Laws require that the government agencies make collected information available to the public.
For many years the information was distributed in paper to designated government depository libraries such as Montana Tech Library. Later distribution has been expanded by microform and the internet. The Montana Tech Library is open for anyone to use. The FDLP was established by Congress in 1813 to ensure that the American public had access to its Government's information. Because this classification scheme arranges materials by the authoring agency and type of publication, a SuDoc number fielded search allows one to locate similar resources by an agency.