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Government
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Government
Resources
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| Both the Blume Library and the Law Library at St. Mary's are members of the Government Printing Office (GPO) Depository Library Program, a network of nearly 1300 libraries nationwide. The purpose of this system, which has been in place for more than 100 years, is to make government information widely available to the public. This information, being publicly funded, belongs to the public, but prior to the development of the internet as an information dissemination vehicle, the only way ordinary people could examine and use these resources were through Depository libraries or a modest GPO sales program. | The Blume Library has been a Depository since 1964, the Law
Library since 1982. There are other Depositories in the local area
as well, at UTSA, Trinity, San Antonio Public (downtown), San Antonio
College, Palo Alto College and at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin and
Southwest Texas in San Marcos. All of these libraries are selective
Depositories, only receiving a portion of the publications available.
The nearest complete depository is at UT Austin. This is a directory of the San Antonio area Depositories. |
In the past few years, government agencies have been making increasing use of the internet to provide access to the information they generate. Many series have ceased appearing in physical form altogether; in other cases, print continues to be issued but the information is available much more quickly on the Web. Generally speaking, government information is in a period of serious transition at present, but eventually most government data will be disseminated electronically. As in any transition period, there can be much confusion about what is available, where, and in what format. Ask at the Reference Desk for assistance finding information on the internet as well as in the Library's physical collection. Or email Kathy Amen, the Documents Librarian.
Many useful links, arranged by type of governmental jurisdiction, can be found on the Library web site at: library.stmarytx.edu/acadlib/doc/web.htm. Below are some of the most important and/or comprehensive of these links for Political Science Research (these and some additional sites are listed at the end of this page):
The Library’s Online Catalog provides access to books, government publications and electronic resources, and is freely available over the internet (no login is required). The Library also subscribes to a great many databases which offer access to reliable information in all fields. These databases are not available for the general public but can be accessed by St. Mary's students from both on and off campus:
| Physical Access (Location)
The physical government publications collection (paper and microfiche) is arranged, for the most part, by a special classification system (the Superintendent of Documents system) that places items produced by a particular agency together. Note that this approach is similar to a subject-based system, but only in the broadest sense. For instance, all publications of the Commerce Department are found with the class number "C," whereas publications of the State Department are under "S." But in both sections one might find information about the European Union, for example, or about trade policy. Paper government publications are located on the second (main) floor, on shelves next to the Reference Collection. Microfiche, filed by the same Superintendent of Documents classification system, is kept in cabinets at the west end of the second floor. The Blume Library also receives a number of CD-ROMs from government agencies. These are kept on Reserve. Some may be used in the Library but all may be checked out for use at home. There are lists of these CDs on the Library Web site. Selected government periodicals are shelved on the first floor with the regular Periodicals Collection. These periodicals are inter-filed with the non-government titles, in alphabetical order. Large maps (from both government and non-government sources) are kept in a map file at the west end of the main floor. There is a Map Catalog which lists the maps available by area of the world. The Bibliographic Access tools described on the right will tell you in which location you can find the publication you need. |
Bibliographic Access (Finding out what we have and
where it is)
Bibliographic access to the Library's collection is in a transition phase at present, too. Beginning in October, 1999, cataloging for all publications received can be found in the Online Catalog along with records for other Library materials. Note that this new system only includes records for items as they are received. Prior to October, 1999, selected publications were cataloged, so there are some older items in the Catalog along with the new receipts. But there are still many publications which are not represented in the Online Catalog. For these items, bibliographic access is available through either a card file near the Reference Desk (for publications received through 1990 plus some serials) or the Documents Received List, which is available on the Library web site. To look for government publications by subject, we recommend looking first in the Online Catalog, since all recent publications, and the most important older ones, are listed there. If you don't find what you need, look in one of the indexes described in the Government Information Basic Guide, a more detailed guide to government information which is also available in booklet form by the Reference Desk. There are also guides for more specific areas of study--Congress/Laws, Census, Science/Technology and History. If you know of a particular government publication and want to find it in the Library, look first in the Online Catalog under title. If it's not there, try the Documents Received List under classification number (a librarian can help you find this number). A look in the card file by classification number will be necessary for older items. |
For several reasons, users of physical government publications need to be more careful about evaluating this material for their research needs than when using other library materials. First, the acquisition process for individual government publications does not involve evaluation by librarians to the same degree as with books and journals; general categories of material are selected, but within those categories, the Library receives everything that is published by the GPO. In addition, these publications are very often created for purposes other than research or education at the college level; the information contained therein can be valuable, but the level of presentation may be geared toward pre-schoolers or highly knowledgeable scientists or experts, or any level in between. And the views represented may be presented without analysis or the identification of potential bias which often is part of published scholarly research that has been through a referee process.
As far as internet information resources are concerned, even more diligence is required, since it is so easy for anyone to "publish" on the Web. It is also easy to copy the official "look" of real government web pages, and there have been several examples over the past few years of bogus sites constructed, usually as a joke, to mimic government web pages. One way you can be sure you are at an official site is to email someone listed as an official contact on the page (fraudulent sites often don't give any contact information at all). Diane Duesterhoeft, Reference Librarian, has written a detailed guide to evaluation with several other useful tips.
One last caveat for government information users, keep in mind that a government agency may have an agenda, as easily as a private citizen might, particularly in a controversial area. Be sure you understand how figures are arrived at, how measurements are made, and look for reliable attribution when glowing language is used to describe a program or a situation. You can also get independent information on the political process from reliable non-governmental sources such as Project Vote-Smart and C-Span. I don't want to tell you not to trust your government, since the information at .gov web sites should be at least as trustworthy as that at .com sites. But don't check your common sense and critical faculties at the door just because you're looking at government information.
Blume Library Government Information main page
International Governmental Organizations links:
Foreign Government Resources: Univ. of Michigan and Northwestern Univ.
Local (San Antonio) information links
Evaluating Information Sources
<http://library.stmarytx.edu/acadlib/doc/polres.htm>
I will leave this page up at this address for at least the rest of this semester (Fall, 2002).
My email is kamen@stmarytx.edu, and my on-campus extension is 1312. Please contact me if you have a question regarding government information or the Academic Library Government Information Home Page.
Kathy Amen
Documents Librarian