Government information

Government information - Guide

The ISU Library has been a U.S. Federal Depository since 1907, and receives about 70% of the publications distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program administered by the Government Printing Office (GPO). These include publications in a variety of formats (paper, microfiche, CD-ROM, DVD and online) that reflect on almost all aspects of the daily lives of residents of the United States. The Library has a historical collection which is diversified in subject matter, including items on social science and public policy issues as well as materials on scientific and technical topics. As a result of the e-government movement, many government documents are being published on the WWW.

Access

As a designated Federal depository, the ISU Library makes U.S. government publications available for the free use of the general public, as well as members of the ISU community. The ISU Library Access privileges follow the Instructions to Depository Libraries, revised 2000, by the GPO. Anyone may use government publications within the library and use the computers to access online government information. Most government documents are available for circulation under the same borrowing rules as all other materials.

Locating Government Publications

Government publication published since 1994 have records in the Library Catalog. Many older Federal government documents have records in the Library Catalog as well. Locations for these publications are noted on the Library Catalog record. Some government publications have been integrated into the general collection and have Library of Congress call numbers, while others are located on tier 2 in the collection of government documents which are shelved by the Superintendent of Documents Classification System. If you do not find the publication(s) you are seeking, you should consult the staff at the Reference Desk.

For items published prior to 1994, if there is no record in the Library Catalog, check the documents catalog located in the Reference area to determine if the Library has the item(s). To verify citations and find call numbers for older documents, use the electronic and print indexes, such as the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (1895-1994 Z1223 .A18, tier 3), Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (1994- ), Marcive (1976- ), LexisNexis Congressional, LexisNexis Statistical, etc.

Reference Assistance

Reference assistance for government documents is provided by librarians at the Reference Desk when they are on duty or through the ISU Library's Ask a Librarian service. If the ISU Library does not have a specific item, members of the ISU community may request the item through interlibrary loan. Patrons without ISU Library borrowing privileges will need to use the interlibrary loan services of their local public library. For questions requiring extensive assistance, please contact the government information specialist.

revised 12/29/2003

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