Search Criss Library and beyond
Criss Library joined the Federal Depository Library Program in 1939. During the peak years of physical distribution of documents, we received between 12,000 and 14,000 documents each year. However, since 2000 physical distribution has declined considerably in favor electronic access via the Internet. The library currently receives about 1,200 documents each year. The strongest areas are:
In 1911, the U.S. Government Printing Office published the Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909, a landmark reference work listing U.S. documents published between the 1st and 60th Congress. Commonly called the 1909 Checklist, it remains a standard reference work for scholars.
The Congressional Information Service (CIS), a commercial publisher, created a microfiche archive of the 110,000 documents listed in the 1909 Checklist which were not also included within the Congressional Serial Set. While searching for copies of these documents, the editors discovered that in some cases they were using the only copy known to exist. In addition, they found some documents which were not recorded in the 1909 Checklist.
CIS also compiled the United States Executive Documents, 1910-1932, microfiche archive, which adhered to the comprehensive standard of the 1909 Checklist. ProQuest subsequently acquired rights to scan both microfiche collections, and in 2015 Criss Library purchased the ProQuest database. The Executive Documents are included in the ProQuest Congressional database, thus creating a remarkably comprehensive historical archive of both Congressional and Executive documents.
Click the links below to view catalog records which represent the wide range of U.S. Executive department and agency documents available at Criss Library. In some cases the library’s holdings extend back over a century. Some records also include links to Internet-accessible copies.