Free Services and Materials

The Government Reference Service offers a variety of free services and materials to support the work-related information needs of Maryland state government employees.

Government Reference Service librarians provide:

• In-depth research or ready reference on any topic
• Customized bibliographies with citations from books, periodical articles, reports, government documents, and proceedings on any subject
• Information and articles from hundreds of databases covering all subject areas
• Copies of periodical articles, reports, documents, and proceedings from libraries throughout the United States
• Circulating books from public, academic, government and special libraries throughout the United States
• Workshops about information resources offered by the State Library Resource Center/Central Library at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore

Examples of Information Requests:

• Statistical information on retail sales in Maryland
• A copy of a June 2000 federal law about electronic signatures
• Biographical information on Maryland poet Lucille Clifton
• A bibliography on the incidence of albinism in fish
• Recent materials about U.S. copyright laws and practice
• A full-text article from the Sacramento Bee about gun control
• A list of articles and books concerning smart growth and sprawl
• A list of articles about employment discrimination during interviews.
• Statistics about inflation since 1977
• Materials on the Maryland iron industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
• A list of associations or boards dealing with criminal justice