Government Information

US CONGRESSIONAL SERIAL SET and AMERICAN STATE PAPERS ONLINE

American State Papers, 1789-1838

American State Papers, 1789-1838 enables students and scholars to easily search and browse legislative and executive documents of the first fourteen U.S. Congresses and more. This seminal set of U.S. government publications a rich source of primary material on wide-ranging aspects of early American history. Beyond, American State Papers is cross-searchable with the digital U.S. Congressional Serial Set and all other Readex Archive of Americana collections.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, Pre-Civil War Edition

The single most important series of American government publications, the U.S. Congressional Serial Set is an incomparably rich, largely untapped collection of primary source material on the people, issues and events of American history and politics. Readex's digital edition of this national treasure—the Reports, Documents and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives—is the most accurate and complete replica available.

On April 2, 2012, the 1940 Census was released online! This is the complete Census data, and only happens 72 years after the Census was taken to protect individual privacy. For the first time the National Archives is providing access to the digitized images of these records free of charge on their website. For information, please visit http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/; then, visit http://1940census.archives.gov/ and start accessing the records.

Federal and State documents at the Valley Library can be found in a variety of places. The most recent documents are often online only, and can be located with a search of the library catalog; links to these documents are found in the catalog record. Many of our tangible (physical) documents are given a classification number in the Library of Congress (LC) system and located in the regular book stacks with our other items. Others are classified in Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification (or OrDocs in the case of Oregon documents) and are found in the 3rd floor collections (shelves, CD/DVD cases, or microfiche cases). Records for all of them are included in the OSU Libraries online catalog. As you can see, it is essential to note both call numbers and locations in the catalog record.

What is SuDoc? Many of our federal documents are classified in the Library of Congress (LC) classification system and shelved with the other books, but we do have a significant number of documents classified in SuDoc. This is a system that arranges publications by the agency that produced them, NOT by subject like LC. At the Valley Library, these are all located on the 3rd floor. To learn more, please visit An Explanation of the Superintendent of Documents Classification System at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/explain.html

FDsys has replaced GPOAccess as the primary public access to Government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies. Featured collections include Code of Federal Regulations; United States Code; Federal Register; Congressional Bills, Documents, Hearings and Reports; Congressional Record; Compilation of Presidential Documents; Economic Indicators; Public and Private Laws.

FDsys is easy to use, but there are several robust help documents available. User tutorials are found at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsysinfo/tutorials.htm, there is a User Manual (in pdf, download from http://www.gpo.gov/help/fdsys_user_manual.htm), and searchable online help is available throughout.

• OSU Libraries Catalog OSU Libraries includes documents (even online documents) in the online catalog. SuDoc and OrDoc numbers can be searched (like call numbers) in the Numbers Search.
• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)
• USA.gov the U.S. government's official web portal/search engine
• THOMAS from the Library of Congress. Makes federal legislative information freely available to the public. Covers 1989 (101st Congress) onwards.
• Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization Projects Contains records of publicly accessible collections that include significant numbers of digitized copies of U.S. Government publications. OSU contributed the U.S. Forest Service Research Legacy

Other Finding Aids

• FedWorld.gov is a gateway to government information, managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
• CyberCemetary (http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/) provides permanent public access to the Web sites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions. Very useful when presidential administrations change. A partnership between the University of North Texas Libraries and GPO
• U.S. Government Manual Official handbook of the Federal Government. Provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, as well as quasi-official agencies, boards, commissions, and committees.
• Browse Topics  a subject guide to the government.
• Cross-Agency Portals at USA.gov. Gateways that bring together federal information and services from multiple agencies about a particular topic or for a particular customer group.
• Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909  A digitization of a standard historical reference work. Lists Agency and Congressional documents, including Serial Set.
• Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) serves the DoD community as the largest central resource for DoD and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information available (full text available)

U.S. Senate

• Senator Ron Wyden (D)
• Senator Jeff Merkley (D)

U.S. House of Representatives

• District 01 Suzanne Bonamici (D)
• District 02 Greg Walden (R)
• District 03 Earl Blumenauer (D)
• District 04 Peter A. DeFazio (D)
• District 05 Kurt Schrader (D)

Oregon Congressional Districts  (map from the Oregon Blue Book)

State Senators & Representatives: Find Your Legislator at http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/home.htm

Redistricting: The Oregon Legislature and the governor approved the Congressional redistricting plan on June 30, 2011. Visit the website to see the changes: http://www.leg.state.or.us/redistricting/

Electronic resources:

Citing Government Documents: American Psychological Association (University of Nebraska Kearney)

Citing Government Information Sources Using MLA (Modern Language Association) Style (Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, Univ. of Nevada, Reno)

DocsCite (Arizona State University Libraries) helps with both MLA and APA styles.

Print resource:

The Bluebook: a uniform system of citation. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Law Review Association. Valley  KF245 .B58 2010 (19th edition)

OSU Libraries provides access to Federal and State of Oregon documents in all formats including print, electronic (internet and CD/DVD), and microform. OSU has been a depository library for both state of Oregon and selected Federal agency documents since 1907.

To insure that all Oregonians have access to as complete a collection of federal information as possible, we became part of a selective housing agreement with the Oregon State Library in 2008. We collect from many different agencies, but have committed to collect all documents produced by the following:

• US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) (includes the US Forest Service)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• National Oceanographic Data Center
• National Marine Fisheries Service
• Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Office
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• US Dept. of the Interior (includes the National Parks Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fish & Wildlife, and US Geological Survey among others)
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (inactive; historical documents only)
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

For a complete summary of holdings by all four libraries participating in Oregon's regional collection, see the Oregon Regional Federal Depository Collection Holdings List Summary.  More information concerning the Federal Depository Program in Oregon, including regional contacts, is found on the Federal Government Information page on the Oregon State Library website.

The Valley Library at OSU is a congressionally designated depository for U.S. Government documents. Public access to the government documents collection is guaranteed by public law. (Title 44 United States Code)