GPO ACCESS & THOMAS Diann Weatherly University of Alabama at Birmingham The Government Printing Office (GPO) has acted as the primary printer of paper federal government publications since its establishment in 1860. In June 1994, GPO ACCESS was made available, extending the printing of government publications into the electronic environment. Through the Internet, searching and full-text retrieval of many important government publications are now available. THOMAS is a Library of Congress service which provides several legislative databases, plus links to related web sites. While some of the information provided is similar to that offered through GPO ACCESS, several databases are unique to THOMAS, plus some might consider the design of the site to be more "user-friendly." This handout provides information on World Wide Web addresses to these two services, as well as some search tips on the various databases. Internet connections and texts change frequently, however: please see the government documents reference librarian should you have problems or additional questions. GPO ACCESS GPO Access http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/ Some GPO Access Gateways http://www.lib.auburn.edu/gpo http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/gpo/ http://www.gpo.ctstateu.edu/gpo/ The list of GPO ACCESS databases continues to grow, but at this time includes: Budget of the United States Government, Congressional Bills (beginning with of the 103rd Congress), Congressional calendars (104th Congress forward), the Congressional Directory, Congressional documents (selected House, Senate, and Treaty documents; 104th Congress forward), the Congressional Record (103rd Congress, 2nd session, forward; 1994- ), Congressional Record Indexes (1992- ), Congressional Reports, (selected; 104th Congress forward), Department of the Interior reports, Economic Indicators (104th Congress forward), Economic Report of the President, the Federal Register (1994- ), General Accounting Office (GAO) reports (1994- ), GAO Comptroller General Decisions (1995- ), the Government Manual, History of Bills (HOB) (1994- ), the House Rules Manual, Unified Regulatory Agenda (1994- ), and the United States Code (1994- ; updated semiannually). A significant database "under construction" at this time is the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) database. Various documents and databases of current interest also may also be found on GPO ACCESS, which at this time include: the Campaign Reform Hearing and the Privacy Act Issuances. In addition, there are a number of "Pathway Services" which serve as guides to government Internet sites and products, including the Monthly Catalog. which has been the primary index for finding government publications for many years. SEARCH TIPS FOR GPO ACCESS Some of the following search tips are for GPO Access in general; however, there are variations within the individual databases, for which some examples are offered as well. For additional information on GPO Access, contact the government documents reference librarian. * The results of a WAIS search is given in ranked order, with the most relevant being at the beginning of the list. * Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, ADJ) may be used for searches, but the operator must be capitalized, ex. environment AND regulations. * A phrase can be placed in quotation marks, ex. "environmental protection agency" AND superfund. * The truncation symbol for most databases is an asterisk (*). For example, the search "child*" would find the word "child" and "children." * Federal Register. Searching in the Federal Register database often means searching by date and/or page number as well as by subject or keywords. Page numbers did not appear in the first year of the Federal Register (1994) and therefore are only available from 1995 forward. Example of a subject and a date: "fruit fly" AND date=7/26/95. Example for a subject and page number: "physician fee schedule" AND "page 63124" (note that the page and number are enclosed in quotation marks). To search for CFR parts in the Federal Register: "40 cfr part 745". * Congressional bills, and History of Bills. An example of searching for a bill by key words: "unfunded mandates" AND ("local government" OR "tribal government"). Example of searching for a bill by bill number: "h.r. 2" The bill number may be typed with or without the punctuation; however, a bill number such as H.R. 2 must be entered with a space between H and R , i.e. "h r 2", if no punctuation is used. Additional useful information that does not appear in the text of a bill itself may be found in the History of Bills databases (search in the same manner as for bills). The History of Bills is part of the Congressional Record Index. As such it covers only actions on a bill that are reported in the Congressional Record. It is published bi-weekly when Congress is in session. The databases are cumulative from the beginning of each session. Example of a public law number search: "public law 103-191" ("public law" is not abbreviated in this database). Note: For current status of a bill, THOMAS may be a better service to use. * Congressional Record. Example of a personal name and key word search: "Mrs. Kassebaum" AND "child abuse". Example of a subject and date range search: "line item veto" AND date=2/6/95 TO 2/28/95. Example of a page search: "page H182". Keep in mind that page numbers and this type of date search are not available in the 1994 database. * Congressional Record Index. Example of a personal name search: "dole bob" OR "dole robert". The index arranges the name with last name first, so "bob dole" will retrieve no results. * Public Laws . Bill number and key word searches are as in other databases. Example of a public law number search: "public law 104-4". Example of a U.S. Code search: "40 USC 166*" (the asterisk retrieves subsections as well). Example of a statute search: "109 stat 3". * Unified Agenda. Published in the Federal Register twice a year (usually April and October), the Unified Agenda summarizes the rules and proposed rules that an agency expects to issue during the following six months. Example of an agency name search: "housing urban development". Example of a CFR part search: "40 CFR 745". Key word searches are as in other examples above. * U.S. Code. A U.S. Code part search: "2USC661*" (no spaces; asterisk retrieves subsections as well). Example of a public law number search: "pub l 103-40" (the abbreviation in this database for public law is Pub L) * GAO. This database contains the GAO "blue book" reports from October 1, 1994. The database is updated daily and reports are available within two business days after public release. The reports contain GAO's findings and recommendations to members of Congress or to congressional committees. Restricted and classified products, as well as correspondence are not included in this database. Example by GAO report number: reportnum="HEHS 95 42". To identify all reports in the HEHS series: reportnum=hehs. THOMAS Thomas: http://thomas.loc.gov The Library of Congress THOMAS service contains some of the same information found in GPO ACCESS, but several of the texts and services are unique and the search software is different. THOMAS uses INQUERY search software, in which you may enter a word or words with no boolean operators and a search is performed based on a relevancy ranked basis. The search first finds text in which the word or words occur in the title of the document, and then also on how close multiple words are to each other - the closer the words, the higher the retrieved text is in the results list. In every case, an increase in the number of occurrences of words or words ranks a document higher in the ranked list. Boolean operators may be used, but the manner in which they must be entered is rather complex; reading of the online help in this regard is recommended. Among the services offered at the THOMAS site are: Congress this Week; numerous search options for bills/major legislation in the current congress (including bill summary and status); the Congressional Record and index; various congressional committee information, including reports and connections to committee home pages; historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States; and a newly revised and updated edition of How Our Laws Are Made by Charles W. Johnson, Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives. Links to other government sources are provided also. Some of the information in this handout was used, with permission, from guides in the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange, from authors: Dawn Hammel, May Ying Chau, and Marcia Henry. Additional information was summarized from experience and the online help screens of GPO ACCESS and THOMAS. C. Diann Weatherly Documents Reference Librarian Mervyn H. Sterne Library The University of Alabama at Birmingham UAB Station Birmingham, AL 35294-0014 (205) 934-6364 dweather@uab.edu dweatherly@beowulf.mhsl.uab.edu 12/5/96