African-American Studies: U.S. Government Documents
The Purpose of this Page
This page is designed to provide a relatively brief starting point for accessing and using the many online collections of U.S. Government Information available to you at Columbia University Libraries. A more extensive range of guides to federal, state, and local government documents (including discussions of documents available in print and microform) is provided at our main hub for U.S. Government Documents.
Full-Text Resources
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
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Coverage: Current, and 20th Century, 19th Century, 18th Century
Provides full text of most U.S. Congressional (that is, Legislative Branch) publications. It also includes Executive Branch documents published 1789-1939.
govinfo (United States. Government Printing Office) [open access]
Coverage: Current. Many collections cover years from approximately 1994 (103rd Congress) forward.
Provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. For a list of collections available in govinfo, click here. Collections are typically updated as electronic versions of the latest relevant documents become available.
Congress.gov (Library of Congress) [open access]
Coverage: Current. Coverage start dates vary by collection.
Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC’s Congressional Research Service. Congress.gov is usually updated the morning after a session adjourns. Consult Coverage Dates for Congress.gov Collections for the specific update schedules and start date for each collection.
The American Presidency Project [Open Access]
Includes: Papers of the Presidents, party platforms, documents released by the Office of the Press Secretary, and many other resources related to the study of the presidency.
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875 (Library of Congress)
Coverage: 19th Century , 18th Century
Records of the proceedings of America's national legislative bodies, beginning with the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, and followed by the United States Congress.
- ProQuest legislative insight . This link opens in a new window
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Coverage: Current, and 20th Century, 19th Century, 18th Century
ProQuest® legislative histories are comprised of fully searchable PDFs of full-text publications generated in the course of congressional lawmaking. These include the full text of the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports, and prints. Also included are Presidential signing statements, CRS reports, and miscellaneous congressional publications that provide background material to aid in the understanding of issues related to the making of the law. Includes histories for laws passed during the current congress and for laws dating back as far as the first congress. New legislative histories are still being added. - HeinOnline . This link opens in a new window
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Coverage: Current, and 20th Century, 19th Century, 18th Century
The primary emphasis of HeinOnline is on federal and state laws and on documents that provide context for them. Use this database for access to collections such as U.S. Statutes at Large; State Statutes: A Historical Archive; and U.S. Supreme Court Library. This database also provides access to collections of strong general interest, such as the Federal Register Library; the Congressional Record; and the U.S. Presidential Library. Most document series covered here are covered from their beginnings up until the present. - Making of modern law. U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs, 1832-1978 . This link opens in a new windowThis database contains ... records and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in the period 1832-1978. The collection is derived from two essential reference sources. For the period 1832 (when printed Court records began) through 1915, the documents are based primarily on the holdings of the Jenkins Memorial Law Library, America's first law library, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For 1915-1978 the source is the Library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a nationally recognized research facility and the single largest member supported law library in the United States.--Publisher's web site.
- U.S. Congressional serial set . This link opens in a new windowCoverage: 20th Century, 19th Century
A digital reproduction of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, which consists of the sequentially numbered volumes containing the Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Covers years: 1817-1980. Provides an interface and a system of subject headings distinct from ProQuest Congressional. Researchers exploring the Serial Set for the years 1817-1980, may find it helpful to utilize this Readex database, since it features extensive browsable hyperlinked points of access to the documents. In Readex AllSearch, this Serial Set may be searched across a platform that includes a massive number of American non-governmental publications from the same period. - American state papers, 1789-1838 . This link opens in a new windowCoverage: 19th Century , 18th Century
A digitization of the American State Papers--a set of 38 folio volumes printed from 1832-1861--that were a retrospective republication of approximately 6280 numbered publications that had been originally issued from 1789-1838. These publications are largely Congressional but also contain Executive Department materials.
Declassified Documents
- U.S. Declassified Documents Online. This link opens in a new windowU.S. Declassified Documents Online provides access to previously classified federal records in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The collection brings together the most sensitive documents from all the presidential libraries and numerous executive agencies in a single, easily searchable database, including: intelligence studies, policy papers, diplomatic correspondence, cabinet meeting minutes, briefing materials, and domestic surveillance and military reports. The search and discovery interface for the collection allows researchers to locate the full text of documents and quickly filter their search results by document type, issue date, source institution, classification level, and date declassified as well as other document characteristics.
- Digital National Security Archive . This link opens in a new windowFrom the award-winning, nongovernmental National Security Archive, this resource consists of expertly curated, and meticulously indexed, declassified government documents covering U.S. policy toward critical world events – including their military, intelligence, diplomatic and human rights dimensions – from 1945 to the present. Each collection is assembled by foreign policy experts and features chronologies, glossaries, bibliographies, and scholarly overviews to provide unparalleled access to the defining international issues of our time.
Directories, Catalogs, and Manuals
Members of the U.S. Congress (from Congress.gov, Library of Congress)
"Members of the U.S. Congress features Member profiles for Representatives and Senators who have served since 1973 (93rd Congress). Members from the 71st to 92nd Congresses (1929 to 1972) who were still serving as of the 93rd Congress are included. Profiles can be faceted by congress, chamber, political party, and state or U.S. territory. Member profiles provide interactive lists of sponsored and cosponsored legislation."
Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, 1895-1976
A "comprehensive index to historical information published by the United States federal government. Describing over 1.2 million items published between January 1895 and June 1976, the Monthly Catalog helps you identify important and useful information on all subjects." For items published since July 1976, use the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.
The United States Government Manual A regularly updated special edition of the Federal Register. Its contents include leadership tables and descriptions of agency activities and programs of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of Government, as well as activities and programs of quasi-official agencies and international organizations in which the United States participates as a member.
Maps
- Serial set maps . This link opens in a new windowCoverage: 20th Century, 19th Century, 18th century
A specialized search module supplementary to the Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set, Serial Set Maps allows users to focus searches on the maps themselves - the geographic areas they depict, the subjects they represent, their titles, and the names associated with the maps either as cartographers, explorers, or in some other capacity.
Other Columbia Research Guides for U.S. Government Documents
U.S. Government Documents (Columbia University Libraries)
Homepage of the U.S. Government Documents division of the Columbia University Libraries. Includes subject guides providing access to federal, state, and local documents as well as guidance for finding U.S. government documents at Lehman Library.
Foreign Relations of the United States in the U.S. Serial Set (Columbia University Libraries)