Federal Depository Library Program

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Federal Documents

As the New York State regional depository for United States government publications, the State Library receives and permanently keeps a copy of every document distributed under the Government Printing Office Depository Library Program. In addition, the Library owns a microform edition of depository (1956-June 1992) and non-depository (1953+) Federal documents.

Some of the major Federal document collections include:

• 1990 and previous U.S. census materials,
• Congressional bills and hearings, and
• agency annual and special reports.

Many U.S. government documents are listed in Excelsior, the Library's online catalog. Print resources available onsite at the Library include the following Federal documents finding aids:

• American Statistics Index (ASI)
• Congressional Information Service. CIS/Index
• CIS U.S. Serial Set Index
• The U.S. Government Printing Office GPOM CD-ROM database, 1976 +, or the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications,1895 +

However, many government documents are not listed in any of the indexes and are available only from the issuing agency. For onsite researchers, addresses and telephone numbers of Federal agencies are listed in directories located in the Library's reference area.

Other Depository Libraries

The State Library also has responsibilities for the 83 selective Federal depositories located throughout New York State. It acts as backup for reference and interlibrary loan, provides consulting services, and authorizes the discard of depository materials retained by selective depositories for at least five years.

New York State Library Policies for Federal Depository Library Materials

• Public Service Guidelines for Government Information in Electronic Formats
  
  
• Internet Use Policy
  
  

On-Line Government Information

The Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection is composed of primary data sources in full text and secondary data sources or finding tools at GPO or at other official sites.

For additional links to online resources for Federal government information, see U.S. Government Information.

Government Publications Reform Act of 1998

On July 10, 1998 the "Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998" (S. 2288) was introduced.

The bill would substantially revise Title 44 of the U.S. Code by creating these new Presidentially appointed offices:

• Administor of the Government Publication's Office,
• Superintendent of Publications, Production and Procurement Services, and
• Superintendent of Government Publications Access Program.

It would also:

• repeal provisions concerning the Joint Committee on Printing, transferring its functions in order to resolve a conflict between government branches;
• require that agencies notify the Superintendent of Government Access Programs whenever agencies create new publications, whether on paper or electronically, and facilitate public access to them;
• redesignate Federal Depository Libraries as Federal Government Publications Access Libraries.

The text of S. 2288 is available on GPO Access; the statements concerning it are in the Congressional Record of July 10, 1998, pages S7953-55.