LibGuides: United States Government: Home

General Information

This guide contains resources for research on the U.S. federal government. The national government provides a variety of publications and websites with information about the three branches of federal government (Executive, Judicial, and Legislative) as well as federal agencies. UIUC users may also access additional resources through our online subscription databases and our physical collection.

General U.S. Government Resources

Try these resources for federal government information, or click on the tabs in the left column for complete lists divided by government branch.

USA.gov
The official site of the U.S. government with federal, state, local, tribal, and international government information and services. This site also includes an A-Z directory of government agencies.
GovInfo
Formerly known as FDsys, this online portal provided by the U.S. Government Publishing Office includes free public access to official publications of the federal government.
United States Government Manual
This manual is the Official Handbook of the U.S. Government. It includes mission statements, descriptions, organization charts, and contact information for agencies and offices, and independent boards, commissions, committees, and quasi-official agencies.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)
Provided by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, this catalog includes access to U.S. federal publications and information about how to find and use federal depository libraries.
Consumer.gov
Provided by the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer.gov includes information and tools for consumers on topics such as money management, credit, loans, debt, scams, and identity theft.
HathiTrust
(UIUC Subscription) A shared digital repository of which the University of Illinois is a partner institution, HathiTrust includes digitized copies of many older government documents. Tip: Login to the site by choosing UIUC and entering your NetID and password.

Collection Information

The University Library has been a United States Federal Depository Library since 1907 and has the largest and most comprehensive collection of federal government information in the area. The collection also includes a substantial collection of 19th century U.S. government documents. The University Library receives 98 percent of the U.S. government publications available through the Depository Library Program and selects further research materials for purchase.

Strengths of the collection include:

Major statistical series on population, housing, transportation, health, business, education, agriculture, and crime.
Congressional bills, documents, hearings, and reports.
United States Code, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations.
National Technical Information Service reports.
U.S. Census information, the National Trade Data Bank (NTDB), and the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

All United States government documents can be found in the Library Catalog:

Search by author: United States
To find specific types of documents, use the Advanced Search and include United States in the author field text box and keywords or titles in another text box.