Federal Depository and Government Information Services
Wyndham Robertson Library is a selective Federal Depository Library. We serve the Hollins community and the people of Virginia’s sixth Congressional District with access to federal government documents, and government information research assistance.
Our library is selective repository that chooses a small percentage of federally published materials, based on the university’s curriculum and the needs of the local community. The library became a Federal Depository Library in 1968; however, the collection also includes volumes that were published earlier.
The documents collection is located on the ground floor of the library and is open to all (click here for directions to campus).
Government Documents Collection
Govinfo: Search U.S. government information.
USA.gov: U.S. government services navigator.
The documents collection is available whenever the library is open. Click here for library hours.
Access to the collection
All are free to use the government documents collection; you do not have to have a connection with the university. Wyndham Robertson Library is committed to providing the public with open, free access to our government information materials, according to the rules of the Federal Depository Library Program and Title 44, section 1911 of the U.S. Code.
To access the university network computers (including computers in the library) for online research, guests are asked to sign in at the Reference desk on the first floor. Please provide proof of identity with two forms of ID. No filtering software of any kind is used on the library computers, and the library does not monitor anyone’s browsing or reading activity.
Borrowing materials
Most of our government documents may be checked out with a valid Hollins ID card. Some materials, including microfiche and microfilm, are in-library use only.
Guests who wish to check out materials should contact our Circulation department to get a guest borrowers card.
Research Assistance
Reference assistance is available: ask at the first floor Reference desk, call (540) 362-7465, or email us.
If you are doing research on a particular topic, you may have to look in more than one place. For example, the history of U.S. military action abroad may be found in documents from the Department of Defense, the State Department, the CIA, the Executive Office of the President and Congress.
First letters and agencies:
| A | Agriculture Department |
L | Labor Department |
|---|---|---|---|
| AE | National Archives | LC | Library of Congress |
| C3 | Census Bureau (Commerce Dept.) | LR | Labor Relations Board |
| CR | Civil Rights Commission | N | Navy |
| D | Defense Department | NA | National Research Council |
| E | Energy Department | NAS | National Aeronautics & Space Administration |
| ED | Education Department | NF | National Endowment for the Humanities National Endowment for the Arts |
| EP | Environmental Protection Agency | NS | National Science Foundation |
| FEM | Federal Emergency Management Agency | PE | Peace Corps |
| FR | Federal Reserve | PM | Office of Personnel Management |
| FS | Public Health Services | PR | Presidential Reports |
| FT | Federal Trade Commission | PREX | Executive Office of the President |
| GB | Geographic Board | PRVP | Vice Presidential Reports |
| GP | Government Printing | S | State Department |
| GS | General Services Administration | SBA | Small Business Administration |
| HE | Health & Human Services Dept. | SIS | Smithsonian Institution |
| HH | Housing & Urban Development | SSA | Social Security Administration |
| HS | Homeland Security Department | T22 | Interior Revenue Service (Treasury) |
| I | Interior Department | TD | Transportation Department |
| I19 | U.S. Geological Survey | W45 | War Records |
| IA | Information Agency | W49 | Philippine Islands |
| IC | Interstate Commerce Commission | X, Y | Congress |
| J | Department of Justice | Y4 | Congressional Committees |
| JU | Judiciary | Y10 | Congressional Budget Office |
Numbers after the period are treated like a WHOLE number, not like a decimal number as in the Library of Congress call number system.
| Correct SuDoc order [whole numbers]: 1.9 1.85 1.305 |
Correct LC order [decimal]: 1.305 1.85 1.9 |