Public Documents and Policy Reports

U.S. government documents are official publications of the United States government. Laws, congressional hearings and reports, domestic and foreign policy documents, and statistical series are among the most commonly used categories of government documents.

Government document collections can be found in libraries across the United States. In addition to Reed College, Portland State University and Multnomah County Library’s central branch, as well as several Orbis Cascade Alliance (Summit) libraries are particularly good sources of historical government documents in our region. Unfortunately, only small portions of these collections have been cataloged, so a search in the Reed catalog or in Summit will find only a fraction of the government documents that are available.

These specialized indexes and guides can be used to identify specific government documents. Contact a librarian for help in using them and in locating the public documents you need.

PAIS International &

PAIS International Archive

Citations and abstracts covering over 3,600 journals, books, public documents, websites, and policy reports relating to domestic and international policy issues published from 1915 to present. Long the "must-have" literature database for anyone interested in policy studies.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional

In-depth indexing of congressional hearings, reports, and other publications of Congress. Includes full-text documents where available; most other congressional documents can be located in Reed’s government documents collection. See CIS Index for documents published 1970 to present; Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969 for indexing historical information found in the United States Congressional Serial Set (Documents Y 1.1: ).

Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
(GPO Catalog)

Catalog of U.S. government publications distributed to libraries. The online version, GPO Catalog, covers 1976 to present and includes links to government publications at agency web sites. To find government documents distributed from 1908-1976, see the printed version (Docs Ref. Z1223 .A18).