2006* 'Core' or Essential Reference Tool Survey: Government Documents

Print -- Free Web-Sites -- Fee-Based Web-Sites

What are the essential 3 print Government Documents that you can't work without in answering reference questions? The Top 10 - some Reference Tools tied in votes. URLs are given where the print version may be ordered and/or full citation information retrieved.

  1. Statistical Abstract of the U. S. - http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
  2. Code of Federal Regulations & LSA - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html
  3. United States Code - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/
  4. U. S. Government Manual - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gmanual/index.html
  5. Occupational Occupational Outlook Handbook - http://www.bls.gov/oco/ Handbook
  6. U. S. Statutes at Large - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsl.html, Publications from U. S. Census Bureau - http://www.census.gov, and CIS U. S. Serial Set Index - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss.html
  7. Federal Register - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/ and CIA - The World Factbook - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
  8. Historical Statistics of the United States - http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html and United States Code Annotated (Westlaw)
  9. Congressional Record - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/ and Digest of Education Statistics
  10. U. S. Reports - http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/boundvolumes.html and Agricultural Statistics - http://www.nass.usda.gov/wa/annual04/content4.htm

Print -- Free Web-Sites -- Fee-Based Web-Sites

What are the essential 3 Free Web-accessible Government Document databases that you can't work without in answering reference questions? The Top 10 Free Government Documents Web Sites - Some sites tied in votes:

  1. U. S. Census Bureau - http://www.census.gov/
  2. THOMAS Legislative Information on the Internet - http://thomas.loc.gov/
  3. FDsys - GPO Access - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html
  4. Internal Revenue Service - http://www.irs.gov and CDC - Center for Disease Control and Prevention - http://www.cdc.gov
  5. USA.gov (was FirstGov)- http://www.USA.gov/ and MedlinePlus - http://www.medlineplus.gov
  6. American Factfinder - http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en and U. S. Patent and Trademark Office - http://www.uspto.gov
  7. (Occupational Outlook Handbook) Bureau of Labor Statistics (U. S. Department of Labor) - http://www.bls.gov/ and Federal Register - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/
  8. EDGAR (U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission) - http://sec.gov/edgar.shtml, Code of Federal Regulations & LSA -http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html, and PUBMED - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?DB=pubmed
  9. Supreme Court Reports - http://www.supremecourtus.gov/, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) - http://www.eric.ed.gov/,  and FEDSTATS - http://www.fedstats.gov
  10. Catalog of U. S. Government Publications - http://catalog.gpo.gov/, Google Uncle Sam - http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/, State Web Pages of multiple kinds, STINET - http://stinet.dtic.mil/, NASA Technical Reports Server - http://ntrs.nasa.gov

Print -- Free Web-Sites -- Fee-Based Web-Sites

What are the essential 3 Fee-based Web-accessible Government Document databases that you can't work without in answering reference questions? The Top 10 Fee-based Government Documents Web Sites - Some sites tied in votes:

  1. LexisNexis - http://www.lexisnexis.com/ and Westlaw - http://www.westlaw.com/
  2. STAT-USA - http://www.stat-usa.gov/
  3. FEDSTATS - http://www.fedstats.gov/
  4. NOAA Climatological Data - http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
  5. LoisLaw - http://www.loislaw.com/ and Statistical Universe - https://web.lexis-nexis.com/statuniv
  6. Marcive WebDocs - http://www.lib.neu.edu/gateway/dbases/marcive.htm and LivEDGAR - http://www.gsionline.com/
  7. PACER - http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/
  8. USA Trade Online - http://www.usatradeonline.gov/ and NTIS - http://www.ntis.gov/
  9. Academic Search Premier and Acquisition Streamlining and Standardization Information System - ASSIST - http://assist.daps.dla.mil/
  10. Impact/Access GDCS Government

Web-based courses

*This survey was posted to Buslib-L@listserv.boisestate.edu, DIG_REF@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU, ERIL-L@listserv.binghamton.edu, Govdoc-l@lists.psu.edu, Law-Lib@ucdavis.edu, LawLibRef@lists.washlaw.edu, LawSource@yahoogroups.com, Libref-l@listserv.kent.edu,Livereference@yahoogroups.com, Publib@sunsite3.berkeley.edu, ELDNET-L@u.washington.edu, STS-L@ala.org, Medlib-L@LIST.UVM.EDU., Medref-l@listserv.kent.edu,  CAPHIS@hslc.org, genealib@lists.acomp.usf.edu, and LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU during Spring 2006.