Government documents are valuable sources of social, economic, political, and statistical information on nearly every topic imaginable, but are often overlooked by researchers. Stapleton Library, a selective depository library for United States federal and Pennsylvania government publications, holds thousands of publications issued by agencies of the federal and state government.

Many documents are housed in the Library's regular collections and can be found through a search of the Voyager OPAC. Most Pennsylvania documents can be found in this way. When looking for a document, always check the Voyager first.

Most federal publications are housed in a separate document collection by SuDocs (Superintendent of Documents) call number located to the rear of the first floor of Stapleton Library. These items generally cannot be found through the online catalog. To locate the classification number for these documents, use the Marcive Web DOCS Catalog, the Congressional Information Service Index (CIS), or the American Statistics Index (ASI). Some electronic databases of government statistical information are also available to depository library patrons free of charge. If you are looking for statistical information, be sure to consult STAT-USA for trade data or CenStats for census data.

To find the bibliographic information for publications issued by the federal government between 1975 and the present, consult Marcive Web DOCS. This comprehensive catalog provides author, title, subject, and agency access to many of the public publications of the federal government, as well as links to the electronic equivalent of these sources. It can be accessed through the Library's Web Page under Internet/Government Information/Monthly Catalog-Marcive Web DOCS or at http://www.marcive.com/scripts/webdocs.dll . It is available from the IUP domain only. References to federal publications published before this date can be located in the paper GPO Monthly Catalog dating from earlier years.

To determine if the library owns a particular document, record the SuDocs number, the title, the year, and the issuing agency, and check under the SuDocs number in the separate document collection. If you cannot locate it there, ask in the Documents Office or the Reference Desk. Because this library only receives about twenty percent of the items found in the index, and because so many of the items received are routed to other collections, often items not found under SuDocs number in the Document Collection can be found elsewhere in the Library. If an item is not owned, most government publications can be obtained through Interlibrary Loan at no cost to the patron.

The hearings, documents, and reports of the United States Senate and House of Representatives provide valuable, authoritative information on nearly every topic, but can be difficult to locate. The CIS Index analyzes and reprints in its microfiche collection, the publications created through the activities of Congress and makes finding them much easier.

To access the bibliographic records, descriptive annotations, and the actual publication on microfiche:

• Consult the index under subject, title, or name, and record the entry number.
• Look in the abstract volume under the entry number and read the abstract.
• If you want the publication on microfiche, request it in the Serials Department by the collection name (CIS) entry number, and year of the index.

The federal government is the largest producer of statistics in the world. American Statistics Index, through its index and microfiche collection, provides easy access to any public federal publications from 1973 to the present with even one line of statistics. All items found in these indexes--except those items only available in electronic format--are available in this library on microfiche.

To access the bibliographic records, descriptive annotations and the actual microfiche:

• Consult the index under subject, title, or name and record the entry number.
• Look in the abstract volume under the entry number and read the abstract.
• If you want to read the publication microfiche, request it in the Serials Department by the collection name (ASI) entry number, and year of the index.

STAT-USA provides access to current trade-related information produced by the many agencies of the federal government active in promoting U.S. exports. It is available to the patrons of Stapleton Library courtesy of the Federal Depository Library Program.

• From the Library Home Page/ Internet/Government Information/Statistical Sources/STAT-USA.
• Or go directly to http://www.stat-usa.gov

To begin, click on either State of the Nation or GLOBUS and NTDB. When the program prompts you for an ID and password, go to the Reference Desk and ask the librarian to log you in. Choose the hypertext link for the topic that interests you and click on it to locate data.

CenStats provides easy access to many of the most popular statistical databases maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau--one of the federal government's largest producers of statistical data. It is available to the patrons of Stapleton Library courtesy of the Federal Depository Library Program.

• From the Library Home Page/Internet/Government Information/Statistical

Sources/CenStats

OR point your browser toward http://www.census.gov/apsd/www/censtats.html

To begn, click on Subscribers. When it prompts you for an ID and password, go to the Reference Desk and ask the librarian there to log you in. All databases are basically search and display. Specify the geographical areas, the dates, or other subject, and CenStats will find and display the data.

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