This library is a Congressionally designated depository for U.S. Government information. Public access to Government documents information is guaranteed by public law. (Title 44 United States Code) The University of Pittsburgh Library System has been a designated member of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) since 1910. There are two other FDLP designated libraries in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh: the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the Barco Law Library.
Information produced by federal agencies and issued through the Government Publishing Office offers a wealth of information on numerous topics.
The major strengths of Pitt's collections includes the following topics:
The vast majority of new government documents are "born digital" and are therefore not acquired in print format by Pitt.
PittCat is the main searching tool for all of the materials owned by the University Library System (ULS), including articles, books, ebooks, journal articles, ejournals, audio and video, digital images, government documents, microfilm and movies.
Most publications published by the Government Publishing Office (GPO) prior to 1976 are not available in PittCat or the online version of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. To find documents published before 1976, you may want to consult the variety of indexes listed below. Many of these documents will also be available online in places like HathiTrust.
