Government Information

Government information may be found in many places in the UO Libraries, including the Documents and general stacks at Knight Library and at branch libraries.  LibrarySearch can be used for locating both paper and electronic publications. Here are some tips for successful use of the catalog in finding government publications.

1. Search by title if you have a specific one, such as "Oregon statewide planning program".
2. Search by author for publications by a specific government body. For example, "United States. Dept. of Homeland Security", or "Oregon. Water Resources Dept."
3. A keyword search permits you to specify a topic, and also limit your results to a particular government entity. For example:
   • Choose Advanced Search
   • Type "willamette river" in the first search box;
   • Select Author search for the next box, and type "oregon".
   • The results will be publications about the Willamette River that were produced by Oregon state agencies.
4. As an alternative to tip #3, you may perform any search, then limit it by author. For example, do a Subject search on "refugees", then use the filter by Author/Creator in the left column to choose United Nations agencies.

Regrettably, most U.S. government publications published from 1975 to 1996 are not in the University of Oregon Libraries catalog. When you search in LibrarySearch, it may appear that documents of interest from this "gap" period are not available at UO, yet we may actually have them. In that case, ask at the Research Help Desk, or contact us by email. Library staff may still be able to locate the document in our collection.