Archives Library Information Center (ALIC)

Library Resources for Administrative History



Government publications mirror the activities of government agencies. Five publications provide the outline for past and present government publication series. Invaluable information is provided on the histories of agencies, their creation and authority, and their publications.

1789-1909
U.S. Superintendent of Documents.Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909. Congressional: To Close of Sixtieth Congress; Departmental: To End of Calendar Year 1909. Revised and enlarged. 3d ed. Washington: Government Printing Office; 19ll. xxi, 1,707 p.
REF GP 3.2:C 4112
Note: Cited as 1909 Checklist. The printed shelflist of all the publications in the Superintendent of Documents Library in 1909. Originally intended to be issued in two volumes, the second to be a subject index, but was never published. Lists in highly abbreviated form: 1) the Congressional edition by serial number, 2) the Departmental edition, and 3) miscellaneous publications of Congress, arranged according to the SuDoc classification scheme. Valuable references are made from the SuDoc number for the departmental edition of publications to the Serial Set numbers; no reference is made from the Serial Set number to the departmental SuDoc number, however. Contains an index of government authors. Especially valuable for its historical notes on agencies and series.
Boyd, p. 3940; Morehead, p. 78; Schmeckebier, p. 12-15; 1909 Checklist, p. 415.

Lester, Daniel; Lester, Marilyn, Compilers. Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1970; A Dual Media Edition of the U.S. Superintendent of Documents' Public Document Library Shelf List with Accompanying Indexes. Washington: Historical Documents Institute; 1972.5 volumes and 118 reels of microfilm.
REF Z1223. Z714. volumes 1-5/REF Z1223.Z714. Reels 1-118
Note: Cited as 1970 Checklist Microfilm [or 1975 Checklist Microfilm]. The five index volumes provide access to the microfilm shelflist as follows: Volume I, Superintendent of Documents Classification Number Index; Volume II, U.S. Government-Organization Index, 1789-1970, arranged alphabetically by the official names of 8,312 active and inactive government authors; Volume III, Departmental Keyword Indexes, 1789-1970, is organized by departments and subdivided by agencies; Volume IV, U.S. Government Serial Titles, 1789-1970, is an annotated alphabetical listing of some 18,000 current and discontinued titles in the Serials Card File of the Public Documents Department Library; and Volume V, Master Keyword Index to the Publication-Issuing Offices of the U.S. Government, 1789-1970, consists of title and CACHE/titles to the Checklist. The microfilm was updated in 1977.
Morehead. p. 83-84.

Poole, Mary Elizabeth; Smith, Ella Frances, Compilers. Documents Office Classification Numbers for Cuttered Documents, 1910-1924. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms, Inc.; 1960. 2 volumes.
REF
Arranged by SuDoc number with the title and date, this work provides the SuDoc numbers for Cuttered publications only. This publication helps fill the gap between the 1909 Checklist and the beginning of the Monthly Catalog listing of SuDoc numbers in 1924.
Schmeckebier, p. 183.

Poole, Mary Elizabeth. Documents Office Classification, Including an Explanation of the Superintendent of Documents Classification System and an Alphabetic Index of U.S. Government Author Organizations. 5th ed. Arlington, VA: United States Historical Documents Institute; 1977. 3 volumes.
REF Z699. G7P6. 1977 volumes 1-3
Note: Cited as Poole’s. An alpha-numeric listing of current and non-current SuDoc class numbers. Current as of June 1976. Helpful for the identification of processed publications. A Government author index is provided but there is no subject or series title index. Brief agency histories are included. Reference is made to earlier and later SuDoc class numbers. Poole’s has not been updated.

Andriot, Donna, Ed. Guide to U.S. Government Publications. 1991 ed. McLean, VA: Documents Index; 1991. 1 volume.
REF Z1223. Z7. A5 74. 1991
Note: Cited as Andriot. Issued annually. Format varies. Includes more information than Poole’s Documents Office Classification. It covers both current and non-current SuDoc class numbers, arranged by SuDoc class number with government author and series title indexes. Entries are annotated. Brief agency histories are included. Reference is made to earlier and later SuDoc class numbers. Depository library item numbers are included. ISBN and ISSN numbers are included when available. Indexes include: Agency Class Chronology; Agency Index; and Title Index. The Agency Class Chronology is a valuable source of information for the tracking of federal agencies.
Morehead, p. 81-83.

Top