Getting Public Domain Materials From The Government

The Government publishes a lot of information – on a wide variety of topics. Believe it or not, all of that material is in the public domain – in terms of materials published by the United States Government anyway. Other Governments may have different rules pertaining to this.

When you want to use work that was published by a Government other than the US Government, it is very important that you find out for sure if you are free to use the work, and how you are able to use the work. For instance, Canada claims Crown Copyright to their materials. Each different country has different rules and laws – so make sure you check.

But in terms of materials produced by the United States Government, it is free for anyone to use – and there is literally tons of information waiting for you! Below is a list of US Government Offices where you can obtain free public domain work that was published by the Government.

The Library of Congress – http://catalog.loc.gov

The IRS – http://www.irs.gov

US Government Printing Office – http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html

Government Information Connection - http://www.library.unt.edu/govinfo/subject/catsindx.html

National Security Agency - http://www.nsa.gov/public/

US Department of State - http://www.state.gov/

NARA – http://www.archives.gov

FirstGov – http://www.firstgov.com

Federal Citizen Information Center – http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov

The FBI – http://www.fbi.gov

CDC – http://www.cdc.gov

This is just a small list of the governmental websites that contain information that is in the public domain. Even if these sites don’t have the information published on their website, they will provide instructions of ordering or obtaining publications that they have. The US Government Printing Office is always a good place to start your search.
Furthermore, you can also go to Google at http://www.google.com and type in “not copyrighted” site: .gov or “public domain” site: .gov. Make sure that you include the quotation marks in the appropriate place when searching.