U.S. Government Documents

The ASU Libraries is one of more than 1300 libraries across the nation designated by Congress as a depository library. Under this special status, the Government Documents Service receives many of the publications issued by U.S. government agencies. The Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. acts as a clearinghouse for these agencies, gathering and shipping their publications to the depository libraries. Through this and by other means, ASU Libraries Government Documents Service adds nearly fifty thousand documents to its collection each year.

Scope of the Federal Documents Collection

The U.S. government is the world's most prolific publisher, producing books, journals, pamphlets, and reports on almost every conceivable subject. Strengths of the federal documents collection include political science, U.S. history, technology, statistics and demographics, education, health sciences, climatology, agriculture, social sciences, and business. However, the collection also contains valuable material in the fields of anthropology, music, architecture, mathematics, art, and even includes some poetry and literature.

Maps received through the federal depository system are housed in the Noble Library Map Collection. U.S. patent and trademark publications are also available in the Noble Library.

Access to the Federal Documents Collection

Federal documents are shelved by the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification system which groups material by the issuing agency (such as the Department of Agriculture or Education) rather than by subject. Specific documents are located by using the ASU Libraries Catalog and/or indexes located in the Government Documents Service reference area.

Call numbers for federal depository publications received since 1976 are located by using the ASU Libraries Catalog, a component of the ASU Libraries Network. A specialized index to federal publications is the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications which has been published by the Government Printing Office since 1895.

Other specialized indexes to the documents collection include the Congressional Information Service (CIS) indexes, which index and provide abstracts for all Congressional committee publications. These indexes are the finding tools for a comprehensive microfiche collection of Congressional reports located in the Government Documents Service microform area.

The American Statistics Index (ASI) indexes and abstracts statistical material published by all federal government agencies. ASI, which began publication in 1973, provides access not only to depository publications, but to many other government sources containing statistics. All publications indexed in ASI that are not distributed through the depository system are available as part of a microfiche collection located in Government Documents Service. ASI is also an excellent index for reports from the Bureau of Census.

Many federal government agencies are issuing information in electronic formats via CD-ROM and the Internet. In addition, the Government Printing office has developed GPO Access, a collection of full text databases covering Congressional and other agencies' documents.