Government Documents Made Easy? Or Just Easier?

90% since % since 2000 Retrospective conversion projects Retrospective conversion projects Search engines often DO work Search engines often DO work Federal Documents on the Internet

Limitations to Search Engines Too Many Hits No subject headings or thesaurus terms Overuse of common words Antiquated terms in state law

Is it?  Economic recovery act?  Economic stimulus package?  Economic stimulus bill?  American Recovery and Assistance Act

Documents Question Clues Legal Material Statistics Government Official or Agency Mentioned in Question Obvious government publication (e.g. Duelfer or 9/11 Commission report) Expert on the subject is a government employee (not always obvious)

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)

Secret Techniques  Browse Agency likely to publish the information  Use specialized indexes for that level of government (e.g. USA.gov)  Specialized free databases for each level of government  Documents Center web site  Many places for help

Handouts Key Government Document Reference Tools Key Government Document Reference Tools Key Government Document Reference Tools Key Government Document Reference Tools Statistical Reference Tools Statistical Reference Tools Statistical Reference Tools Statistical Reference Tools

UMich Documents Site

Federal Web Pages

Google’s Uncle Sam Results ranked with most important at top Advanced search link from main screen – can change domain

USA.gov Must do simple search before advanced search Narrow search down by topics and agencies

USA.gov Use for browsing agency names

Federal Web Pages Several Docs web portals consist of several pages Cumulative frames index for section

Hathi Trust First source for retrospective digitized documents

Hathi Trust Use pdf version to download 10 pages at a time

Legislative Branch

Thomas for Bills

Thomas for Bills

Hearings via GPO’s FDSys

Hearings via GPO’s FDSys

Laws and Regulations

Michigan Pages Includes specialized Google index and links to local governments

Other States Links to state laws and regulations, comparative state laws, tax forms, governors

International Agencies Special IGO and NGO indexes across agencies Large number of United Nations documents are free

Foreign Governments

Individual Foreign Countries vt.htm vt.htm vt.htm

Statistics

Historic Census Publications

News Items America’s War Against Terrorism Iraq War Debate Elections

Getting Help University of Michigan Documents Center (734) (M-F, 1-4) (most of the Library of Michigan (517) (517) _ ,00.html _ ,00.html Government Information Online Federal Depository Library for the Area

Problems with Current Site Known better outside the University Old-fashioned graphics Labor intensive – hard to keep updated Future after Grace retires

Future Plans Content management system and database by August 3, 2009 Advantages: search results integrated with main library web page and easier to update URLs Possible disadvantages: difficulty browsing and loss of incompatible formats (e.g. tables) Hedge: backup DVD of current site and old/new URL equivalent tables

Grace York, Coordinator, Documents Center, University of Michigan Library (734) Michigan Library Association I-Trends Seminar June