Public documents

Adelaide R. Hasse, of the New York Public library


How issued

Government documents are issued in two sets or editions, viz.: the
Congressional or sheep, and the Departmental or cloth. The annual
reports of the heads of departments, with many of the serial and
occasional publications of the various departments, are contained in
the sheep set, and in addition, all the reports of committees, and
records of the transactions of congress, except the debates which are
contained in the Congressional record. The cloth set contains all the
publications of the various departments, irrespective of the fact that
some of them may have appeared in the sheep set.


To whom issued

The depository libraries receive the sheep set by law from the
superintendent of documents. Each department has its own list of
"exchanges" (i.e., designations) which receive gratis the publications
of that department intended for general distribution. Non-depository
libraries receive their documents regularly from the departments
when on the department exchange list, or irregularly from their
representatives in congress. "Remainder libraries" receive from the
superintendent of documents such documents as can be supplied from the
fractional quotas sent to him after the editions ordered for the