Headquarters Library

The mission of the Headquarters Library is to improve access to information for decision making and environmental awareness. The library supports EPA staff at the following locations and makes information resources accessible to the public.  

• Headquarters (Washington, DC-region)
• Region 3 (Philadelphia, PA)
• Region 8 (Denver, CO)
• CPHEA/PESD (Corvallis, OR)

Services include reference/research assistance and interlibrary loan/document delivery.

Contact Information

We can be contacted at: 
Email: hqchemlibraries@epa.gov

Mailing Address: 
US EPA Headquarters Library 
MC 3404T 
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 
Washington, DC 20460

Delivery/Street Address: 
US EPA Headquarters Library 
WJC West Building, Room 3340 
1301 Constitution Ave NW 
Washington, DC 20004

Hours of Operation: 
The library is open 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. The library is open to the public by appointment only. To set up an appointment, please contact the library. Visitors must enter EPA William Jefferson Clinton West at the Constitution Avenue entrance and check in at the security desk in the main lobby. Learn more about visiting EPA Headquarters, and please review Security/Building Access information before you visit.

Borrowing Policy and Interlibrary Loans

Borrowing privileges are limited to EPA staff and other libraries.  Members of the public can make requests for material via an interlibrary loan office of their institution or public library.  

To locate EPA library materials, you can search the EPA National Library Catalog. If you have any questions, please contact the library.

Information For Other Libraries: We freely share materials with other libraries via the OCLC Interlibrary Loan system and other cooperatives as described below. The Headquarters Library's OCLC symbol is EJB (and EJE for items from the former OSCPP Chemical Library). We are members of FEDL (Federal Libraries and Information Centers) and LVIS (Libraries Very Interested in Sharing). For libraries that do not have OCLC access, please contact the Headquarters Library at hqchemlibraries@epa.gov to discuss alternate methods for requesting materials.

About the Collection

The EPA Headquarters Library collection includes one of the Agency’s print publication repositories, as well as these other collection highlights:

• EPA Chemical Library materials – The Headquarters Library retains the collection of the former Chemical Library, a source of specialized chemical information for EPA staff and the public.
• EPA History Collection – The “Agency's institutional memory” - a small repository of key EPA historical documents. The collection is not available for browsing, but our librarians can search the collection for specific documents. (The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) preserves EPA's permanent records at its Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland. For information on records and access policies, contact NARA's Textual Archives Services.)
• Toxic Substances Control Act Test Submissions (TSCATS) Microfiche – TSCATS contain unpublished, non-confidential studies covering chemical testing results and adverse effects of chemicals on health and ecological systems. The studies were submitted by U.S. industry to EPA under several sections of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Our library services include scanning these items on an as-needed basis.