The Superintendent of Documents Classification System or SuDocs is based on the issuing agency of the government. The SuDocs system is an alpha-numeric call number scheme which places items together according to the agency that issued the document. The SuDocs Classification scheme is based on Federal Government Agencies rather than broad subject areas. Below is a breakdown of some of the major designations.
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A Agriculture Department C Commerce Department D Defense Department E Energy Department ED Education Department EP Environmental Protection Agency FEM Federal Emergency Management Agency FR Federal Reserve System FT Federal Trade Commission GA General Accounting Office GS General Services Administration HE Health and Human Services Department I Interior Department IC Interstate Commerce Commission J Justice Department L Labor Department |
LC Library of Congress NAS NASA NF National Science Foundation P Postal Service PE Peace Corps PR President of the United States PREX Executive Office of the President S State Department SBA Small Business Administration SI Smithsonian Institute SSA Social Security Administration T Treasury Department TD Transportation VA Veterans Administration X Congress Y Congress |
The SuDoc classification system is designed specifically for United States government documents. The SuDoc number is assigned by the office of the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) of the Government Printing Office. Unlike most classification systems, SuDoc numbers are not based on subject. Instead they are created based on the agency which issued the publication and because government agencies are organic -- they grow, split, merge, die, etc. -- SuDoc numbers can be quite simple or very complex. For instance,
| I 1.1:917 | Reports of the Department of the Interior. 1918. |
| I 29.6/6:F 75/988 | Ford's Theatre and the House Where Lincoln Died. 1988. |
| I 53.11/4:43109-E1-TM-100/991 | Ramshorn, Wyoming Surface Management Map. 1991. |
To read a SuDoc number, you must begin by recognizing the constituent parts. First off, SuDoc numbers are divided, usually at the colon, into two parts -- the stem and the book number which then combine to make a complete SuDoc number. We'll use I 29.6/6:F 75/988 as an example.
![image of [ I 29.6/6:F 75/988 ] SuDoc number](http://www.wtamu.edu/library/images/sudoc2.gif)