The unavailability of some Federal websites during the recent U.S. Government partial shutdown underscores the Federal Government’s role in providing scholarly information to the academic community.
Websites that are valuable resources for the academic community and which were unavailable during the shutdown included U.S. Census sites (census.gov and American FactFinder) and ERIC, an education resource sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. The partial shutdown also resulted in Federal websites that were available but which were either not updated, such as the Library of Congress website, or “maintained with minimal staffing,” such as PubMed.
As an alternative to the ERIC website, the ERIC at Ebscohost database is available in GALILEO. Items with an accession number beginning with “ED” that are not available full-text in ERIC may be available in the ERIC microfiche collection on the second floor of Reese Library in the microform room. This collection includes documents from 1969 to 2003. Please ask at the information desk on the first floor for access to the microform room and the ERIC microfiche collection.
The U.S. Government also provides free public access to Federal Government information via the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). As an FLDP member, GRU Libraries provide access to print, media, visual, and digital materials in many subject areas and originating from various Federal entities, such as the Department of Education, U.S. Congress, Justice Department, and others. Government resources can be located by checking GIL-Find, the GRU Libraries’ online catalog. The Government Information department is located on the second floor of Reese Library on the Summerville Campus. During the partial shutdown, FDLP libraries did not receive new U.S. Government publications.
With the conclusion of the partial shutdown, affected Federal websites are now available and fully operational and distribution of Federal documents to FDLP libraries has resumed.
