Searching for Government Documents in the Library Catalog

 

Formats and Locations:

Most documents published before 1976 are not found in the catalog. For questions about historic documents, contact Subject Specialist Atifa Rawan.

 

Search by Keyword:

If you want to search for information on your topic or you don’t have a distinct title, search the U of A catalog by keyword(s).

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Limit Location by selecting Government Documents from the drop-down menu.


**Note** This will limit the search to print documents found in the library.

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If you are interested in the most current publication, also select sort by date from the Search and Sort drop-down menu.

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Electronic Resources:

While searching the catalog, you will find government documents that are only available online.


Following the link FIND on the Web will take you to an outside webpage or to a downloadable PDF file.

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Online Government Resources:

 

Searching by Series and Author:

If you know the document you are searching for is part of a series, (technical reports, etc.) search by keyword(s) and fill in as many of the search fields as possible.


To limit your search further, type in the name of the government department (energy, agriculture, justice, etc.) in the Author field.

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If you know the exact title of a series:

  • If there is a series name (e.g. Home Economic Research Report from the United States Department of Agriculture) for the publication, search as Title in catalog.
  • Next, try searching the name of the agency as Author in the catalog, omitting number, year, and location (Agriculture). You may find several records for different years or one record listing several years for various types of documents, such as congressional, reports, and executive branch.
  • If not located using these searches, try searching the series name (Agricultural Economic Report) as Keywords in the catalog and then limiting to year of publication and location.
  • If still unsuccessful, ask a Subject Specialist for help or contact the Government Documents Librarian, Atifa Rawan.