The Free Library of Philadelphia is a selective Federal Depository Library. In exchange for receiving free Federal government publications to be made available to the general public through our collection, the Library is obliged under Federal law to handle these materials in a particular way. The Library may choose to de-accession these documents after keeping them for five years. As part of that process, the Library must offer de-accessioned materials, first to other Pennsylvania Depository libraries, and finally to any Federal Depository library nationwide. These "offers" of items being de-accessioned are posted to an internal database, "FDLP eXchange," which is specifically for the use of Federal Depository libraries.

The Free Library does not currently de-accession publications of the City of Philadelphia, or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Questions? Please call the Social Science and History Department at 215-686-5396 and ask to speak to a government publications librarian.