How Do I ...
Find a Government Publication
Take this short quiz to guide you through the process of finding a government publication here at CU-Boulder. If you need personal help finding a government publication, feel free to stop by the third floor Government Information office or contact us by phone at 303-492-8834 or by email at govpubs@colorado.edu.
Question 1: Do you have a call number and location?
Question 2: What type of document are you looking for?- Federal (U.S. government)
- Colorado
- State (the other 49 states)
- Foreign (Canada, Great Britain, Japan, etc.)
- International (UN, World Bank, IMF, etc.)
- Technical Report (reports on government sponsored research)
- Don't know
Question 1: What time period are you interested in?
International Documents
Question 1: What International Organization are you interested in?
- United Nations (UN)
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- World Bank
- European Union
- Don't know or other
Locating a call number, with a location
Please take a look at our map to see your location, the individual floors have call number locations included. The majority of federal (U.S.) material can be found on the third floor along with international and UN material. All Colorado and foreign materials can be found in Norbase. In Chinook Classic you can click on the location to see a map of where an item is located.
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Locating a call number, without a location
If the record you found in Chinook did not have a location listed, you have two options. From 8-5 Monday to Friday you can ring the bell in the Government Information office. Or you can ask at the research desk on the second floor, during their regular hours.
If you forgot the location and just wrote down the call number, you can look the call number up in Chinook. For numbers with a " : " use the SuDoc Number search. For all the other call numbers, use the Local Call Number search. Once you have found the record, click on the location to connect to the government publications map.
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Colonial Time Period
Electronic Resources
- Early American Imprints, Evans (1689-1800) CU
This database contains materials on every aspect of early American life from religion to politics to literature. While not all of the material in this collection are government documents, it is a great resource for primary source materials. - Empire Online CU
This database contains materials relating to the British Empire covering all the colonies. There are a few resources in here on the US, click on the "View Places" button to see the countries covered and access the resources on them directly.
Many of the state governments of this time period reprinted colonial papers, such as Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York. To find these materials, search Chinook using the state name and "colonial period" as keywords and limit the location to Government Information.
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1776-1975
Electronic Resources
- American State Papers CU
These are the reports and documents of the U.S. government from 1789 to 1817, when this title was replaced by the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. We also have this title in paper available in the Government Information office. - U.S. Congressional Serial Set CU
These are the reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Congress from 1817. When the digitization of this set is complete the database will contain 13,800 volumes with over 12 million pages. The Government Publication Library has many of these volumes in paper, they are indexed in Congressional CU and can be recalled from PASCAL. - American Memory
This database from the Library of Congress is a collection of their digitized materials, ranging from documents from the Work Progress Administration in the 1930s to the papers of Thomas Jefferson. - Historic and Archival Documents
These subject guides provides access to a number of digitized collections of historical government documents.
This library is a regional depository of US government materials, which means we receive all documents published through the Government Printing Office. Unfortunately, for this time period, the majority of documents are uncataloged and cannot be found in Chinook. We have a variety of Indexes to find these materials. Please come to the government publications reference desk for help finding materials from this time period.
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1976-present
Electronic Resources
- Government Information Library Home Page
The government has placed a large quantity of material online. The home page links to a variety of databases and other governmental materials by subject and agency. - Chinook
Many government publications are available online, use the internet resources search to find only the electronic publications.
The majority of publications published by the federal government that are available in our library have been cataloged and can be found in Chinook. You can limit the location to Government Information to refine your search. While many technical reports can be found in the catalog, not all technical reports have been cataloged. Check out the Technical Reports help section for information on finding technical reports.
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Colorado Documents
Electronic Resources
- Colorado State Resources
This page links to electronic resources from the state government. - Boulder, CO Resources
This page links to electronic resources for the Boulder area. - Chinook
Use this search to find electronic Colorado documents that are in the catalog.
This collection is cataloged and can be found searching Chinook. You can use the location feature to limit your search to Government Information.
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State Documents
Electronic Resources
- Information on All States
This page links to a variety of resources that provide information on all fifty states. - Statistical Information by State
This page links to statistical resources for all fifty states.
The majority of the state collection is uncataloged, to find out what documents we have from a particular state, please contact us via phone 303-492-8834 or email.
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Foreign Documents
Electronic Resources
- Foreign Information by Country
This page links to resources on foreign governments and contains a few country-specific pages. - General Information on Foreign Countries
This page links to resources containing general information on countries. - PAIS International CU
This database contains many references to foreign government documents, some of which will be available electronically and some which we have in the library.
The majority of this collection is uncataloged, although all documents received after 1990 should be in Chinook. We have a shelflist at the desk for documents from Great Britain. To see which countries we have publications from, check out the Guide to Country Classification Numbers. For help finding a foreign document, please come to the Government Information office on the third floor.
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United Nations
Electronic Resources
- United Nations
This is a guide to the resources and organizations in the United Nations. - AccessUN CU
This database has indexed all the United Nations publications from 1946 to present, it also contains full-text copies of the General Assembly (1981-onward), the Security Council (1974-onward), and the Economic and Social Council (1982-onward). - UN Comtrade CU
This database has more than 700 million records covering over 40 years of detailed trade information. UN COMTRADE not only lets users select the data they are looking for, but also view and extract it in a number of different graphic formats. - UN Official Documents System
This database covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Older UN documents are, however, added to the system on a daily basis. ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards. - UN Treaty Collections
This collection includes six categories of treaty-related data: Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General; The United Nations Treaty Series; Texts of Recently Deposited Multilateral Treaties; Photographs of Treaty Signature Ceremonies; Titles of the Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General in the UN official languages; and Summary of Practice of the Secretary-General as Depositary of Multilateral Treaties.
CU-Boulder is a United Nations depository and has the depository collection in print, microfiche, and/or microprint. This collection is uncataloged before 1990, but you can use the AccessUN CU database to find the call numbers for older publications. These documents are located on the third floor, see map for details.
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Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Electronic Resources
- OECD Guide
- OECDiLibrary CU
This database contains books and statistics put out by the OECD.
The Government Information Library receives most OECD titles in print, those published after 1990 can be found in Chinook. For early publications, please come to the reference desk for assistance.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Electronic Resources
- IMF Guide
- International Financial Statistics CU
This database provides access to statistics gathered by the IMF.
The Government Information Library receives many IMF publications in print, those received after 1990 can be found using Chinook. For earlier publications, please come to the Government Information office for assistance.
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World Bank
Electronic Resources
- World Bank Guide
- World Bank e-Library CU
This database contains all recent publications from the World Bank in full-text. - World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance
This database contains statistical data for over 575 development indicators and time series data from 1960-present for over 220 countries and country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. The database also covers external debt stocks and flows, major economic aggregates, and key debt ratios as well as average terms of new commitments, currency composition of long-term debt, debt restructuring, and scheduled debt service projections.
We receive many World Bank publications in print, those published after 1990 can be found in Chinook. For help finding earlier publications, please come to the Government Information office.
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European Union
Electronic Resources
- European Union Subject Guide
- Eurostat
This is the statistical agency of the European Union and contains statistics on member countries, information on topics ranging from agriculture to trade. - EUR-Lex
This is the portal to law from the European Union.
We are a European Union depository, so we receive many European Union documents in print. Publications received after 1990 can be found using Chinook. For help finding earlier publications please come to the government publications reference desk.
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Don't Know or Other
Electronic Resources
- International Organizations
This page links to all the subject guides for the different International Organizations. - International Classification Numbers
This is a list of all the International Organizations we have publications for and their call number ranges. - Government Information Home Page
Our subject guides generally have international as well as federal information, choose the subjects you are interested in under our subject directory.
International Organization publications received after 1990 can be found in Chinook. For help finding earlier publications, please come to the Government Information office.
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Technical Reports
Technical Reports are produced by labs, universities, international organizations, etc. who have received funding from the government. We have a comprehensive collection of technical reports from the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Technical Information Service (NTIS). For more information on technical reports, please check out our subject guide. The majority of these reports are in microfiche and few are cataloged, but here are a few indexes to the collection:
Indexes
- NTIS CU
This database contains an index to NTIS publications from 1946 to the present. Please bring the title and accession/report number to the desk to get a copy of the report. - Energy Citations Database
This database from the Department of Energy contains citations to reports (1948-present) from DOE and its predecessor agencies, the Energy Research & Development Administration (ERDA) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). There are some full-text materials in this collection, but for the rest please bring the title and report number to the desk to get a copy. - NASA Technical Reports Server
This database from NASA provides indexing to all NASA technical reports, many in full-text. For those reports without full-text please bring the citation to the desk and we will try and find a copy.
Don't Know
The Government Information library has developed numerous subject guides on topics such as: Business and Economics, Crime and Justice, Environment and Energy, Science and Technology, and Statistics. Please check our web site for links to these and other useful resources. The Government Information Library also have many documents cataloged in Chinook, try using the keyword search and limiting the location to Government Information.
Those of us in Government Information are always willing to help you with your research. You can contact us by coming to our desk on the third floor of Norlin Library, calling us at: 303-492-8834 or emailing us at govpubs@colorado.edu.
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