This document provides an introduction to government documents. It outlines various types of government documents including laws, regulations, reports, court decisions and more. It describes key resources for finding these documents such as FDsys, the Federal Register, Regulations.gov and the U.S. Code. It also explains how government documents are organized and shelved using the SuDocs system. The objectives are to help students understand what government documents are, how to locate them and how to cite them.

1. INTRODUCTION TO
GOVERNMENT
DOCUMENTS
Kate Dougherty, Electronic Resources and
June 2011 Government Documents Librarian, Southern
University at New Orleans

2. Overview
 Government  Court Decisions
Documents: What  Government
and Why? Reports
 FDsys  Library Catalog
 Federal Register  SuDoc Shelving
 Regulations.gov System
 U.S. Code  Citing Government
Documents
 Exercises

3. Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
 Identify when you might  Describe Regulations and
want to use government know when to use it
documents  Identify a source for finding
 Identify a source for court decisions
locating federal laws &  Locate a court decision
regulations
 Locate a government
 Locate a federal law or report in the library catalog
regulation on a specific and find it on the shelf
topic
 Locate guidelines for citing
 Describe the Federal a government document
Register and know when
to use it
 Describe the U.S. Code
and know when to use it

4. Where do government documents
come from?
All branches of government:
 Legislative (Congress)
 Makes laws
 Executive (President & federal agencies –
FDA, EPA, CDC, etc.)
 Experts that make regulations to implement laws
 Judicial (court decisions)

5. Some Types of Government
Documents
 Laws
 Regulations
 Reports
 Statistics
 Websites
 Databases
 Brochures
 Forms (FAFSA, tax forms, etc.)

6. Why Use Government
Documents?
 Primary sources (first-hand information)
 Current and historical
 Reliable
 Usually free
 Great for statistics and information on
current/social issues

7. Laws, Regulations, &
Congressional Documents
 FDsys
 free online access to official Federal Government
publications
 Stands for “Federal Digital System”
 Mostly laws, regulations and Congressional
debates and documents
 Not currently good for reports
 Still adding more collections
 See “Featured Collections” for most popular
(browse only – use search box on homepage to
search)

11. Federal Register
Notice

12. Federal Register (FR)
 Daily “newspaper” telling you what
federal agencies (EPA, CDC, FEMA,
etc.) are up to
 Required to notify the public through the
Federal Register before finalizing regulations
 Tells you what’s being planned &
how to comment
 Also used to announce grants
 Advocacy groups monitor FR for issues to
comment on and new grant opportunities

14. Regulations.gov
 Submit comments on proposed federal agency
actions/regulations online
 www.regulations.gov
Bad
I think this
is great!
idea!

18. United States Code
 Contains the permanent laws of the United
States
 Legislative branch of government
 Divided by broad subjects into 50 “titles”
 Titles are arranged by topic
 Access through FDsys

23. Court Decisions
 Available in LexisNexis
 U.S. and state supreme courts
 LN only includes cases involving the entire
population of the state or country (i.e., cases
about state laws, etc. - NOT ones like the
Michael Jackson murder case)

24. Court Decisions

25. Court Decisions
Can look up a case:
• by citation, if you have it
• By party
• You only need to know one party
• Can enter a party in either box,
the order doesn’t matter
• By topic/keyword (e.g., “intellectual
property”)

28. Government Reports
 Education, health, environment, etc.
 Use library catalog to find these
 Both print and online
 Use power search
 Select “Federal Documents” or “Louisiana
Documents” under “Type”
 Mostly links to electronic versions; some in print
in the SUNO library

29. Power
Search

31. SuDocs Number System
 Paper copies in the library are shelved
according to SuDocs system
 Different from other library call number
systems
 Typical call numbers look like this:
L 2.3/4:998-99
 Beginning letter(s) treated alphabetically
 Abbreviation for government agency that
published it
 3 points to remember…

32. SuDocs Shelving System
 1. The dot “.”is not a decimal point! All
numbers are whole numbers.
 Example: L 2.3/4:998-99
 “3” is the whole number 3, not 3 tenths
Decimal Order SuDoc Order
D 1.1: D 1.1:
D 1.12: D 1.3:
D 1.122: D 1.12:
D 1.3: D 1.33:
D 1.33: D 1.122:

33. SuDocs Shelving System
2. Nothing comes before something
 D 1.1: comes before D 1.1:2000

34. SuDoc Shelving System
3. If the call number is the same to a certain
point, then varies, the order is: Years, Letters,
Numbers.
Years/Letters/Numbers Order
Example 1 Example 2
A 1.35:993 EP 1.23:998
A 1.35:R 42 EP 1.23:A 62
A 1.35:R 42/995 EP 1.23:91-44
A 1.35:R 42/2 EP 1.23:600/998-103
A 1.35:321 EP 1.23:600/R-98-23

35. Citing Government Documents
 In most cases, the issuing agency is the author
(rather than an individual)
 See the University of Memphis Brief Guide to
Citing Government Publications

36. Exercises
1. Go to FDsys and locate a resource of interest
to your advocacy group
2. Use the SUNO eLibrary catalog to find a
federal document on your topic. If it’s a paper
copy, find it on the shelf (with help if needed).

37. Questions?
 Kate Dougherty, Electronic Resources &
Government Documents Librarian
 kdougherty@suno.edu
 504.286.5222