Search Tips

Searching and Browsing the U.S. Government Bookstore

Help topics on this page:

Search Options | Search Shortcuts | Search Results | Browse by Topic | Browse by Agency | Email Alert Service |

Search Options

The U.S. Government Bookstore allows users to search for and order Government information products currently available from the Information Dissemination area of the U.S. Government Printing Office. Users can also find information about forthcoming material, as well as titles that have been recently superseded or have gone out of print.

Available media include hardcover and paperbook books, posters, and other printed publications; eBooks and digital magazines; CD-ROMs and DVDs;  microfiche, and more.

The U.S. Government Online Bookstore is updated daily.

There are two ways to search the U.S. Government Bookstore:

 

  1. Simple Search - The Simple Search will result in a list of all publications available to buy on the Online Bookstore.

The Simple Search box is the more general search; this search box appears at both the top and the bottom of all pages on the site.

To do a simple search, type your search terms into the box and then click on the red SEARCH button.

Search terms for a simple search can be a topic, word or phrase in the publication's description or title, ISBN or ISSN, author or editor, publishing agency; book title or series; GPO stock number, date/year published, or product format (such as paperback, hardcover, CD-ROM,  microfiche, poster, videotape, etc.).

  1. Advanced Search - The Advanced Search will result in a list of all publications available to buy as well as publications that have been superseded or have gone out of print on the Online Bookstore.

An Advanced Search uses fields that allow the user to make a search more specific by limiting the results to pre-selected elements, such as stock number, title, author, and key phrase. The Advanced Search feature is located on the Searching page.

To search for upcoming or out-of-print publications, choose No from the first drop-down labeled "Limit to titles available for purchase."

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Search Shortcuts with Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are connectors that help to narrow your search. There are three Boolean operators: +(and), OR, and -(not). The default Boolean operator is OR.

  • + (and) This tells the Bookstore that all search results must contain the searched words or phrase. To designate an AND operator, the search word or phrase should be preceded by a plus (+) sign.

    (For example, to list only publications that contain both the words Education and Department, you would search for: +Education +Department)
     
  • OR This tells the Bookstore that search results can contain all words or only individual words in a phrase that were searched. This is the default search mode in the Bookstore.

    (For example, a search containing the words Environmental Protection Agency will return results that contain all three words, as well as results that contain only Agency, Environmental, or Protection. Results with all three words will be highest on the list of the results.)
     
  •  - (not) This tells the Bookstore that all search results must contain one word but not another. To designate a NOT operator, the search word or phrase should be preceded by a minus (-) sign.

    (For example, if you only want results that contain the word Education but not the word Department, you would search for: Education -Department.)
     
  • Quotation Marks: When searching the U.S. Government Bookstore, exact phrases should be enclosed in quotation marks. For example, if you are searching for a specific title of a publication, you would enclose that title in quotation marks for more precise search results.

(For example, 9/11 Commission Report would be searched as "9/11 Commission Report".)

  • Truncation: An asterisk (*) can be used to designate a wild card within a word. This wild card will then match any characters. A wild card can appear anywhere in a search word except the first character. Wild cards can not be used inside of a search phrase.

(For example, a search for legislat* will retrieve results with which contain the words legislation, legislature, legislative, etc.)

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Search Results List

Each search you conduct in the U.S. Government Bookstore will result in a list of publications that are arranged based on how well they match the words you searched.

The maximum number publications listed on your results page is 10. If your search results in more than 10 matches, you will find additional pages of results listed at the top of the search results list.

How to search the list of results:

  • Either click on the > to go to the next page or >> to go to the last page of results.
  • Alternatively, you can type a page number in directly to the page number box then hit enter to be taken directly to that page of results.

For more information on a publication, click on its title to view a detailed description.

How to determine what items are available for purchase: Only titles displaying either an ADD TO CART or a PRE-ORDER NOW button are available for purchase.

How to purchase an item from search results: To add a publication to your shopping cart from the search results list, click the ADD TO CART or PRE-ORDER NOW button.

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Browse by Topic

The U.S. Government Bookstore categorizes the more than 6,000 different books, periodicals, posters, pamphlets, and subscription services for sale into approximately over 200 broad areas of interest, from accounting and auditing to worker's compensation and U.S. history. Choose a topic category from the menu on the left side of the site.

To view a list of all the Topics at once, click on the blue BROWSE ALL TOPICS bar at the top of the left-hand menu. 

Clicking on a topic category link will open a page with all of the publications available from GPO that fall into that subject category. Add an item to your shopping cart by choosing the Add to Cart icon.

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Browse by Agency

We have also categorized products by the Federal Agency that published them. Find the agency publisher listed under the BROWSE BY AGENCY menu down the bottom half of the left side of the page.

  • Legislative Branch agencies such as GPO as well as the House of Representatives and the Senate are listed under "Congress & Legislative Agencies."
     
  • Executive Branch agencies are listed directly under the Department name such as the Department of Defense or Department of Health and Human Services, except for publications from the Executive Office of the President which can be found under "The White House & Executive Office of the President."
     
  • Judicial Branch agencies include the Supreme Court and other U.S. Federal courts, can be found under "Judicial Branch & Federal Courts."
     
  • Independent Agencies that are full Federal agencies that do not fall under one of the main cabinet departments, such as the Smithsonian Institution, NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency or the Social Security Administration fall under the Browse by Agency category of "Independent Agencies & Government Corporations."
     
  • Federal Boards, Commissions & Committees: The President and Congress can appoint any number of Federal boards, independent commissions or committees to investigate or oversee a particular topic, such as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission or the Federal Reserve Board. To find publications from one of these, look under "Federal Boards, Commissions & Committees" in the Browse by Agency menu at the left.

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New Titles by Topic Email Alert Service

This free service allows you to receive convenient and timely Email updates of selected new publications available for sale from the Government Printing Office.

Sign up for any or all of the email alert lists covering some of our most popular subject areas and receive notifcation via email about new titles as soon as they are available for purchase.

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