Federal Depository Program - Government Documents

In order to make goverment information easily and freely accessible to the citizens of the United States, the Government Printing Office has designated over 1300 federal depository libraries throughout the United States and its territories.  Depository libraries may be found  in federal agencies, service academies, law schools, state appellate courts, public libraries and in academic libraries (both state-supported and private).

Administered by the Superintendent of Documents, there are two kinds of depository libraries:  regional and selective.  There are currently 53 regional depositories nationwide that receive and retain permanently all  publications distributed by the Federal Depository Library Program, thus ensuring comprehensive government documents collections for their respective regions.  The regional library provides interlibrary loan and reference service to both depository and nondepository libraries in its region.  Selective depositories are not required to receive and retain all government publications.  In addition to a basic collection, they may choose those items that are best suited for their primary clientale as well as the general public in their Congressional district.  All depositories are open to the public for free use.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa Hamilton Library has served as a  federal depository since the establishment of the university in 1907 and beginning 1977 as the regional depository for Hawaii and the Pacific.  It is the largest and most comprehensive depository collection in the region.  There are also ten selective depository libraries in the state of Hawaii and four in the Pacific outlying areas of American Samoa, Guam, amd the Federated States of Micronesia. 

Featured Electronic Resources and Web Sites for accessing Federal Documents

• Government Information Online Chat Service (Ask A Librarian) Free nationwide online information service supported by designated depository libraries in the U.S. Government Printing Office's Federal Depository Library Program.
• Ben's Guide - A Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids
• American Factfinder - U.S. Census Data
• Hawai'i Census & Population (DBEDT) - Hawai'i Census Data
• USA.gov - Official U.S. Government Web Portal
• Declassified Documents Declassified U.S. government documents obtained from presidential libraries
• GPO Access - Government Printing Office Web Site
• LexisNexis Congressional - Index to Congressional Publications from 1789-
• LexisNexis Statistical - Federal, state, regional and international statistics
• Marcive - Catalog of Federal Government Documents
• STAT-USA - Federal business, trade and economic information
• Thomas - Federal legislative information
• U.S. Congressional Serial Set - Via NewsBank Readex
• Frequently Used Sites - Links related to U.S. Federal Government information
• Google U.S. Government Search - searches .gov, (state & federal) .mil and other selected domains
• World News Connection - Foreign news service provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Open Source Center (OSC).