govdocs

Booth Library is a selective depository for government publications, which means we receive a portion of federal government publications. You can find information published by the United States government on many topics. The library receives publications of federal departments, agencies, bureaus, and offices, as well as congressional committee publications.

Some government publications are shelved in Reference or the general collection with a Library of Congress call number, or with the periodicals, either in paper or microfiche. However, most government documents in paper format are shelved on the second floor in a separate collection, or in the microfiche drawers in a separate section It is not necessary to perform a separate search to find government documents in the Booth Library. They will be found by performing author, subject, or title search as is done for other library materials.

Increasingly more government documents can be online on the government document website. Links to this important information can be found in the RESOURCES section of the library website under the GENERAL category.

The Government Document collection uses a different classification system--the Superintendent of Documents system or SuDoc system. SuDoc call numbers begin with a prefix consisting of letters of the alphabet, which indicate the government agency that published the document, and numbers which designate the type of publication; next are letters and numbers which identify the specific publication. For a more detailed explanation of the SuDoc classification system click here.