Introduction

Most of the chapters in this book are concerned with the content of government information and how to find an use government resources. This chapter takes a closer look at how government information is distributed, collected, cataloged, and classified in libraries.

Dissemination of U.S. Government Publications

This section will discuss the various methods used to disseminate federal publications. Dissemination of state and local publications is discussed in Chapter 10, and IGO publications are discussed in Chapter 15.

During colonial times and the first century of the existence of the U.S., most government documents were privately published by printers like Benjamin Franklin or Blair and Rives and were available for purchase by libraries and individuals. Not many libraries made an effort to acquire government publications until after the end of the colonial period.^[1]

Following the establishment of the U.S. government, Congress controlled the printing of government publications, contracted with private publishers, and legislatively authorized the printing and distribution of individual titles or series. Congressional documents were distributed to executive branch agencies, courts, and state governments. During the first few sessions of Congress, the congressional journals and statutes were not distributed to libraries, although some libraries acquired copies from members of Congress. In 1813, Congress made significant changes in how its publications were organized and issued. It also designated additional categories of publications, such as congressional documents and reports, to be distributed to states and federal offices, historical societies, and universities and colleges. Thus, 1813 is usually recognized as the year in which the official distribution of federal government publications to libraries began. The law also authorized the printing of an additional 200 copies of documents for distribution outside the federal government.^[2] In the 1850s, public laws expanded the number of libraries in the depository system by enabling the designation of one depository library in each congressional district by a state’s representatives in Congress, and two depositories could be designated by the senators in each state.^[3]

By 1860, Congress had experienced many difficulties with the private printing arrangements used in the preceding decades. In order to maintain better control over the quality and price of government printing, it established the Government Printing Office (GPO), which proceeded to purchase a printing plant for its use. However, GPO did not handle all of the printing for all branches of the government. An 1874 law defined public documents (government publications) as “publications printed by order of Congress, or either House thereof.” This definition excluded some types of publications such as Supreme Court reports, which continued to be privately published and sold until 1922.^[4]

In 1895, GPO established the modern Federal Depository Library Program. The list of libraries eligible to be depositories was enlarged to include state and territorial libraries, libraries of land grant colleges, and certain specified institutions. Until 1922, these depository libraries received all documents distributed by GPO, whether they were wanted or not. Furthermore, depositories were required to retain all documents they received.^[5] In 1923, the item selection process was introduced, allowing libraries to limit their selections and tailor them to the needs of their patrons.

In 1962, the number of depository libraries was again increased when the Depository Library Act of 1962 allowed for two depositories in each congressional district, and more executive branch agency libraries became eligible to serve as depositories. The law also established the concept of regional depository libraries, which would receive 100% of the documents distributed by GPO and would authorize the discarding of documents by the other depositories in the state (known as selective depositories). Furthermore, the law expanded the scope of the depository program by including documents printed in agency printing plants (formerly, only documents printed at GPO were included). The law had the effect of dramatically increasing the number of federal depository libraries because libraries were no longer required to permanently retain everything they received, and it also substantially increased the number of publications distributed.^[6] As a result, many depository libraries’ collections began in the 1960s. The number of depositories with significant collections of documents published prior to the 1960s is much smaller.

Beginning in the 1970s, GPO began to produce microfiche of many documents in order to distribute them to libraries without having to print and mail hundreds or thousands of copies. Microfiche also helped libraries that lacked the space to maintain large print collections. In 2022, GPO announced that it would cease the distribution of microfiche to depository libraries.

The GPO Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 again expanded the definition of documents considered to be within the scope of the depository program by including electronic publications. However, these electronic publications were not “deposited” any longer; libraries could simply provide access to them through links in their catalog records or by other means.

In 2002, the University of Arizona Library initiated a pilot project to transition to being a virtual depository. Since that time, GPO has permitted the establishment of additional virtual depositories that provide access to electronic government information but are not required to maintain physical collections of documents. Selective depository libraries that are not virtual depositories are also permitted to select the electronic version of most publications in lieu of receiving tangible formats. As a result, many libraries have chosen to receive far fewer titles in print and some have drastically downsized their print collections.

In 2023, GPO announced that the FDLP would become a mostly digital program. Selected publications will continue to be sent to a small number of depository libraries, but for the most part, libraries will receive few or no documents in tangible formats and will simply provide access to electronic publications and to the legacy collections they hold.

Other Distribution Systems for Federal Publications

In addition to receiving documents directly from government agencies by subscription, some libraries have participated in the following distribution systems operated by specific agencies.

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)

The AEC operated a depository system for unclassified AEC reports and translations of foreign reports related to atomic energy from 1946 to 1974. After 1965, AEC issued documents on microcards or microfiche. Documents were indexed in Nuclear Science Abstracts and Abstracts of Declassified Documents and are now indexed, with some full text, in OSTI.gov.^[7] Many of these publications are now available electronically in the Technical Report Archive and Image Library (TRAIL), but documents published by foreign government laboratories are not available due to copyright restrictions.

Census Depository Libraries

In the 1950s, the Census Bureau designated 181 special depositories that were not federal depository libraries to receive its reports. Depositories were chosen based on a public library’s population served, the enrollment in a college or university, or distance from a federal depository library. As the number of federal depository libraries increased in the 1960s, the need for these special census depositories decreased.^[8] There are currently 123 Census Depository Libraries.

Housing and Urban Development Department Depository Library System aka HUD 701 Planning Depositories

Public Law 83-560 established the Comprehensive Planning Assistance Program in 1954. The HUD system of depository libraries was then established to permit participating libraries to receive “701” planning reports. There were three types of HUD depositories: Planning Depositories, State Depositories, and Planning School Depositories. In 1977, there were over 100 HUD depositories in the U.S.^[9] The HUD depository system was replaced by HUD User, a research information service implemented in 1978.

Documents Expediting Project (DocEx)

DocEx began in 1946 as a joint project between the Library of Congress and a group of library associations to handle the distribution of publications, primarily those issued by wartime agencies, that were not printed or distributed by GPO. After the World War II-era publications had all been distributed, DocEx concentrated on other categories of publications, most notably congressional committee prints and CIA publications. DocEx also arranged for member libraries to be placed on federal agencies’ mailing lists. The project ended in 2004 due to the increasing online availability of government publications.^[10]

Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDL)

The PTDL system was established in 1977 to give depository libraries free access to current and backfile patent publications that ordinarily cost thousands of dollars, including examiners’ search tools. Now called Patent and Trademark Resource Centers, these libraries provide reference assistance and training on patent and trademark searching.

Army Map Service (AMS)

To distribute maps created by AMS or captured by Allied forces during World War II, in 1945 AMS developed a depository system modeled on the FDLP. AMS maps formed the foundation of many university libraries’ map collections, and some are still depositories for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, successor to AMS.^[11] Since not all libraries received identical sets of maps through the program, there are still groups of maps that have never been cataloged, particularly the captured maps and manuscript maps.

Collection Development

Chances are that most librarians will never work as depository librarians, but as subject selectors they may be tasked with selecting databases, reference titles, or other works to supplement what is freely available online. Vendors constantly develop new products; buy, sell, or merge product lines; or spin off individual product components. It can be difficult for librarians to keep up, so it is helpful to sign up for vendor mailing lists to maintain awareness of new products or databases. Below is a list of the principal publishers of electronic and print resources for government information. Unless otherwise noted, all resources may be acquired through subscription, standing orders, or firm orders. For the most part, the products listed are mainly of interest to larger academic or law libraries.

ProQuest has absorbed several important groups of print and microform publications that were originally issued by Congressional Information Service, Inc., UMI (University Microforms, Inc.), and other publishers. Its products cover congressional reports, documents, hearings, regulations, and Congressional Record, and the statistical indexes discussed in Chapter 6. ProQuest Congressional Collections, Regulatory Insight, Legislative Insight, Supreme Court Insight, Executive Branch Documents, Digital National Security Archive, UK Parliamentary Papers, ProQuest Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations, 1789-2014, ProQuest Statistical Insight, and ProQuest Statistical Abstracts are some of its most important electronic resources for government information. PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) Index, one of the oldest commercial indexing and abstracting services, is also available on the ProQuest platform. PAIS contains selective coverage of federal, state, and international government publications related to public affairs. ProQuest also publishes reference works and microfiche sets of federal, state, and international government publications.

SAGE is currently the publisher of CQ Press Library, an electronic library of reference works about American politics and government that includes titles formerly published by Congressional Quarterly: CQ Researcher, CQ Almanac, government directories, and other reference sources. Titles can be purchased separately and are also available in print. Data-Planet, also owned by SAGE, is one of the most important resources for federal and state data.

William S. Hein & Co., Inc. is primarily a legal publisher, but its electronic resource HeinOnline includes the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and many current and historical federal, state, and international government publications. In addition, Hein publishes several legal reference works available in electronic or print format. Hein is also one of the few remaining publishers of government documents in microform, and it publishes reprint editions of federal titles like agency administrative law decisions. In 2023, Hein announced that it had completed the digitization of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, now available in HeinOnline.

LLMC Digital began life as Law Library Microform Consortium, an organization dedicated to creating microfiche editions of federal, state, and international legal works. Law libraries were running out of space and microforms were in great demand to reduce the shelf space required for voluminous (and deteriorating) legal titles. LLMC later abandoned microfiche in favor of digitizing these works. Unlike the other vendors listed here, LLMC is a non-profit that was founded by the law libraries at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Wayne State University in Detroit.

Readex was initially a microprint publisher that sold microprint editions of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set and non-depository federal documents. Later, Readex developed an electronic version of the Serial Set and introduced additional electronic titles: Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996 and Territorial Papers of the United States, 1764-1953. Readex also publishes United Nations official documents and publications in a microfiche collection.

The Paratext product United States Masterfile provides a single search interface for the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications and other historical finding aids for U.S. government documents.

LexisNexis is a well-known legal and news publisher whose products are usually found in law libraries. The database Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) is designed for academic libraries and includes court decisions, regulations, and state and local laws.

MarciveWeb DOCS is Marcive, Inc.’s version of the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP). It provides an enhanced search interface compared to GPO’s CGP search options. Additional Marcive products are discussed below in the section on bibliographic control.

OCLC’s FirstSearch GPO Monthly Catalog provides the same content as the CGP with a different interface. 

AGRICOLA, freely available through the National Agricultural Library and also through other subscription platforms, contains selective indexing of federal, state, and international government publications related to agriculture, including patents and technical reports.

National Technical Reports Library is a free database produced by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS, discussed in Chapter 9). It provides indexing and full text of technical report literature produced by federal agencies. NTIS also publishes the subscription-based NTIS Bibliographic Database and the limited-access Death Master File (DMF) from the Social Security Administration.

EBSCO offers many specialized databases for academic and public libraries, including GeoRef, which covers government sources in the geosciences; NTIS Bibliographic Database, mentioned above; Global Patents Reference Center, which covers patents from most countries; and selected HeinOnline resources, including Congressional Record, Federal Register, and world constitutions. Other EBSCO databases that cover government information include Legal Information Reference Center, Legal Collection, and Military & Government Collection.

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse) is the U.S. Department of Education library of literature related to education. In addition to journal articles, it covers grey literature, conference papers, and theses and dissertations. It is freely available from USDOE and through several commercial database providers, including EBSCO. Many libraries have collections of ERIC documents on microfiche. Most of the documents covered by the microfiche have been scanned and are now available online through the ERIC database.

EastView Information Services publishes the World News Connection Archive, which covers FBIS documents from 1995-2013. These documents were formerly released on CD-ROMs and later became a subscription database—yet another example of a title that was once a free government publication but is now commercially published.

Rowman & Littlefield, under its Bernan imprint, publishes reprints of federal government publications and reference books about government information. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis, is another important publisher of reference books about government information.

The subscription databases available for U.S., state, and international government information are, for the most part, very expensive. Whereas libraries used to be able to purchase books or microform sets piecemeal, vendors typically sell their electronic products as packages using an all-or-nothing approach. In other words, a library must buy the entire package, even though it may want only a portion of the content. For example, in Readex’s U.S. Congressional Serial Set product, there are only two modules: 1810-1980 and 1980-1994. If a library only wanted content from 1950-present, it would be forced to purchase both modules and would have to pay for the unwanted pre-1950 content. It is understandable that companies take this approach in order to recoup the enormous investment required to develop the products, but the high price tags mean that many libraries simply do not subscribe. Some databases, e.g. ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States and Data-Planet, contain data or publications that are available online for free. The pricing covers not only the content, but also the search interface, technical support, training materials, and administrative and marketing costs.

Vendor literature is sometimes vague about the origins or the extent of the content being sold. Furthermore, salespeople may lack in-depth product knowledge or may emphasize the good qualities of a product while remaining silent about its limitations. Librarians need to exhibit persistence in questioning vendors about their products to ensure that they are a good value for the library. Request a trial of a database and test it thoroughly before making a purchase decision. Reviews of electronic resources or reference books can be helpful, but sometimes they are too brief. Asking colleagues who have already purchased a product is a common way to assess print or electronic resources before you buy.

You may wonder why vendors still publish microforms. In part, it is because the content of the microform sets may not have been digitized yet. Moreover, there is still a market for microforms as a backup for electronic resources. The microfiche can still be used if the institution decides to cancel its subscription to an electronic resource due to budgetary constraints. Finally, microforms are less expensive than their electronic counterparts, which are usually priced for multiple simultaneous users.

Acquisition of Government Documents

In the days when the term government information referred to documents produced through printing or other means of reproduction, it was far easier for librarians to keep track of what was being published. Librarians relied on catalogs, such as the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, bibliographies, and indexes to discover what was available. Libraries could participate in depository programs, purchase documents, or request to be added to agencies’ mailing lists. It was easy for librarians to feel confident that their libraries had comprehensive collections of documents issued by a particular agency or covering specific subject matter. Nowadays, librarians can never be completely sure that they are aware of all of the online content posted by an official or agency. Even government agencies themselves cannot maintain control over all of the issuances from their various regional and local offices and sub-agencies.

For federal depository librarians, developing the collection used to involve two streams: selecting and deselecting depository items through the FDLP item selection process, described on the pages Depository Collection and Development and Weeding a Depository Collection, and acquiring reference titles and non-depository materials to supplement the depository collection. Depository libraries used the FDLP’s collection tools (described on the page Amending Your Library’s Selection Profile) to view a listing all of the items selected or to add or drop item selections. Now that the FDLP is a mostly digital program, libraries will develop their selection profiles to determine which records for electronic publications to load into their catalogs rather than to select tangible publications.

Gifts and exchange agreements are important acquisition sources for government publications. Other sources of gifts are libraries or other organizations that are downsizing or weeding duplicates. Librarians can use formal needs and offers database like GPO’s eXchange or ASERL’s Documents Disposition Database for collection building, or they may rely on informal networks between individual librarians.

Of course, it is possible to purchase federal documents from GPO or from a book jobber, but not all publications are available for sale. Often, a librarian must contact an agency directly, especially in the case of maps. Libraries can ask to be placed on an agency’s mailing list or use its news feed to be notified of print or online publications that the library might want to acquire or link to. For example, notifications of statistical reports about agricultural commodities are available from the USDA, and state data centers send alerts announcing new releases of census data.

Librarians may also request documents through interlibrary loan in order to create reproductions or scans for the collection, especially in the case of unreported documents (discussed below). Similarly, libraries may purchase copies of archival material of local interest from the National Archives or other repositories.

Finally, there is the method of looking for government documents when you are out and about. Pick up national park brochures when you visit national parks because they are not always distributed through the FDLP. Community events often feature local government agencies that are handing out booklets, brochures, posters, or other publications.

Collecting and Preserving Born Digital Information

Some librarians have argued that libraries should collect and archive born-digital content rather than relying on the issuing agency or GPO to perform this function. The result would be a distributed collection of documents that would be a virtual equivalent to the distributed print collections of the FDLP. The LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) program is a platform that enables libraries to store and preserve digital content. Some libraries use Archive-It or in-house systems to store documents on a local or remote server. The digital archiving movement for government documents is still gaining momentum, so it is hard to say how prevalent the practice will be going forward.

It is especially important to resolve the issues created by the impermanence of websites. In the age of printed documents, a presidential administration could not easily wipe out the former administration’s publications. Today, whenever a new president takes office, agencies review their websites and often delete or hide (intentionally or not) pages that do not conform to the new administration’s views. This occurs under each new president, but it is perhaps better documented with the Trump administration. For instance, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration had made a concerted effort to remove references to climate change on agency websites.^[12]

Both government and community efforts have arisen recently to archive federal websites. The National Archives conducts an end-of-term crawl of federal agency websites at the conclusion of each session of Congress. At the end of President Trump’s 2017-2020 term, a collaborative project by the The Library of Congress, California Digital Library, University of North Texas Libraries, Internet Archive, George Washington University Libraries, Stanford University Libraries, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office commenced to preserve, to the extent possible, the websites of federal agencies.^[13] The archived web pages reside on the End of Term Presidential Harvest.

In 2006, GPO undertook a pilot project to crawl the Environmental Protection Agency’s website to harvest documents. Two separate contractors were assigned to perform the work. The fact that one contractor harvested 83,229 documents while the other harvested 239,478 publications gives an indication of the difficulties surrounding web crawling as a means of acquiring agency content. First, what is the definition of a document? Websites frequently break documents into smaller PDFs or separate html pages to reduce download times. Is each of those components a document, or do they collectively constitute a document? Second, an enormous amount of human intervention may be required to review harvested content to determine whether they have already been captured through another process, whether they are within scope of the FDLP, and to aggregate separate pieces of a publication. Third, it is not enough to crawl “surface” pages of a website. To be effective, a crawl must reach into individual databases or repositories that hold content. Thus, the search parameters must be customized to reach these deeper portions of each agency’s websites.^[14]

Currently GPO crawls the websites of selected agencies and harvests other high-interest content. It maintains the files in the Federal Depository Library Program Web Archive. In the future, GPO may expand its harvesting program to encompass a greater number of federal publications. The National Archives is responsible for archiving congressional websites. Many executive branch agencies maintain their own website archives, but some agencies do not yet have policies or procedures for web archiving. Note that these archiving activities generally do not extend to social media postings.

 Unreported Publications

The term “unreported publication” (formerly referred to as “fugitive”) refers to documents that are within the scope of the FDLP but for various reasons were not acquired or distributed by GPO and therefore were not included in the CGP. It has been estimated that as much as fifty percent or more of the output of federal agencies has been unreported at various points in time. How could this happen? Bower identified several factors:

• Agencies reproduce documents in-house or publish them online, so they do not go to GPO for printing and distribution.
• GPO erroneously determines that a publication is not in scope of the FDLP.
• GPO lacks staff to identify and collect unreported documents and relies on crowdsourcing for this task.
• Agencies make arrangements with commercial publishers to print and distribute certain publications.^[15]

As federal agencies have moved most of their publishing online, the problem of unreported publications has only gotten worse. A report by the End of Term Web Archive estimated that, “Federal agencies host approximately 6,000 websites containing 32 million webpages and a total of 12 terabytes of data.”^[16] It is unknown how much of this content is within scope of the FDLP and how much is distributed to depository libraries. 

Librarians have used a variety of methods to identify and acquire unreported publications and have strongly advocated for measures that would reduce the number of unreported documents. For instance, librarians have maintained contact with agencies to acquire documents and have committed to reviewing certain agencies’ websites to identify previously unreported documents. There is a formal system for reporting federal publications to GPO through its AskGPO customer service interface. GPO aims to have a comprehensive catalog of government publications, whether they were distributed by GPO or not, so GPO welcomes notifications of current and historical unreported documents that are within scope of the FDLP. Once notified, GPO will catalog the publication and add a record for it to the CGP.

States that have depository systems often do not have the authority to require state agencies or counties to send copies of their publications (or notifications of electronic publications) to the depository. Therefore, unreported documents are an issue not only with federal publications but also for libraries that collect state and local documents. At the international, state, and local level, there are no formal systems for reporting these documents, so it is up to the individual library to acquire or archive government information.

Case Study

Question: My library received a donation of several Census Bureau posters. One of them is in Russian. How can I catalog this poster if I cannot read Russian?

I submitted a description of the poster (figure 3) and a photograph of it (figure 4) to AskGPO and requested that GPO catalog it.

 

 

 

I was contacted by a cataloger at GPO who asked me to send a photograph of the English-language version of the poster (figure 5). Subsequently, the cataloger created a cataloging record for the poster and added it to the CGP (figure 6).

 

 

 

Bibliographic Control

Cataloging—U.S. Government Publications

Initially, the U.S. government did not have a single method of cataloging or indexing its official publications. Anyone wishing to research a law or to review the Annual Report of the Surgeon General of the United States Navy would need to consult the House or Senate journal or various catalogs and indexes that covered portions of the output of the government.

Finally, in 1885, Benjamin Perley Poore, who was the Clerk of the Senate Committee on Printing, compiled a catalog of U.S. government publications that covered 1774 to 1881 and encompassed over 63,000 books, pamphlets, and other documents.^[17] To compile the list, Poore and his assistants scoured the collections of the Library of Congress, the House and Senate, the executive branch agencies, and even the Boston Public Library and private collections. Poore noted that because the government used various printers, there was sometimes more than one version of a document.

John Ames, the Superintendent of Documents, continued Poore’s work in his Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government 1881-1893.^[18] It wasn’t until the publication of the Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909 (commonly known as the 1909 Checklist) that a truly comprehensive listing of U.S. government publications was available.^[19]

The Printing Act of 1895 mandated the ongoing publication of a comprehensive index of government documents. The resulting publication, Document Catalog, was published annually from 1893 to 1940. According to Morehead, “The Document Catalog is a splendid source, the most accurate and the most comprehensive official bibliography for the period 1893-1940.”^[20] The reader may be surprised to hear this, since the Monthly Catalog of Government Publications began publication in 1895. In its initial incarnation, though, the Monthly Catalog was simply a list of public documents in print and did not include the author, subject, and title access available in Document Catalog. When the Document Catalog ceased publication, the Monthly Catalog was required to expand and improve its coverage. It included entries not only for documents distributed through the FDLP (marked with a black dot), but also for documents that were not distributed.

The print Monthly Catalog ceased publication in 2004 and now the catalog is only available online as the CGP. In 1976, GPO began uploading its cataloging records to OCLC (WorldCat), the international cooperative cataloging database. Thus, when the online version of CGP was initially introduced, it only covered documents that had been cataloged in July 1976 or later. However, GPO has been adding records from its card-based shelflist, and now the CGP contains records for a great many pre-1976 documents (Figure 1). In addition, GPO plans to create full bibliographic records for all of the documents listed in the pre-1976 Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

The Library of Congress has always collected and cataloged federal government publications. However, its collection is far from comprehensive, so the Library of Congress online catalog cannot be considered a comprehensive search tool for federal documents.

When libraries began to adopt automated catalog systems, government documents were not usually included in retrospective conversion projects to convert card catalog records to machine-readable (MARC) records. As a result, many depository libraries, especially those with large depository collections, only list part of their holdings in the online catalog. Some libraries still selectively catalog documents and rely on spreadsheets, databases, or even shelflist cards to record their holdings. Therefore, it is extremely important for librarians who work with government documents to remember that the library’s holdings may not all be listed in the online catalog.

Currently, about 95 percent of federal government documents have some kind of record in OCLC, whether contributed by GPO, the Library of Congress, or other member libraries. However, the existence of OCLC records for congressional and unreported publications varies by agency and date. Many libraries have undertaken cataloging projects for selected agencies, which filled in many of the gaps and made WorldCat a preferred catalog for federal documents. In addition, agencies such as the Defense Technical Information Center have contributed records for digitized documents. In spite of the increasing representation of government documents in WorldCat, librarians still post notices to the GOVDOC-L listserv asking if anyone has a copy of a particular document because there is no record for it in WorldCat to which to attach an interlibrary loan request.

Metadata Creation

What is it about government documents that strikes fear in the hearts of catalogers? In truth, there is nothing so terribly different about metadata creation for government publications. It is undeniable that some information is more difficult to find on government documents. For example, the corporate author, date of publication, or even the title may be missing. Frequently, the title on the spine, cover, and title page do not match. Some government publications are known by popular names such as Plum Book or CONUS. All of these title peculiarities can be accounted for in the bibliographic record. With a little sleuthing, a cataloger can fill in missing information and produce a record that will pass muster.

It is also true that serials present a number of challenges for the cataloger. They may appear as issues within a numbered series, making it difficult to collocate all of the issues. Title and agency changes necessitate the creation of new records. Frequencies change from monthly to quarterly to bimonthly. Libraries may not have enough issues of a serial to discern a publication pattern. Serials start, stop, and start again with different issue numbering. Fortunately, descriptive cataloging rules cover all of these situations. To provide resources for librarians who catalog government publications, the Cataloging Committee of ALA’s Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) maintains three toolboxes for catalogers, one for federal documents, one for state documents, and one for international documents.

GPO is the cataloger of record for federal government documents and contributes its records to OCLC. The FDLP’s Library Services and Content Management has created a guide to GPO cataloging policies and resources. For depository libraries, GPO provides valuable cataloging services. They will catalog federal government publications upon request. Depository librarians can submit requests to GPO through its AskGPO interface to catalog unreported documents and documents that were distributed through the FDLP but somehow were never cataloged by GPO.

Catalog records are made available in CGP and OCLC and are available to everyone. GPO records can also be acquired through GitHub, a computer source code sharing site, and through the Cataloging Records Distribution Program (CRDP), available to federal depository libraries. In addition, libraries can purchase GPO cataloging records through a vendor like Marcive or OCLC. Additional sources of cataloging records are listed on the GODORT Cataloging Committee’s federal toolbox.

GPO assigns Permanent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs) to online documents and records these in bibliographic records. PURLs direct traffic to a link resolver service where the URL of the resource is recorded. Thus, the PURL in a bibliographic record remains stable even if the actual location of the resource described in the record changes. GPO periodically checks PURLs to make sure that the links behind them are still active. GPO provides reports via the FDLP PURL Usage Reporting Tool that show how many times online government publications were accessed through a library’s website, online catalog, or discovery layer, and libraries can also retrieve lists of the documents viewed by their patrons.

Indexing of Federal Documents

Until the early 2000s, most depository libraries relied upon the Monthly Catalog in its print and online versions to provide subject, author, and title access to FDLP publications. Many libraries also purchased supplementary indexes such as CIS Index for congressional publications or subscribed to commercially published electronic versions of the Monthly Catalog. Other indexes used for government technical reports included Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) for NASA reports and Government Reports Annual Index for reports available from the National Technical Information Service. These formerly printed indexes are now available as online databases with links to PDF documents. Note, however, that many categories of government publications have not been indexed, or indexes may only be available within the agency that produced the documents.

Thesauri

Many federal agencies have developed thesauri for use in their bibliographic indexes and databases. A thesaurus is a listing of words or phrases authorized for use in an indexing or database system. It lists authorized terms and synonyms. Using thesaurus terms can make searching in a specialized index or database more efficient. Using the DTIC Thesaurus, for example, one learns that the appropriate term to use for sailors in DTIC is naval personnel.

Classification of U.S. Government Publications

In this section, we are referring to classification as a means of organizing and arranging documents. Classification of sensitive or secret documents is discussed in Chapter 17.

Prior to 1895, only congressional publications used a classification system. Senate and House reports and documents were, and still are, issued with document numbers and are bound into consecutively numbered volumes in what is known as the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Executive branch documents were simply listed by title and cross-referenced with the personal author’s name, if there was one.

In 1895, Adelaide Hasse brought to GPO a scheme she had devised for classifying federal documents at the Los Angeles Public Library. Superintendent of Documents William Leander Post expanded upon her scheme and the Superintendent of Documents, or SuDocs, classification system was born. The SuDocs system is based on provenance. In other words, documents are arranged by the agency or sub-agency that issued them, then by the type of document. To a large extent, SuDocs is mnemonic (A is for Agriculture, C is for Commerce, D is for Defense), but X and Y are used for Congressional publications.^[21] Although the system makes it easy for non-librarians to quickly classify documents, it presents a dilemma when it comes to shelving documents. Should documents be kept in with the agency under which they were initially issued, or should they be moved when the classification changes?

A classic example of how an agency’s classification can change multiple times due to reorganizations is the Coast Guard (Table 1). These changes also demonstrate how an agency’s functions may change over time. When the Coast Guard was part of the Department of the Treasury, it was mainly involved with lifesaving, maintaining guides to navigation, and customs enforcement. During World Wars I and II, it became part of the Navy when its harbor security functions gained greater importance. In 1966, when the Department of Transportation was created, the Coast Guard’s role in safeguarding shipping caused it to be placed there. Finally, the security functions of the Coast Guard were deemed a better fit in the Department of Homeland Security when that agency came into existence in 2003.

Table 1. SuDocs Number Changes in Coast Guard Publications

The SuDocs system is still used today and GPO devises a SuDocs number for all of the publications it distributes, even when they are only available electronically. Librarians can devise SuDoc numbers for documents that have not been classified by GPO. It is customary to indicate a non-GPO-constructed SuDoc number by adding a lower-case x to it, e.g., D 201.45/2:K 12/2x. SuDocs has also been the inspiration for a number of classification schemes used for state documents, such as WyDocs, CalDocs, Swank (Florida), and Texas State Documents.

Bibliographic Control of State and Local Documents

What is a state document? The answer might seem self-evident, but having a definition is important from a collection development and management standpoint. For example, if a document was issued jointly by the U.S. Forest Service and a state department of forestry, should it be shelved in the federal or state documents collection? Documents may be published on behalf of agencies or prepared by contractors, so it is necessary to determine whether these publications should be treated as government publications or handled like other library materials.

Each library makes its own determination about where state and local documents are to be shelved. In some libraries, they are part of a separate government documents collection, while in others, they are part of the local area collection. In addition, libraries must decide whether to classify state documents in the subject arrangement used by the library or to use the state documents classification scheme and shelve documents separately. Placing documents in a separate collection reduces or eliminates the time required to perform subject classification. Furthermore, additional security for state publications may be justified, considering that it may be difficult or impossible to obtain replacement copies if documents go missing. On the other hand, when documents are integrated into the subject arrangement, patrons are more likely to discover and use them. Government documents may be non-circulating or circulate for shorter periods than the general library collection, depending on each library’s policies.

Now that many state and local documents are issued only online, the question becomes whether or not to create metadata for them, and if so, how? Some librarians have argued that, “We can’t catalog the internet,” and have declined to create metadata for online publications, even when their print equivalents would be cataloged. Others assert that cataloging helps patrons to find documents that otherwise would not be highly ranked in an internet search. Each library’s policies and cataloging capacity will determine its approach.

Bibliographic Control of Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) Publications

The Dag Hammarskjöld Library creates cataloging records for UN publications, which are available in WorldCat. It uses the United Nations Thesaurus for subject terms rather than Library of Congress Subject Headings. Similarly, the European Union uses the EuroVoc Thesaurus. Cataloging records created by IGOs often do not contain Library of Congress or Dewey classification numbers. Most IGOs have devised a numbering system that is used to arrange their publications. For example, the United Nations uses document symbols to classify its publications. Some libraries shelve UN documents according to these numbers, but many more integrate them into the general collection. A few libraries have developed their own classification systems for IGO publications. These in-house systems usually group all of the publications of a particular IGO.

 Insider’s Library

Hartman, R. D. (1975). Bibliography of classification schemes used for state document collections. DttP: Documents to the People 3(4), 23-26.

This bibliography lists reference works that describe the classification schemes used in various states.

Latham, B. (2018). Tips for collection development. In Latham, B., Finding and using U.S. government information: A practical guide for librarians. Rowman & Littlefield (pp. 205-216).

In this chapter, Latham covers the basics of collection development for depository libraries and points to the most important websites used by librarians who maintain federal documents collections.

U.S. Government Publishing Office. (2018). GPO cataloging guidelines. https://www.fdlp.gov/cataloging-and-classification/cataloging-guidelines

The guidelines provide examples of GPO’s cataloging practices for many types of material such as congressional publications, maps, technical reports, audiovisual material, integrating resources, and computer files.

U.S. Government Publishing Office. (2018). Superintendent of Documents classification guidelines. https://www.fdlp.gov/classification-guidelines/introduction-to-the-classification-guidelines

This source explains SuDoc classification in detail and can be used by librarians to construct SuDoc numbers for documents that were issued without them.