1. Government Documents Reference Robert Perret University of Idaho August 2010

2. Resources Serial Set Monthly Catalog Cumulative Subject and Title Indices Subject Bibliographies Index Catalog of US Government Publications

3. Serial Set The Serial Set contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports. The reports are usually from congressional committees dealing with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. The documents include all other papers ordered printed by the House or Senate. Documents cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, executive-branch materials were also published in the Serial Set.

4. Serial Set Contains nearly all congressional reports and publications since 1817 Covers a wide variety of topics with reports from various governmental and non-governmental entities

5. Serial Set Does not contain the text of congressional debates, bills, resolutions, hearings, or committee prints But does contain committee reports, which may contain some of the above Includes presidential messages but not presidential proclamations or executive orders Prior to 1976 contains many Executive publications

6. Serial Set Contains most, but not all, congressional expenditure reports From 1923 forward contains Budget of the United States Government Contains publications from federally chartered corporations including Boy and Girl Scouts of America, the Smithsonian Institution, American Legion, Veterns of Foreign Wars, etc.

7. Serial Set Each document has its own sequential pagination, so a volume will have more than one series of numbers Each series of reports or documents has its own ascending number scheme Current documents are all numbered by Congress, however prior to the 20th century some documents were labeled by session

8. Serial Set Before 1964 the same publication series may go across different volume numbers Between 1964 and 1979 a publication series would only be assigned one volume number and would have “parts” Odd sized items may be published out of sequence at the end of a series Between 1905 and 1939 reports on private bills and resolutions and simple resolutions were assigned volume letters instead of numbers

9. Serial Set Prior to 1970 use the CIS US Serial Set Index h rp 234 89 = House Report 234 89th Congress s doc x x = Senate Document 78 s 1201 = 78th Congress Senate Bill 1201 89 hr 2107 = 89th Congress House Bill 2107

10. Serial Set After 1970 use CIS/Index to Publications of the United States Congress May need to cross reference with the Schedule of Volumes to get a Serial Set Volume Number (GPOAccess) Most recent Schedule on LibWiki

11. American State Papers Published privately between 1832 and 1861, is a collection of executive and legislative branch documents dating between 1789 and 1838. Although not a part of the Serial Set numbering scheme the Papers are often associated with it and were published according to subject class not according to congressional session. The subject classes of the publication series are as follows: Claims, Commerce and Navigation, Finance, Foreign Relations, Indian Affairs, Military Affairs, Naval Affairs, Post Office Department, Public Lands, and Miscellaneous.

12. Monthly Catalog Index for items outside of the Serial Set 1900-1971 use Cumulative Subject Index or Title Index in RefDoc 56 8071 = 1956 Catalog Item 8071 Basic bib info including a SuDocs number or enough info to find in Serial Set 1976 forward use online Catalog of US Government Publications

13. Subject Bibliographies Index Circa 2004 Current Once you have a title, check Voyager to see if we have it in our collection

14. Electronic Resources USA.gov Government search engine Browsetopics.gov A portal for selected government resources GPOAccess.gov Thomas Up to the current day coverage of Congress. Serial Set only up to 110th Congress.

15. General Not all of our Gov Doc holdings have migrated to WorldCat, so use Voyager when searching specifically for Gov Docs Many of our Gov Docs are in microfilm. Check the Detailed Record in Voyager. Sometimes you will have to rely on the Shipping List number. Ends in P = Paper, M = Microform, E = Electronic