U.S. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION RESEARCH GUIDE: Public Access Policy

Access to Government Information

Any member of the public may access U.S. government information in Boatwright Memorial Library as mandated by law. The public has access to government information in all formats during hours Boatwright Memorial Library is open to the general public. (Link to Boatwright Library's Current Hours). Access to the Boatwright Memorial Library's Government Information web pages is constant.

Anyone may request government information available in Boatwright Memorial Library collections regardless of format at no charge. There is a small fee for photocoping and printing that requires the purchase of a copy card. Scanning is free of charge, but requires a user to have a thumb drive. (More about Printing, Scanning, and Copying at Boatwright Library).

Research assistance for government information is available during hours reference staff is on call. You may ask for assistance at the Information and Assistance Desk at Boatwright Memorial Library and the desk associate will direct you to the on-call reference librarian. Please contact the Government Information Librarian directly if you want in-depth assistance (contact information is in the right column of this page).

Circulation of Government Documents

All UR students, faculty, staff, alumni and Special Borrowers may check out government documents with their UR ID card that is also their library card.

Most government documents circulate, with the exception of items located in Boatwright Memorial Library's Reference Collection, Rare Books Collection or Special Collections; or Government Documents in poor condition.

A user sign-on name and password are necessary to access library computers. Staff at the Information and Assistance Desk will provide a temporary sign-on name and password to members of the general public needing access to government information. Note that during midterms and finals, guest computer sign-on is suspended.

Library subscription databases are available on public computers during all hours that Boatwright Library is open to the general public.

Boatwright Memorial Library updates its computers on an ongoing basis to provide optimal access to electronic resources for all users and exceeds computer requirements stipulated by the Federal Depository Library Program.

All patrons of Boatwright Memorial Library may download, print, or email government information in electronic formats from any public computer terminal in the library. Printing is subject to a small fee.

Every effort is made to make government information in electronic formats available to the public in a timely manner. Documents in physical format are processed immediately upon receipt. The library's web pages are updated continuously.

Last updated: 17-December-2015
If you have questions about this policy, please contact Samantha Guss (contact info at right).