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Government Documents

U.S. Federal Documents 

 

What is a SuDoc number and how is it used to locate federal documents?

    Adelaide Hasse (September 13, 1868 – July 28, 1953) developed The Superintendent of Documents alpha/numeric classification system, which was specifically designed to locate federal documents. Documents are grouped together by the issuing agency. The SuDoc number is divided by the colon. The SuDoc stem is located before the colon and indicates the issuing agency by a letter of the alphabet or combination of letters followed by a number to indicate the bureau within an agency, and then a number designating the title.  The book number is located after the colon and is a unique identifier for the date of publication or the series. 
    For example, L 2.3/4: 2006-07 is the SuDoc number for the Occupational Outlook Handbook:  
    L                Labor Department (issuing agency)  
                
    2                Bureau of Labor Statistics (subordinate bureau within the agency)                
    3/4:           Number designating the title                
    2006-07   Year of publication or coverage
    You can use the List of Classes to specifically locate subdivisions of the parent issuing agencies in various formats, such as, paper (P), microfiche (MF), electronic (EL), and (CD) CD-ROM or (DVD) for optical discs.
     

 

 

 
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