Unpublished Federal documents are acquired, organized, and stored by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The NARA, as the name suggests, is an archive, and organizes documents, like other archives, by provenance. In the case of the NARA, provenance generally means originating agency.

To identify these unpublished government documents, use NARA's catalog. Some of the documents listed in this catalog have been digitized, and are available online through links in the NARA Catalog:

NARA has also microfilmed many of its most "important" (depending on how one defines "important") document collections, and these microfilmed document collections can be identified using NARA's catalog of microfilmed documents:

NARA has also microfilmed many of its most "important" (depending on how one defines "important") document collections, and these microfilmed document collections can be identified using NARA's catalog of microfilmed documents:

NARA also has a printed version of their microfilm catalog, which some researchers find easier to use:

Some documents of the Federal Government are published by the U.S. Government Printing Office (the largest publisher in the world), and distributed to libraries through the Federal Depository Library Program. These published government documents can be identified using the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications and also through library catalogs.

For more help finding government documents, contact the Government Documents Librarian, Sanga Sung: ssung@illinois.edu .

Below are collections of both published and unpublished government documents:

Presidential Papers

Before the Presidential Records Act of 1978, all presidential papers were considered the personal property of the president, and presidents took their papers with them when they left office. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 designated any document produced during the course of the president's official duties (by both the president and his or her staff) as official, public records, and as such those documents become the property of the nation. Since 1981 each departing president has been required to deposit any such records with the National Archives and Records Administration.

The Presidential Records Act obviously does not apply to eighteenth and nineteenth century American presidents. The papers of eighteenth and nineteenth century American presidents exist in varying states of completeness, and some no longer exist at all. Many were subsequently acquired by the Library of Congress, and they have made the papers of several nineteenth century presidents available online. Some are still only available on microfilm.

Bear in mind that these "presidential papers" will include a mixture of personal and official papers.

Additional Documents of, or Relating to, the Executive Branch