What Government Can do Right: GPOACCESS

THemstock's picture
Submitted by THemstock on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 16:10
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During the current health care debate the government’s ability in providing a public option is often questioned – What has government ever done right?
Well the government has done at least one thing right – gpoaccess.gov!
Gpoaccess provides access to:
The United States Code (USC) 1994, 2000 and 2006 editions. There are some important limits to remember: 2007 and 2008 supplements are not included in this service, the USC is unannotated (i.e. there are no citations to cases, regulations and secondary sources that are found in the commercially published USCA and USCS), searching is adequate but not as sophisticated as Westlaw or LexisNexis searching.
Despite these limitations there are still some important reasons to use the USC at gpoaccess: it is free (search for free on GPO and update quickly on Westlaw or Lexis to engage in cost effective legal research) and official PDF files that are identical to the print USC are available.
Federal regulations are also available on gpoaccess. The traditional print regulatory resources, the Federal Register ,Code of Federal Regulations  and the List of Sections Affected are reproduced online in PDF format. The government also maintains a service called the eCFR – this continually updates regulations as changes occur in the Federal Register. (Westlaw and LexisNexis both have a similar service but the eCFR is often updated quicker and is always free.)
Need a refresher on administrative research? Try some of these resources:
            Administrative Law Research Guide
            CFR Citation Locator Tool (YouTube video posted by HeinOnline)
            Or stop by the library!

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