Government information is:

1
Government information is

• Mission-driven
• Authoritative
• Primary source
• Diverse in viewpoints
• Supported by unique information-collecting
  resources

2
Basic strategies

• Use secondary sources to learn about issues and
  players
• Newspapers
• Academic Search Premier
• Specialized journals such as CQ Weekly Report

3
Basic strategies (cont.)

• Determine appropriate level of government (local,
  state, federal, international)
• Identify relevant government bodies
• Firstgov.gov
• Oregon.gov
• Use library catalog and Summit

4
Basic strategies (cont.)

• 5. Use specialized bibliographic tools
• GPO Monthly Catalog
• Lexis-Nexis Congressional
• 6. Use search engines, limited by government
  domain (e.g., .or.us or .gov or .gob.mx)
• 7. Evaluate information for relevance, accuracy,
  objectivity, authoritativeness, timeliness, etc.

5
Case study

• Rights of foreign nationals under Vienna
  Convention
• High court takes defendents rights case from
  Oregon, The Oregonian, November 8, 2005, p. A1.
  (Internet source) http//www.oregonlive.com/news/o
  regonian (Accessed 11/8/2005).

6
Government info clues from source article

• Oregon Supreme Court case
• Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
• Moises Sanchez-Llamas (defendant)
• Vienna Convention
• U.S., Mexico differ on convention rights
• U.S. State Dept. position on Vienna Conv.

7
Going beyond the clues

• UO catalog consular relations and
  authorunited nations
• Lexis-Nexis Congressional