Research Guides: Government Information *: Resources Available in a Government Shutdown

Government Shutdown

Many of the publicly available government resources we rely on a daily basis for vital information concerning population, age, gender, employment, and health are not available during a government shutdown. This shows the importance of preserving government information and the role libraries play in preserving federal and local documents in print and archiving them online. This guide will help find alternatives to commonly used government resources.

Government Resources that may not be Available during Shutdown and Alternatives

Bureau of Economic Analysis
Missouri Census Data Center Business
Alternative to Bureau of Economic Analysis

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wonder

SAGE Data This link opens in a new window
Alternative to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Data holdings for the United States are significant with some data available at state, county, or local geographies. International data,available at the country level, include population, food and agriculture, labor, trade, and more. Data are organized by subject and source.

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)

ERIC (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Alternative to the public version of ERIC

USC Databases with Government Information

Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window
This database indexes and abstracts a broad spectrum of Congressional publications, including hearings (testimony), committee prints, reports, documents, and full text of bills and public laws, and the U.S. Statutes at Large from 1789 to the present.
Nexis Uni (formerly LEXIS/NEXIS Academic) This link opens in a new window
Database of full text online news, legal cases, and company information from 1980 to present. Includes Nexis Dossier and Total Patent One.
CQ Press Electronic Library This link opens in a new window
This database searches the full-text of CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, CQ Historic Documents, contact directories, a variety of reference books, and selected datasets focused on issues in U.S. politics and areas of public policy, such as, health care, education, economics, bioethics, environment, and society. Contents are created by more than 125 Capitol Hill reporters, editors, and researchers to provide non-partisan coverage and detailed analysis of issues facing Congress on a daily basis. Coverage is from 1972 to the present.
CQ Press U.S. Political Stats This link opens in a new window
CQ Almanac This link opens in a new window
The CQ Almanac Online Edition brings together over sixty years of authoritative congressional reporting in one, easy-to-use resource.
The site pairs all of the content from the print volumes with a number of electronic features and functions that make navigating the content fast and easy. with efforts have been made to create a uniform interface that facilitates searching and browsing of all content. With the online edition users can navigate with ease through 60 years of congressional coverage; access tables, graphs, and charts that help explain the issues; browse by subject, decade, or by a particular year's table of contents; use Policy Tracker to explore a specific policy topic and see how it has changed over the years; save useful documents or frequent searches for future consultation; and, automatically generate citations in four styles with CQ Press's CiteNow! Feature.
Legislative Insight This link opens in a new window
With the focus on the public law, ProQuest Legislative Insight will make available approximately 18,000 legislative histories covering laws from 1929 to the present. 9,000 of these are brand new and 4,000 (from 1969-1983) include new research. PDF documents included with the public laws include bills (all versions), legislative reports, documents, CRS reports, committee prints, speeches in the Congressional Record and presidential signing statements.

Alternatives to Census.gov

SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new window
A web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application with 100,000+ data variables, including: demographic data from the US Census and American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), and D&B's Points-of-Interest business file providing access to over 5 million US business profiles. Includes MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset, which includes data on over 8,000 brands, 450 categories, and the MOSAIC consumer lifestyle segmentation system. Data is available down to the Census Block Group level.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
Interactive mapping tool for viewing and creating maps displaying economic, health, and social data.
SAGE Data This link opens in a new window
Data holdings for the United States are significant with some data available at state, county, or local geographies. International data,available at the country level, include population, food and agriculture, labor, trade, and more. Data are organized by subject and source.
ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window

StatsAmerica
A service of Indiana University's Business Research Center.
Internet Archive Wayback Machine
An archived version of the Census Bureau’s site (and of other government websites as well) is available through the Wayback Machine internet archive. Click on the agency logo to get to the archived site, and (ignoring the message that the site is down) click on the section you are looking for. Not all features will work well, and because it is archived, the site may not have all the content that was available just before shutdown.
Missouri Census Data Center
Offers census data (including estimates from the recently released 2012 American Community Survey) for every state in the country.