The NH State Public Library uses the term “agency” broadly to describe the departments, offices, commissions, boards, and divisions of state government. Think of "agency" as a catch-all term that can mean department, office, commission, board, division, or bureau.
Each agency is a large umbrella under which many smaller offices, departments, commissions, divisions, bureaus, and boards operate. The complete list of NH state agencies can be found here. To locate a government document on our shelves, first identify the large umbrella agency under which a specific division, office, or department might be organized.
If you can't find your agency on the shelves or in the online depository, remember that some agencies have been retired or combined over time. For example, the Department of Resources and Economic Development was in operation from 1962-2017 but has since been split and absorbed into Business & Economic Affairs and Environmental Services. For this reason, documents originally published by Resources and Economic Development in our collection can now be found in either Business & Economic Affairs or Environmental Services.
Although the official names of each agency haven't changed, their names have been simplified in this guide to help with searching. Just like the digital depository, we omit the agency title and the phrase "New Hampshire." For example, the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs is shortened to Business and Economic Affairs. Even though it's officially a department, we're going to call it an agency.