United States Government Publications

Updated October 27, 2009.

The Gallagher Law Library is a selective depository for United States government publications. Our item selection focuses on legal and law-related documents, including congressional materials, administrative regulations, administrative decisions, and presidential papers. We are open to the public.

Government publications are integrated into the Library collection and are accessible through the Law Library's online catalog. Print and electronic tools to find specific congressional materials such as bills, hearings, and committee reports are also available. Many of our government publications are in paper or microfiche and some are in electronic form. If you need assistance in locating and retrieving a government publication, regardless of format, please ask. Reference assistance for government publications is available in the Reference Office on floor L1 (206-543-6794).

Electronic access to a wide variety of government information is available through GPO Access, a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office, and FDsys, GPO’s Federal Digital System, available as a public beta. GPO Access, FDsys, the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, and other government information sources on the Internet (see Internet Legal Resources), are available at the Library's public PCs. Patrons may read or download information. Documents may be printed through a pay-to-print service. Library policies are set out in Public Service and Internet Use Policies for Depository Titles in Electronic Form.

The Gallagher reference librarians have prepared several research guides covering U.S. and Washington state government information, including:

• Congressional Research Service Reports
• Court Briefs & Oral Arguments
• Federal Legislative History
• Finding Federal Government Publications on the Internet
• Indian Law Research
• Judicial Branch Publications
• U.S. Administrative Law Research
• Useful Websites for Documents Librarians
• Washington Administrative Law Research
• Washington State Legislative History
• What Else Can I Do for a Patron with a Legal Question?

A complete list of legal research guides prepared by Gallagher Law Library staff is available at the Legal Research Guides page.

Several commercial web-based services are available to on-campus users and UW faculty, students, staff, via the Law Library's list of Legal Databases & Indexes:

• Hein Online provides text of legislative and administrative publications, including the U.S. Statutes at Large, the Code of Federal Regulations, the bound Congressional Record, and many federal agency decisions.
• LexisNexis Congressional indexes U.S. Congressional publications (committee hearings, reports, and documents) and legislative histories. Some text is included.
• LLMC Digital offers the text of many older administrative agency decisions.
• Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set contains a searchable collection of Congressional reports and documents published between 1817 and 1977 (with more years to come).
• NTIS/GPO FDLP Depository Access to Reports, Technical & Scientific (DARTS), contains the full text NTIS reports, from 1964 to 2000 (password restricted, ask for help in the Reference Office).

Other electronic sources are available to on-campus and UW users via the UW Libraries Research Databases:

• LexisNexis Statistical indexes statistics published by U.S., state, and foreign governments; international organizations; and other groups.
• MarciveWeb DOCS indexes U.S. government publications distributed to federal depository libraries since 1976; it corresponds to the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.
• NTIS indexes business, scientific, and technical information sponsored by the U.S. government.
• STAT-USA contains business, economic, and trade statistics from the U.S. Commerce Department and other federal agencies (password restricted, ask for help at the UW Government Publications).

The Seattle University School of Law Library is also a Federal Depository Library. For nonlaw related government publications, contact or visit one of the other federal depository libraries in the area, including the University of Washington Libraries, the Seattle Public Library, and the King County Library System.