EIU Booth Library

Government Documents

Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library has been a Federal Government Documents Depository library since 1962.  The Library is also an Illinois State Documents Depository. Booth Library offers access to a large collection of government publications, including statistics, reports, legislative and policy documents.   The Booth Library Reference Desk provides assistance in locating federal and state government resources for Eastern Illinois University faculty, staff, and students as well as the general public.

Finding Government Documents

Most documents can be located by searching the EIU Online Catalog by keyword, title or subject.  Each record will indicate whether the document is held physically in the library or available online. Government documents cover a wide range of topics – from current issues like immigration reform, health care or global warming to foreign policy or constitutional history.  Many documents contain research data and expert findings not available elsewhere. They are excellent primary source materials. All government documents are available for use by members of the Eastern Illinois University community as well as the general public.

Physical Location

The government documents collection is available for browsing on the 2nd floor (2000 Level North ) of Booth Library.  Ask the Reference Desk, 3rd floor (3000 Level North) if you have any questions.

Call Numbers/Subjects

Federal government documents are shelved using the Superintendent of Documents Classification System  (SuDoc).  Items are shelved by authoring agency or committee.  Illinois State Documents are shelved using modified Dewey Decimal Numbers.

Hours

The print collection is available any time the library is open.  Online documents may be accessed at any time.

Helpful Tools for finding Federal government information

• Catalog of U. S. Government Publications – Online index to publications of Federal agencies, most of which are available through the Federal Depository Library Program; contains records from July, 1976 and is updated daily.
• WorldCat (the OCLC Online Union Catalog)  - The world’s most comprehensive bibliography containing millions of bibliographic records cataloged by OCLC member libraries. It includes books, websites and internet resources, manuscripts, maps, computer programs, musical scores, films and slides, newspapers, journals and magazines, sound recordings, articles, chapters, papers, and videotapes, and most importantly for current purposes, government documents.
• FDsys.gov - provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
• USA.gov - As the U.S. government's official web portal, USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the web.
• Library of Congress – Includes the Library of Congress Online Catalog, collections, and research services.
• Congress.gov – The beta version of the site contains legislation from the 107th Congress (2001) to the present, member profiles from the 93rd Congress (1973) to the present, and some member profiles from the 80th through the 92nd Congresses (1947 to 1972).

Illinois State Documents

Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library is one of twenty-two official Illinois State Depository libraries.  All items received for the collection are available for public use, and most circulate. Types of reports received include annual reports and special reports, statistical information, and verbatim debates of the Illinois General Assembly.

• Illinois Documents List – Monthly listing of the Illinois government publications received by the Government Documents Unit of the Illinois State Library
• Illinois.gov – Online access to Illinois government websites
• Illinois State Agencies - List of State Agencies with links to their websites
• Illinois General Assembly – Laws and Legislation of Illinois

Library Documents Staff

• Sarah Johnson, Head of Collection Management Services
   sljohnson2@eiu.edu, 217-581-7551
• Deborah Fennema, Library Operations Associate, Government Documents
  dafennema@eiu.edu , 217-581-7540