Finding Aids Search Engines & Directories

Catalogs | Subscription Databases | Search Engines | Directories

GVSU Libraries Catalog

• Any search for government publications at GVSU should probably begin with our online catalog.  You can search for government publications by title, author, SuDoc number, or using keywords.  The catalog will tell you the location of the publications we own and whether they are checked out.

Monthly catalog of U.S. Government Publications

• MAIN U.S. Government Documents--Reference  GP 3.8:[year]
  • This print index covers a broad range of U.S. government documents published from 1933 to the present.  It is preceded by the Catalogue of the public documents of the...Congress and of all departments of the government of the government of the United States for the period from... which covers the years 1893-1933.  The print version of this index is generally used when looking for pre-1976 documents.
• GPO Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
  • This publicly accessible database provides coverage from 1994 to the present and is updated daily.  Links to documents available online are provided.
    

• PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) "provides selective subjects and bibliographic access to periodicals, books, hearings, reports, gray literature, government publications, Internet resources, and other publications from 120 countries."  PAIS International provides coverage from 1972 to the present and is updated monthly, while PAIS Archive covers 1915-1976.   Please note that because this is a subscription database, it is available only to GVSU students, faculty and staff.

GeoRef

• "The GeoRef database covers the geology of North America from 1785 to the present and the geology of the rest of the world from 1933 to the present.  The database includes references to all publications of the U.S. Geological Survey."  Please note that because this is a subscription database, it is available only to GVSU students, faculty and staff.

AGRICOLA

• AGRICOLA (Agriculture Online Access) provides "worldwide coverage of agriculture and related fields from 1970 to the present.  AGRICOLA is the locator and bibliographic access and control system of the National Agricultural Library collections and also includes records from other cooperating institutions."  Please note that because this is a subscription database, it is available only to GVSU students, faculty and staff.

USASearch.gov

• Searches local, state and federal websites.  Included in its search are some government databases not indexed by other search engines. 

Google Uncle Sam

• Searches only websites with .gov and .mil URLs.

GPO Access Multiple Database Search

• Allows you to perform keyword searches across a variety of GPO publications, ranging from the Federal Register to the United States Code to the Congressional Register.

INFOMINE

• A searchable database of government information geared toward "faculty, students, and research staff at the university level."

USA.gov

• "The U.S. Government's official web portal."

Federal Web Navigator

• From the Villanova University School of Law, the site "is intended to be the one stop shopping point for federal government information on the World Wide Web."

GPO Access

• The official website of the Government Printing Office, this site provides you quick access to executive, legislative and judicial branch information sources.

GPO Access Online Resources

• An A-Z list of resources hosted by GPO Access.

Migrating Government Publications (from the University of Memphis)

• This website provides links to U.S. government serials and periodicals that had been distributed in paper, microfiche, or CD-ROM format in the past and now are published on the Internet.

U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory (from Louisiana State University)

• This comprehensive directory of agencies allows you to search for their websites hierarchically, alphabetically, or through a keyword search. 

University of Michigan Documents Center

• "The Documents Center is a central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international."