U.S. Government

This library 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)". The FSU Libraries was designated a Federal Depository Library in 1941 and serves the 2nd United States Congressional District of the state of Florida. Information about the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) may be found here.

COVID-19 UPDATE

FSU Libraries physical spaces will close beginning Thursday, March 19 at 5:00 p.m. until further notice. We will not be able to provide access to physical items in our Federal, United Nations, and State of Florida depository collections at this time. For more information on how to find resources online, please check out the Searching for Gov Info Online tab on this research guide. 

For U.S Government resources on Covid-19, please visit the following sites:

• U.S. Centers for Desease Control (CDC) Coronavirus Page
• U.S. Government Legislative, Presidential, and Regulatory Documents on COVID-19
• U.S. Government Response to the Coronavirus
• U.S. Homeland Security Digital Library Coronavirus Collection
• U.S. National Institutes of Health: Clinical trials for the Coronavirus
• U.S. National Institutes of Health resources on the Coronavirus

For FSU Libraries COVID-19 Updates and Resources, please see https://lib.fsu.edu/news/covid-19

Federal Documents

1. What is a government document?

Government documents are official publications produced by any government agency, such as the Federal government, a state agency or the United Nations. They come in a variety of physical formats, including books, periodicals, maps, microfiche, CD-ROMs, videotapes, and in electronic format on internet sites.

2. What is in the Federal documents collection?

Strozier Library receives many of the publications available through the Federal Depository Program. Subjects covered include aeronautics, business, demographics, education, energy, environment, foreign affairs, government policy and programs, health, natural resources, technology and more.  We have publications issued by the first Congress and by all subsequent congresses, and publications from every cabinet level department and most other administrative agencies. 

3. How do I search for Federal documents?

 Most Federal documents received since 1990 can be found through the online catalog.  Documents issued since 1895 can also be identified through The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications issued by the Government Printing Office.  The table under the "Uncataloged material" tab lists other places to locate documents that are not in our online catalog. U.S. government-sponsored research and worldwide scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information can be identified through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), at http://www.ntis.gov or possibly from here.

4. How do I find Federal documents on the shelf?

Practically all of the Federal documents are shelved in compact stacks or microfiche cabinets in the Basement of Strozier Library, which are  accessible  all hours Strozier Library is open.  Most Federal documents are arranged by issuing agency using the call number system created by the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc).

SuDoc numbers are in three parts, separated by a period and a colon, and often include slashes. The part before the period represents the agency responsible for the publication, the part between the period and the colon describes the series or type of publication, and that after the colon identifies the individual piece. Click on the "By agency" tab of this guide for more detailed information.

Oversight.gov: (Federal Inspectors General Reports): Reports from across government by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency from 73 agencies.

United States Congressional Serial Set: Joint digitization effort by the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Law Library of Congress, this first public release contains selected volumes from the 69th Congress (1925–1927), the 82nd Congress (1951–1953), and several 19th century Congresses.

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) have formally launched a new eCFR website. Read the "Getting Started" page for a comprehensive introduction to the main features of the new website.

End of Term Presidential Web Archive: Due to increased public interest (between fall 2016 & spring 2017) to preserve and document U.S. Government web content at the end of the Obama Presidential term, the Federal Government’s End of Term (EOT) Web Archive partners, in collaboration with other efforts like DataRefuge, and Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), have archived over 200 Terabytes of websites and data. There are current ~ 50,000 available for searching and browsing through the EOT Web Archive project page, and the Internet Archive Collection page.