United States Government Documents at the Law Library  

The Tulane Law Library is one of approximately 1,400 Federal depository libraries throughout the United States and its territories, at least one in almost every Congressional District.  All provide free public access to a wide variety of Federal government information in both print and electronic formats, and have expert staff available to assist users.  The Law Library is also a Louisiana State Documents Depository as well as receiving some international documents on deposit.  

    The Tulane Law Library became a Congressionally designated federal depository library in 1976, with the assistance and support of Lindy Boggs, our Congressional Representative at the time here in the 2nd Congressional District. We were assigned the depository number 0227-A. Public Law 95-261 [92 Stat. 199], which gave accredited law schools the opportunity to become part of the depository program under a special designation category, was enacted in 1978. In 1985, the Government Printing Office (GPO), which administers the depository program, requested that we change our designation from a Congressional one to a law school one, in order to free up another Congressional designation in the 2nd District. We agreed to do so, and the change was made in July of 1985. Our depository number remained the same, and there was no change in our depository shipments or operations.  By becoming a federal depository library, we agreed to abide by our responsibilities as specified in Tittle 44 of the United States Code.

    We receive approximately 26% of the item numbers available for selection from the GPO, a percentage that is more than twice the average selection rate for law libraries. Our collection is based on the needs of the law faculty and students, as well as the community at large. We cooperate with other depositories in the area in order to ensure that our collection is both responsive to the information needs of our users, and efficient in its operation.

Use Databases & Indexes (the terms are often used interchangeably) to identify research articles, technical reports, book chapters, and other materials on your topic. You may need to search more than one database to locate the most appropriate materials for your information need.