Government documents reference

Government Documents Reference
Robert Perret
University of Idaho
August 2010

Resources
Serial Set
Monthly Catalog
Cumulative Subject and Title Indices
Subject Bibliographies Index
Catalog of US Government Publications

Serial Set
The Serial Set contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports. The reports are usually from congressional committees dealing with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. The documents include all other papers ordered printed by the House or Senate. Documents cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, executive-branch materials were also published in the Serial Set.

Serial Set
Contains nearly all congressional reports and publications since 1817
Covers a wide variety of topics with reports from various governmental and non-governmental entities

Serial Set
Does not contain the text of congressional debates, bills, resolutions, hearings, or committee prints
But does contain committee reports, which may contain some of the above
Includes presidential messages but not presidential proclamations or executive orders
Prior to 1976 contains many Executive publications

Serial Set
Contains most, but not all, congressional expenditure reports
From 1923 forward contains Budget of the United States Government
Contains publications from federally chartered corporations including Boy and Girl Scouts of America, the Smithsonian Institution, American Legion, Veterns of Foreign Wars, etc.

Serial Set
Each document has its own sequential pagination, so a volume will have more than one series of numbers
Each series of reports or documents has its own ascending number scheme
Current documents are all numbered by Congress, however prior to the 20th century some documents were labeled by session

Serial Set
Before 1964 the same publication series may go across different volume numbers
Between 1964 and 1979 a publication series would only be assigned one volume number and would have “parts”
Odd sized items may be published out of sequence at the end of a series
Between 1905 and 1939 reports on private bills and resolutions and simple resolutions were assigned volume letters instead of numbers

Serial Set
Prior to 1970 use the CIS US Serial Set Index
h rp 234 89 = House Report 234 89th Congress
s doc x x = Senate Document
78 s 1201 = 78th Congress Senate Bill 1201
89 hr 2107 = 89th Congress House Bill 2107

Serial Set
After 1970 use CIS/Index to Publications of the United States Congress
May need to cross reference with the Schedule of Volumes to get a Serial Set Volume Number (GPOAccess)
Most recent Schedule on LibWiki

American State Papers
Published privately between 1832 and 1861, is a collection of executive and legislative branch documents dating between 1789 and 1838. Although not a part of the Serial Set numbering scheme the Papers are often associated with it and were published according to subject class not according to congressional session.
The subject classes of the publication series are as follows:
Claims, Commerce and Navigation, Finance, Foreign Relations, Indian Affairs, Military Affairs, Naval Affairs, Post Office Department, Public Lands, and Miscellaneous.

Monthly Catalog
Index for items outside of the Serial Set
1900-1971 use Cumulative Subject Index or Title Index in RefDoc
56 8071 = 1956 Catalog Item 8071
Basic bib info including a SuDocs number or enough info to find in Serial Set
1976 forward use online Catalog of US Government Publications

Subject Bibliographies Index
Circa 2004
Current
Once you have a title, check Voyager to see if we have it in our collection

Electronic Resources
USA.gov Government search engine
Browsetopics.gov A portal for selected government resources
GPOAccess.gov
Thomas Up to the current day coverage of Congress. Serial Set only up to 110th Congress.

General
Not all of our Gov Doc holdings have migrated to WorldCat, so use Voyager when searching specifically for Gov Docs
Many of our Gov Docs are in microfilm. Check the Detailed Record in Voyager. Sometimes you will have to rely on the Shipping List number. Ends in P = Paper, M = Microform, E = Electronic

Government documents reference

by Robert Perret on Aug 18, 2010

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