We are a full depository for Illinois state documents, but supplement depository distribution for research materials with additional acquisitions efforts. The Law Library is a full Illinois state document depository and an approximately 20-25 percent federal depository, selecting U. S. government publications according to the specialized needs of Law Library clientele. Departmental libraries duplicate U. S. and Illinois depository publications according to need in their own collections. This last policy has the effect of excluding technical reports supported by the Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Defense Department contracts as well as some publications supported by contracts from various other agencies. Many reports from these agencies are, however, routinely received on deposit.
Posters are the only format systematically excluded.
Print is generally preferred to microform, although in recent years many government documents are available only in microfiche. Investigation is currently underway at the National level regarding the feasibility of distributing various kinds of data in machine-readable form to depositories. The Documents Library would not consider the collection of this material to be beyond its scope, although none has been made available so far. New and revised editions or important works are purchased when new explanatory or primary material is introduced. Most of what is acquired is current material, although microfiche replacements of older sets or retrospective materials to fill in gaps may be considered.