The Government Documents and Maps section of the Library is one of about 1,200 federal Government Printing Office (GPO) depository collections in the United States. These libraries receive selected government publications and provide free public access to a wide variety of federal government sources in print and electronic formats, and have staff available to assist users.
This section is located on Level 5 of the Rasmuson Library. The printed collection is housed on open shelves and accessible all hours the building is open. The electronic resources are accessible from terminals throughout the building as well as remotely from outside the building. The section is staffed 8-5 Monday – Friday with the remaining hours serviced by the Reference and Circulation Desks on Level 4.
The Rasmuson Library receives about one-third of the titles available for selection, making it one of the larger such collections in Alaska. Strengths of the collection include material from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Interior, Justice, and research oriented agencies such as the Census Bureau, Forest Service, USGS, NASA, NOAA, and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as Congress and the Supreme Court.
An emphasis is placed on materials pertaining to Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. UAF's Geophysical Institute Library is Alaska’s official U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) depository. Many patent indexes and abstracts are also included in Rasmuson Library’s GPO depository. In addition, the section receives technical reports distributed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) pertaining to northern latitude topics such as permafrost and cold weather engineering.
The map and atlas collection is worldwide in scope with an emphasis on Alaska, northern Canada, Scandinavia, and far eastern Russia. Of particular note are the current and historical topographical maps and nautical charts for Alaska, and the topographic maps of adjacent Canadian areas.
Documents from the Alaska State government are included in the Alaska and Polar Regions (APR) Collection on Level 2. Documents from the United Nations and other international agencies are included in the general collection.
Most of the documents and maps may be checked out in accordance with library wide policies and procedures. Documents not in our collection can usually be obtained via Interlibrary Loan.