Documents Reference Bibliography at http www lib umich

Documents Reference Bibliography at http: //www. lib. umich. edu/govdocs/ feder 03. xls Grace York, University of Michigan, August 2004

How Does Government Affect YOUR Life? • • Family Health Income Housing Community Recreation Students Business

Family • • Marriage license Birth certificate Divorce decree Child support Death certificate Funeral home regulations Estate taxes

Health • Vaccines (funding for development and regulations) • Nutritional guidelines • Bioterrorism intervention • Drug approval • Regulation of nursing homes • Medicare payment schedules for hospitals

Income • TAXES • Equal employment opportunity guidelines • Consumer price index • Civil service salaries • Mediation in labor disputes • Social security and food stamps

Community • • • Roads Zoning ordinances Water supplies Waste disposal Regulating power and cable industries • Requires toxic waste cleanup • Weather alerts • Disaster assistance

Housing • Certifies home repair contractors and prosecutes ripoffs • Building inspectors • Enforces disclosure rules when getting a mortgage • Consumer pamphlets on renting, buying homes, and moving companies

Recreation • • National park system Passports Airport security Grant funding for the arts and humanities Genealogy Fishing and hunting licenses State park camping reservations

Student World • • Student loans Work study scholarships College admission court decisions Research grants for faculty and academic departments Federal depository libraries Originally sponsored the internet Copyright protections

Business • • Regulates stock market (sometimes) Technical research Patents Trade regulations and statistics Employment regulations Safety standards Loans to start a small business

Document Formats Paper CD-ROM or DVD Database Internet Microfiche A-V Tapes Photographs Maps

Types of Documents 1. Laws and Regulations 2. Proposed Laws (Bills) 3. Legislative Debates 4. Executive Speeches and Directives 5. Court Decisions

Types of Documents 6. Research/Investigations 7. Statistics 8. Copyright and Patents 9. Maps 10. Consumer Information

Typical Documents Questions • Are interlocking corporate directors legal? • How many Russians live in Ann Arbor? • Text of the President’s State of the Union message? • Copy of the Starr Report • Safety of a baby crib at a yard sale? • Information on environmental warming • Analysis of Frodo’s character in Lord of the Rings?

Subjects Covered by Documents Questions • Almost all subjects • Exceptions • Literature • Arts (except for funding and museum exhibits) • Music (except for copyright) • ERGO, the only question you can safely exclude Analysis of Frodo’s character in Lord of the Rings

Documents Question Clues • Legal Materials • Statistics • Government Official or Agency Mentioned in Question • Obvious government publication • Expert on the subject is a government employee

Legal Questions • Laws, regulations, bills, rules • Court decisions • Patent or copyright • Taxes

Statistics • 75% of all statistical questions start with the government • Answers can be in databases rather than printed in a table • Business organizations and associations provide data about their own operations

Government Agency Mentioned • Congressman Knollenberg, President Bush, NASA, Social Security Administration, etc. are pretty obvious clues

Specific Government Document • Starr Report • Foreign Relations of the United States • Highway Statistics • EPA 600/2 -89 -143 • PL 97 -25

Expert on Subject? Some are obvious State Dept. for passports INS for naturalization Census Bureau for Census Some are unclear, e. g. baby cribs Consumer Reports (commercial) Consumer Product Safety Commission (government)

Three Information Needs Fact Interlocking corporate directors Russians in Ann Arbor Specific Publication Starr Report State of the Union Subject Background Baby crib safety Environmental warming

Strategy for Facts • Standard reference sources for • Laws and regulations and court decisions • Congressional documents • Directories of officials • Statistics

Strategy for Known Publications • Search Google’s Uncle. Sam or First. Gov • Search GPO or NTIS bibliographies for publications not on web • Ask a depository librarian

Strategy for Subject Searches • Search Google’s Uncle. Sam or First. Gov • Identify agency and browse by subject on the web • Search GPO or NTIS bibliographies for publications not on web

Reference Interview OBJECTIVE Rework original question within the context of what you know is possible to develop a search strategy

Key Reference Interview Questions • WHO (sponsored a bill, did the research, wrote report) • WHAT (bill, report, Russian ancestry or Russian-born) • WHEN (within past year, every year since 1970, 1/6/03) • WHERE (Ann Arbor Area, Ann Arbor City, Iraq, U. S. ) • WHY (writing dissertation, 2 -page paper, cut budget) • HOW (filibuster, resigned, lobbied) WHO - WHAT - WHEN - WHERE are relevant to most questions

DIRECTORIES • United States Government Manual (Docs JK 421. A 3 - http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/gmanual/index. html) • Federal Yellow Book (Docs. JK 6. F 2931, http: //ldi. bvdep. com/ • Official Congressional Directory (JK 1011 http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/cdirectory/index. html) • Contacting the Congress (http: //www. visi. com/juan/congress/) • Locate a Federal Depository Library (http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/libraries. html)

STATISTICS Government Sources • Federal Government produces 75% of all statistics • Key Statistical Agencies • Census Bureau • Bureau of Economic Analysis • Bureau of Labor Statistics • Bureau of Tranportation Statistics • National Center for Education Statistics • National Center for Health Statistics

STATISTICS Non-Government Sources • Non-government organizations produce about 25% • Public opinion pollsters • Academic institutes • Business organizations • Professional associations • State governments

Main Statistical Sources • Statistical Abstract of the United States (Ref. And Docs. HA 202; http: //www. census. gov/statab/www/) • Fed. Stats (http: //www. fedstats. gov/) • Statistical Resources on the Web (http: //www. lib. umich. edu/govdocs/stats. html) • Statistical Universe (http: //web. lexisnexis. com/statuniv/)

Legislative Process http: //www. lib. umich. edu/govdocs/legchart. html • Bills - Hearings - Reports - Debates - Slip Laws • Session Laws (Statutes at Large) Codified Laws • New Regulations (Federal Register) Codified Regulations • Supreme Court Decisions

Bills • H. R. , HJ Res, H. Con. Res • S. , SJ Res, S. Con. Res • May be 30 bills on one subject • Use Congressional Quarterly (Docs. JK 1 . C 12, http: //library. cqpress. com/cqweekly/) to identify when possible • Use Thomas (http: //thomas. loc. gov/) for bill summaries, text, status, and roll call votes)

Floor Debates • Congressional Record and Predecessors, 1774+ (J 11. A - J 11. R) • No perfect source for indexing • Thomas is best free source (http: //thomas. loc. gov/)

Congressional Hearings • Testimony by experts, lobbyists, members of Executive Branch • On bills, oversight, nominations, appropriations, and investigations • Prepared statements, question and answer testimony, appendices

Congressional Hearing Sources • Committee web sites and Academic Universe only have prepared testimony • Printed hearings the most complete and indexed in • Catalog of Government Publications • Congressional Universe

Congressional Universe http: //web. lexis-nexis. com/congcomp/ • CIS Index (indexes printed hearings by committee, subject, person testifying, bill) • Testimony (selected prepared statements; best for hearings under six months old) • Retrospective (hearings, prints, reports and documents, 1789 -1969) • Laws (Slip laws, Statutes at Large, United States Code) • Regulations (Federal Register, 1980+; Code of Federal Regulations) Commercial source - not all libraries own

Laws and Regulations LAWS - PASSED BY CONGRESS • Slip Laws (in Thomas, http: //thomas. loc. gov/) • Statutes at Large (Docs. K. U 565 and Congressional Universe, http: //web. lexis-nexis. com/congcomp/) • United States Code (Docs. KF 62. A 2, http: //www 4. law. cornell. edu/uscode/index. html) REGULATIONS - EXECUTIVE BRANCH • Federal Register (Docs. J 83. A 2, http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/fr/index. html, http: //web. lexisnexis. com/congcomp) • Code of Federal Regulations (Docs. http: //cfr. law. cornell. edu/cfr/ JK 416. A 5,

President • Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1965+ as J 80. A 1 W 38, 1993+ as http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/wcomp/index. html) • Public Papers of the Presidents (1929+ as J 80. A 25; 1993+ as http: //www. access. gpo. gov/nara/pubpaps/srchpaps. html) • White House Web Site - current president (http: //www. whitehouse. gov/) • Presidential Libraries (http: //www. archives. gov/presidential_libraries/addresses/ad dresses. html)

Treaties • Treaties in Force (Docs. JX 236, http: //www. state. gov/s/l/c 8455. htm) • Bilateral Treaties by country • Multilateral treaties by subject • Refers to Treaties and International Acts Series (Docs JKX 235. 9. A 33), United States Treaties (JX 231. A 3), and UN Treaty Series (JX 170. U 54) • Look to United Nations and other web sites for treaties which the U. S. has not signed • Delay in publishing treaties can make them more difficult to find

Court Decisions • Supreme Court rules on constitutionality of federal and state laws • Constitution of the U. S. Annotated (Docs. JK 14, http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/constitution/browse. html) • Supreme Court web site, 2000+ (http: //www. supremecourtus. gov/) has decisions and oral arguments • Academic Universe (http: //web. lexis- nexis. com/universe) has largest number of district, circuit, and Supreme Court decisions

Challenges in Verifying Known Titles • Titles may be distributed to depositories in paper, microfiche, CD, DVD, internet • Not all formats, especially microfiche and pamphlets, may be cataloged • Monographic series may not be analyzed by title • Technical reports may be issued by NTIS rather than GPO, requiring individual purchase

Strategies Verifying Known Titles • Check your own on-line catalog • Check Catalog of Government Publications (http: //www. gpoaccess. gov/cgp/index. html, for publication, format) • Check NTIS (http: //www. ntis. gov, for availability and purchase) • Check Google’s Uncle Sam (http: //www. google. com/unclesam) or First. Gov (http: //www. firstgov. gov/) for on-line availability

Subject Searches • Check Google’s Uncle Sam (http: //www. google. com/unclesam) or First. Gov (http: //www. firstgov. gov/) for on-line availability • Check Catalog of Government Publications (http: //www. access. gpo. gov/su_docs/locators/cgp/index. html, for publication, format) • Browse web sites by agency using LSU’s guide (http: //www. lib. lsu. edu/gov/fedgov. html)