Federal Information on the WWW

Since 1894, the Tacoma Public Library has been a selective Federal Depository Library, receiving publications from numerous federal agencies, as well as the fourteen executive departments and the legislative and judicial branches of the United States government. Federal documents come to the Tacoma Public Library in print, microfiche, and CD-ROM formats as well as via the World Wide Web.

Access to federal publications on the World Wide Web is available at all branches of the Tacoma Public Library. Other federal publications can be located at the Main Library. Among other items, our collection includes congressional, census, and consumer documents; Agriculture, Education and Interior publications; CIA, NASA and Smithsonian materials; and a large collection of federal income tax forms.

The United States Government

Legislative Branch

Congress
General Accounting Office
House of Representatives
Senate

Judicial Branch

Federal Judiciary (U.S. Courts)
Supreme Court

Executive Branch

Office of the President
Office of the Vice President

Executive Agencies

Agriculture
Commerce
Defense
Education
Energy
Health and Human Services
Housing and Urban Development
Interior
Justice
Labor
State
Transportation Treasury
Veterans Affairs

Other Selected Governmental Sites

Auto Safety Information
From the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, this database allows the user to look at the past repair/recall history for any make/model/year of a car.

Census Bureau (and American Factfinder)
Access the decennial census and other surveys undertaken by the Census Bureau. American Factfinder presents results of a census or survey in a variety of table or map formats.

Census Gazetteer
This gazetteer is used to identify places to view with the Tiger Map Server and obtain census data from the 1990 Census Lookup server. You can search for places, counties or MCDs by entering the name and state abbreviation (optional), or 5-digit zip code.

Centers for Disease Control
The Center for Disease Control of the US Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for monitoring disease in the United States. One can find here statistics about diseases such as AIDS, publications, and information about epidemics such as West Nile virus.

CIA World Factbook
The World Factbook provides national-level information on the countries, territories, and dependencies of the world. Useful for school assignments, a map of each country is also included with each country profile.

Consumer Price Index
The Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) program produces monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.

Federal Acquisition Jumpstation
Your link to Federal acquisition information on the Internet.

Fedstats
Follow this link to find statistics from over 100 U.S. federal agencies.

FirstGov for Consumers
FirstGov for Consumers is a "one-stop" link to a broad range of federal information resources, arranged in broad categories such as Food, Health, Product Safety, Your Money, and Transportation.

Freedom of Information Act
Follow this link to read about the requirements of federal agencies to disclose public records.

Immigration & Naturalization Service
This site provides information to introduce one to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Access forms, office locations and more.

Internal Revenue Service
Access the IRS online for forms and publications to current and past tax filing years

National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives preserves the papers of the federal government, dating back to 1776. Historians, genealogists, and other researchers can search on the site for digital records of everything from Holocaust assets to census records. An important office is in Seattle, which itself contains resources.

Patent and Trademark Office
The primary role of the USPTO includes processing patent and trademark applications and disseminating patent and trademark information.

SEC Edgar
Edgar is the Securities and Exchange Commission's online file of reports filed with the SEC. These are required of publicly traded corporations by the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934. These reports include the 10k, indispensable to investors and others seeking to understand in detail the health of a corporation.

Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration is charged with helping small business in the USA succeed. The site includes information on starting, financing, and managing a small business. It can help small business owners find consultants to help them understand business issues.

Social Security Administration
Locate an office in your area, find instructions for applying for or replacing a card, or answers to questions about social security benefits and much more.

The Supreme Court Collection
Access the text of most Supreme Court decisions by justice, date, topic, or party.

U.S. State Department Background Notes
The Background Notes are useful for finding up-to-date information for school reports, for travelers, or for business people. The background notes contain factual information on all the countries of the world with which the United States has relations, and cover such topics as the country's land, people, history, government, political conditions, and economy.

The White House
Access the White House page to find weekly radio announcements, political appointments and other important information about the executive branch.

Federal Search Sites
(Websites that index government information)

FedWorld Information Network
The FedWorld.gov web site is a gateway to government information. This site is managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) as part of its information management mandate.

FindLaw Constitutional Law Center
FindLaw is a legal Web site providing comprehensive legal resources on the Internet for legal professionals, businesses, students and individuals.

Firstgov
FirstGov.gov is the official U.S. gateway to all government information. Use their search engine to link to millions of web pages–from the federal government, local and tribal governments and to foreign nations around the world.

GPO Access
GPO Access is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on this site is the official, published version and the information retrieved from GPO Access can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted.

MARCIVE
MarciveWeb is a searchable catalog of U.S. government publications and documents from July 1976 to the present. Remote access requires a Tacoma Public Library card number.

THOMAS (Federal Legislative Information)
THOMAS is a collection of databases created to provide free access to legislative information. Track bills currently moving through Congress. Find which elected officials sit on legislative committees, or follow the activities of the House and Senate.