Overview - Finding State Government Information - Contact Us

Overview

Sections 35.81- 35.84 of the Wisconsin Statutes and as amended by 1991 Wisconsin Act 285 require that the Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, Division of Libraries, Technology and Community Learning designate depository libraries to preserve and make available a record of major state government programs and assure the availability of state publications for use by the public throughout Wisconsin now and in the future. The Wisconsin Reference and Loan Library, part of the Wisconsin Dept of Public Instruction, Division of Libraries, Community Learning and Technology, manages the Wisconsin Depository Program as required by statute and acts as a clearinghouse for state publications submitted by state agencies for preservation in both print and electronic formats that are distributed to depository libraries.

The Wisconsin Digital Archives is part of the Wisconsin Document Depository Program. The purpose of the Wisconsin Digital Archives is to preserve content found on Wisconsin State Agency websites and to provide a way for state agencies to continue to fulfill their statutory obligation to participate in the Wisconsin Document Depository Program with electronic formats.

The Wisconsin Document Depository Program and Wisconsin Digital Archives serve special, academic and public libraries located throughout the state of Wisconsin as well as the Library of Congress. Find out more about the historical background of the depository program and use the depository library directory and map to see a complete listing of designated depository libraries.

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Finding State Government Information in Print and Electronic Formats

Search WISCAT, the statewide union catalog maintained by the Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction Division of Libraries, Technology and Community Learning, for Wisconsin state government information.

WISCAT contains catalog records for both print and electronic state government publications providing a full historical range of information produced by state agencies within the same database. Catalog records for publications available in print will direct a user to a library where the publication is available in either the library's collection or via inter-library loan. Electronic information from state agency websites that has been archived as part of the Wisconsin Digital Archives can be accessed in its entirety through a stable URL located within the catalog record, just one click away!

WISCAT provides quality search benefits that make using a library catalog a more precise search tool than using a web search engine alone. Users can search by title, author, date, and subject using multiple fields to best refine their search.

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Contact Us!

If you need additional help finding state government information, get help from a Wisconsin Librarian through Ask?Away, a service provided by a consortium of reference librarians.

If you are interested in learning more about the Wisconsin Document Depository Program or the Wisconsin Digital Archive Project, please contact:

Abby Swanton
Wisconsin Document Depository Librarian
Wisconsin Reference and Loan Library
2109 South Stoughton Road
Madison, WI 53716
Phone: (608) 224-6174
Fax: (608) 224-6178

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