Finding Resources by Format

Government documents are rich sources of primary materials that support research across disciplines. Produced by federal, provincial and municipal agencies, they offer access to official data, legislation, reports and policy analysis (Patterson, 2023).

What Can You Find?

• Bills and all their amendments

• Government-funded research

• Declassified military documents

• Politicians’ voting records

• Transcripts of hearings and inquiries

• Reliable statistics and factual data

• Historical and current policy information

• Research on public issues like health, education and the environment

• and more!

Finding government publications in Discovery can be challenging. These documents often lack consistent indexing terms, making them harder to locate among other search results. EBSCO, the company behind Discovery and many of our library collections, typically categorizes government documents under the “primary source” format or source type. Another hurdle: Discovery tends to surface more U.S. and international government content than Canadian materials. You may want to start looking at actual government agencies for documents, depending on what you're looking for.

To improve your search results:

• Use specific titles or document numbers when possible
• Filter by publication type (select Primary Source) or include “government document” as a keyword
• Combine keywords with the name of the issuing agency (e.g. “Health Canada” or “Environment and Climate Change Canada”)

How to Locate Government Documents and Publications in Discovery

1. Enter your search terms—use keywords, document titles, issuing agencies or known phrases.
2. Click “All Filters” under the search bar on the results page.
3. Select “Primary Source” under Source Type to narrow your results.
4. Refine your search as needed. For example, adding “Canada” and “government documents” can help filter out unrelated books and periodicals (as demonstrated in the video below).
5. Click on a title to view its record page and access the full text.