Oxford LibGuides: US Government Publications: Books

Using bibliographies to find journal articles and books

America: History & Life
A complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises over 490,000 bibliographic entries for periodicals dating back to 1954, providing an incomparable research tool for students and researchers of US and Canadian history.
JSTOR
An archive of journals, JSTOR includes important journals for US history: American Historical Review, Journal of African American History, Journal of American History, William and Mary Quarterly. The resource offers researchers the ability to search for journal articles and book reviews. It does not provide access to current content.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Atlantic History
Oxford Bibliographies Online are comprehensive subject bibliographies, which provide an up-to-date overview of the most recent and authoritative scholarship in a given field.

Key Finding Aids

United States Government Manual
For over eight decades, this New Deal-era publication has been the "official handbook" of the Federal Government. A regularly updated special edition of the Federal Register, it includes leadership tables and describes agency activities and programs of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of Government, as well as activities and programs of quasi-official agencies and international organizations in which the United States participates as a member.
CIS index to Executive Branch documents, 1789-1909
Guide to the location, organization and description of approximately 200,000 now rare and fragile documents issued by virtually every federal agency during the period 1789-1909.
In print in VHL

Finding US government studies books...

On the shelf

The majority of your books will be located under the J shelfmark (Political Science). Specific topics in this area include:

J - General legislative and executive papers
JK - Political institutions and public administration - United States of America
JV - Colonies and colonization (including the early American Colonies). Emigration and immigration (includes immigration policies)

Other shelfmarks you may want to browse include:

E - History of the United States, including historic information on the American Founding, national political figures/presidents and wider historic background.
F - United States local history - focusing on specific states or counties, such as historical background, information on local political figures.
KF - American Law (note that most of these holdings will be in the American Law Library), such as records connected to the Judicial branch, records related to the Supreme Court, copies of state constitutions and other local legislation.

Using SOLO

Below is some general advice for finding certain resources within SOLO:

Personal papers of Presidents and other key figures - when searching, search for the individual's name, and the word "papers". So for example: Franklin AND Papers.
Departmental documents: check via government pages for the historical names of the specific organisations you are looking for. Use brackets so that your search comes up with the exact phrase or name you wish to find: e.g. "Bureau of Education," "the Church Committee"

SOLO
Search SOLO, the University's resource discovery tool, for print and ebooks at Oxford. You can search by author, title or subject and limit to a specific library or online resources.

Key titles of US Government Publications

Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, 1929- The Public papers of the Presidents is the official publication of United States Presidents' public writings, addresses, and remarks. From Grover Cleveland up to Barack Obama (2013)
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Print: VHL J 80 .A283
Online via HeinOnline
Online via the American Presidency Project
1991-2012 freely available online via govinfo
Compilation of the messages and papers of the Presidents A compilation of previous official statements and papers of the American Presidents, pre-Grover Cleveland.
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1789-1929 online via HeinOnline [Oxford users only; log in via SOLO for remote access]
1789-1913 online via the American Presidency Project
1776-1925 in print VHL J 80 .A283 1776-1925
Congressional Record Verbatim record of debates in Congress. Selections from 1873-1877 also available online from the Library of Congress 1873 to current - VHL Stack
Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, Congressional Globe Predecessor publications to the Congressional Record. They are not a verbatim record but include the text of speeches and debates and other procedural information. Dates of coverage: Annals of Congress (1789-1824), Register of Debates (1824-1837), Congressional Glob (1833-1873)
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Available via ProQuest Congressional (Congressional Record and predecessors)
Also all in print VHL Stack and available online from the Library of Congress:
Annals of Congress (1789-1824)
Register of Debates (1824-1837)
Congressional Globe (1833-1873)
Official Congressional Directory Official directory of the U.S. Congress, with short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district, and additional data, such as committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers. It also lists officials of the courts, military establishments and other Federal Departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio and television galleries.
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1997- online via govinfo
1871-1919, 1925- in print VHL
CQ Almanac Offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session. Arranged thematically, the CQ Almanac organises and cross-indexes the full year in Congress and in national politics.
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1945- online
1948-1961 on microfilm in VHL
1952, 1960-2002, 2005 in print in VHL
Foreign relations of the United States A series presenting the official documentary historical record of major US foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Documents are from Presidential libraries, Departments of State and Defense, the National Security Council, CIA, Agency for International Development and other foreign affairs agencies as well as the private papers of individuals involved in formulating US foreign policy. The Government Printing Office is currently publishing volumes covering the Nixon-Ford administrations.