New York State
Document Depository Program

The Document Depository Program

Since its creation in 1818, the New York State Library has been a repository of official State publications of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, commissions, public authorities, and other agencies of State government. The Library is the official New York State Document Depository and has the world's largest collection of New York State documents.

In January 1989 the State Library established a redesigned depository program to make the New York State documents the Library receives easily available. Nearly 300 libraries throughout New York State participate in this program as depository libraries, research depository libraries, reference centers, or information and access centers for New York State documents.

Laws of 1993

In June of 1993, the New York State Document Depository Program was recognized in law with the approval of Chapter 176, Laws of 1993. This statute describes the depository program structure and lays out the responsibilities of the New York State Library and other agencies.

The law stipulates that every State officer, department, commission, institution, authority, legislative committee, and board is to send 30 copies of any report which it has printed to the State Library. The State Library keeps multiple copies of each publication in the Library's collection for consultation or for photocopying. From 1989 through 1994, publications were microfilmed to ensure permanent preservation and availability, and copies of the microfilm were sent to each of the 20 public, college, and university libraries in New York State that had been designated as microfiche depositories for New York State documents. Paper copy was also sent to the 20 libraries that were designated as paper depositories for New York State documents. Copies are available for loan from the State Library. State agencies that would like additional information on complying with this law should contact the library.

Information about State documents available through the Library is included in the Checklist of Official Publications of the State of New York, which is printed monthly. Online versions of the Checklist are also available.

Scanned Documents

Checklisted documents for 1995 onward are or will be scanned and made available online as PDF images. In addition, some high-demand historical documents are also available online. These documents can all be accessed either:

through Excelsior, the Library's online catalog, or
by searching the NYSL Digital Collections directly.