The Texas State Archives preserves and documents the heritage and culture of Texas by identifying, collecting, and making available for research the permanently valuable official records of Texas government, as well as other significant historical resources. Maintaining the official history of Texas government, the State Archives includes archival government records dating back to the 18th century, as well as newspapers, journals, books, manuscripts, photographs, historical maps, and other historical resources. The Reference and Documents Collection offers expert reference services to state government and to the public. The collection also houses the most complete library of state and federal government publications in Texas, including the full text of federal and Texas state laws and statistical data from all federal censuses.
Resources range from traditional print material to databases and full public access to the Internet.
The Genealogy Collection houses materials of interest to patrons engaged in family history research. Cataloging Cataloging and Materials Processing is responsible for creating bibliographic records for materials added to the collections of the Texas State Library and for preparing materials for use in the collections. The Texas State Library uses Library of Congress subject headings, and Dewey, Texas documents and federal documents classification schemes. The Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center is located 200 miles east of Austin and serves as both a research facility and a museum. In addition to housing the local government records of the Atascasito region of Texas, the Center is home to several historic buildings, as well as manuscripts, books, maps, photographs, oral history tapes, and newspapers.