About
DiscoverGov provides a unified interface for searching across multiple U.S. Federal Government databases including GPO's Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and GovInfo.
Content
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)
The CGP is GPO's finding tool for the National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications. The National Bibliography is made up of publications from across the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The CGP is a bibliography, not a document repository. When available, bibliographic records contain links to the online, official, and authoritative copy. Learn more about the CGP.
GovInfo
GovInfo provides free public access to full text of official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. GovInfo is a standards-compliant preservation repository, advanced search engine, and content management system that securely controls digital content throughout its lifecycle to ensure content integrity and authenticity. Learn more about GovInfo.
Federal Databases
DiscoverGov can retrieve reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to publications available online. View a complete list of resources that can be searched through DiscoverGov. While all resources searched by DiscoverGov are U.S. Federal Government information products, the content retrieved from within those products may include non-Government publications. Content available in these resources may change over time.
To understand the differences between GPO’s products, please consult the table below:
| CGP | GovInfo | DiscoverGov | |
| System of Record | Yes | Yes | No |
| Full-text Links in Results | Limited | Yes | Limited |
| Search Full-text Content | No | Yes | Limited |
| Citation Generator | No | Yes | Yes |
| Federated Searching | No | No | Yes |
| Cataloging Metadata | Yes: MARC | Yes: MODS/METS/PREMIS | Yes: PNX/MARC |
| Search Types | Basic, Advanced, Browse, Expert | Basic, Advanced, Browse | Basic, Advanced, Browse |
| All Three Branches of Government Represented | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Training
The DiscoverGov Help page has extensive information on how to use the tool. The text of the Help page is also available for download:
- DiscoverGov Search Help (PDF, 33 pages, updated in 2025)
Consult the DiscoverGov Help Tutorials page for short recordings and tutorials on:
- Overview (Video, 4 minutes, recorded in 2025)
- Searching for a Known Publication (Video, 4 minutes, recorded in 2025)
- Searching by Topic for Publications (Video, 1 minute, recorded in 2025)
- Searching for Congressional Publications (Video, 5 minutes, recorded in 2025)
- Searching for Publications by Agency (Video, 4 minutes, recorded in 2025)
- Working with Results (Video, 4 minutes, recorded in 2025)
- Refining Your Results (Video, 2 minutes, recorded in 2025)
In addition, the following recorded webinars introduce DiscoverGov and demonstrate the search functionality:
- 2024 Fall DLC: Introducing DiscoverGov: Preview Our New Discovery Search Tool (Video, 37 minutes, recorded in 2024)
- DiscoverGov: A New Search Tool for Federal Government Information (Video, 48 minutes, recorded in 2025)