Texas and U.S. Government Documents:

How we help the public make use of them

By Tom Lindsey

The UTA Library is one of forty-nine libraries that receives a partial collection of State of Texas agency publications through a program operated by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The State Library publishes a monthly accession list, Texas State Documents, that lists state agency publications, including those from academic institutions.

Here at UTA, some of the most frequently used state publications are about crime, criminal justice and the state prison system, maternal and child health and welfare, and growing plants or raising livestock for pleasure or profit. Many of these publications come from the Texas Agricultural Extension System, which publishes leaflets and booklets for commercial agriculture and home gardening and landscaping.

UTA Libraries also participate in the Federal Depository Library Program of the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. The librarian who supervises this collection attempts to choose those classes of publications that are most likely to be sought by members of the local community as well as students and faculty.

People put these print and Internet-accessible documents to a wide variety of uses. These might include using or doing some of the following:

Agriculture Department county soil surveys to analyze the suitability of rural property for farming, homesteading, or ranching.

The Gazette of the U.S. Patent Office to search for prior inventions similar to what they have independently created.

Learn how to reduce energy source costs by increasing insulation of buildings and purchasing vehicles and equipment that use less energy to do the work.

Read health and medical device information pamphlets from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Plan vacations in the national forests, national parks, or other federally owned land available for recreation.

Obtain copies of forms and instructions to apply for copyright.

Review past and current sets of the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register to find current, and proposed regulations affecting their business or personal interests. (One of our "favorites" is the income tax regulation that is still a "Proposed, Temporary Regulation" twelve years after being published!)

Obtain copies of Internal Revenue Service forms and booklets during tax filing time. We also have photocopyable forms from prior years for those who need to amend their returns, or file a return from a prior year.

Read information booklets about the Social Security Program and the Medicare Program.

Read our copy of the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance to find information about eligibility for federal government grants, loans, and loan guarantees available to communities, nonprofit or profit-making organizations, and individuals.

In general, find out "what's going on in Austin and in Washington" by reading the publications of the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of state and federal government.

State and Federal governments are taking advantage of the internet to reduce printing and distribution costs by making their information available on demand through World Wide Web computer stored files. Almost every federal agency's magazine or newsletter service is accessible through the internet.

The Census Bureau plans to use the internet as its major source of information dissemination. The printed publications of the 1990 Census fill thirty-eight bookshelves; the printed publications from the 2000 Census will occupy less than three shelves. The complete results should be available in a shorter time than in 1990 because they will not be composed, edited, proofread, printed, shipped and locally bound.

To obtain more information about the government documents held at the UTA Libraries, contact Tom Lindsey, at 817-272-7514 or email lindsey@uta.edu .