1. Why Pay for it TWICE?? How to Access Federal Materials in the Public Domain James M. Donovan, J.D., Ph.D. Faculty and Access Services Librarian University of Georgia Law Library

2. The Universe of Government Documents The United States Government Printing Office is the world’s largest publisher GPO receives income from individual sales, but it also receives taxpayer funds to cover congressional printing and to pay for online access to government documents through programs like the Federal Depository Library Program. GPO is ALREADY using tax money to make its material freely available to YOU!

3. Plus, because most materials published by the government are not copyrighted, commercial distributors are able to obtain these publications at no cost to them, but then charge you a steep fee to see the information!

4. The challenge: How can you make the system work FOR you? How can you find what you need – what you have ALREADY paid for through taxes – without paying for it again?

5. “Omnibus” Aggregators Offer “one-stop” shopping: collecting the treasures of federal documents into one place –Links vs. documents –Unspecialized –Breadth not depth Check the date page was last updated

6. Omnibus Aggregators 1. GPO ACCESS WWW.GPOACCESS.GOV Maintained by GPO Official Free to use Best place to begin

8. Omnibus Aggregators 2. FirstGov FIRSTGOV.GOV Maintained by the General Services Administration Shaped by user feedback Portal to 51+ million federal and state government webpages Spanish version available

10. Omnibus Aggregators 3. Elegus WWW.ELEGUS.COM

11. Omnibus Aggregators Clusty GOV.CLUSTY.COM Maintained by Vivisimo Organizes results into folders grouping similar items together that allows: Quick overview of the main themes that relate to the query; Find results that are buried in the ranked list and would otherwise be missed. Discover unexpected results and relationships NEW

13. LEGISLATIVE MATERIALS

14. Legislative Aggregators 4. Legal Information Institute [LII] WWW4.LAW.CORNELL.EDU Maintained by Cornell Law School “Leading ‘law-not-com’ provider of legal information Resource listings for approximately 100 areas of law Online style manual

17. Legislative Aggregators 5. THOMAS THOMAS.LOC.GOV Maintained by Library of Congress Named for Thomas Jefferson Access to Bills, Resolutions, Treaties, US Code, Congressional Record

19. U.S. Code Office of the Law Revision Counsel [#6] - source for the printed official version of the US Code. This is the most authoritative source. GPO Access [#7] - contains archived versions of Code from 1994 with annual supplements and 2000 Cornell LII [#4] - easily searched, hyperlinks among code sections.

21. The challenge is not to find the text of a U.S. Code section, but to find language that is CURRENT! Updating your search results

22. First Check Table of Amendments for Public Laws

23. So there were THREE amendments to this statute section in 2004…… You’re not done yet!!

25. And repeat the process for each P.L., and each session of Congress, to arrive at the most current language. Whew!

26. Tracking Federal Legislation 13. GovTrack WWW.GOVTRACK.US Track Current Legislation After free registration, daily or weekly email alerts of developments in pre-assigned subject areas, member of Congress, or specific bills

29. Tracking Federal Legislation 9. U.S. Senate WWW.SENATE.GOV Track Current Legislation After free registration, daily or weekly email alerts of developments in pre-assigned subject areas, member of Congress, or specific bills

32. Tracking Federal Legislation 14. Congressional Research Service Reports WWW.OPENCRS.COM CRS Reports specially commissioned by members of Congress and not widely distributed Typically must be obtained from your Congressperson $100 million spent on this research by the LoC

34. Legislative Histories 15. U. Mich. Documents Center WWW.LIB.UMICH.EDU/GOVDOCTS/LEGISHIS.HTML Originally a teaching guide for students Includes both links to resources, and instructions on how to compile a legislative history Some links are not open to the public

36. EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE MATERIALS

37. Presidential Documents 19. American Presidency Project WWW.PRESIDENCY.UCSB.EDU Maintained at University of California, Santa Barbara Access to almost 58,000 presidency-related documents Free access to the Public Papers of the President

39. Regulations 20. Code of Federal Regulations WWW.GPOACCESS.GOV/CFR Maintained at several sites, including GPO ACCESS Includes superseded volumes from 1996 Formats in both text and PDF

41. Note the Revision Date!!

42. Regulations 23. Federal Register WWW.GPOACCESS.GOV/FR Maintained at GPO ACCESS Includes volumes from 1994 (Vol. 59) Formats in both text and PDF Averages 71,614 pages per year of new and proposed regulations!!

43. “20 CFR 404.1755”

44. NEW LANGUAGE!

45. Regulations e-CFR WWW.GPOACCESS.GOV/ECFR Maintained at GPO ACCESS Currently in beta testing Immediately reflects changes in the CFR made in the Federal Register

47. Regulations 22. Regulations.gov WWW.REGULATIONS.GOV “One-stop-shopping” for administrative regulations

48. Forms 28. Forms.gov WWW.FORMS.GOV “One-stop-shopping” for administrative forms

49. JUDICIAL MATERIALS

50. Judicial Aggregators 29. FindLaw LP.FINDLAW.COM Now a Thomson [WESTLAW] service The “highest trafficked legal Web site” Wide variety of legal resources, including judicial materials

51. Judicial Aggregators 30. LexisOne WWW.LEXISONE.COM Free searching of state and federal court opinions within last five years Links to legal dictionaries and state bar sites Access to Shepard’s for a daily “all you can shepardize” fee

52. Federal Case Law Meta-Indexes Judicial Aggregators

53. U.S. Supreme Court 34. U.S. Supreme Court Homepage WWW.SUPREMECOURT.GOV Established in 2000 Slips available on day of release PDFs of bound United States Reports volumes from 1991

54. U.S. Supreme Court 38. Curiae Project CURIAE.LAW.YALE.EDU Maintained by Yale Law School Library Selected Supreme Court records and briefs

55. U.S. Supreme Court 40. OYEZ Project WWW.OYEZ.ORG/OYEZ/FRONTPAGE Supported by several entities, including Northwestern University, NSF, and FindLaw Audio files of all oral arguments since 1995 Earlier years included selectively Podcast options available Offers a virtual tour of the Supreme Court Building

56. Federal Circuit Courts Cornell’s LII includes search engine that allows simultaneous searching of other sites for decisions available on the web (#41); FindLaw aggregates links and searches its own database of opinions since 2000 (#42); LexisOne allows searching aggregate searching of all circuits, last five years only; Each circuit has its own official website (listed at #43). Available documents varies across the jurisdictions: some include unpublished as well as published opinions.

57. Federal District Courts NO site allows simultaneous searching across all the federal district courts; Many districts have official websites that can be found on FindLaw and the US Courts Federal Judiciary site.

58. Judicial Miscellany 49. Court Forms WWW.USCOURTFORMS.COM Makes available approximately 60,000 forms Offers both free and fee-based premium levels Forms for federal, state, and even some municipal courts

60. HAPPY SEARCHING!