Government Documents and Information  

This guide is a portal to Yale's government information collections and related research tools. Use the tabs to explore our depository collections and find research guides on a variety of government and IGO topics. 

Yale University Library is a depository for publications from the following governments and IGOs:

• U.S. Federal Government
• Canadian Federal Government
• European Union
• United Nations
• Food and Agriculture Organization

Although many documents and publications from these organizations are now available electronically, the library continues to receive core documents in print and to maintain rich historical collections in these areas. The library's depository holdings are supplemented by subscription databases that facilitate full-text searching and access to these collections.

For more details about the scope and strengths of Yale's government documents collection, please consult our collection development policy.

By federal law or depository agreements, Yale University Library's government documents collections are available for use by the public.

The library provides public access to government electronic information disseminated through the Federal Depository Library Program subject to the Policies Governing Use of and Access to Yale University Library Public Workstations. Electronic government documents on removable media (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, floppy disk) that are held in the library's collections may be checked out in accordance with the library's borrowing privileges.

Yale Library's print government document collections are fully cataloged and searchable in Orbis.

Most documents are located in the Library Shelving Facility (LSF) and can be requested through Orbis for delivery to any library on campus. When you've found the Orbis record for the item you need, click on Place Requests and either log in with your Yale NetID and password or with the barcode on the front of your Library-issued ID Card (Visitor Card or Proxy Card) and your last name.

Non-Yale affiliates may request government documents from LSF; for more details about policies and privileges, please see the library's borrowing and circulation guide. For questions about specific documents, contact govdoc@yale.edu.

Search the Yale Library Government Documents FAQ: