Documents come from all levels of government: federal, state, and local. They often describe or explain programs, show statistics, or report on a variety of issues. This information can be massive. Thus larger institutions - often called Depository Libraries - have more comprehensive collections. Some local Depository Libraries include UC Berkeley, San Francisco Public Library, and Oakland Public Library.
- UC Berkeley Library's federal and state documents are mainly in the Doe and Moffitt Libraries.
- San Francisco Public Library has a Government Information Center.
- Oakland Public Library is a partial depository; see their Government Resources page for more information.
Additionally, every county in California has a law library. The Alameda County Law Library, which is open to the public, is in downtown Oakland.
Local government information comes from Alameda County and regional organizations like ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments). These agencies produce reports and other publications and have their own libraries. Their specialties include transportation planning, earthquake maps, demographics and Census data, economic analysis, and regional planning.
Other local or regional information comes from local businesses or groups (for instance, utilities like EBMUD or PG&E, research institutions like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Public Health Institute, or the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy).