Revised and updated, this compendium helps readers identify and understand the scope of key government reference sources-traditional books (including publications catalogs and telephone directories); information clearinghouses; and materials in new formats, such as CD-ROMs, datafiles, and Internet sites. The authors focus on free information and depository materials-both readily available through toll-free phone numbers, mail or e-mail requests to agencies, or federal depository library collections. Materials are fully described in annotations that differentiate between similar materials, identify typical citation formats, and note common abbreviations

This unique guide helps to answer two important questions for researchers planning to use government information sources. First, over which aspects of individual, organizational, national, and international affairs does the U.S. government exert authority or influence? Second, which units of the federal government are empowered to probe and pursue these matters? The contents and format of Jerrold Zwirn's new research aid offer a concise, yet complete, overview of contemporary public affairs and governmental policy agents. In this guide, Zwirn provides the researcher with comprehensive coverage of the issues and topics addressed by all key units of the national executive and legislative branches. He identifies each entity that exercises jurisdiction over a specific subject in order to facilitate optimum access to the entire domain of federal business and the corresponding sources of federal information. By using a tandem subject and author approach, the guide enables users to focus quickly on functions assigned or implied by a legal mandate. This scheme records and reveals the relationships between formal powers and official authors. Zwirn's immediate aim is to assist those who plan to enter and explore the federal information thicket. His ultimate goal is to devise a framework that can be adapted to the dynamic character of national governance and its information output. Access to U.S. Government Information will be an essential tool for political scientists, legal researchers, librarians, and anyone interested in public policy, policymakers, and the links between them.

Examines the development of the railroad in the United States from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the end of that century.

"The guide is designed to direct the reader to the vast and diverse scientific and technical information available from the United States government." Discusses and references fellowships and other awards; research in progress; technical reports; periodicals; patents; translations; standards; audiovisual sources; indexes and abstracts; data bases; information analysis centers; and reference sources. Entries give descriptive information. Index.

This comprehensive yet concise annotated reference source catalogs the important series, periodicals and reference tools published by U.S. government agencies. Over the years, the index section of the Guide to U.S. Government Publications has expanded to include more than 42,500 entries. Agencies and titles are indexed, followed by a keyword-in-title index for quick and easy referencing. No other single resource provides historical and current information on U.S. government publications in one place. Guide to U.S. Government Publications, also includes agency class chronologies providing complete histories of current class number assignments allowing researchers to track changes in older serials. Forty years since its inception, the Guide to U.S. Government Publications has become a standard reference source in federal document collections, featuring: SuDocs class number, depository item numbers, title, beginning and closing dates, frequency, select annotations, title changes, class number references to earlier and later classes, and ISSN for periodicals. Complete listing of the Superintendent of Documents Classifications Scheme outlining the basics of the U.S. government's complex document system. Alphabetical indexes by agency and title. 500 page keyword title index.