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Educational Resources from Government Agencies: A GIC Guide

The GIC site identifies government information (documents, databases, resources) produced by local, state, Federal, and international governmental organizations for use by K-12 teachers and students.

About the Committee

The Government Information for Children (GIC) Committee is a unit of the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association (ALA).

Our Mission

To promote government information in order to engage K-12 students in learning about the arts, literature, history, culture, science, technology, and government through games and other interactive activities; to assist teachers and school librarians with locating teaching aids, lesson plans, and exciting tools to enhance students' learning; and to provide librarians with a collection of free government resources to advance their reference interview and collection development decisions.

Our Vision

To be an authoritative source for government resources and information for children, specifically in grades K - 12 by providing resources and lesson plans for students, classroom teachers, and librarians in the subjects of the Arts, Language Arts, Social Studies, and STEM.

Previous site information

The University of Central Florida hosted the GODORT - Government Information for Children site as a group within their LibGuides content from 2014 through 2020. From 2018 through 2020 the information from the previous site was migrated to the new GODORT LibGuides site.

Specific permission to use the GODORT logo in the banner on this GODORT Committee site was obtained for the previous version of this site in a meeting with the GODORT Website Administrator and the GODORT Archivist at the 2014 Annual Conference.

The previous image of "the child with blocks/student in chair/graduating student" on the right side of this site's banner was created in 2014 by the University of Central Florida Libraries' graphic artist specifically for the previous version of this GODORT GIC site.

The current image of a government building surrounded by books, tablets, and other information carriers represents the myriad of ways that students can now access government information. It was designed by the GIC Committee in 2023.


Tom Adamich founded the GODORT GIC Committee. Connie Williams (Teacher Librarian, Petaluma High School) was one of the charter co-chairs of the GODORT GIC Committee. Rich Gause (Government Information Librarian, University of Central Florida) provided hosting and maintenance for the previous LibGuides site.

In 2015 the following team of ALA Emerging Leaders researched and contributed to content for the initial LibGuides site:

  • Amanda Ingalls, NY (Sponsor: Madison-Oneida School Library System)
  • Carmen Sanchez, CA (Sponsor: Public Library Association [PLA])
  • Kimberly Trinh-Sy, MN (Sponsor: Minnesota Library Association)
  • Erwin Camia, DC (Sponsor: Government Documents Round Table [GODORT])
  • Melissa Ringle, IN (Sponsor: Association of College & Research Libraries [ACRL])

Ask A Government Information Librarian

Submit a question to a Government Information Online Librarian. (Please note that, in most cases, you will be communicating with a librarian who does not work at your local library.)

Help us to help you

  • Give as much information as possible

  • Tell us where you are located so we can find resources for your area

  • Spell out acronyms -- don't assume that we know what you mean

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