Module 3: Government Resources: Electronic and Print

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Module 1
Steps of Research

Module 2
Research Strategies

Electronic Resources 

Here are some of the top databases for finding government information.

Additional databases can be found on the Database Finder Links to an external site.. On the front page, scroll down to "Government Documents" to see more databases with government information.

Print Publications

To find a government publication that is not available online, you can use the UMD Libraries Catalog to find documents from the 1990s to the present, as well as some older government documents. To search only the U.S. Government Documents Collection, select "Advanced Search (Links to an external site.)," and under Library:," select  "U.S. Government Documents, McKeldin Library" from the drop-down menu. 

Note: Some government documents may be located in other areas of the Libraries.

Government documents are arranged by special call numbers established by the Superintendent of Documents, known as the SuDoc classification system (Links to an external site.). In the SuDoc system, government publications are grouped together by issuing agency rather than by subject, so all publications from a particular government agency or department are shelved together. The first part of a SuDoc number represents the government agency that created the document.

Example:

Food For Us All. 1969. Location: UMCP McKeldin Library U.S. Government Information SuDocs A 1.10:969.

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Questions?

For assistance developing your research strategies, or finding resources for your topic, or any other questions, please contact government specialist:

Celina Nichols (cnichol5@umd.edu)