Digital Librarian: a librarian's choice of the best of the Web

Digital Librarian is maintained by Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in Cortland, New York

Government

Administrative Codes and Registers Section - With Internet Access to Rules, by state. There is also information on State Election Laws & Administration Issues and a State Election Office Contact List. A service of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Basic Readings In U.S. Democracy - Full-text of 73 historical documents, with notes; edited by Melvin I. Urofsky, Professor of Constitutional History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and a publication of the U.S. Department of State.
Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids - A service of the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to the Present
Browse Government Resources - Library of Congress
Bureau of Labor Statistics
C-SPAN Networks
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - Search for Congressional reports, hearings, debates, and records; judiciary materials; documents issued by executive departments. Coverage begins with January 1994 and new records are added daily.
CCTA Government Information Service - U.K.
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1873 - Offers more than 500,000 digital items, including page images and searchable text. "The journals, debates, and legislation of the federal congresses from 1789 to 1873 form the core of the collection, including the House Journal, Senate Journal and Senate Executive Journal, Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, The Congressional Globe, and the Statutes at Large. The site also offers documents on the Continental Congress and constitutional debates (1774-89) in the Journals of the Continental Congress, Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 and The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Elliot's Debates), as well as selected documents from the U.S. Serial Set." (American Memory Project, Library of Congress.)
Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders Disposition Tables [Federal Register] - National Archives. "Executive orders are official documents, numbered consecutively, through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government. The text of Executive orders appears in the daily Federal Register as each Executive order is signed by the President and received by the Office of the Federal Register. The text of Executive orders beginning with Executive Order 7316 of March 13, 1936, also appears in the sequential editions of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)." You can search for keywords and there are FAQs and an index. Goes back to the Administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) and will soon include Herbert Hoover (1929-1933).
Congress.Org - Directory of members of Congress. Includes current photograph, room, phone, and fax numbers, key staff, committee assignments, and district office and e-mail addresses. Find your Representative by ZIP Code, alphabetically, state or name search.

Congressional Research Service Reports - The Congressional Research Service - American Law Division "responds to congressional requests for legal analysis and information involving federal and state statutory and case law." CRS publications are not directly available online but are available through the sources listed below:
Committee for the National Institute for the Environment (CNIE) - 1545 CRS Reports on environmental and related topics.
Index of Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS) - Congressman Mark Green of Wisconsin, 8th Congressional District. (3/18/06: "Please note links to CRS Products have been temporarily inactivated.")
Federation of American Scientists
First Amendment Center
GPO Gate - Has 222 titles
LLRX.com - Stephen Young, a reference librarian at The Catholic University of America, has written an excellent overview and guide to Congressional Research Service Reports. Open CRS Network - Center for Democracy & Technology
Thurgood Marshall Law Library - Homeland Security/Terrorism and Health Law & Policy
University of North Texas Libraries
U.S. Department of State
zFacts.com - Google search interface to locate CRS reports.

Congressional Sources on the Internet - Archival repositories; University of Delaware Library
Constitution Finder - Constitutions, charters, amendments, and other related documents. John Paul Jones & Churchill Bowles, T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond. See also Constitutions of the World
Constitution of the United States of America - GPO Access.
Consumer Price Index - Bureau of Labor Statistics
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Constitutions of the World - Full-text (Kingwood College Library).
Contacting the Congress - Provides names, e-mail addresses web sites and phone numbers for senators from the 107th Congress.
Council of State Governments
CQ Congressional Record Scanner - Annotated index of each day's Congressional Record.
DefenseLINK - "Access to a wide range of information about the Department. All the Military Services have participated in developing DefenseLINK, with the objective of providing up-to-date and accurate information." With links to Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines, National Guard and Coast Guard.
Economic Report of the President - "Annual report written by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers."
EUROPARL: Multilingual Web Server of the European Parliament
European Union
Factcheck - "Nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases." A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. In August 2006 named by Time.com as "One of 25 Sites We Can't Live Without."
Federal Bulletin Board
Federal Bureau of Investigation - Provides photographs of and information on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives (including Usama Bin Ladin, information on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) which includes a listing of cases by subject or by name. (PDF format - Acrobat Reader required.)
Federal Court Locator
Federal Depository Library Program: Specialized Collections of Full Text Information
Federal Election Commission - Includes election statistics, and financial information about candidates, parties and PACs.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - Compendium of emergency management resources that is continually updated before, during and after major disasters.
Federal Government Agencies - Easy-to-use listing from Louisiana State University Libraries
Federal Government: General Information Resources - Library of Congress
Federal Impeachment Process: A Bibliographic Guide to English and American Precedence, Historical and Procedural Development, and Scholarly Commentary. - Cornell Law Library. Thomas C. Kingsley (May 1974), updated by Joseph Luke (July 1998). Also available in pdf format.
Federal Judiciary Homepage - Maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts to serve as a clearinghouse for information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government.
FDLP Desktop - Federal Depository Library Program
Federal Register - "Legal newspaper published every business day by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It contains Federal agency regulations; proposed rules and notices; and Executive orders, proclamations and other Presidential documents. The Federal Register informs citizens of their rights and obligations and provides access to a wide range of Federal benefits and opportunities for funding." See Today's Issue. There is an index and it is searchable via GPO.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Federal Web Locator - There's also a State Web Locator.
Federation of Tax Administrators: State Comparisons - Compares tax rates, State and Local Tax Burdens, and other useful data.
FedNet - Live coverage of House and Senate. (A subscription is required for access to most archived material.)
Fedstats: One Stop Shopping Federal Statistics - Searchable and browsable access to statistics and information produced by more than 100 U.S. government agencies.
FedWorld Information Network
FinanceNet: Financial Management in Government
FirstGov - Search for government information by topic. Firstgov also has many sub-divisions targeted at specific groups and populations. Has a Reference Center and a Site Index.
Business.gov
Consumer.gov
ConsumerAction.gov
DisabilityInfo.gov
Export.gov
Fedbizopps.gov - Federal Business Opportunities
Fedstats.gov
Health.gov
Kids.gov
Nutrition.gov
Recreation.gov
Regulations.gov - "Find, view and comment on regulations for all Federal agencies."
Seniors.gov
Students.gov
Womenbiz.gov
Forms from the Fed - Links to various government agency sites with downloadable forms. (Part of the larger Uncle Sam - Internet Resource Guides maintained by the Government Publications Department at the University of Memphis.)
Founders' Constitution - Anthology of writings on American constitutional history edited by Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner. A joint venture of the University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund, the book was published in 1986. (It is not clear from the explanatory matter just how much of the print version appears online.) "The documents included range from the early seventeenth century to the 1830s, from the reflections of philosophers to popular pamphlets, from public debates in ratifying conventions to the private correspondence of the leading political actors of the day." The site is searchable, contains a Table of Contents and an Index which includes Short Titles Used, Authors and Documents, Cases and Constitutional Provision.
Free Government Information - "Initiated by Jim A. Jacobs, James R. Jacobs, Shinjoung Yeo, three librarians at University of California San Diego, along with Daniel Cornwall, librarian at the Alaska State Library."
Full-text state statutes and legislation on the Internet
General Code: Municipal Codification and Document Management - E-Codes (Municipal Codes on the Internet) - Other municipal code sources inlcude Municipal Codes Online and Municipal Code Corporation List of Codes.
Municipal Research & Services Center - Resource for local governments in the state of Washington. With Site Index and links to Municipal Codes in Washington.
Global Legal Information Network - Library of Congress "database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN." There is also a Thesaurus for the Global Legal Information Network.
Google - With Uncle Sam you can search millions of US government documents.
GovBot: Database of Government Web Sites - Provided by the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, GovBot GovBot has gathered 628001 web pages from U.S. Government and Military sites around the country.
Government Accountability Project (GAP) - Non-profit, non-partisan whistleblower group "promotes government and corporate accoutability by advancing occupational free speech, defending whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists."
Publications - Includes archive of Newsletters
Legislation
Press Release Archive - (Searchable)
Resources
Government Documents Librarianship - Eric Schnell, Prior Health Sciences Library, Ohio State University
Government Information Locator Service (GILS)
Government Information Sharing Project - Oregon State University project enables users to access data and tables to analyze population, agricultural, economic, and trade figures
Governing:the Magazine of States and Localities - "Monthly magazine whose primary audience is state and local government officials: governors, legislators, mayors, city managers, council members and other elected, appointed and career officials." GovLinks provides links to other sources of information on government and politics. Jon Katz discusses Governing in his Media Rant column in Wired News
Governments on the WWW - Gunnar Anzinger's excellent collection of links to government web sites worldwide also includes a good list of links to other sources.

GPO Access - Provides online versions of official government documents.
List of Legislative Branch Resources on GPO Access
Budget of the United States Government
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications - "Finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word."
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) - "Codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation." Its browsable or searchable by keyword. See also the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations.
Compilation of Presidential Documents - Has searchable Weekly Compilation
Congressional Bills - "Contains all published versions of bills from the 103rd (1993-1994) Congress forward. The 108th Congress database is updated by 6 a.m. (EST) daily when bills are published and approved for release. The documents in these databases are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files." See also Thomas: Advanced Bill Summary and Status Search
Congressional Committee Materials - Links to Standing Committees in the House and Senate as well as Select, Special, & Other Committees and Caucuses.
Congressional Committee Prints - Publications issued by Congressional committees on topics related to their legislative or research activities.
Congressional Directory - "Short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district, and additional data, such as committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers. It also lists officials of the courts, military establishments, and other Federal departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio, and television galleries."
Congressional Documents
Congressional Hearings
Congressional Pictorial Directory
Congressional Record - With Index. You can browse by day of session. See also Thomas which has Congressional Records back to 1989. It also gives information about the Congressional Record and Daily Digest. You can also View links to daily issues of the Congressional Record in reverse date order for this Congress.
Congressional Reports - Provides the full text of committee and conference reports.
Constitution of the United States
Daily House Calendar
Economic Indicators - "Economic information on prices, wages, production, business activity, purchasing power, credit, money and Federal finance."
Federal Register - "Official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents."
History of Bills - "Lists legislative actions on bills that are reported in the Congressional Record. It is part of the print Congressional Record Index, which is published biweekly by the Joint Committee on Printing when Congress is in session, but is maintained as a separate application on GPO Access."
House Journal - Record of the proceedings of each legislative day in the House.
Senate Calendar of Business - "Identifies bills and resolutions awaiting Senate floor actions. It is updated on GPO Access each day the Senate is in session."
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States - Papers, photographs of George Bush, William J. Clinton & George W. Bush. Searchable.
U.S. Government Manual
United States Code - Cornell Law School also has a U. S. Code Collection

GrayLIT Network - Department of Energy provides access to gray literature of U.S. Federal Agencies. It taps into the search engines of distributed gray literature collections, enabling the user to find information without first having to know the sponsoring agency.
The Hill: the Capital Newspaper
Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives (1907) - Parliamentary procedure and precedents by Asher C. Hinds, Clerk at the Speaker's Table, 1895 to 1910. With Search Page.
House Republican Conference
Independent Counsel's Report - U.S. House of Representatives.
Infomine: Government Information - Annotated links, selected by librarians at the University of California, Riverside.
Information USA - U.S. Department of State. Has a Site Index and a Publications Page. There are links to U.S. Embassies and Other Diplomatic Missions. The Outline Series consists of Outline of American History, Outline of American Geography, Outline of U.S. Government, Outline of the U.S. Economy and the Outline of American Literature.
IRS - the Digital Daily - Internal Revenue Service provides access to printable (pdf format) forms and publications.
John F. Kennedy Executive Orders - Site provides full-text of the 214 Executive Orders issued during the administration of John F. Kennedy; Maria E. Schieda, School of Information, University of Michigan
Labor Contracts Database - University of California, Berkeley. Related sites include Resource Guide for Students in Collective Bargaining, Labor Unions, Labor Project for Working Families, Collective Bargaining Negotiations and Contracts
Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. - See their useful Legislative Source Book
Library of Congress
Library of Congress Webcasts
List of WWW Servers - Federal Government resources
Munisource - "Largest collection of municipal government related information on the WWW, with direct links to over 3,500 official municipal sites in 44 countries."
Municipal Codes Online - Jeannette Voiland, Seattle Public Library. See also the Municipal Code Corporation List of Codes, "a collection consisting mostly of local government Codes of Ordinances from around the United States" and General Code Publishers.
Municipal Research & Services Center - Resource for local governments in the state of Washington. With Site Index and links to Municipal Codes in Washington.
National Archives and Records Administration
National Association of Secretaries of State
National Conference of State Legislatures - This is a valuable resource, frequently updated. The State and Federal Issues page provides extensive resources to various issues. See, for example, the section on Eminent Domain legislation and Kelo v. New London. "NCSL is summarizing and posting 2006 bills as they pass the legislatures. The summaries include a link to the legislation or to the legislature's bill tracking system." You'll find information on court decisions, legislation, presentations and podcasts, publications and staff contacts. There is also a searchable database of State Legislatures Internet Links.
National Governors' Association - Provides a site index, biographical information on governors, texts of State-of-the-State Addresses, and information on key state issues.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National League of Cities - With lists of Member Cities by State (which does not include links to the cities) and list of State Leagues
National Security Archive - George Washington University. Documents, News, Guide for Researchers, and September 11th Sourcebooks including Terrorism and U.S. Policy.
NonProfit Gateway - "A network of links to Federal government information and services" put together by the White House interagency task force on the Net
Northern Light Search - Their usgovsearch is useful for locating hard to find government information.
Official City Sites - Official city and county sites.
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives
Currently on the House Floor
Member Information
Committee Information
Lobbying Contributions Search
Bills
House Documents - H.R. 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (AAHCA)
Women in Congress - Has Profiles of former and current members
House Journals (1991-1994) - Records of the proceedings of each legislative day in the House
House Library
Speakers' Biographical Directory
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
OMB Watch - Group follows activities of the House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Offers Budget News and Regulatory News.
Online HUD
Online NewsHour - PBS
OpenCongress - "Free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement." Project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation. See also WashingtonWatch, "maintained by Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, in his spare time, as a public service."
Open Secrets - Center for Responsive Politics tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. It provides detailed campaign finance profiles for politicians. In Donor Lookup you can find individual and soft money contributors by name, zip code, employer, candidate or recipient. The section on Political Action Committees is searchable and organized by category. State Information Directory features campaign finance profiles of the 106th Congress (updated monthly). Lobbyist Spending shows a industry-by-industry breakdown of spending and has a searchable database of individual lobbyists & lobbying firms.
OTA Legacy - Complete collection of Office of Technology Assessment publications. The OTA, which closed on September 29, 1995, "provided Congressional members and committees with objective and authoritative analysis of the complex scientific and technical issues"(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia Database - Digital recordings of major constitutional cases searchable by date, party or subject. Project developed by Jerry Goldman of Northwestern University.
Pacific Information Resources: Searchable Public Record Databases
Prince of Wales - Official Internet Website of HRH The Prince of Wales. Provides searchable access to the complete texts of speeches and articles and information on Charities.
Regulations.gov - Provides for citizen comment of proposed regulations created by agencies of the executive branch of government. "Find, review, and submit comments on Federal documents that are open for comment and published in the Federal Register, the Government’s legal newspaper."
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs - With links to Hearings, News Releases and to Committee Information.
Senate Republican Conference - Has Radio clips of Republican Senators
Social Security Online - Official website of the U.S. Social Security Administration
Social Statistics Briefing Room - The Whie House provides links to current Federal social statistics on crime, demography, education and health.
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
State and Local Government on the Net - Directory of official, state, county, and city government websites (Piper Resources).
StateLaw: State Government and Legislative Information - Part of WashLaw Web.
Stateline - News on state policy innovations (Pew Center on the States).
Thomas - Legislative information from the Library of Congress. Integrates data and documents from many legislative sources, including GPO Access.
Government Resources
Bills, Resolutions
Bill Summary & Status - Daily updates on the status of legislation. This database integrates integrates this information with selected full-text files from GPO and with other data, such as roll call votes, from the House and Senate web sites.
Congressional Record
Congressional Record Daily Digest
Congressional Record Daily Issues
Congressional Record Keyword Index
Committee Reports
House and Senate Floor Proceedings
Congressional Schedules and Calendars
Senate Committee Information
House Committee Information
Congressional News & Analysis
U.S. Senators
U.S. House Members
Roll Call Votes and Member Voting Records
House Committee Information
Senate Committee Information
Legislation: Bills, Amendments and Laws
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) - Organization associated with Syracuse University provides "independent, and nonpartisan information on federal law enforcement." More specifically they offer "data gathering, data research and data distribution. describing the enforcement activities and staffing patterns of the FBI, the IRS, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms." A valuable resource for journalists, lawyers, public interest groups, businessmen and researchers. (Free registration.)
U.K. Official Publications on the Internet - Full text or summary of selected documents prepared for the Internet by the Stationery Office. Includes official documents, arranged by category, from the UK Parliament, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, The Stationery Office Ltd and other authoritative sites. "Official reference facility for Command and departmentally sponsored House of Commons Papers. From May 2005 onwards, all Command Papers and House of Commons Papers, as well as Key Departmental Papers, are available for free on the site in PDF format. A selection of key papers published before May 2005 are also available for free in our archive."
United Kingdom Parliament
How Parliament Works
Interviews with people in Parliament
Glossary: Parliamentary Language Explained
Some Traditions and Customs of the House - House of Commons Information Office
Live TV - Video and Audio - "Video and Audio carries live and archived coverage of all UK Parliament proceedings taking place in public, including debates and committee meetings of both Houses. The material is then available from an on-demand archive for 12 months."
House of Lords
Government Whips Office - House of Lords
Dod Online - Political Biographies. Dod Online is "the leading provider of complete information on the people and institutions that make up the UK Parliaments and Assemblies, Civil Service and the EU."
University of Michigan Documents Center - "Central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international."
University of Virginia Library Government Information Resources
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Census Bureau
United States Code - Offered by Cornell University's Legal Information Institute. Searchable.
U.S. Code - From the Office of the Law Revision Counsel
U.S. Conference of Mayors - Useful sections include Cities Online and Webcasts of the Annual Meeting.
U.S. Copyright Office
U.S. Courts - "Maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts. The purpose of this site is to function as a clearinghouse for information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration
U.S. Department of State
U. S. Department of State Magazine - With Archive
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - Has up-to-date VA Testimony before Congressional Committees
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Federal Courts Finder - Emory University
U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory - Maintained by Maureen Olle of Louisiana State University Libraries. Has a Hierarchical Directory and an Alphabetical Directory.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. General Accounting Office
U.S. Government Information - Cleveland State
U.S. Government Printing Office
U.S. House of Representatives - Includes link to House Judiciary Committee. Legislative Activities shows recent votes.
U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leadership
U.S. Department of State International Information Programs - This site, produced by the U.S. Department of State, "is an authoritative resource for foreign audiences seeking information about American society, political processes, official U.S. policies and culture."
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Has information on patenting and trademarks. You can search theTrademark Electronic Search System(Tess).
U.S. Postal Service
U.S. Senate - See Recent Votes
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents - "Published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration and contains statements, messages, and other Presidential materials released by the White House during the preceding week." With Weekly Table of Contents.
White House