Research Guides: U.S. Government Documents Reference: About Documents

What is a document?

What is a government publication?

Federal government publications: "'Government publication' as used in this chapter, means informational matter which is published as an individual document at Government expense, or as required by law." (Source: 44 USC 1901)

What governments do government publications come from?

International, e.g. United Nations, etc. Although Bowdoin College Library has some international documents, we are not a depository for any of them.
Federal. Federal government information is distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program. H-L Library at Bowdoin College is a Federal depository.
State. Maine government information is distributed through the Maine depository library program. H-L Library is a Maine depository.
Local (county, town)

SuDocs Call Numbers

Federal government publications in the Govt Doc, Govt Folio, Govt Micro, and Govt Reference collections use a special call number system specifically created for federal documents, called the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification system.

A SuDocs call number assigned to a document is based on the government agency which released the document. For example, a publication from the Department of Agriculture begins with an "A," such as A 1.114:92 and a publication from the Department of Education begins with the letters "ED," such as ED 1.209:Sp1. (See currently used SuDocs letter prefixes in the List of Classes.)

Agencies or bureaus under departments have the letter or letters for that department (the "parent agency") and are also assigned a number unique to the sub-agency or bureau. For example, "A 13" is the Forest Service and "A 93" is the Economic Research Service, both of which are agencies under the Department of Agriculture. The next part of the call number identifies the series or type of publication. The remaining parts of the call number identify the individual publication.

The call numbers file alphabetically by letter and then in numerical order by the first group of numbers, then the next group, etc. All numbers are whole numbers. Unlike the Library of Congress call number system used in most of the rest of the library, there are no decimals.

How can one recognize a government publication at H-L Library?

	Federal	Maine
Publisher or printer	Government Publishing Office (formerly Government Printing Office) or another federal government agency	Maine government agency
URL	.gov, .mil, etc.	.me.us, maine.gov, etc.
Call number	Federal publications at H-L are usually classed Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs), but some are classed Library of Congress (LC).	State publications at H-L are usually classed using the Maine state documents classification. Some are classed Library of Congress (LC).
Location	Federal documents are usually located in one of the following locations. (Non-documents may also be located in these locations. Federal documents may be integrated into other collections in the library as well.) The largest collection of federal documents at Bowdoin is held in the Govt Doc collection in the basement of H-L Library. Federal documents having special value are in the Govt Index collection in the basement of H-L Library. Oversized volumes are held in the Govt Folio collection in the basement of H-L Library. Documents in microfiche format are in the Govt Micro collection in the basement of H-L Library. Reference materials are held in the Govt Ref collection on the first floor of H-L Library. There are some bound documents periodicals in the Main Periodical collection in the basement of H-L Library. A few items of special value or age are held in Special Collections and Archives on the third floor of H-L Library. Topographic maps are held in Hatch Science Library. Other sheet maps and large posters are held in the Govt Maps collection in the basement of H-L Library. Some documents are integrated into other collections within H-L or another Bowdoin College library.	Most Maine documents are held in the Govt Doc collection in the basement of H-L and have a call number beginning with "Maine".
Stamp	The stamp used since at least 1995 includes the word "Depository". A bookplate used in the 1940s may read: "Bowdoin College Library; The Gift of the United States".	The stamp currently being used does not include the word "Depository".