How to identify and find government agencies:
1: Identify which government agency would be likely to publish the type of information you are looking for.
For instance, if you wanted information about:
- renewable energy - try the Energy Department
- terrorism -- try the Department of Homeland Security
- unemployment statistics - try the Bureau of Labor Statistics
You can browse through a list of government agencies to pick out agencies that might issue the information you want.
2: Go to that agency's Web home page.
- A lot of agencies have very easy urls: www.usda.gov----www.justice.gov----www.irs.gov----www.dol.gov
- If you can't guess what the agency url is, go to Google or any other internet search engine and type in the agency name
3: Mine that agency's Web pages for information you are looking for.
- Much of the information on agency websites is NOT easily found on search engines--it's buried in the deep web.
- Agency home pages have search engines, A-Z lists, and directories to help users plum the depths of their content.