Using the Web for Research:
Government Web Sites

Federal Government Web Sites

United States government organizations produce valuable information on a wide variety of topics, much of which is available on the Web. For this workshop, the scope is limited to just United States federal organizations, but state and local governments also produce a great deal of valuable information on the Web as well.

Some examples of types of federal information available on the Web include:

  • Legislative Information
    Text and status of bills, congressional voting records, congressional sub-committee reports, transcripts of congressional hearings
  • Regulatory Information
    Text of federal agencies rules, Code of Federal Regulations
  • Information from Executive Agencies
    Reports, white papers, studies, statistics, news items, press releases
  • Judicial Information
    Supreme Court arguments calendar and opinions; opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals, Bankruptcy Court, and District Courts; federal judicial histories

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Examples of Government Web Sites

  • United States Senate - Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
    http://energy.senate.gov
    From this site you can find out what legislation this committee is working on, view their committee schedule, identify committee members, and access documents, such as "Energy Policy for the 21st Century, Floor Remarks of Senator Bingaman, September 6, 2001".
  • Federal Register Online
    http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html
    Search the Federal Register to find rules, proposed rules, and notices from Federal agencies and organizations, executive orders, and other presidential documents. For example, a search on the phrase "stem cell" retrieved a proposal for a new rule called "Current Good Tissue Practice for Manufacturers of Human Cellular and Tissue-Based Products; Inspection and Enforcement".
  • Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration
    http://www.ita.doc.gov
    From this site you can find U.S. Foreign Trade data highlights such as a table listing the U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services from 1960-2000.
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
    http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov

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Tools to Find Government Web Sites

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Issues to Consider

Regardless what Web pages you use, you should always evaluate them critically before using any of the information you find. Check back to the introduction to this workshop for general information on evaluating Web pages.

One thing to be specifically cautious about on government Web pages is the currency of the information. Many of the reports and studies available from government organizations run several years behind. If you need the absolute most current information available, you may need to look for commercial producers of information.

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Practice

  1. Take the tutorial UMUC's Guide to Finding Government Information. When finished, take the quiz to see how much you have learned.
  2. Visit USA.gov (http://www.usa.gov) and browse around the site. Then choose an executive department (Education, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Treasury, etc.) and navigate to that agency Web site from USA.gov. When you get to the agency site, browse around the pages and see what kinds of interesting things you can find.
  3. From the U.S. Patent and Trademark office Web page, you can search for trademarks. The search engine, TESS, searches through more than 3 million pending, registered and dead federal trademarks. Go to the USPTO Web site (http://www.uspto.gov) and click on the link to Trademarks from the left side of the page. Then click on the link to "Search pending & registered trademarks". Choose New user search, and then type UMUC in the search box. You should retrieve 2 matches. Take a look at each one. What specifically has UMUC trademarked?

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