The Organization of SuDocs Numbers
Government Documents at CSU are organized according to the SuDocs (Superintendent of Documents) classification system which groups together publications by the same government author. Within an agency or department, publications are grouped by subordinate organization. The purpose of this system is to logically relate and physically arrange each item so that all publications of a single agency or department may be found together.
Examples
An example of a SuDocs call number: HE20.2:H81
Explanation of the example:
HE indicates the issuing department or agency (Health and Human Services Department
20. Represents the subordinate bureaus and office within the issuing department or agency (Public Health Services)
2: Indicates the publication type (General Publications)
H81 Represents the key word of the publication title (National Household Survey on Drug Abuse)
Alphabetical Identifiers
In the SuDocs classification scheme, 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. Some examples follow:
| A | Agriculture |
| C | Commerce Department |
| C3 | Census Bureau |
| D | Defense Department |
| E | Energy Department |
| ED | Education Department |
| EP | Environmental Protection Agency |
| HE | Health and Human Services Department |
| HH | Housing and Urban Development Department |
| I | Interior Department |
| J | Justice Department |
| JU | Judiciary |
| L | Labor Department |
| LC | Library of Congress |
| NAS | National aeronautics and Space Administration |
| PREX | Executive Office of the President |
| S | State Department |
| SBA | Small Business Administration |
| T | Treasury Department |
| TD | Transportation Department |
| X,Y | Congress |
Finding Publications
Location of SuDocs Numbers:
In the CSU Catalog: I-Share, government documents are designated with the abbreviation: DOC. The abbreviation serves as a location device to tell where the item is shelved. DOC is not included as a part of the SuDocs number. SuDocs numbers are located on the upper left front cover (not the lower spine) of the print publications and are generally printed in horizontal fashion.
How Documents Are Shelved:
SuDocs is not a decimal system. Documents are shelved in alphabetical and then in numerical order. Numbers between punctuation are treated as whole numbers. Each section of the number should be read one at a time in order.
A1.1:990
A13.1:996
D103.3:M32
D103.21:EC5
EQ101.8:AU5
HE20.1:AM78
HE20.2:EC3
HE20.12:2001
He20.33:R36
Numbers precede letters:
HE20.12:2001
HE20.12:EC3
