About the Government Documents Collection at Bucknell

In 1963, in order to serve the information needs of the academic and local communities, Bertrand Library agreed to become a depository library for U.S. government published documents. A depository library receives a certain portion (selected by the library) of material published by the government of the United States. In exchange for receiving this material, the depository library promises, among other things, to provide access to these government published documents to the academic community as well as to the general public. (Anyone is free to use government documents in the library, however, since government documents are treated like other library materials, users are required to have a borrower's card in order to check documents out of the library.)

The government publishes material on a wide variety of subjects. In fact, the U.S. government is the largest publisher in the world! Bucknell has chosen to receive approximately 21% of what the government publishes. The Subject Librarians choose the government documents that we receive according to the needs and research interests of the faculty and students, as well as the local community. You can search our collection of government documents by using the library catalog. (Please see the Finding Government Information section for more information).

Government documents have been published in many different formats (print, microfiche, CD-ROM, posters, pamphlets, etc.). However, in recent years the government is shifting towards publishing much of its information online. You can find online Government Documents by searching our library catalog or by using Government Information Search Engines

In Bertrand Library, Government Documents in print (both Federal documents and documents produced by the state of Pennsylvania) can be found on the 1st floor mezzanine.

Government Documents in CD-ROM and microfiche format, as well as past editions of the census and the monthly catalog, can be found on the 1st floor (main level) of the library.

The Government Documents collection is available to the public anytime when Bertrand Library is open. Click here for the library's current hours of operation.

Barb Stockland is the librarian who oversees the Government Documents collection at Bertrand Library. Please feel free to contact her if you have any questions or would like to make any comments or suggestion about the government document collection.