U.S. Government Information - Introduction: Finding Pre-1976 Government Publications

Basic information about finding United States government information, locating resources in the KU Libraries, the KU's Regional Federal Depository collection, and link to topic pages for specific US government resources.

SuDoc Classification

The Federal Depository Collection at the University of Kansas Libraries is shelved by SuDoc classification.  The SuDoc (Superintendent of Documents classification) is a provenance based classification system.

 

Learn more about the SuDoc classification system:

Search by SuDoc number

SuDoc call numbers cannot be searched in the KU Online Catalog.  Please try the following or ask for assistance.

The following examples are searching for the title Western hemisphere immigration, published in 1930.  

The SuDoc assigend to this Congressional Hearing is:

Y 4.Im 6/1:W 52/4

Pre-1976 Government Publications Online Catalogs and Indexes

Unlike government publications published since 1976, most earlier titles are NOT listed in the KU Online Catalog.  For pre-1976 paper and microfiche government publications use these online indexes and catalogs to find shelving call number (the SuDoc classification number).  

Full-Text Sources

Many legacy federal publications are now available electronically. Some sources are compiled by commercial aggregators and the KU Libraries has licensed the content.  Other sources are open access and free available to the public. These are some of the major full text resources used to find and access the full text content.

Congressional Publication Indexing

The KU Libraries has an extensive congressional colleciton.