GIO

Thank you for your question. There are many ways to obtain U.S. government publications. 

1) The Library of Congress collection does not circulate, but you can borrow government publications (and other books) from other libraries in the U.S. through a local InterLibrary Loan service. These items would be requested through your local library, not directly from the library that owns the publication. Ask at your local university or public library if they have an InterLibrary Loan service and how to use it.

2) Since most government publications are not copyrighted, you may be able to request a copy be sent to you from an individual library in the U.S. It would depend on how long the work is and whether the library is able to send it. Sometimes, they can send you a paper copy or can scan the document and send it to you through e-mail. For paper copies, there may be a limit to how many pages they can send; an electronic copy may have to be sent in separate installments if it is a large file. If you are looking for a specific publication, let us know what it is and we can try to find a copy of it for you.

3) You can also find many U.S. government publications online. Look up the item in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications at https://catalog.gpo.gov/ and the if there is an official copy online, there will be a link to it in the record.

4) You can also search for U.S. government publications and websites at USA.gov (https://www.usa.gov/), a central site for searching U.S. federal, state, and local government publications. 

5) If you know the title of a document you need, and don't find it at the above sites, you can search for it by title in the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/), HathiTrust (https://www.hathitrust.org/), or WorldCat (https://www.worldcat.org/) websites to see if it has been digitized and posted online. 

6) You can purchase paper copies of U.S. government publications that are currently in print from the U.S. Government Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov/ 

I hope this information is helpful. If this is not what you need, or if you should require any further assistance, please let us know.

Bobby Griffith
Government Information Reference Specialist
Eagle Commons Library
University of North Texas Libraries
Bobby.Griffith@unt.edu