Government Documents
Index
- Core Documents of United States Democracy lists the key legislative,
judicial, executive, regulatory, and statistical sites, plus provides
access to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other
important documents.
- Legislative Branch Sites provide
access to the entire legislative process, from when laws are introduced
as bills, to debates over them,
and to their publication in the U.S. Code.
- Executive Branch Sites provide
access to documents issued by the President and the White House offices,
as well as to various agencies under the
President and under each of the Cabinet officers.
- Judicial Branch Sites provide
access to the published opinions from the Supreme Court, Appellate
Courts, and the U.S. Tax Court.
- Regulatory Information Sites provide
access to the Presidential orders and other rules issued by the executive
branch and to the rules and
regulations issued by the Federal agencies
- Statistical and Census Information provide
access to population census data and to a vast array of statistical
data that deals with the economic
conditions, labor, trade, prices, and education.
- Tax Forms is a site that allows
you to print out any Federal or Illinois State tax form you need
to complete your annual income tax filings.
- Securities and Exchange Commission Filings provide
access to an array of corporation filings, most notably the Annual
Reports to Shareholders
and the Proxy Statements.
- Illinois Sites gather
together Illinois executive, legislative, and judicial sites for
the state.
Core Documents of United States Democracy
- is a site hosted by the Government
Printing Office (GPO), which lists the key legislative, judicial, executive,
regulatory, and statistical sites that the GPO hosts online. This site also
provides access to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the
Federalist Papers, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other significant documents
from the history of our country.
Legislative Branch Sites
Federal legislation is enacted by the
U.S. Congress, which consists of two houses, the Senate and the House of
Representatives. Before a law is enacted
it is introduced first as a bill, then debated and usually revised, and
then enacted into law once it is passed by both houses of Congress and
signed by
the President.
- passed from the current
and past two sessions of Congress as available on the Thomas site.
- provides access to legislation back to 1973
and may be found on the Bill and Summary Status section of the Thomas site.
- , available on Thomas, may be
found in the Congressional Record back to the 103rd Congress (1993-94).
- , available through GPO Access, is where all laws passed by Congress
and signed by the President are consolidated.
- and Membership Directories can be accessed at their respective
web sites. These sites include links to each Congressional member's personal
web page.
Executive Branch Sites
The Executive Branch includes not
only the President and the White House offices directly under him
but also the various agencies under the President
and under each of his Cabinet officers.
- provides information of the President of the United States
and the Executive offices that work out of the White House.
- , available from the Library of Congress, provides
access to each of the Executive Branch agencies and their sub-agencies, as
well as to the scores of independent agencies.
- provides a complete directory of government agencies, including complete contact information and links to the appropriate websites.
Judicial Branch Sites
provide
access to the published opinions from the Supreme Court, Appellate
Courts, and the U.S. Tax Court.
-
are available on government
documents websites for the years 1937 to 1975 and from
1992 to the present. Supreme Court Decisions
(including predecessor opinions of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania) are available from the beginning in 1754
on ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥’s Lexis-Nexis
Academic database.
The Lexis-Nexis database has the Lawyers’ Edition
of opinions, which includes annotations and explanations.
The ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥
Library has bound volumes of the series back to number
1 in the reference section.
-
Appellate Court (U.S. Circuit Court) decisions are not a part
of the Depository Library Program and therefore ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥
does not have any of these documents in print form. However,
important decisions are made at this level that also becomes
a part of case law. Federal Appellate Courts online access
is available on ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥’s Lexis-Nexis Academic database,
which provides searchable databases for complete published opinions
of the 13 U.S. Circuit Courts from the earliest case in June 1791 through current.
-
U.S. Tax
Court is
a part of the District of Columbia Circuit Court and are available
on the Lexis-Nexis Academic database. ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥ has
bound
volumes of U.S. Circuit Court opinions going back to 1951
in the reference section.
Regulatory Information Sites
The means by which our laws are put into
practice is through Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents
issued by the President and rules and regulations
issued by the various Executive departments and Federal agencies and organizations.
These rules and regulations appear in the following publications.
Statistical and Census Information
The Federal government, through its
many hundreds of agencies and offices, generates a vast amount of statistical
information as a part of the business
of government. The best known statistical information produced by the government
is the Census on the population held every ten years, but other important
statistical data that is available deals with the economic conditions,
labor, trade, prices, and education.
- provides
statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies, including the Agricultural
Research Service, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal
Aviation
Administration, Internal Revenue Service, International Trade Administration,
National Agricultural Statistics Service, and from each of the Executive
Departments.
National Trade Databank, updated monthly, provides a variety
of statistical information both within the United States as well as abroad.
The ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥
Library has this information on CD-ROM, which can be accessed on the government
documents depository terminal.
- which is updated annually, provides
a vast amount of statistical data on the country, and users will find that
it supplies information on virtually all of the most frequently-requested
statistics.
- should be your starting point. The ÌðÐÄÖ±²¥ Library
also has a vast array of census data information in paper documents, and on
CD-ROM for the 1970, 1980, and 1990 censuses.Labor Statistics and Price Indexes.
- hosted by the Bureau of Labor, features unemployment
statistics, labor productivity index, consumer price index, producer price
index, and many other statistical and index databases.
- provides access to a large array of labor statistics
on employment and unemployment statistics, earnings, safety and health, productivity,
and statistics on the general economy.
- at the Bureau of Labor site, this provides the latest
statistics on all the chief economic indicators, as well as a large variety
of recent statistical news.
Tax Forms
Federal and Illinois tax
forms on the Internet are available in Adobe Acrobat
format, which is identified with the PDF extension after the file name.
The Web browser on the government documents terminal in the Lewis Library
has
been configured to automatically load the Adobe Acrobat Reader when you
request any file with the PDF extension.
- are available from the Internal Revenue Service
- are available through the Illinois Department of Revenue
Securities and Exchange Commission Filings
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings are not
government documents issued by the government, but rather reports
issued by private corporations
that must be filed with the Commission. The SEC requires all public companies
(except foreign companies and companies with less than $10 million in assets
and 500 shareholders) to file their annual reports (10-K), proxy statements
(14-A), and these are listed on . Here you'll find links to a complete
list of filings since 1993 and instructions for searching the database.
The
two kinds of filings of most interest to the general public are the annual
report to shareholders and the proxy statement.
- Annual Report to Shareholders
(Form 10-K) the principal documents used by most public companies to disclose corporate information to shareholders. These reports provide a comprehensive overview of the company's business, including financial data, results of continuing operations, market segment information, new product plans, subsidiary activities and research, and development activities on future programs. Form 10-K is the version of the annual report that most reporting companies file with the Commission. The 10-K, available on is a plain black and white
document with simple table and chart graphics.
Companies generally publish
a four-color, graphic and photo intensive glossy version of their annual report for their shareholders. The Lewis Library keeps about 1,600 of these annual reports for the current year in filing cabinets in the Periodicals section of the Library.
- Proxy Statements
(Regulation 14A/Schedule 14A) are intended to provide shareholders with
the information necessary to enable them to vote in an informed manner on
matters intended to be acted upon at shareholders' meetings. For example,
proxy statements provide information on compensation paid to the outside
directors and to the five Executive officers of the firm. The SEC name for
the proxy statement is Regulation 14A or Schedule 14A, and it is available
on .
Illinois Sites
- Illinois Documents
- is the best place to begin to look for information pertaining to Illinois government branches, offices, and agencies. Here you will find links to the general assembly (legislature), state courts (judiciary), and agencies.
Executive
- is the chief executive of the State of Illinois, accessible at the State of Illinois site, where one can find information on the governor's announcements, initiatives, and bill signings.
- Legislative
provides information on pending legislation
in the Illinois General Assembly, Public Acts, and Illinois Compiled Statutes.
- Judiciary
provides access to news releases and opinions of
the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Courts back to 1996.
- Federal Court
is the Federal court that includes Illinois, and Lexis Nexis has a full text database of decisions of the 7th Circuit going back to November 1818.
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