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26 October 2001
Meet Your New Research Assistant: Uncle Sam!
by Sheldon Greaves
Not all science is done in the laboratory or the workshop. Doing good science means you need to know what has already been done, and that means hitting the library. Most amateur scientists are adept at finding books and periodicals in a public or academic library, but if you end your search there, you’re probably missing a lot of good stuff. Do you ever think is a lot of information "out there" that eluded you because you didn’t know where to look? There is. Lots of it.
Your tax dollars help fund the activities of the largest single publishing entity in the world: the United States Government. Every year the Government Printing Office oversees the production of tens of thousands of documents on an incredible variety of subjects. Ironically, very few researchers actually make use of this treasure of information. There are several reasons why. First, government documents use a different cataloguing system. Unlike the Library of Congress system, which categorizes items by subject, the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) call number system classifies materials according to the department that produced it. Because of this incompatability, government documents are not listed in most card catalogues, indexes, or databases found in regular libraries. It also means that government documents are usually shelved in different areas apart from the rest of a library’s collection. Government documents are listed only in a series of separate, specialized indexes, rather than a single catalogue or index. Second, the government spends very little money advertising these publications, and they are usually not sold in commercial bookstores. Finally, most librarian degree programs do not require their graduates to be familiar with the using and searching government documents.
The practical upshot is that there is an enormous amount of information, much of it useful to the amateur scientist, lying hidden away yet requiring just a little extra effort and research saavy to access. In most cases, the extra effort will produce unexpected riches of information.
A government document can be just about any form of information; books, periodicals, slides, videos, films, posters, maps, photographs, pamphlets, kits, etc. They are usually commissioned by a government department as part of a study or as a public service. Congress, with it many oversight interests, produces many reports on a wide variety of topics. Others are reports and the results of studies conducted using government funds. There is far too much for an article of this size to cover; we can’t even scratch the surface. But I will try to give you some good starting points from which to start making your own discoveries. Below are some of the resources most relevant to the amateur scientist that are available in most parts of the country. There are about 1,400 Federal depository libraries throughout the United States and its territories, at least one in nearly every Congressional district. All provide free public access and are expertly staffed. In addition, many of these libraries have special subject collections. For a list of all depository libraries, write to the Government Printing Office, 732 N. Capitor St. N. W., Washington, DC 20401.
The mother lode of government technical information is the National Technical Information Service. The NTIS was created during World War II to process and translate the mountains of military, industrial, scientific, and technical data captured from the Nazis as the war drew to a close. The information was translated and sold without copyright restrictions to American and allied entrepeneurs who eagerly awaited the latest bibliographies of available data. Today, it is a clearninghouse for unclassified scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information produced by government agencies. Any time someone uses federal funds for a research project, they are required to submit a report on the results of that research. Government Reports Announcements & Index (GRA&I) (Springfield, VA: Department of Commerce (NTIS), 1946- ) is an index of that research appearing semiannually, with annual cumulations. Each abstract provides complete references to the reports, along with a full abstract. More than 6,000 titles are added every month, so it’s a good bet there is something of interest here.
The entire catalogue is available for computerized searching through DIALOG, but searches can be expensive. Many commonly run-searches are available in bound form as "Published Searches" that can save you both time and money. For more information on Published Searches, call 703-487-4650, and ask for PR-186NEB. NTIS Alerts is a catalogue that appears twice a month with summaries of the latest government-sponsored projects and their findings organized into some 30 broad subject areas. There are also specialized "Alerts" on over 150 subtopics. For a free catalogue, call the number given above and request PR-797NEB. Copies of individual reports are available for a fee from the NTIS sales office, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA, 22161 (703-487-4650).
Congressional Information Service, Inc., 1970- . Congress generates a large number of reports at the request of committees concerned with many subjects, including those of scientific interest. The CIS Index catalogues hearings, House and Senate reports, committee reports, etc. A good compliment to the CIS/Index is an index and abstracting service called GAO Documents. The Government Accounting Office monitors the effectiveness of government programs and expenditures. The reports they produce as part of their work often contains valuable information of a scientific and technical nature. One important publication you should be aware of is the Directory of Government Document Collections and Libraries, 7th edition (CIS).
Index to US Government Periodicals (IUSGP) (Chicago: Infordata International Inc., 1970- ) This is a Quarterly index with annual cumulations with author and subject indexes to roughly 170 government periodicals, most of which are not covered in most other indexes, including the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature. There is also a set called Current US Government Periodicals on Microfiche that provides full-text versions of all articles indexed on IUSGP.
If you are searching under a general subject, you should consult the Subject Bibliographies, or SB-series (Washington: GPO). This series contains over 300 subject-specific bibliographies, each revised irregularly. Each one lists in one place a range of in-print government publications on a given subject. The Government Printing Office provides a list of the subjects covered in this series, as well as free copies of the bibliographies themselves. Call your nearest government bookstore and ask for the latest Subject Bibliography Index. It’s free. It also contains a list of government bookstores around the country. If you have trouble locating a federal bookstore, call the Federal Information Center at 1-800-688-9889. If your regional government bookstore does not carry a particular title, you can try ordering it by calling 202-783-3238.
Finally, if you really want to dig deep, of if a lot of work on your topic has been appeared in non-English journals, take a look at Joint Publications Research Service translations. JPRS is a government agency that publishes thousands of foreign newspaper and periodical articles in English translation on microfiche. These translations are stored in regional depositories and many other libraries that subscribe to the service. The number of articles is staggering; in 1981 alone over 86,000 articles were published. The current index is called Transdex, covering 1970 onward. For articles prior to 1970, look in Bibliography-Index to Current US JPRS Translations. Items are listed by Subject, author, country, and title of the translated publication.
Here are a few other books that someone using Government Documents should know about:
Congressional Quarterly’s Washington Information Directory, 1997-1998 (Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc.).
Garner, Diane L. and Diane H. Smith The Complete Guide to Citing Government Documents, by (CIS, 1984).
Mann, Thomas. A Guide to Library Research Methods (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 1993. The chapter on Government Documents is an excellent summary. This is also a fantastic book for anyone doing research using libraries in general.
Robinson, Judith Schiek. Tapping the Government Grapevine, 2nd edition. (The Oryx Press, 1993).
Government Documents and the Internet
Over the last few years the GPO has emphasized putting more and more government documents on the internet in order to cut publishing costs and make documents more available to the public. Web sites are maintained by the individual government agencies, and they vary widely in the way they are organized and the type of content that is available. Although things are still in a formative stage, the current state of things and the prospects for the future and impressive. The NTIS maintains an excellent site with a wide variety of useful services. Their URL is http://www.ntis.gov, or try going through http://www.fedworld.gov.
The National Science Foundation maintains a site at http://www.nsf.gov with a searchable database of NSF publications, information on grant programs, educational materials, etc.
The Library of Congress' main page, http://www.loc.gov, is also provides access to tools for researchers. The Subject Bibliography series is also available online, just point your browser to http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs to get started. Other noteworthy sites are the US Geological Survey (http://www.usgs.gov), the Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov), NASA (http://www.nasa.gov), The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (http://www.noaa.gov), the National Park Service (http://www.nps.gov), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov) and the Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu).
If you are working on a science project, any science project, there’s a good chance your tax dollars have helped fund a document that is relevant to your work. Take a good look at these resources. Better still, visit your Federal Depository and get to know the staff. They can help you find exciting treasures of information many professionals don’t know about. Good hunting!
