Government Documents
The William Allen White Library (WAWL) was designated a selective Federal Depository Library in 1909. It is one of six selective Depository Libraries serving the First Congressional District. The regional library is located at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
In 2006, the Government Documents Special Collection was created to help preserve and protect some of the older or more fragile of the important primary research materials within the Library’s collection.
As a depository library, WAWL serves the students, faculty and staff of Emporia State University (ESU), the citizens of the City of Emporia and Lyon County and the constituents of the First Congressional District of Kansas.
ESU has an enrollment of approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Emporia is a community of 26,000 located in a mostly rural, agricultural area of east central Kansas. The First Congressional District of Kansas covers an area roughly the size of the State of Illinois encompassing all or part of 68 of Kansas’ 105 counties.
How to Access Print Collection
Federal Depository Libraries are required by Federal law to provide free and unrestricted use of the Government Documents collection.
Recent Government Documents are located within the general Library collection on the third deck and the first floor of William Allen White Library. All of these items are freely available for use within the library. The Documents on the third deck are available for check out pursuant to the Library’s circulation policies.
For their preservation and maintenance, older, rare, and valuable Government Documents, primarily those published prior to 1910, housed in the Government Documents Special Collection on the third floor of the Library are closed to browsing. Patrons interested in materials from this Collection should ask for assistance at the Reference Desk. A staff member will retrieve the requested material and return it to the third floor when the patron has finished. Access to the Special Collection shall be granted through the Reference Desk during the Library’s normal business hours.