An Explanation of the Superintendent of Documents Classification System
Principles of the System | Author Symbols | Subordinate Offices
Series Designations | Related Series | Class Stem | Book Numbers
Special Treatment | Boards, Commissions & Committees
Congress | President
The Superintendent of Documents classification system
was developed in the Library of the Government Printing
Office between 1895 and 1903. It was first described in
October 1903 by William Leander Post, then in charge of
the Library, in the preface to List of Publications of the
Agriculture Department 1862-1902, Department List No. 1,
issued by the Superintendent of Documents in 1904.
Mr. Post gives credit for the foundation of the system
(classification by governmental author) to Miss Adelaide R.
Hasse, who used government organization authorship to
assign classification numbers to a List of Publications of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1841 to June 30,
1895. Miss Hasse prepared the list while assistant librarian
in the Los Angeles Public Library. It was published by the
Department of Agriculture in 1896 as its Library Bulletin
No. 9.
This system has expanded as the Federal Government has
grown. Though still retaining the principles upon which it
is based, it has changed in some details and methods of
use.
Because the classification system is based on the current
organizational status of the government author, it changes
as the organizational structure of the federal government
changes. Thus, publications of some issuing agencies may
be located in as many as three different places in the
system.
Despite this functional weakness, it has stood the test of
time as a workable arrangement for uniquely identifying
publications issued by the United States Government. The
Superintendent of Documents classification system has
been used for over 90 years to identify public documents
which were distributed to depository libraries and
described in the Monthly Catalog of U. S. Government
Publications. The system is also used to arrange the
documents collections in most depository libraries, as well
as in the documents collection of the National Archives.
It is hoped that this explanation will also provide a helpful
guide for depository libraries which use the Superintendent
of Documents (SuDocs) classification system, as well as for
other libraries and persons interested in, or concerned
with, classification numbers assigned to publications by the
Library Programs Service.
For more detail, users should consult the GPO
Classification Manual: A Practical Guide to the
Superintendent of Documents Classification
System (GP 3.29:P 88), and the
Federal Depository Library Manual (GP 3.29:D 44/993).
Principles of the System
The Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification system is
designed to group together
publications by the same government author. Within an agency or
department, publications are
grouped according to the subordinate organization. The purpose
of this system is to uniquely
identify, logically relate, and physically arrange each
publication so that all publications of a
single agency or department may be found together.
Author Symbols
Each executive department and agency, the Judiciary, Congress,
and other major independent
establishments are assigned a unique alphabetical identifier,
based on the name of the
organization, e.g., "A" for Agriculture Department, "JU" for
Judiciary, and "NS" for National
Science Foundation. However, the letters "X" and "Y" are
reserved for Congress. The
designation "Z" is not used.
Subordinate Offices
To distinguish the subordinate bureaus and offices, numbers are
added to the alphabetic
identifiers with "1" designating the parent organization, and the
secretary's or administrator's
office. Beginning with "2", the numbers are applied in numerical
order to the subordinate
bureaus and offices. These numbers were assigned to bureaus and
offices arranged
alphabetically when the system was established, and newer
subordinate bureaus or offices have
been given the next highest number. A period follows the
combination of letters and numbers
representing the bureau or office. For example:
Agriculture Department (including Secretary's Office) |
A 1. |
Forest Service |
A 13. |
Information Office |
A 21. |
Rural Electrification Administration |
A 68. |
Series Designations
The SuDocs classification system also identifies the various
series of publications issued by a
particular bureau or office. A number is assigned to each series
and this number is followed by
a colon.
Initially, the following numbers were assigned for the types of
publications common to most
Government offices:
1: |
Annual reports |
2: |
General publications (unnumbered publications of a
miscellaneous nature) |
3: |
Bulletins |
4: |
Circulars |
In establishing classes for new agencies or bureaus, these
numbers were reserved for those types
of publications. Later, new types common to most offices evolved
and the following additional
numbers were set aside in the classes of new agencies for
particular types of series:
5: |
|
Laws (administered by the agency and published by it) |
6: |
|
Regulations, rules, and instructions |
7: |
|
Releases |
8: |
|
Handbooks, manuals, guides |
9: |
|
Bibliographies and lists of publications |
10: |
|
Directories |
11: |
|
Maps and charts |
12: |
|
Posters |
13: |
|
Forms |
14: |
|
Addresses, lectures, etc. |
Any additional series issued by an office are given the next
highest number in order of issuance,
i.e., as an office begins publication of a series the next
highest number not already assigned to a
series is assigned to the new series of that particular office.
Related Series
New series which are closely related to already existing series
are "attached" to the existing
series so as to file side by side on the shelf. The relationship
is provided by use of the slash
mark (/) after the number assigned to the existing series,
followed by a digit for each related
series starting with "2". (The "1" is not generally used in this
connection since the existing series
is the first.) Separates are distinguished by use of a letter
beginning with "A" rather than by
numbers.
A theoretical example of these "attached" classes is as follows:
4: |
Circulars |
4/A: |
Separates from Circulars (numbered) |
4/B: |
Separates from Circulars (unnumbered) |
4/2: |
Administrative Circulars |
4/3: |
Technical Circulars |
Class Stem
Combining the designations for authors and those for the series
published by the authors results
in the class stems for the various series of publications issued
by the United States Government.
For example:
A 1.10: |
Agriculture Yearbook |
A 13.50: |
Forest Resource Reports |
A 57.38: |
Soil Survey Reports |
The List of Classes contains class stems only.
Book Numbers
The List of Classes does not include book numbers. The following
explanation summarizes the
construction of the complete number assigned to individual
documents.
A unique alpha-numeric identifier follows the colon of the class
stem. For numbered series, the
original edition of a publication is classed with the series
number of the book. For example,
Department of Agriculture Home and Garden Bulletin number 86
would be classified as A
1.77:86. For revisions of numbered publications, the slash and
date are added, as:
A 1.77:86/993, A 1.77:86/994, etc.
In the case of annuals, the last three digits of the year are
used for the book number, e.g.,
Annual Report of Secretary of Agriculture, A 1.1:994. For
reports or publications covering
more than one year, a combination of the dates is used, e.g.,
Annual Register of the U.S. Naval
Academy, 1993-1994 is D 208.107:993-94.
Unnumbered publications are assigned a number based on the
principal subject word of the
title, using C.A. Cutter's Two-Figure Author Table. An example
is Radioactive Heating of
Vehicles Entering the Earth's Atmosphere, NAS 1.2:R 11,
"Radioactive" being the key subject
word and the Cutter designation being R 11.
Another publication, Measurements of Radiation from Flow Fields
of Bodies Flying Speeds up to
13.4 Kilometers per Second issued by the same agency, falling in
the same series class (NAS
1.2:), and having the same Cutter number for the principal
subject word, is individualized by
adding the slash and the superior number 2, as NAS 1.2:R 11/2.
Subsequent different
publications in the subject group which take the same Cutter
designation would be identified as
R 11/3, R 11/4, etc.
C.A. Cutter's Three-Figure Author Table is used for the purpose
of providing for finer distinctions
in class between publications whose principal subject words begin
with the same syllable.
Revisions of numbered and unnumbered publications are identified
by addition of the slash and
the last three digits of the year of revision. For example, if
the publication Radioactive Heating
of Vehicles Entering the Earth's Atmosphere was revised in 1994,
the complete classification
would read:
NAS 1.2:R 11/994. Subsequent revisions in the same year would be
identified as 994-2, 994-3,
etc.
Periodicals and other serials are identified by number, or volume
and number as the case may
be. Volume and number are separated by use of the slash. Some
examples are:
Agriculture Outlook No.160 |
A 93.10/2:160 |
Social Security Bulletin, Vol.15, #2 |
HE 3.3:15/2 |
Unnumbered periodicals and continuations are identified by the
year of issuance and order of
issuance throughout the year. The last three digits of the year
are used, and a number
corresponding to the order of issuance within the year is added,
the two being separated by the
slash. An example is:
United States Savings Bonds Issued and Redeemed |
T 63.209/8-3:994/1 |
Special Treatment of Publications of Certain Authors
While the foregoing principles and rules govern the
classification of the publications and
documents of most Government authors, special treatments are
employed for those of certain
Government agencies. These consist of classes assigned to:
1) Boards, Commissions, and Committees established by Act of
Congress or under authority
of an Act of Congress, not specifically designated in the
Executive Branch of the
Government nor as completely independent agencies;
2) Congress and its working committees;
3) Publications of the President and the Executive Office of
the President including
committees and commissions established by Executive Order
and reporting directly to the
President.
Boards, Commissions, and Committees
Those agencies established by Act of Congress or under authority
of an Act of Congress, not
specifically designated in the Executive Branch of the
Government, nor as completely
independent agencies, are grouped under Y 3, which is reserved
for all such agencies. The
individual agency designation follows the period, instead of the
series designation. This agency
designation is the author number from C.A. Cutter's Two-Figure
Author Table for the first main
word of the agency name, followed by the colon. Thus the agency
designation for Consumer
Product Safety Commission is
Y 3.C 76/3: and that of Selective Service System is Y 3.Se 4:.
The slash and numbers are used to
distinguish between author designations of agencies having the
same or similar first principal
word in their names as Y 3.F 31/8: for Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation and Y 3.F 31/15:
for Federal Council on Aging.
Series designations for publications of these agencies then
follow the colon instead of preceding
it. These series designations are assigned in the regular way.
The unique identifiers are then added to the series designations
with no separation if the
individual book numbers begin with letters, and are separated by
the slash if they begin with
numbers. Thus the Annual Report of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission for the year
1994 is Y 3.C 76/3:1/994 while the unnumbered general publication
For Kid's Sake is classed as
Y 3.C 76/3:2 K 54.
Congress and its Working Committees
The working committees of Congress such as Appropriations,
Judiciary, etc., are grouped under
Y 4. An author designation based on the name of the Committee
follows the period and is
followed by the colon. Thus the House Committee on Judiciary is
Y 4.J 89/1: and the Senate Committee on Judiciary is Y 4.J 89/2:,
the slash and the numbers 1
and 2 being used to distinguish between two committees.
Where series do occur within the publications of a Committee they
have been treated in various
ways. Some examples follow.
Congressional Directory.
This has been given a series designation of "1"
following the colon, as Y 4.P 93/1:1. Individual book numbers
are then marked off by use of
the slash following the series designation, as Y 4.P 93/1:1/ with
the particular issue being
designated by Congress, as Y 4.P 93/1:1/101.
Economic Indicators.
This monthly periodical
issued by the Joint Economic
Committee has been assigned a place in the group of publications
issued by this Committee by
use of the Cutter designation following the colon (instead of the
regular numerical series
designation), based on the subject word "Economic" as Y 4.EC 7:EC
7. The book numbers for
individual issues are then designated by year of issue and number
corresponding to the month of
issue as 994-1 for January 1994, 994-2 for February 1994, etc.
These are added to the series
designation of "EC 7" following the colon and separated by the
slash, as: June 1994 issue, Y
4.EC 7:EC 7/994-6.
Serially Numbered Hearings and Committee Prints.
Hearings and Committee
prints of some Congressional Committees are numbered as serials
within each Congress. These
are designated by Congress and number (separated by the slash)
immediately following the
colon as: House Judiciary Committee Serial 13, 103rd Congress
would be Y 4.J 89/1:103/13, the
number of the Congress taking the place of the usual numerical
series designation. These are
filed behind the hearings and committee prints bearing letter and
number Cutter designation,
i.e., to the right on the shelf.
Congressional Bills, Documents, and Reports.
These numbered series of
publications issued by Congress are not given a place in the
system by use of lettered symbols
but are simply filed at the end of all other classifications by
Congress, session, and individual
number with numbers representing the series titles.
Series Individual examples
|
Senate Documents |
|
Y 1.1/3: |
Senate Reports |
|
Y 1.1/5: |
House Documents |
|
Y 1.1/7: |
House Reports |
|
Y 1.1/8: |
Senate Bills |
|
Y 1.4/1: |
Senate Resolutions |
|
Y 1.4/2: |
Senate Joint Resolutions |
|
Y 1.4/3: |
Senate Concurrent Resolutions |
|
Y 1.4/4: |
House Bills |
|
Y 1.4/6: |
House Resolutions |
|
Y 1.4/7: |
House Joint Resolutions |
|
Y 1.4/8: |
House Concurrent Resolutions |
|
Y 1.4/9: |
Publications of the President and the Executive Office of
the President including
committees and commissions established by Executive Order and
reporting directly to the
President
The agency symbol assigned to the President of the United States
is PR followed by the number
corresponding to the ordinal number of succession to the
presidency as PR 42, Bill Clinton,
42nd president of the United States. The normal series and book
numbers follow the class stem.
However, a different treatment has been necessary for the special
committees and commissions
established by the president to study particular problems and
which report their findings directly
to the president. These organizations usually cease to exist
after making their report. As their
publications are usually few in number, normal bureau treatment
is not practical and special
treatment is therefore indicated to prevent establishment of
classes which will not be used, and
to keep together the publications of all such organizations
appointed by one president.
.Therefore, beginning with those commissions appointed by
President Eisenhower, one series
class (PR -.8:) has been assigned to each based on the principal
subject word of its name, as PR
34.8:H 81, President's Advisory Committee on Government Housing
Policies and Programs.
Publications of the committee are distinguished by addition of
the slash and Cutter numbers
based on the principal subject word of the title as in normal
classification.
Beginning with the administration of President Kennedy, the
continuing offices assigned to the
President, which make up the Executive Office of the President,
have been given permanent
classes under the symbol PREX. Previously, each change in
administration required a change in
classes for such offices as Office of Management and Budget,
National Security Council, Central
Intelligence Agency, etc. Subordinate offices of the Executive
Office of the President are given
their own numbers, the Office of Management and Budget for
example, being assigned PREX 2.
Series and book numbers are then assigned in the usual manner.