Why Do Soil Surveys Present Unique Problems?
Most, but not all, U.S. soil surveys were distributed to libraries who participated in the U.S. Federal Depository Library Program (either as selective or full depositories). With few exceptions, all congressional districts and territories of the United States have at least one Federal depository library and a number of other selective depositories. The selective depositories can choose which publications they wish to receive and can chose to dispose of them, as opposed to the full depositories, which were required to keep all of the publications. Additional U.S. soil surveys were distributed to agricultural libraries and institutions outside the U.S. A handful of U.S. soil surveys were published by state agencies (in Illinois, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) and may be harder to find, because they were not issued as part of the Federal Depository Library Program. Some libraries have partial collections of soil surveys because they have chosen to keep only the most current soil surveys or
