Although we weren’t expecting the inaugural post of our government information blog to coincide with a federal government shutdown, that’s just the nature of government: surprises can happen at any moment! We hope this blog can be another way of finding the information you need for your UNT project, your business or professional research, your personal life, or any other reason.

This blog is maintained by the Government Documents Department within the University of North Texas Libraries. As a Federal and Texas State Depository Library, we provide access to government information (in both paper and electronic format) to anyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a UNT student, a member of the local Denton community, or even a resident of a foreign country: we will help you find the government information you need. See our departmental Web page to learn more about the Federal Depository Library Program.

What you can expect to find here:

Announcements

•  We’ll keep you up to date on the latest breaking government-related news.
•  We’ll let give you a heads up on important and interesting documents recently added to our collection.
•  We’ll let you know about upcoming special events hosted by our department.

Tips and Suggestions

• We’ll offer timely tips and suggestions on how you can participate effectively in seasonal government events such as elections and income tax filing.
• We’ll highlight some of the more popular resources in our collection and provide tips and suggestions on how to use them effectively.
• We’ll provide guides on how to use government documents to do your student projects and assignments.

Fun stuff

• Government documents are not boring! (Well, not all of them.) We’ll occasionally highlight some of the more fun or unusual items in our collection—things that you might not necessarily think of as government information, such as comic books, musical scores, posters, and art exhibition catalogs.
• We’ll also highlight some life-enhancing resources that can contribute to your personal enjoyment of life: fun stuff such as cookbooks, travel guides, and bird-watching handbooks, as well as more practical information, such as how to help your child do better in school, or how to obtain financial assistance.

Let us know what you think

We invite you to subscribe to this blog, and encourage you to post comments and ask questions.

We can provide you with information and assistance in the following areas:

• Strategies and sources for finding information on a specific topic
• Information about how to use indexes, online databases, and other research tools
• Information about what we have in our collection

Keep in mind that we’re not lawyers or doctors, though—we can’t provide legal, medical, business, or tax advice; nor do we directly provide statistical data, which is so often open to interpretation; but we can direct you to the appropriate sources of such information.

If you would like help in finding government information, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Article by Jesse Silva.