14.8 Responsibilities of Regional and Selective Depositories

• Regional depositories are REQUIRED to retain at least one copy of all Government publications made available under the FDLP in printed form, microform, or tangible electronic format. A regional is therefore obligated to attempt to replace or restore all FDLP publications that were damaged in a disaster. Selective depositories MUST make every reasonable effort to replace or repair the Federal Government property that has been lost or damaged. In many cases, electronic versions of publications are acceptable replacements for damaged or destroyed tangible publications. For more information, please visit the web page on the FDLP Guidelines on Substituting Electronic and Tangible Versions of Depository Publications.
• Your library director should be aware that a disaster does not absolve the library of responsibility in continuing to fulfill the duties of a Federal depository library. Furthermore, the depository collection MUST be replaced to the same extent as non-depository collections in the library affected by a disaster. For example, your library cannot use the disaster as an opportunity to drastically reduce the size of the Government publications collection or to circumvent the withdrawal process. However, material that would have been targeted for withdrawal under normal circumstances need not be replaced.