Government publications range from official documents such as statutes, laws, court decisions, and records of congressional activity to scientific and technical studies. Current topics like child care, water treatment, or solar heat can also be found in Government Documents.
Bierce Library has been a selective depository of government publications since 1963. In other words, the Library receives about 60% of the government publications that are distributed by the Government Printing Office. The Government Printing Office is the largest publisher in the world, and it is the federal government's primary information producer and distributor.
Documents are distributed to Depository Libraries at no charge. In return, these libraries make the documents available to the public. Bierce Library shares this charge with other Federal Depository Libraries in the 17th Congressional District. Other sources of government documents are the Educational Resources and Information Center (ERIC), National Technical Information Service (NTIS), and agency documents.
If you have questions about accessing Government Documents, please contact the Government Documents Librarian via Email
Finding and Using Government Documents
The Documents Collection is located on the First Floor of the Main Library. The emphasis of the collection is on statistics, business, education, applied science, social and political science, and history. International, state, or local government publications are not included, but are cataloged in the general collection.
Superintendent of Documents Call Numbers
Government Documents are not organized under the same classification scheme as the general collection. The documents are organized and shelved according to the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) numbers.
The SuDocs number is unique in that it always has a colon. For example, A 1.1: is an annual report from the Agriculture Department. The letter in the SuDocs number refers to the publishing agency such as:
- A Agriculture Dept.
- C Census
- D Defense
- E Energy
- HE Health and Human Services
- X-Y Congress
The documents are arranged alphabetically by the government agency. The numbers are whole numbers, not decimals. Therefore, E 1.9: comes before E 1.12:.
How to Identify and Locate Government Documents
Many of the library's government documents can be located, like books, by searching the library's online catalog.
For example, suppose you did a SUBJECT search in the UA on the phrase, Global Warming.... The initial results of your search does not show any distinction between books and government documents. |
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If you select the button EXTENDED DISPLAY, you will see additional information about the titles retrieved including location designations (Bierce, Law, Science, Wayne) and call numbers for the titles: call numbers with slashes (/) or colons (:) indicate U.S. government documents. These are called Superintendent of Documents, or SUDOC numbers. |
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Let's look at a complete UA
Libraries's catalog
record for one of the items: |
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Another way to find U.S. government documents using the library catalog is to do a SUBJECT search, then look for the phrase "United States" in the subject headings that are listed.
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In this example, notice item 19, the subject heading Global Warming--Government Policy--United States. It is a good bet that many of the 24 items under this heading will be U.S. government documents. Let's take a look... |
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As expected, many government documents are found under this heading. |
In addition to the UA Libraries' Catalog, there are other databases to use to access information about, and increasingly often the full text of government publications
MarciveWeb the online version of The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, is a good place to begin when searching for U.S. government publications. The Marcive database provides a variety of access points to publications by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The database gives bibliographic citations, Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification numbers, and World Wide Web URLs for documents published since July 1976. Here is a direct link to MarciveWeb.
The University Libraries' home page provides access to many additional U.S. government documents databases and governmental Websites. Here are direct links to....