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Google has a special search engine for government information: Google Uncle Sam

Let's try a search for Connecticut Superfund:

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FirstGov.gov

"Whatever you want or need from the U.S. government, it's here on FirstGov.gov. You'll find a rich treasure of online information, services and resources.

FirstGov.gov, the official U.S. gateway to all government information, is the catalyst for a growing electronic government. Our work transcends the traditional boundaries of government and our vision is global - connecting the world to all U.S. government information and services.

Government at Your Fingertips

Our powerful search engine and ever-growing collection of topical and customer-focused links connects you to millions of web pages - from the federal government, local and tribal governments and to foreign nations around the world.

On FirstGov.gov, you can search more than 51 million web pages from federal and state governments, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Most of these pages are not available on commercial websites. FirstGov has the most comprehensive search of government anywhere on the Internet. We are working with agencies to encourage portals organized around customer groups and topics, instead of agency names. Examples of cross-agency portals include: seniors, students, people with disabilities, workers and exporters."

Compare your results for a search on Connecticut & Superfund on FirstGov:

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students.gov

"students.gov has a mission -- to give college students and those planning for college easy access to the information and services they need from the U.S. Government. How do we know what students need? We ask! Students tell us what they want and what they need, and we build the site for them. These online government information and services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On your time. From across your campus or around the world."

While this site has more information for students than research, when we try a search on the environment, we get some helpful results:

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One of the best websites for government information is the University of Michigan Documents Center:

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You can use their search engine to search for Polls:

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Check out American Factfinder from the U.S. Census Bureau to find statistics on population, race & age:

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To learn how to use the American Factfinder site, take a few minutes and run through their Tutorial (PowerPoint slide show).

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"The Federal Web Locator is a service provided by the Center for Information Law and Policy and is intended to be the one stop shopping point for federal government information on the World Wide Web. This list is maintained to bring the cyber citizen to the federal government's doorstep."

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"GPO Access is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on this site is the official, published version and the information retrieved from GPO Access can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted."One of the best-kept secrets about GPO Access is a toll-free phone number for search help:

GPO Access User Support Team

7:00 am to 5:30 pm EST, Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays)

Toll-Free 888-293-6498

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Uncle Sam's Reference Shelf: Statistical Abstract of the United States

As the National Data Book, it contains a collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States. Selected international data are also included. The Abstract is also your Guide to Sources of other data from the Census Bureau, other Federal agencies, and private organizations:

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Searching for Government Information: J. Eugene Smith Library

Government Documents: Eastern Connecticut State University is a Federal Documents Depository with Federal Documents, Connecticut State Documents and Canadian Documents, in our collection:

From the Smith Library Home Page, select Government Resources:

Smith Library's Databases

From the Smith Library Home Page, select Database A-Z:



From the Database A-Z page, select LexisNexis:

In LexisNexis, select Reference from the menu of Academic Search Forms:

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Assorted Guides to Government Information

Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government

"When possible, these links go directly to the official website for the agency or program listed. For more comprehensive coverage of military-related acronyms, please check the sources listed on the Military Acronyms and Glossaries page."

Uncle Sam - Brief Guide to Citing Government Publications from the Government Publications Department, Regional Depository Library, The University of Memphis.

Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information (particularly helpful is the list of sites by Subject.):

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Let's see what we can find on your research assignment: to get a list of the safety defects in light pick up trucks. We’ll start by using Google's Advanced Search; when I have an unfamiliar term or want to get a quick look at what's available on the net, I do a quick Google search. We're not using Google Uncle Sam as the Advanced Search in Google Uncle Sam reverts back to Google's regular Advanced Search:

In Google's Advanced Search, we can use the following features: we can use exact phrase for pick up trucks; we can set the number of results per page, we can limit to English and we can even limit to domain (as in .gov, .edu and more):

How did we do?

Let's try again, removing the word "light" from the exact phrase and adding it in with all the words:

From our 2nd search, and some detective work, we find that light pick up trucks are classified by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as Light trucks and vans (LTVs). Let's go to that site and try a search for LTVs:

You can also "drill dow" through the links for Crash Statistics, Crash Tests, and Vehicle & Equipment Information or Traffic Safety/Occupant Issues.

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This was an introduction to finding government information online; however, if you are researching an issue, you may want to use additional databases or even books. For help with further research, please come to the Reference Desk or call us at x54699.