LibGuides: Presidential Information: Presidential Documents

Exeuctive Orders

Presidents may make rules and laws which bypass Congress through the use of Executive Order, Proclamation, and by other Presidential Actions.

You may also find them in the Public Papers of the Presidents as well as in 3 CFR, both of which are kept on the 3rd floor in Government Publications. Just ask for help. Further information about these papers may be found through the Government Publishing Office finding information page.

The Compilation of Presidential Documents has proclamations, executive orders, speeches, and other documents issued by the President. This Government Publishing Office web site has 1993-present.

Executive Orders
Executive Orders are the official documents issued by the President to manage the daily operations of the Executive branch of government. The order first appears in the Federal Register before being codified in Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
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This codification began with E.O. 7316, March 13, 1936. They are available online in a variety of places but this link is the official site.

Presidential Signing Statements, Memoranda, Administrative Orders

Presidential Actions
President Trump initiated this category of online material.
Presidential Directives and Where to Find Them
Presidential Directives: Background & Overview
These are usually classified documents given to the President to sign issued through the National Security Council. They are not published through the Federal Register or any other place.
Signing Statements
Ever wonder what a President says when he signs a bill into law?

Public Papers of the President

Beginning in 1957, National Archives & Records Administration began to compile all the presidential public documents to create an official series of official writings, statements, addresses, remarks, and papers. This material is issued in chronological order and are issued roughly twice each year.https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/research/guide.html

Companion series were added later including the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents

Public Papers of the President 1991-present; Print copies for earlier Presidents are in the Brooks Library under the call number J80.A283 (please check OneSearch for the exact call number).

Presidential Papers (Hein online, login required)
HeinOnline's U.S. Presidential Library holds more than 1,760 titles consisting of more than 1 million pages. The database includes messages and papers of the presidents, daily and weekly compilations of presidential documents, public papers of the presidents, documents relating to impeachment and the electoral college, Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), and a host of other related works.
FDLP Presidential Documents
The good librarians at the GPO created a guide of Presidential materials. There is a lot of information and links to resources on this guide.
Presidential Documents Guide
Guide to different types of Presidential documents available to the public and where these documents may be found.

Presidential Libraries

Official Presidential Libraries go back to Herbert Hoover. They are under the purview of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Since President Clinton, White House web sites were included in the Archives. In order to ensure access to government information on the Internet doesn't disappear between Presidential transitions, the End of Term Web Archive began in 2008. This project is cooperative between non-profits, academic institutions and the government to ensure access to government information.

For fun, take a look at NARA's Presidential Library Explorer. It is a visualization tool visualization presents the holdings of the Presidential Libraries in descending order from the library with the largest number of textual records to the smallest