I am a librarian who is passionate about helping people access information. When I worked as a reference librarian in a public library, I received questions nearly every day about how to use government websites.
In this newsletter, I show you how to use U.S. government websites. Government websites are crucial information portals that help us with lots of things - from paying our taxes to researching legislation to accessing important data.1
But more often than not, they are confusing to find, use, and navigate. I’m here to help with that.
Thank you for reading!
Subscription overview:
What you receive with a free subscription:
A post on the third Sunday of each month that all subscribers receive regardless of subscription status
Access to the full archive of free content
The resources I feature are always free to use and concern public information. I don’t want to gatekeep them. At the end of each free post, I will let you know what the topic of the paid content was for that month and link to the resource I featured. However, you will not be able to access the Substack posts about that content unless you have a paid subscription
Paid subscriptions: You can sign up for a $5/pay-per-month subscription or an annual subscription of $50/year.
Here are the perks that you will receive if you are a paid subscriber:
An additional, paid-only post on the first Sunday of each month. Different topic/resource than the free content for that month
Access to the full archive of free and paid content
The ability to comment publicly on my posts (all subscribers can still contact me by replying to my newsletters or sending me an email)
The free post on the third Sunday of every month that all subscribers receive regardless of subscription status
Substack also gives the option to become a “founding member” and commit an annual amount of your choosing that is higher than the annual subscription cost of $50/year. Founding members will not receive any more content than other paid subscribers, but I will send you a personalized note each year around the anniversary of your subscription to thank you for your support.
Official government websites (i.e.: the url ends in “.gov”) are owned and funded by the U.S. government. The content on government websites is subject to influence by leadership, administrations, policies, or other players. When performing research, it is always valuable to consider biases and use a variety of sources to evaluate issues, reach conclusions, and develop your opinions. My presentation of government information is not an endorsement of a particular policy, agency, or administration, but rather an effort to connect you with resources and provide strategies to use them effectively.
Posts by The Civic Librarian are not in any way approved, endorsed, sponsored, authorized by, or associated with any U.S. government agencies or organizations.
If you want to learn more about government information and the laws that protect our access to it, check out the website for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA - one of the better-known public access laws).
