Cowles Library Drake University

Cowles Library has collected over 104,941 government documents since becoming a selective federal depository library since December 1966 and receives approximately 30% of the current publications available from the U.S. government. Materials are arranged by the Superintendent of Documents Classification System. Government materials come in paper format, microfiche, CD-ROM and, increasingly now, online. Documents received since June 2004 can be found listed in the Online Catalog. For access to older material or for any questions regarding government documents, inquire at the Information Commons at (515) 271-2113, by email, or by online chat.

Government Resources on the Web:

Finding Documents

FirstGov

Search thousands of government pages by keyword, by topic or by agency.

GPOaccess.gov

the gateway to federal web resources for all three branches of government with links to specially featured resources, the U.S. Government Online Bookstore and resource topics A-Z.

SearchGov

Search government pages by keyword with quick links to agencies, states and popular government websites.

Legislative Branch

GPOaccess.gov

Find Congressional Bills, the Congressional Record, the U.S. Code and public and private laws.

Thomas

Leads to current action on bills before Congress, Congressional committees with their reports and full text searching of federal bills and laws.

U.S. House of Representatives

Find your Representative by state, name, or zip code and link to his/her website. Link to roll call vote information, committees, House floor debates and Committee Hearing schedules.

U.S. Senate

Find your senator, track and research bills, nominations, votes and lobbying disclosure information from the Senate's official website. There is a link also to Senate institutional history, biographies, art, exhibits and historical statistics.

Executive Branch

White House

Provides direct links to pages for the President, Vice President, First Lady and Mrs. Cheney, as well as news, issues, appointments and White House history and tours.

President Bush's Cabinet

Lists cabinet members with links to each department's website, as well as a link to an alphabetical list of Federal Agencies and Commissions.

Popular Agencies

Internal Revenue Service

Get your tax forms and do your taxes here.

Security and Exchange Commission

Find investment information and news. Check out rules and regulations on corporate financing and current litigation. Find company financial information through the popular EDGAR search engine.

Census

The gateway for statistical information about U.S. population and business. The site includes direct links to popular studies such as the American Community Survey, Housing, Poverty, Health Insurance Coverage, the Economic Census, Survey of Business Owners and Foreign trade.

National Archives

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the official national recordkeeper. The text and high resolution images of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights can be found here. The site includes links to Presidential Libraries, Records of Congress, the Federal Register and many research topics.

Judicial Branch

Supreme Court

The official site for the Supreme Court includes links to recent decisions of the court and biographical information on the current justices as well as general information on the court.

U.S. Courts

This site includes information on the U.S. Courts of Appeals, U.S. District Courts and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts with links to each.

State Sources

Official State of Iowa site

This site includes links to the state legislature, governor and state agencies, facts about Iowa and other resources.

Iowa Legislature

Find your legislator, track legislation in the current general assembly, see the governor's budget recommendations and link to the Iowa Code.

Iowa taxes

Get Iowa state tax forms or file online.

Governor of Iowa

Get biographical information on the Governor and Lt. Governor, see the Governor's budget recommendations.