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U.S. and California Government Information: Home

*Many government sites may have been taken down*

With the new 2025 Presidential Administration, some government sites have been taken down or are no longer being updated. This is an evolving situation.
If you come across government websites that are no longer active, you can try some the following: (Note--this is not a comprehensive list).
  • GovWayback - Access historical versions of U.S. government websites from before January 20, 2025 with a simple URL change.
    How it works: Take any .gov URL and add wayback.com right after .gov, and you'll be redirected to the Wayback Machine's archived version of the page.
  • Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) - try some resources here curated by a special team of government documents librarians.
  • Wayback Machine - enter any site URL.
  • Other university libraries LibGuides - Many larger institutes and universities have created their own LibGuides for finding information during this time. Here is an example from the University of Minnesota.

Finding and Searching Government Information

This is not a comprehensive list. Consult this page for the "U.S. Government Resources - Basic Core Collection" links.

Citing Government Documents

Contact Information

Caltech does not have a separate and discrete publicly-accessible U.S. government documents collection. Caltech is selective and integrates the material into the overall collection and in recent years puts priority on electronic resources. 

For assistance with obtaining government information:

 

If you have a question that is not addressed by our areas of expertise, you can reach out to other Federal depository libraries across the nation or the Government Information Online, which is a partnership between GPO and the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association.

Caltech's Government Collection Highlights

Our library's Government documents print collection includes the following topics of interest. Note that print copies are only up through the early 2000s. You may also wish to search the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

USGS Topographic Maps (California, Arizona, and Nevada)

USGS Geologic Maps (selected areas, primarily California)

USGS Open-File Reports (selected, primarily California)

USGS Professional Papers

Please visit our LibGuides on Map Resources for more online USGS resources.

Local Depository Libraries

This list includes depository libraries in the vicinity of the Caltech campus.  For more information and other locations, please see the Federal Library Directory.