GOVINFO: Canadian Federal Government Information
General guide for locating Canadian federal government information
Search Techniques
The key to finding government information is identifying the author of the publication. Government authors include:
- government agencies
- government departments
- government ministries
- government programs
Although identifying the author of a document is the key to finding it, it is the one element that constantly changes because of new governments and government reorganization.
The sources below will help in determining government authors and will also provide information on the history of the government author so that older documents may be found.
- Canadiana AuthoritiesContent: Contains the authority (standardized) records (descriptions) that have been created by Library and Archives Canada cataloguing staff for inclusion in Canadiana: the National Bibliography and the AMICUS: Canadian National Catalogue.
Authority records are provided for:- name (author)
- government agencies
- government departments/ministries
- series titles, uniform titles and name/title records.
These name authorities are standardized so that consistent terminology is used to describe the authors in library catalogues.
- Info SourceContent: Series of publications that contain information about the Government of Canada's access to information and privacy programs. One of these publications, Info Source: Sources of Government and Employee Information includes information about thefunctions, programs, activities and related information holdings of government institutions subject to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.
Although the main purpose of these sources is to help individuals with their rights under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, these publications may be used to help in the identification of government authors and in finding information about federal government departments, programs, etc. and the information that is collected by them..
See: List of Institutions
Most searching is done by using keywords. These words have no meaning and therefore require the researcher to be imaginative and inventive in determining which terminology to use when searching.
Exploring subject terminology, ie., words that have meaning, can make a search more relevant.
The following sources may help determine subject terminology in a Canadian context:
- Canadian Subject Headings (CSH)Content: Searchable list of Canadian subject headings, developed by Library and Archives Canada, in the English language, using controlled (standardized) vocabulary to help in the location of subject content of documents on Canada and Canadian topics, including those recently in the news.
New Terminology: New subject headings are added on a monthly basis. These may be found at New and Revised Subject Headings
Designed to be used in conjunction with the Library of Congress Subject Headings - Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus (CST)Content: General terminology used in all fields of knowledge in the information resources of the Government of Canada. Does not include specialized terminology used in specific and limited disciplines.
Primarily intended for content managers, librarians, indexers and metadata developers in federal departments and agencies who must select controlled subject terms to index Government of Canada Web resources.
Language: Bilingual (English and French)Introduction
1. Scope and purpose
The
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus
(CST) is a bilingual thesaurus
consisting of terminology which represents all the fields treated in information resources of
the Government of Canada. The English version of the thesaurus includes 4792 terms, of
which 2173 are preferred terms and 2619 are non-preferred terms. All fields of knowledge
are represented in the CST, to varying degr
einology used in specific and limited disciplines.
The CST is In the Treasury Board
Standard on
Metadata
, the CST is identified as the preferred source of controlled vocabulary for that
purpose. Using the CST will help to reduce the duplication of effort in creating a variety of
controlled vocabularies in the Government of Canada, as well as increase the
interoperability of government web sites. Introduction
1. Scope and purpose
The
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus
(CST) is a bilingual thesaurus
of the great variety of subjects covered by
the thesaurus. By design, the thesaurus does
developers in federal departments and agencies who must select controlled subject terms
to index Government of Canada Web resources. In the Treasury Board
CST has its origins in theSubject Thesaurus
of the Depository Services Program
(DSP) at Public Works and Government Services Canada. The Subject Thesaurus of the DSP was developed between May 1999 and February 2000 as a source of indexing terms for the Government of Canada Publications Database. In 2001, various projects for indexing information resources of the Government of Canada led to the creation of the
CST, by enlarging the scope of the
Subject Thesaurus. Between 2001 and 2004, the
Subject Thesaurus of the DSP was derived from the CST. In June 2006, Library and Archives Canada took over the responsibility of managing and updating the CST from the Depository Services Program.
The CST is managed and updated by Library and Archives Canada. - Publications, Glossaries and MoreContent: Includes terminology used in the federal public service and provides links to glossaries and vocabularies in English-French, French-English and some equivalent terms in other languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and some in Aboriginal languages.
These publications are: - Publishing and Depository Services Program Subject ThesaurusContent: Source of subject descriptors that was developed by the federal Depository Services Program (DSP) for use in the catalogue records describing federal government publications. Also being used to describe publications that appear on the Web. Inlcudes a Keyword Index at the beginning and the Subject Thesaurus starting on page 83 (87).
Subject Thesaurus includes the French term, related terms (RT), narrower terms (NT) and broader terms (BT). Also provides cross-references (referral to the appropriate term to be used).
A French Language Thesaurus is also available.
Date Coverage: Began in the early 1990s - TermiumContent: Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank.
Provides information on words used by the government and provides some history of the word's usage as well as alternative terminology.
- Last Updated: Nov 3, 2023 10:48 AM
- URL: https://libguides.ucalgary.ca/guides/govcanfed
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