Government Reference Sources: Consumer Information

Starting Points

• Consumer.gov.
• Consumer Action Website
• Consumer Information (Federal Trade Commission)
• Federal Citizen Information Center
• Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Consumer Information Bureau (Federal Communications Commission) focuses on telephones, internet, and broadcasting issues, including the nation's conversion from analog to digital transmission for televisions.
• www.Recalls.gov links to government-required product recalls.

More Federal Sites of Interest to Consumers

• United States Postal Services
  • Postal Rate Calculator
  • Zip Code Lookup
• Health:
  • Healthfinder (United States Department of Health and Human Services)
  • Health Information. A growing collection of the most requested National Institute of Health publications.
  • Consumer Health/MEDLINEplus (National Library of Medicine)
  • Household products database. Health and safety information on household products from the National Library of Medicine.
  • Health Hotlines: Toll-Free Numbers from the National Library of Medicine. Browse by subject or search by keyword to find health-related organizations operating toll-free telephone services.
• National Do Not Call Registry (Federal Trade Commission)
• Fighting Back Against Identity Theft (Federal Trade Commission)
• Fuel Economy Site
• Official United States Time
• National Weather Service. Weather forecasts and warnings.
• Quick Links for Consumers Financial information for consumers. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
• Scams and Frauds
• Stopping Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and E-Mail
• Protect Yourself: Prepare for emergencies and disasters
• Consumer Price Indexes Home Page (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Air travel consumer report (Department of Transportation). Information by airline regarding flight delays, lost baggage, oversales of flights, and other consumer complaints.

Strategies to Find More

1. State and local government internet sites: Most states and some counties/cities have internet sites to help consumers avoid and/or resolve problems. Examples include:
   • Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs
   • California Department of Consumer Affairs
2. Ways to Search for Government Information, an Oviatt Library guide on how to identify and locate government information, includes list of indexes for government publications (some of these indexes are online) and links to internet search engines such as Google's U.S. Government Search and USA.gov which are specifically for government web sites.
3. There are numerous non-governmental organizations that provide information and/or other types of assistance to consumers. Some of these organizations specialize in particular geographic locales as state laws and city/county ordinances vary from one area to another. Many of these organizations can be easily located via the internet, but it is important to evaluate resources, in this case the organization and the information provided, before you rely on it. A few examples of consumer-oriented non-profit organizations are:
   • California Consumer Protection Foundation
   • Consumer Federation of California
   • California Consumer Rights Association
   • JustHealth
4. Use additional library resources which include more than just government information. The Library Catalog and the Oviatt Library Home Page are helpful places for California State University, Northridge users to access these resources; they also may Ask a Librarian for help.

Created and maintained by Mary M. Finley
Questions or comments: mary.finley@csun.edu
Links checked: 16 July 2008