Policy and Programs
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service | Secret Service | U.S. Customs Service | U.S. Mint
Department of Veterans Affairs
Executive Office of the President
Council of Economic Advisers |
Council on Environmental Quality |
Domestic Policy Council |
National Economic Council |
National Security Council |
Office of Administration |
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives |
Office of Global Communications |
Office of Homeland Security |
Office of Management and Budget |
Office of National AIDS Policy |
Office of National Drug Control Policy |
Office of Science & Technology Policy |
Office of the United States Trade Representative |
President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board: National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace |
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board |
USA Freedom Corps |
White House Military Office
Office of the Vice President of the United States
Listed below are the agencies of the Judicial branch, and some major departments, and useful links. For a complete listing of all Judicial branch agencies, please see the LSU Libraries Federal Agency Directory : Judicial.
Directory of U.S. District Courts
Federal Judiciary Homepage Information about courts, publications, directories, newsroom, FAQ
Fedlaw Supreme Court, circuit court, bankruptcy court decision from the General Services Administration
Findlaw This is a commercial site that offers lots of legal information including case law, a legal dictionary and much, much more. This is a great first stop.
Federal Grand Jury: A web site created by Susan Brenner, a former defense attorney who is now a Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of Law. Provides useful information about the State Grand Jury system as well.
Legal Information Institute from Cornell University includes Supreme Court decisions from 1990 on, and 600 of the most important court cases before 1990.
Lexis-Nexis Academic Legal Research Materials (LU only)
NCJRS: the National Criminal Justice Reference Service
National Law Journal Supreme Court, circuit court and district court opinions, appointments, summaries of decisions
The Oyez Project: US Supreme Court Multimedia from Northwestern University "abstracts and other materials for leading cases in Constitutional law decided by the Supreme Court"
Supreme Court Decisions 1937-1975
Legislative and Regulatory Process: How Bills become Laws
Government 101: How a Bill Becomes Law
Information on the process including major steps and definitions of terms. From Project Vote Smart, a citizens' organization devoted to informing voters about the workings of our government.
How Our Laws Are Made
From THOMAS, a service of the Library of Congress. You can access legislative information (from the present back to the 93rd Congress of 1973)
by bill number or key words, from the THOMAS Web site.
You can also use THOMAS to find a bill or law
Legislative History Process
A most helpful chart of the legislative and regulatory processes, listing publications produced at various stages, and providing links to the web resources available of each stage as well. From the University of Michigan's Document Center.
The Legislative Process: information from the U.S. House of Representatives.
Legislative Process from the U.S. Senate
Includes links for learning more about the legislative process and a flowchart of how a bill becomes a law.
The Regulatory Process from GPO Access
More Legislative and Regulatory Information
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Constitution of the United States Annotated
Federal Statutes and Regulations by subject from Fedlaw
Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe (LU only)
Includes legislation, regulation, public laws, and more.
U.S. Legislative Information on the Internet from Bowling Green State University
U.S. Congressional Bibliographies - a comprehensive list of hearings, prints and publications printed by the Senate, 1983 to present, compiled by North Carolina State University
The Government Printing Office's U.S. Government Manual "provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees." You can Search and Browse the electronic manual.
Listed below are commonly referenced Federal Agencies and useful links. For a more complete listing of all Federal Agencies, please see the LSU Libraries Federal Agency Directory.
Independent Establishments and Government Corporations
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Corporation for National and Community Service
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Federal Labor Relations Authority
General Services Administration
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
National Transportation Safety Board
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Social Security Administration
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
Quasi-official agencies
United States Institute of Peace
Other
Civil Rights Commission - "The United States Commission on Civil Rights is composed of eight Commissioners: four appointed by the President and four by Congress. Not more than four members shall at any one time be of the same political party."
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) - "In response to a presidentially-declared disaster, FEMA may work with up to 28 federal agencies and the American Red Cross to provide assistance."
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Oversight by the Holocaust Memorial Museum Council, "Chartered by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1980 and located adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Museum strives to broaden public understanding of the history of the Holocaust through multifaceted programs."
American Factfinder - a new data access and dissemination system that provides useful facts and information about your community, your economy, and your society. The system will find and retrieve the information you need from some of the Census Bureau's largest data sets.
- Economic Census of 1997
- Demographic Surveys
- Economic Surveys
- Census Briefs
- Statistical Abstract of the United States
- State and Metropolitan Area Data Book
- USA Statistics in Brief
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Economic Research Service: Information from the Department of Agriculture
Energy Information Administration
FedStats - provides easy access to statistics produced by over 70 federal agencies
National Agriculture Statistics Service
National Center for Education Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
Geographic and Map Information
Envirofacts - a single point of access to select U.S. EPA environmental data. Envirofacts provides users with the ability to generate a variety of maps. Using the Envirofacts Data Warehouse Search Engine you can view environmental information for any ZIP Code, City, or County. Using applications such as Enviromapper, you can map a specific geographic area and determine the environmental conditions and features of that area.
Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) - developed by the USGS in cooperation with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States and its territories.
Mapping data - from the USGS. Includes "digital cartographic data and graphic maps".
National Atlas of the United States - WWW-based mapping applications generate maps that display environmental information for the entire United States.
National Park Service Maps - digital versions of those maps found in the official brochures provided to National Park visitors. They are a product of National Park Service cartographers at Harpers Ferry Center.
NOAA Operational Significant Event Imagery Server - detailed imagery of significant environmental events which are visible in remotely-sensed data available at the NOAA Science Center in Suitland, Maryland.
Office of the Coast Survey produces nautical charts for United States waters, including its possessions and territories. This collection of historical maps and charts includes Nautical Charts and Hydrographic Surveys.
Perry-Castaņeda Library Map Collection Online - from the University of Texas at Austin. Includes CIA maps for specific countries under "Online Maps of General Interest".
State of the Land maps - from the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service. "Provides data and analysis on land use, soil erosion, water quality, wetlands, and other issues regarding the conservation and use of natural resources".
U.S. Gazetteer: 2000 and 1990 - Census data. You can use the TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) system to search census data.
Water Resources of the United States - from the USGS. Provides water information that benefits the Nation's citizens: publications, data, maps, and applications software.
IRS Forms and Publications - The Internal Revenue Service offers printable forms and instructions as well as forms by mail and fax.
Wisconsin tax information - The state of Wisconsin includes printable forms and instructions, as well as information on filing electronically.
Tax information for all states - This site from the government documents department at Louisiana State University offers links to the tax web sites of all fifty states. Printable forms and instructions should be available from all states.
Created by Gerri Moeller
Revised June-September 2004 by Valerie Magno and Gretchen Revie
