Government Documents

Government documents are simply publications issued by government agencies.  They include local, state, and federal publications.  There is an official program through which federal documents are shared with the public called the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).  The FDLP distributes publications, printed or received by the Government Publishing Office (GPO), to libraries that elect to serve as depositories.  Much has changed since the beginning of the program, and now content is largely disseminated in digital format. 

The Thomas G. Carpenter library is a selective depository for federal publications.  This means we select what is most appropriate for our collection rather than receiving all of the available material.  We do receive all distributed Florida public documents and collect as much local government material as possible.