Government Resources: Introduction & Search Engines

Research papers, databases, videos, statistics and articles from federal departments and agencies. Search Tip: Use drop down menus to find access under such terms as data, statistics, reports, research, etc.

This resource provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military as well as transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: a variety of world, regional, country, ocean and time zone maps; Flags of the World; and a Country Comparison function that ranks the country information and data in more than 75 Factbook fields.

A supplement to the Statistical Abstracts of the United States; prepared by the Bureau of the Census with the cooperation of the Social Science Research Council. Presents in compact form for ready reference, approximately 3,000 statistical time series which cover various periods from 1789 to 1970. These statistics reflect economic, social, and political development of the Nation since the Federal government was formally established.

The LC has online research collections in many areas. There is an alphabetical list of collections by topic to help you narrow your search. There is also an impressive collection of maps.

Extensive digital collection covering sports, politics, art, etc.

Government images are copyright free.

This resource gives you quick and easy access to selected statistics collected by the U.S. Census Bureau through the American Community Survey (ACS) and County Business Patterns (CBP). The ACS provides detailed demographic, social, economic and housing statistics every year for the nation's communities. CBP provides annual statistics for businesses with paid employees at a detailed geography and industry level.

The archives contain historical resources as well as a special area for educators
"Resources for Online Teaching & Learning" which has:
-Online Programs for Students and Families
-Professional Development Webinars for Educators
-Resources for Online Teaching & Learning
-Elementary Age At-Home Learning Resources
-Middle School At-Home Learning and Online Teaching Resources
-High School At-Home Learning and Online Teaching Resources

These are films in the public domain from the Library of Congress.

The NLM, on the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the world’s largest biomedical library. NLM maintains, conducts and makes available research, development and training in biomedical informatics and health information technology.

This resource provides occupational and career information including profiles on jobs in the United States. The profiles describe the work environment, education and training needed, a ten year outlook and median pay for workers.

The System for Award Management (SAM) is a government-wide registry for vendors doing business with the Federal government, and SAM registration requires annual renewal. SAM centralizes information about grant recipients and also provides a central location for grant recipients to change organizational information.

This is a gateway to U.S. government science R&D information from 13 federal agencies.

This resource has been published since 1878. It is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political and economic organization of the United States.

This is a resource for the most common questions about Social Security.

A subject-based, public portal to Federal services and resources such as government agencies, officials, job information, travel and immigration. A Spanish site is also available.

Reports are available on a variety of topics from 128 government agencies, including but not limited to Veterans’ medical care, health care coverage and access, marine and coastal resources, land use and conservation, and small business. Members of the public are able to browse the reports by agency or topic and may download a searchable table of the reports available in either CSV or JSON formats.

About the ACS
For the latest tutorials, go to Data Gems.
Tip: Use your keyboard, "Ctrl" and "F" to open a "find box" and then type in "ACS" to find tutorials.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.
Tutorial

The CBB presents data for all sectors of the economy and for a user-defined region combining census, business, and other government data.

This resource provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military as well as transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: a variety of world, regional, country, ocean and time zone maps; Flags of the World; and a Country Comparison function that ranks the country information and data in more than 75 Factbook fields.

The CE program consists of two surveys, the Quarterly Interview Survey and the Diary Survey, that provide information on the buying habits of America's consumers.
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Including are data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. The survey data are collected for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Also known as data.census.gov, this is a source for population, economic, housing and geographic information and data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island areas. This is the early release test site for the Census' interactive, multiple dataset searching tool.
Tutorial

The LEHD provides tools showing hires, turnovers and tracks job mobility with the "Job to Job Flows" tool. Post secondary education outcomes (PSEO) tool is a joint project between university systems and the Census Bureau to track employment and earnings by degree level. Veteran Employment Outcomes (VEO) is currently experimental and tracks veteran employment.

This resource provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a population of 5,000 or more.

This resource provides data for the following areas: agriculture, climate, consumer, ecosystems, education, energy, finance, health, local government, manufacturing, maritime, ocean, public safety and science.

The CIGIE is composed of all federal U.S. Inspectors General whose offices are established under section 2 or section 8G of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.), those that are presidentially-appointed with Senate confirmation and those that are appointed by agency heads, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Agency for International Development. As of 2012, the CIGIE consisted of 73 Federal Offices of Inspector General.
In March 2020, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) was created within the CIGIE to oversee the $2.2 trillion in government funds designated for response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

The OIG is at the forefront of the Nation's efforts to fight waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and more than 100 other Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) programs.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is an independent division of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The OIG was created in 2005 and operates under the authorities vested in it by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended (IG Act). The mission of the OIG is to enhance the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of EAC’s operations by: conducting audits, reviews, evaluations and assessments of EAC programs and operations; detecting and preventing fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement of EAC programs; promoting better EAC management; preserving and protecting EAC employee and program integrity; and communicating with the Commission and Congress to keep them fully informed of the status of EAC administration and operations and the need for and progress of corrective actions.