Skip to Main Content

Government Information

Federal and and state of Ohio government documents as well as documents from international organizations

Known Item Searches

When you know the title of the item you are seeking, the first step is to search by title in an online catalog.

  • ALICE Catalog
    Start by searching this catalog to see if OU owns the document. U.S. government documents received after 1975 have been cataloged. You will also find links to online government information in the catalog.
  • OhioLINK Central Catalog
    If OU doesn't own the document, try the OhioLINK Central Catalog. It contains the holdings of the libraries at more than 80 colleges and universities throughout Ohio, many of which have government documents collections. You will also find links to online government information in the catalog.
  • WorldCat
    WorldCat is a database of the holdings of many libraries throughout North American and some other countries. If you identify a publication you want to borrow, you can use your Illiad account to request it. You will also find links to online government information in WorldCat.

Internet Sites To Use for Known Item Searches

You might want to search the Internet for government information.  This is more likely to be productive if you are looking for a fairly recent publication or a web site that still exists.  In addition, there are an increasing number of sites with digitized historical government documents.

Here are a few of the search engines that might be helpful in doing a known item search:

  • govinfo
    This cite provides links to U.S. government documents that are full text on the Internet. USA.gov is an excellent source for current U.S. government documents.
  • Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
    This indexes publications issued by the U.S. government from 1976 to date. Some records include links to the full text of the document or Internet site.
  • Google Book Search
    Google Book Search includes many recent publications published by governments worldwide.
  • Google
    Because many government agencies publish reports and other information on the Internet, any Internet search engine, such as Google, might be able to find your desired information.

    If you're using Google, remember to add "site:gov" or "site:mil" (without the quotation marks) in order to limit the search results to a government or military site.
  • Popular Names of U.S. Government Reports
    This database allows you to search for a U.S. government publication by the popular name, such as the Meese Report or the Dillingham Commission. It also allows searching by other factors, such as LC Subject Heading, words in the notes field, etc.
Subjects: Government and Law