Hoover Library is one of three Federal Depository Libraries for the 6th Congressional District of Maryland. As a selective depository, we receive more than 16% of documents distributed by the Government Printing Office. The documents are freely available for use by anyone, and can be checked out of the library. Currently, only a small portion of our collection is in our catalog, so you should contact a librarian for help in locating government documents. Our function is to help you find the government information you need. Please don't hesitate to ask any library staffer for help.

Government Documents Contacts     

• Sally Jones, Reference Librarian  (410) 857-2287
• Leona Shockey, Government Documents Assistant  (410) 386-4679

Finding Aids     

Many federal government agencies, commercial enterprises, and non-profit organizations help to impose structure on the vast quantity of government information that is available on the Web. Here is a selected list of resources to help you find what you need.

1. Code of Federal Regulations
2. Resources and searching mechanisms in dozens of subjects are available at the Washburn University School of Law Library's Website.
3. Consult the Louisiana State University website for a comprehensive list of government agencies.
4. Find a Federal Depository Library near you. Search by state or zip code.
5. GPO Access -- A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office, providing the official version of Federal Government information. There are over 1,000 federal government databases containing hundreds of thousands of documents.
6. Congressional Universe (LexisNexis) -- Indexes and abstracts congressional publications and the CIS Legislative Histories from 1970 to present. Full text of most bills, testimony, and publications. Includes US Code, Federal Register, full info on members of Congress and on committees.
7. Search the Federal Government -- Engine provided by FirstGov.
8. USA Services -- A service of the General Services Administration providing "front door" access to government services.
9. Government Information Locator Service (GILS) -- A search engine provided by the Government Printing Office. It allows you to search for information not hosted by GPO.
10. Consumer Information Center -- A service of the U.S. General Services Administration providing information useful to consumers.
11. Government Documents Catalog Service -- A catalog of U.S. government documents containing records of everything published since 1976 with a substantial backfile of older documents. Records from 1976 on include names of libraries holding the documents.
12. Congressional Research Service reports -- This webpage was created to compile links to the many Congressional Research (CRS) reports that are accessible via the WWW.