Government documents are publications produced by city, state, federal, or international governments. They may also be from any nation.

United States Government Publications
Today, many government documents are automatically put online. One of the best ways of searching these materials is through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, put out by the Government Printing Office. The materials are searchable through titles, subjects and authors and are on a variety of subjects.

The AUR Library Catalog helps you search this catalog more easily by using the Extend Search feature. After selecting the relevant text in the catalog, then choose Electronic Book Projects. From here, select U.S. Govt. Documents. You can click on the database name for guides for more information.


There are additional ways of finding U.S. Government documents. See Finding Government Documents Today for an excellent discussion.

State Documents and non-U.S. Government Publications
State documents and non-U.S. government publications are often available on the web as well, but there is not a comprehensive resource for these documents. Publications of the Parliament of the United Kingdom can be found at this site. There are links to historical records at British History Online.

One of the best collections of links for non-U.S. government publications is
Government documents from Truman State University. Also keep in mind Portals to the World maintained by the Library of Congress.

International Government Documents
International agencies such as the European Union and the different parts of the United Nations also produce many documents on many topics. Most of the time, you must find the organization's website and then search their Documents or Publications. One of the best ways to find these websites is through Northwestern University's International Documents Collection. Again, select the organization, go to their website, and you should find something similar to Documents or Publications that you can browse or search.