46 Years of Making Government Information Accessible

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) ensures that government publications are available outside the federal government. Typically, access to these publications comes through “depository libraries,” which agree to house and make accessible these resources to the public.

The groundwork for what is now the FDLP began with a Congressional Joint Resolution in 1813. However, the Printing Act of 1895 created the idea of “depository institutions” as the Public Printer is charged, in section 54, “Of the House Documents and Reports, Bound . — To the Senate Library, fifteen copies; to the Library of Congress, two copies, and fifty additional copies for foreign exchanges; to the House Library, fifteen copies; to the superintendent of documents, five hundred copies, for distribution to the State and Territorial libraries and designated depositories.”

Section 70 identifies specifically “libraries that are now designated depositories.”

The current Federal Depository Library Program was created in Title 44 of the U.S. Code, specifically 44 U.S.C. § 1901 et seq.. The expansion of institutions that can participate in the FDLP has been gradual, and the last group of libraries to be included were law libraries (in section 1916), which went into effect on October 1, 1978.

On October 30, 1978, the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library was admitted to the FDLP, so on October 30, 2024, we celebrate 46 years as a depository library, making government resources available to all.