Government Information
FirstGov http://www.firstgov.gov
A one stop shop site that is easy to use. This site serves as a "portal," offering access to all 20,000 government sites from centralized point. You can search by choosing from different topic areas or simply type in your search terms. The site also features categories such as "Featured Topics" (e-filing taxes, tax forms, Presidential transition, etc.) and separate links to federal and state branches of government.
Major Federal Resources
http://www.census.gov/
A great source for U.S. demographic information. Special population reports regularly update the decennial censuses.
http://tier2.census.gov/ctsl/ctsl.htm
Based on 1990 census numbers, enter a street address and get the tract number and statistics for that tract.
http://www.cdc.gov/
Great information on health and diseases. One special feature is the traveler's health section. If you are leaving the country, there is a lot of good information here.
http://www.consumer.gov
Your "one stop" site for online government consumer information. It is organized by category.
http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/start.htm
This site offers a FAQ as well as links to Smithsonian resources from A-Z.
http://www.fedstats.gov/
Exactly as the title says, this sites provides statistics to over 70 federal agencies.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/
This site, by the Government Printing Office provides access to the official, published versions of government papers and information. The site features links to all levels of the federal government including the Papers of the President and public laws.
http://www.healthfinder.gov/
Developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this site is a free gateway to reliable consumer health and human services information.
http://www.loc.gov/
Our national library, and the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, the LOC has an online catalog, and a wealth of other resources.
http://www.census.gov/statab/www/
The ultimate statistical resource. The online version (in PDF) has volumes from 1995 to the present.
http://www.ustreas.gov/
You can find all the bureaus of the treasury department, such as the IRS, Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Secret Service here. There is also information on coins and the U.S. Mint.
http://www.whitehouse.gov
This site provides access to all kinds of information such as the latest Presidential press releases, and commonly requested federal services, as well as historical information on the White House.
http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/whos3.htm
Links to biographical information on government officials.
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
A great source for information about the countries of the world. Contains demographic, economic, geographic, as well as governmental information.
California Government Sites
http://www.states.org/contents/access/
This site provides links to information on all 50 states that you can search by state, agency or keyword.
http://www.calregs.com/ccrmain.htm
Hosted by the Office of Administrative Law, the California Code of Regulations (CCR) Website contains all the regulations that have been formally adopted by state agencies, reviewed and approved by the Office of Administrative Law, and filed with the Secretary of State. There are notes on how to use the website and a FAQ.
http://plates.ca.gov/search/
Want a personalized California license plate? This site allows you to search for personalizations you want and see if they are available.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/index.htm
This site provides, weather conditions, highway information, other state's departments of transportation, and the adopt-a-highway program.
http://www.ca.gov/
The official California state page. Includes all kinds of information on the state including a section on history and culture.
http://www.sen.ca.gov/sor/reports.htm
This bi-partisan office s job is to develop public policy initiatives for the California Senate. Their reports are on this website and free to view. They are organized by subject (education, economy, families, etc.) or by year. They also have text of California ballot propositions back to 1983.
http://lalaw.lib.ca.us/ballot.htm
LA County Law Library provides this site which has full text of all ballot measures from 1964 to the present. The site is updated following every California election involving ballot measures.
http://www.lao.ca.gov/
The LAO serves as the eyes and ears to the state legislature to make sure that the executive branch is implementing state policies in an efficient and cost effective way. The site features state budget analyses, initiatives and ballot propositions, and a list of popular links.
http://www.rtumble.com/index.htm
This site is a daily list of links from over 22 news publications regarding California public policy. The site was designed to give more in depth coverage than what people get from their television news.
Local Government Sites
http://www.aqmd.gov/
The official homepage for the South Coast Air Quality Managment District, it offers many resources such as current smog levels, transportation programs and the phone number to report problems.
http://www.ci.long-beach.ca.us/
The official city page.
http://www.ci.la.ca.us/
The official city page.
http://www.sannet.gov/
The official city page.
http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/
The official city page.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/w2welcom.htm
This site from the Center for Disease Control allows you to access state and territory information to request vital records.
http://www.co.la.ca.us/
The official county page.
http://www.mta.net/
All about the MTA. You can get train and bus schedules, maps, and fare information, for Southern California's rapid transit system.
http://pti.nw.dc.us/links/
This site put out by Public Technology Inc. promotes local and state government practicing web bases services and provides links and examples to those who do.
http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/
The official county page.
http://vls.law.vill.edu/Locator/statecourt/
Alphabetical listing (by state) of links to state and municipal court pages.
http://www.statelocal.gov/links.html
The State and Local Gateway is a "An interagency project in collaboration with Vice President Al Gore's National Partnership For Reinventing Government." The site provides links to state and local government's web sites.
http://vitalrec.com/index.html
This site provides information on how to find vital records (birth, death or marriage certificates) from state, territory, and local vital records offices.
International Agencies
http://europa.eu.int/
This site provides all kinds of information (basic information, news releases, etc) about the European Union countries. Great starting point.
http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/eurostat/serven/home.htm
This site provides all kinds of statistical data about the European Union.
http://www.unicef.org/
For over 53 years, UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), has been one of the largest children's advocate groups in the world. This is their official site. You can access annual reports and statistics as well as how to get involved.
http://www.un.org/
The official home page of the United Nations.
http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/menureso.htm
This site is designed for kids, but it is a great starting point for UN statistics and country information.
http://www.undp.org/popin/
This UN site is the place to start for international population statistics.
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/
This site offers access to the University of Minnesota s Human Rights Library s documents. The site is international in
scope and the documents are organized by subject.
http://www.who.org/
This site provides all kinds of information (communicable diseases, vaccines, lifestyle issues ets.) regarding global health.
Non-Government Resources
http://www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/dsc/readyref.html
Columbia has gathered together is most frequently used government links and assembled them here.
http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/crs.htm
Hosted at George Washington University, this site s goal is to provide online access to the Congressional Research Reports (CRS) that are available online. In addition, they have recently added reports from other legislative research organizations.
http://fedgate.org/
Hosted by the Small Business Contracts Council (a non-profit organization), this site offers a one-stop-shop approach to finding government information on the web. Organized by branch, this site also has a search engine. One neat section is a handy page of acronyms.
http://www.findlaw.com/
This site provides a specialized legal search engine, Lawcrawler, that allows you to search specific government databases. It covers federal, international and local government, and is easy to use.
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/
Images of and information about flags from all over the globe.
http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/forms.htm
Compiled by requests from their patrons, this site from the University of Memphis Library offers links to federal agency forms pages (alphabetical by agency).
http://www.infospace.com/info/index_gov.htm
Offers two ways to search for government officials (by location or branch) to obtain phone numbers, addresses, email, etc. Also provides links to other government web directories.
http://www.patents.ibm.com/
The intellectual property network offers this search to find all kinds of information on patents from around the world. One cool feature is the Gallery of Obscure Patents.
http://government.aol.com/mynews/
AOL provides this zip code search page. Plug in your zip code, and you get a list of the elected officials in your area.
http://www.polisci.com/
Hosted by PoliSci.com, the almanac is one of the best-known books on government, and the Web version has links to a variety of resources, from official government pages to press pages to special interest pages. Simply click on the almanac icon in the upper left hand corner to access.
http://198.252.9.108/home/govper.html
This site from Washburn University Law Library allows for searching of full-text government information available on the internet. Searching is available by subject (broad topics), title of Sudoc number. The site is updated weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, depending on the periodical. While they say this is a work in progress, it is a very easy site to use and there is lots of information available.
http://www.stateline.org
Sponsored by the University of Richmond's Pew Center on the States, this site provides state specific information such as news bulletins (both current and archived), calendars of events, as well as historical information on all 50 states.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/
Hosted by the University of Michigan, this comprehensive site provides links to all levels of government and their resources.
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html
From Louisiana State University, this site provides links to federal agencies on the web.
Special Topics
Elections
http://www.cspan.org/campaign2000/
Up to the minute information including links to campaign sites, parties, campaign calendars as well as video/audio archives.
http://www.democrats.org/index.html
The official page of the DNC.
http://archive0.alexa.com/collections/e2k.html
This site contains an archive of webpages from the last presidential election. It was commissioned by the Libray of Congress and made possible by Alexa Internet, Compaq Computers and the Internet Archive.
http://www.fec.gov/
All kinds of election information including new releases and campaign financing reports.
http://lalaw.lib.ca.us/ballot.html
Hosted by the LA County Law Library, this site has full text of all ballot measures from 1964 to the present. It is updated following every California election that involves ballot measures.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/psusp.html
From the University of Michigan Library, this page provides links to campaign finance information, political parties, news sources, the current election information and more.
http://www.vote-smart.org/
This non-profit agency offers information on political candidates and campaigns that is easy to understand.
http://www.rnc.org/
The official site of the RNC.
Content maintained by the Susan Jackson, Business and Government Documents Librarian