• Cataloging and Acquisitions Home
• About the Organization
• Contact
• FAQs
• News

• Acquisitions
• Cataloging Tools, Documentation
• Catalogs, Authority Records
• Classification
• Cooperative Programs
• General, Descriptive Cataloging
• Products for Purchase
• Professional Activities
• Publications, Reports
• Subject Headings

Subscribe

Receive an e-mail when a new issue of the Library of Congress Cataloging Newsline is available.

• More about this feature

Collection Policy Statement Index

Contents ⁽¹⁾

I. Federal
II. States
III. Counties
IV. Cities
V. Tribal

I. Federal

1. The Library of Congress maintains comprehensive collections of the official publications of the United States Government. The Library acquires for addition to the classified collections, printed copies of substantive publications, monographs and serials, for reference and archival purposes. The Library also acquires and retains in the permanent collections available microform copies of documents, as prepared and distributed by the U.S. Government Printing Office, and, as needed, microforms of federal government publications available from other sources.
2. The Library does not acquire or retain in the permanent collections the following types of materials: drawings and specifications of individual patents; blank forms; press releases other than those of the White House and Department of State; intra-agency issuances of the executive departments, independent agencies, the legislative branch, and the judiciary, other than their principal regulations and issuances having extra-agency significance; announcements of meetings and programs; ephemeral tourist literature; reprints of no bibliographic significance; and such other categories of limited usefulness and frequent revision as may be identified and defined from time to time. The Library also does not acquire or retain in the permanent collections government materials related solely to technical agriculture or clinical medicine, as defined in the Collections Policy Statements on Agriculture and Medicine. However, federally published technical reports, collected according to the Collections Policy Statement on Technical Reports, Working Papers, and Preprints, may include materials that would not be acquired for the general collections.
3. None of the above precludes the acquisition of copies for temporary service use.
4. In addition, the Library acquires and retains under inter-agency agreement with the U.S. Government Printing Office, an archival set of U.S. government publications from 1977 forward in silver-halide microfiche. This collection, housed in the Serial and Government Publications Division, is used to produce service copies for exchange or sale, and replacement of general collection microforms when needed. The Library retains all silver halide microfiche received in this GPO set, including items listed in paragraph B that would not otherwise be acquired and collected.
5. The Library has selective depository library status with the U.S. Government Printing Office and maintains for current research purposes a separate depository set of U.S. federal government publications in print, microform, and electronic formats, arranged in Superintendent-of-Documents-number order, in the Serial and Government Publications Division. This set is weeded periodically, and individual items, when needed, are forwarded to the general collections at that time.
6. By law, the Library of Congress is the depository for Federal Advisory Committee publications. These materials, comprising primarily charters, annual reports, and minutes of meetings, are maintained permanently and are housed in the Serial and Government Publications Division.

II. States

1. The Library of Congress acquires for purposes of building and maintaining a research level collection (RLG Conspectus Level 4) current publications, issued by the states, the District of Columbia, the territories, possessions, trusteeships, and inter-state agencies of the United States of America, with the exception of materials listed in paragraph C.
2. The Library retains all administrative reports (including decisions and regulations), statistical reports, planning and policy statements, and other substantive publications of state and inter-state offices and agencies, such as publications issued by state executive, constitutional, legislative, judicial, quasi-judicial, and state-supported bodies.
3. The following are not added to the Library's collections:
   1. legislative bills, blank forms, press releases, announcements of meetings and programs, reprints of no significance, and minor educational materials issued by state institutions, such as athletic schedules, posters, and folders announcing particular courses and extension programs;
   2. works in the fields of clinical medicine and technical agriculture;
   3. publications of limited usefulness identified in the selection process.
4. The Library retains individual publications other than those listed, when such publications contain important information on current events or provide a state perspective on issues which are of national importance and of particular interest to Congress and to the federal government in general.
5. Publications of state governments are acquired in their original format for service use, but where possible are added to the permanent collections in microform, preferably microfilm or microfiche.

III. Counties

1. The Library of Congress acquires for its permanent collections from the six counties listed below, in print or in microform, the most comprehensive currently available consolidated or collected annual or biennial report, the latest revision of the county charter, code of ordinances, administrative code, codes of the major regulatory commissions, reports of the county courts, and opinions of county attorneys or legal counsel, as available. If consolidated or collected annual or biennial reports are unavailable, separate reports are acquired from the county's departments.
2. Two of the counties selected, Cook and Los Angeles Counties, are those in which are located cities whose publications the Library of Congress acquires for its permanent collections. They are also the most populous counties in the country, have regional influence, and are representative in demographic and socio-economic terms of other large urban counties in the country. To these are added the four counties bordering the District of Columbia and comprising the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. Additions to or deletions from this list may be made from time to time in accordance with the growth of population or other relevant factors.
3. With the exceptions noted in Paragraph D and E below, the Library of Congress does not actively acquire or permanently retain the publications of other U.S. counties. It relies on local institutions to collect and retain county publications and on online and world wide web resources for current research.
4. The Library of Congress acquires and, when desirable, retains for its permanent collections individual publications and compilations of materials from counties not listed below when these publications are recommended for acquisition as containing important information on subjects of particular concern to the Congress, to the federal government in general, and to the scholarly public.
5. The Library acquires and maintains a comprehensive collection of cartographic materials for all counties.

List of Counties to Be Collected

• Arlington County, Virginia (Washington, D.C. metropolitan area)
• Cook County, Illinois (Chicago)
• Fairfax County, Virginia (Washington, D.C. metropolitan area)
• Los Angeles County, California (Los Angeles)
• Montgomery County, Maryland (Washington, D.C. metropolitan area)
• Prince George's County, Maryland (Washington, D.C. metropolitan area)

IV. Cities

1. The Library of Congress acquires for its permanent collections from the seventeen cities listed below, in print or in microform, the most comprehensive currently available consolidated or collected annual or biennial report, the latest revision of the city charter, code of ordinances, administrative code, codes of the major regulatory commissions, reports of the municipal courts, and opinions of the city attorney or legal counsel. If consolidated or collected annual and biennial reports are unavailable, separate reports are acquired from the city's departments, including the municipal council.
2. Cities listed are large, hubs of major population centers, have regional and /or national influence, or are important for demographic, socio-economic, or political reasons. Additions to or deletions from this list may be made from time to time in accordance with the growth of population or other relevant factors.
3. The Library also acquires and retains for its permanent collections current publications issued by special "authorities"(e.g., housing, port, transit, water, etc.) in which any of the listed cities participate.
4. With the exceptions noted in paragraphs E and F, the Library of Congress does not actively acquire or permanently retain the official publications of cities not listed. The Library relies on local institutions to acquire and preserve their official publications and on online and world wide web resources for current research.
5. However, the Library acquires and retains for it permanent collections individual publications from cities not listed below when these publications are recommended for acquisition as containing important information on subjects of particular concern to Congress, the federal government in general, and to the scholarly public. Examples of such subjects are urban and regional land use, planning, zoning, environmental protection, transportation, public utilities, urban geography, surveying, mapping, immigration, social welfare, and education. The Library also acquires and collects microform or electronic full-text collections of municipal publications, such as the full-text library which accompanies the Index to Current Urban Documents, when these collections are recommended for acquisition in accordance with the criteria in this paragraph.
6. The Library acquires and maintains a comprehensive collection of cartographic materials for all cities and towns.

List of Cities to Be Collected

• *Alexandria, Virginia
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Chicago, Illinois
• Detroit, Michigan
• Houston, Texas
• Los Angeles, California
• Miami, Florida
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• New York, New York
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Phoenix, Arizona
• San Antonio, Texas
• San Francisco, California
• Seattle, Washington
• Washington, D.C

*This city is included because of its function as both city and county within the Washington Metropolitan Area.

V. Tribal Governments

1. American Indian and Alaska Native governments are recognized by the U.S. federal government as "domestic dependent nations," and the U.S. recognizes a government-to-government relationship with them. Under federal law, tribal governments retain certain governmental and jurisdictional powers in their territories. Federally recognized tribal governments are entitled to certain federal benefits, services, and protections. This collection policy is directed specifically toward official tribal government publications in addition to items collected under the Collections Policy Statement on Ethnic Publications and under subject collections policy statements.
2. The Library acquires on a selective basis and retains for its permanent collections current official publications of American Indian and Alaska native tribal governments that are federally recognized.
3. Print publications are collected from the following five tribal governments which provide geographic representation, are economically developed, and have publishing programs: Navajo Nation, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Oneida Nation of New York, Mashantucket Pequot, and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation. Materials acquired and collected include, as available, government handbooks, constitutional documents, charters, regulations, ordinances, and administrative reports and decisions of executive, legislative, and judicial bodies. Materials in English or in bilingual form (English and an Indian language) are preferred. Additions to or deletions from this list of tribal governments may be made from time to time in accordance with growth in influence or occurrence of significant regional or national issues.
4. The Library acquires, and retains for its permanent collections compilations of tribal government publications and individual publications of tribal governments not listed when these publications are recommended for acquisition as containing important information on subjects of concern to the Congress, the federal government in general, and the scholarly public.

Notes:

1. The Library collects electronic formats from the federal, state, county, and city government levels and from tribal governments in accordance with the criteria listed in this Collection Policy Statement and in the Collection Policy Statement on Electronic Resources. The Federal Government has an electronic publishing program and produces some publications only in electronic format (CD-ROM, diskette, online, or world wide web) or in addition to print or microform editions. A large number of cities, counties, and states publish in one or more electronic formats.

August 2000

 Back to Top