It provides Department of Labor employees and members of the general public with access to both historically significant and current resources pertaining to labor.

Established in 1917, the U.S. Department of Labor Library was created with the consolidation of the libraries of the former Children's Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The library's online catalog provides access to all materials acquired since 1975 and to selected pre-1975 items.

[1] The library is the recipient of the 2009 John Sessions Memorial Award.

It is a federal depository library, and in 2000 was designated a Millennium Library by the White House Millennium Council in recognition of its unique historical holdings.