Harold Washington Library Center
Government Publications
The Government Publications Department provides access to reference materials received from the governments of the United States, State of Illinois, City of Chicago and Cook County.
FIFTH FLOOR South
400 South State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60605
(312) 747-4500
Featured Collections
- The Municipal Reference Collection(MRC): A rich trove of local documents from the City of Chicago dating back to the mid 1800s.
- State of Illinois Collection: The Chicago Public Library became an Illinois depository with the inception of the state depository program in 1968. Collection of materials, however, began much earlier, with some material dating back to the 1800s. Arrangement is by an Illinois Documents Classification scheme.
- U.S. Collection: As a U.S. depository since 1876, the Chicago Public Library offers approximately 98 percent of the publications available to libraries through the U.S. Government Printing Office's depository program. Arrangement is by the Superintendent of Documents (SUDOC) classification scheme. The Library's online catalog provides access to federal publications in our collection since 2002. For items prior to 2002, specialized indexes are available.
- Congressional Publications: The Department has an extensive collection of Congressional reports, documents, hearings, and committee prints dating from the nineteenth century. A complete run of the Congressional Record and its predecessors is available.
- Statistical Publications: All U.S. statistical publications indexed in the American Statistics Index (1973-current) are available on microfiche and/or paper format. The Department maintains a large collection of Census materials. Some statistics for foreign countries are available on the microfiche received with the Index to International Statistics (1983-current).
- Maps: An extensive collection of U.S. topographic maps from the U.S. Geological Survey as well as several other map series are available.