Many people are unaware that the U.S. Government is a major publisher. The Government Printing Office and government agencies publish thousands of documents each year, over 80% of which are magazines, periodicals and other titles issued in series. The Public Documents & Patents collection includes magazines that span early American history to the present.
The seminal government newspaper is, of course, The Congressional Record, which has changed names several times since its inception in 1789 but remains the daily record of the texts and debates in Congress. A rich resource of more recent vintage is the Federal Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which monitors foreign broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements, then publishes full-text translations in daily reports. These reports reveal, for example, how Middle Eastern papers covered the Gulf War, how Moscow reported the 1984 Olympic boycott, and how local Prague news releases treated the skinhead uprising in the late 1980s.
Other magazines housed in the Public Documents & Patents Department have been published by the government for specific purposes. A sample of historical titles:
Amerika
qIA 1.14 and S 1.55 1945-1966
Magazine published by the State Department post-WWII, consisting of articles from popular American magazines translated into Russian and distributed in the Soviet Union.
The Blue Eagle
fY3: W21.8/19
Informational weekly bulletin of the National Recovery Administration.
George Washington Bicentennial News
fY3: W27.25 1930-1931
Newspaper published in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth by his hometown paper, the Alexandria Gazette.
Panama Canal Review
CA1.8 1950-1975
Monthly publication of the Panama Canal Commission, with feature stories and canal statistics.
Problems of Communism
IA 1.8 1952-1992
Compilation of research and background information on the theoretical and political aspects of world communism, drawn from national and international scholars.
Public Roads
qA22.6, C37.8, TD 2.109, and TD 2.19 1918 - current
Magazine devoted to better U. S. highways, with reports for state and county planners and engineers.
School Life
qI16.26 and FS 5.7 1919-1964
National and foreign education newsletter reporting state and local feature stories, teacher recruitment activities, and state conferences and meetings. During World War II, the newsletter became Education for Victory (FS 5.26) as a tool of the Federal Security Agency for converting the school curriculum and facilities to aid the war effort.
Victory
qPr 32.5021 1942-1945
Promotional magazine for public support of the war effort, oversize and heavily illustrated with patriotic photography. Augmented by the Victory Bulletin (PR 32.5008), a weekly newsletter of domestic war news and suggestions for homemakers to promote the war economy. Other wartime periodicals include Firepower (fW24.4) and Naval Firepower (fN 18.12), magazines for the men and women of ordnance plants.
The department continues to receive long-standing magazines from government agencies that are the seminal sources of information. These include:
- Employment & Earnings
- FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
- Federal Probation
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin
- Monthly Labor Review
- Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
- Producer Price Index (PPI) Detailed Report
- Treasury Bulletin
- U.S. Customs Today
... and, of course, the magazines from the Armed Forces, including Soldiers, All Hands, and Airman, which offered a troop recipe in a recent issue that shows C-rations aren't what they used to be.
Like other periodicals, many government magazines are now available on the Internet. For more information on these titles and government online databases, please contact the Public Documents & Patents Department at 513/369-6971 or by e-mail.