HDL -- Library of Congress

U.S. Government Publications in The Hekman Library are located on the 2nd floor. They are arranged according to the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) Classification System, which is based on the name of the issuing agency. The following is a list of the primary issuing agencies:

A	Agriculture Department	J	Justice Department
C	Commerce Department	JU	Judiciary
C3.	Census Bureau	L	Labor Department
D	Defense Department	LC	Library of Congress
E	Energy Department	NAS	National Aeronautics and Space Administration
ED	Education Department	S	State Department
GA	General Accounting Office	T	Treasury Department
GS	General Services Administration	T 22.	Internal Revenus Service
HE	Heath and Human Services Department	X,Y	Congress
I	Interior Department	Y 4.	Congressional Committees
I19.	U.S. Geological Survey

How is a SuDocs number constructed?

C 61.34:993 is the SuDoc number for the 1993 edition of the U.S. Industrial Outlook in paper format.

C	61.	34:	993
Commerce Department (issuing agency)	International Trade Administration (subordinate bureau within the agency	Number used to designate the title	Year of publication (1993)

The portion of the classification number to the left of, and including, the colon is called the SuDoc stem).

How would you find this document on the shelf?

The government publications in paper format are located on the compact shelving units in the government documents department on the 2nd floor. You would first look for the "C" section using the shelf labels on the sides of the movable shelving units. If the "C" aisle is closed you will have to move shelving units to open the aisle. To do this, first go to the open aisle and be sure no one is in the aisle using that part of the collection. If the aisle is clear, push in the red pin on the side of the shelving unit you wish to move. This unlocks the system. You can move several units at one time if all of the lock pins are pushed in. Go back to the aisle you wish to open and turn the handle on the side of the shelving unit until the aisle is open.

Find the beginning of the "C" section, and notice the SuDoc numbers that are written in the upper lefthand corner of the documents on the shelf. Keep going until you reach the "C 61" documents. Since this is an author arrangement, you will have located all the documents put out by the International Trade Administration. Now here's the tricky part. The "." following the "61" is NOT a decimal point - it is merely a character used to separate the two numerical fields (in this case "61" and "34"). So a document with a SuDoc stem of C 61.7 would actually precede C 61.34 on the shelf. This is a major difference between the SuDoc classification and the Library of Congress classification that is used for books in the main collection. In the SuDoc classification system, numbers to the right of the "." in the class stem are numbered consecutively; the "." is NOT treated like a decimal point. In other words, don't "think of it as money" as is suggested for the Library of Congress Classification system used for our library's main collection.

Once you have located documents with the SuDoc number C 61.34 on the shelf you will see that there may be several documents with the same stem but different years. Search through those years until you come to 993 which represents 1993. Documents for the year 2000 will probably be represented with the full four-digit number.

For more information on the Superintendent of Documents Classification System see An Explanation of the Superintendent of Documents Classification System, and for an in-depth treatment, see the GPO Classification Manual.