Telephone and City Directories

Current U.S. telephone, city, and crisscross directories and current foreign telephone directories are located in the Main Reading Room reference collection. Print copies of older directories can be requested in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, which has the best information about what U.S. telephone and city directories the Library holds, or in the Main Reading Room. In addition, the Microform Reading Room has collections of U.S. telephone directories on microfilm and microfiche, a collection of telephone directories for New York City and neighboring areas covering 1878-1959, and a vast collection of U.S. city directories to 1935 or later. Public workstations in the Computer Catalog Center on the first floor of the Jefferson Building and in reading rooms throughout the Library offer access to the Internet, which has current telephone directory information for the U.S. and many foreign countries. Foreign city directories must be identified through the Library's general catalogs, usually under the heading [NAME OF CITY]--DIRECTORIES. They are housed in the general collections.

More information on locating these materials can be found in the finding guide entitled Telephone and City Directories in the Library of Congress. A list of U.S. city directories on microfilm in the Microform Reading Room is also available. Both of these resources are updated periodically.