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The Library of Congress makes available to the public an extensive collection of United States telephone and reverse telephone (criss-cross) directories in many different formats. The inventory in this guide is organized by state and details the available directories by city or town and year.
Past telephone directories may be accessed in digital, microfilm, phonefiche, or print format, as specified in the state inventories within this guide. For a general understanding of the availability for each format, here are some facts about the collection:
The most recent U.S. telephone directories (white and yellow pages) in print format are located on Deck 46 which is entered through Alcove 4 in the Main Reading Room. They are arranged alphabetically by state, and are shelved before the city and reverse telephone directories for that state. Note that many print directories are no longer provided for many cities, so the most recent issues may be many years out of date.
Since many of these directories contain listings for more than one community, you may need to consult two reference tools in order to determine which telephone book contains the listings for a particular community.
This guidance is for those interested in requesting a large number of print directories housed in the John Adams Building including Street Address, Criss-Cross, Telephone Books, and City Business Directories. These directories are not in the catalog, so there are separate steps for requesting these items. Please read these policies carefully before making a request:
Effective April 4, 2022