Tricks for Working with Historical Federal Documents
In the early years of U.S. Government Publishing Office publishing, most publications were not assigned SuDocs call numbers, nor were they indexed very well. Many significant publications came out in two versions, their departmental version and a "serial set" version. The kinds of departmental publications deemed important enough to be included in the serial set range from census reports to the federal budget to patent digests to maps.
The "Serial Set" (it originally had no title) consists of various House and Senate documents and reports. The Cofrin Library is fortunate to own on microcard Serial Set Volumes for 1817-1888 as well as the American State Papers from 1789-1838. The collection is housed on 5th floor under GVP US Y 1.1/2: Equipment for reading the microcards is available on the 3rd floor of the library.
Because the various publications in the set were bound together randomly rather than in numerical order, it is essential to use one of the various finding aids the library owns to get to the right volume in the set. Please consult with the staff at the 3rd Floor Research Assistance Desk for help with the collection.
Finding Aids for historical U.S. Documents
- Checklist of United States Public Documents, 1789-1909Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1911arranged by SuDocs number with Departmental Index in back. Good for tracking agency histories and identifying missing or skipped numbers in series.
- A Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, September 5, 1774-March 4, 1881 byCall Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1885Arranged by year and publication date with subject index.
- A Comprehensive Index to the Publications of the United States Government, 1881-1893 byCall Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1905arranged by subject with author index.
- Monthly catalog, AKA Catalogue of United States public Documents byCall Number: Online AccessPublication Date: 1895-dateDate coverage for electronic version varies; older titles are being added retroactively. Print version ceased in 2004. Earlier years do NOT give SuDoc call numbers for publications.
- Catalog of the Public Documents of the Congress and of all Departments of the Government of the United States byCall Number: Online AccessPublication Date: 1893-1940Covers 1893-1940 publications in great detail. arranged by year and subject
- Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, 1900-1971Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1973-1975Subject indexing is better than in early volumes of the Monthly Catalog; saves you from having to search individual years or months.
- Cumulative Title Index to United States Public Documents, 1789-1976Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1979-1982Covers 1789-1976. Since the Monthly Catalog had NO title indexing for the earlier years, this is invaluable.
- Guide to U.S. Government PublicationsCall Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 2002Helps track series and publication changes as the issuing departments change throughout time, affecting call numbers assigned to a title. You may need to consult all editions to get complete info.
- CIS US Serial Set Index byCall Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1789-1969subject index and inventory of publications in the U.S. Serial Set, helping you identify the specific volume needed. Special supplement indexes maps in federal documents, most of which do not exist outside of the Serial Set.
- CIS US Congressional Committee Prints Index byCall Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1830-1969Committee Prints are informative reports compiled for the convenience of Congress in debating various topics, and can include statistics, , directories, investigative field reports, etc.
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Contains: hearing transcripts and submitted testimony, Committee reports, Bills, Public laws, Selected committee prints, Congressional documents, Congressional Record, Federal Register, Current Code of Federal Regulations, and the current US Code. Some series go back to 1789.
