From the Arts Commission to the Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee's government agencies provide timely and pertinent data and information to the public. Agencies produce these publications as a public record of its activities. State publications can be a tool for government accountability if Tennessee's citizens read them. Collectively, the archive of these documents record Tennessee's history, natural resources, socioeconomic condition, culture, and quality of life.

What is a Publication?

"Publications" take many forms and contain diverse types of information. A publication could be an agency's annual report, a transportation plan to provide service to your town, a research report on Tennessee's schools, or a directory of county officials. Although agencies are increasingly using the Internet to publish this information for you, many continue to produce printed paper documents. Budget-conscious agencies often print small quantities of their publications; it might be difficult to obtain your own copy.

Finding Tennessee Government Publications

TSLA makes Tennessee's state documents freely available to the public. Records of TSLA's collection of state documents can be accessed through our online catalog. Materials published in tangible formats (i.e. books, pamphlets, and CDs) are available for use at TSLA during business hours. Some materials published on state agency websites have been archived through the Web archiving tool Archive-It and are accessible via the Web. Links to online documents are located within the catalog record.

SEARCHING HINTS: To browse documents published by a state agency, use the Author search function in the libray catalog or to search for a specific document, use the Title Browse field for an exact title or if you only know keywords use the Title Keyword Search.

Agencies such as the Department of Education and the Department of Human Services are listed in the online catalog as:

Tennessee. Dept. of Education
Tennessee. Dept. of Human Services

Example:
To locate all the records for the Tennessee Department of Education, try:

Browse:

For a helpful list of all state agencies, please see the Department and Agencies list on the the Tennessee.gov website or check out the TSLA Archive-It page.

State Depository Libraries

Six libraries located across the state have been designated depositories for Tennessee government publications in order to provide citizens access to their information. You can find links to their online catalogs and documents department contact information on the list of Tennessee Depository System Libraries. The librarians at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) have worked hard to create records for Tennessee State documents. Even if you are not geographically close to ETSU, you can use their online catalog to identify hard-to-find publications.

The Law

Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) Title 12 Section 6 establishes TSLA and other libraries as depositories for government publications. This section also defines the responsibility of government agencies to provide the depositories copies of their publications for use by the public.

TCA § 12-6-107. Libraries as depositories for documents - Legislative library - Copies.

(a) The state library at Nashville, the library of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the Cossitt Library at Memphis, and such other libraries as the governor may at any time name by executive order are designated depositories for state documents and for all publications issued by any official of the state.

(b) Upon request of a designated depository of state documents, such depository shall be entitled to receive, without charge, one (1) copy of the bills, resolutions, amendments, daily journals, informational services showing committee actions and the status of pieces of legislation, daily calendars, published committee reports and any official or unofficial published index.

TCA § 12-6-110. Copies to depositories, secretary of state, and other locations.

At the expense of such department, agency, board or commission, the person in charge of making such documents and publications shall furnish or have furnished:

(1) Two (2) copies directly to the librarian or person in charge of each of the depositories;

(2) Upon request, two (2) copies to the secretary of state; and

(3) Two (2) copies to any location or locations specified by the proper governing publications committee created pursuant to the provisions of chapter 7, part 1 of this title.