Government Information: Federal, State & Local: About Federal Publications

A guide to finding federal, state and foreign government information.

Additional Research Guides for Government Documents and Information:

Government Information: Federal, State & Local

Consumer Information

State Law, Legislation and Regulations

U.S. Legislation and Regulations

U.S. Presidents

United Nations

Collection Tools

Item Lister
Find a list of item numbers selected by the UT Libraries (enter depository number 0577)
Suggested Core Collections by Library Type
The Suggested Core Collection List is a list of publication titles suggested for selection by academic, public, and law libraries. Large depository libraries (over 600,000 volumes) would select most of the titles indicated for their type of library as a matter of course.
FDLP List of Classes
The List of Classes is the official listing of publications available for selection by depository libraries participating in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).

Federal Depository Library Program

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to government information created at taxpayers' expense.The authority for the FDLP is found in 44 United States Code §§1901‐1616.

UT Libraries was designated a land-grant selective depository library for U.S. Government Documents publications in 1907.The current selection rate is approximately 30 percent of the publications in the List of Classes that are made available to participating depository libraries. UT selections are primarily digital format.

Other Knoxville depositories are:

The regional depository library for the state of Tennessee is located at the The University of Memphis.

Finding Government Documents

The UT Libraries' Online Catalog is the place to begin a search for government publications held by or made accessible by the library. As with other library materials, the catalog shows specific formats and locations for government publications. Search by title, author, subject. SuDocs classification searching is available on the ONESEARCH Browse page. You can use the pull down menu and choose SUDOC Call Number.

Print and cd/dvd, government documents shelved by SuDocs number are located in the Storage collection in the Hoskins Library. These materials may be borrowed for regular loan periods. Some Pre-1976 government documents held in the Libraries' collection may not accessible in the online catalog. The shelf list card file in Research Services, is used to verify holdings for uncataloged documents held in Hoskins Storage. Please contact the Map & Government Information Librarian with any shelf list card file questions. It may also be necessary to check print indexes or databases to locate the correct citation in order to find documents published before July 1976.

Microfiche, and pamphlets (20 pages or under) shelved by SuDocs number - are located in Hoskins Library Storage Reading Room area.

Print documents with Library of Congress classification are located in the Hodges Library general collection on the stacks floors, in Reference, or in Hoskins Library Storage.

Department of Agriculture publications (except for Food & Nutrition Service publications) are located in the Agriculture-Veterinary Medicine Library.

Maps/cartographic materials are located in the Storage Reading Room. To learn about the UT Map Collections and more, please visit the Map Collection and Online Resources guide.