United States Government Information

The U.S. depository collection, which began in 1895, has provided the systematic supply of the regular output of the Government Printing Office; over the years, titles extending back to the Continental Congress have been added to form a substantial documentary resource of the early government of America. In addition, several agencies have become the focus of the Collection. These agencies include Agriculture Department; Commerce Department; Congress; Interior Department; Office of the President; State Department; and War Department. Many smaller agencies with a limited output of publications are also very significant because of their historical context: for example, Panama Canal, Censorship Office, and the Children's Bureau. Their publications are also systematically collected. Active book selection for the United States Federal collection has brought in government agency publications which are not issued by the Government Printing Office. Still more importantly for the researcher are the special resources of unpublished archives, usually in micro format.

Other special resources include the microfiche series of declassified documents, titles in the American Statistics Index, documents issued in the National Security Archive series, technical reports of the Atomic Energy Commission, and a typescript copy of the hearings of the National Recovery Administration (1933-1935).

Finally, a note on the physical size of the United States collection underscores its significance: there are in excess of 130,000 volume equivalents of publications, 160,000 technical reports, thousands of reels of microfilm of archives, more than 300,000 microfiche, and several hundred CD ROMs. Many documents are also available electronically via the Internet including GPO Access and FirstGov.

Last modified: June 17, 2008