California State Documents Collection and Depository Library Program

Since 1850, the California State Library has collected publications of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, commissions, public authorities, and other agencies of state government. The Library is the official California State Document Depository and houses the largest collection of California state documents in the United States.

The Library’s collection contains publications and reports that record the State’s political history, natural history, socioeconomic condition, and culture. Some of the types of documents that can be found include:

• Legislative proceedings, hearings, and research reports;
• State agency annual or biennial reports;
• Materials about agency programs;
• Environmental impact reports;
• Budgets and financial reports;
• Statistical compilations;
• State agency research reports;
• Digitally archived websites of California government agencies, bureaus, commissions, and other state government entities;
• Directories and organization charts; and
• Periodicals.

All state publications are available for the public to view, scan, and/or borrow through interlibrary loan. Please contact the Government Publications Section for more information.

California State Depository Library Program

In 1945, the California Legislature passed the Library Distribution Act (Government Code 14900 – 14912), which established the depository library program to make California state documents readily available to the citizens of the state. The California State Library is responsible for carrying out the provisions of the Act by developing and maintaining standards for depository libraries, granting depository status to libraries, and administering the depository program. Today a total of 100 libraries statewide participate in this program.

Information for state agencies

The following information is to assist you in complying with the Library Distribution Act. For more information see the text of the act and the State Administrative Manual.

For documents printed by the Office of State Publishing

The state printer will print extra copies and distribute them for you.

For all other printed documents

Send two copies to the California State Library at the following address:

California State Library
Government Publications Section
PO Box 942837
Sacramento, CA 94237-0001

Or by interoffice mail to the Government Publications Section at IMS mailstop E-29

Send one copy to each complete depository and every selective depository that contacts your agency to request one. See our PDF mailing list of California depository libraries, accessible at the top of our directory of state document depositories.

For Online-only Publications

Submit one copy of the publication using this online form. If the online form is down for maintenance, email the publication to cal-agency-reports@library.ca.gov.

Publications Representatives

Each agency should designate a publications representative who will be your point of contact with the State Library. To update your publications representative, please email us at cslgps@library.ca.gov.

We are actively seeking older materials that are missing from our collection. If you have copies of publications that do not appear in our catalog, please consider donating them to the California State Library. Many state agencies are currently reviewing their online publications to ensure compliance with Government Code 11546.7 (AB 434). If, in doing so, you find that you have a large number of publications that you would like to transfer to the state library, please contact us to make arrangements.

Information for Library Staff

CalDoc Classification

California government documents have their own classification scheme, inspired by the federal SuDoc scheme. See our guide on how CalDoc numbers are constructed.

For the convenience of libraries which use the CalDoc scheme, see our list of CalDoc numbers currently assigned to tangible items. The list will be updated monthly. Please note that this list does not include CalDoc numbers assigned to online documents or to documents not in our catalog. You can also search the California State Library’s online catalog by CalDoc call number. Under the search box, click on the drop-down menu which says “anywhere in the record” and select “CaDocs Call Number.” Then search the CalDoc number.