- United States Superintendent of Documents
(SuDocs).
The initial letter or letters signify the department or
independent agency that produced the document. Under the
"nothing-before something" rule, a one-letter agency files before
a two (or more)-letter one, e.g., all plain C's file before any
CC. The first number designates the sub-agency (except "1" which
is used for the whole agency). Next is a period (.) which is NOT A
DECIMAL POINT. This most often divides the call number between the
agency/sub-agency and the series the document is part of. However,
sometimes the number after the period designates a further
sub-agency breakdown,
e.g. C55. C = Department of Commerce
55.= National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration
or C3. C = Department of Commerce
3 = Bureau of Census
and C3.3 C = Department of Commerce
3 = Bureau of Census
.3 = Bulletin series
but D103.20 D = Department of Defense
103 = Corps of Engineers
.20 = Army Map Service
In either case the number after the period is a whole number
(e.g. .20), not a decimal.
The next major element is the colon (:). This separates the
call number into two lines. The second line contains either: 1) a
series volume number; or 2) a "Cutter" letter/number combination
(based on a keyword in a monograph's title) which puts titles in
alphabetical order,
e.g. 1) C3.3: 2) C3.2:
13 L23
Letters file before numbers at this point, so 2) goes before
1).
A further symbol is the slash (/). This is used if a number is
being used again for a different title,
e.g. EP1.23: = U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Ecological research series.
EP1.23/2: = U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Environmental protection technology
series.
C30.2: = U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Environ-
C63 mental Science Service Admin.
Coastal warning display system.
C30.2: = U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Environ-
C63/2 mental Science Service Admin.
U.S. & foreign coastal radio
stations.
NOTE: Formerly the slash number was written as an exponent
(superscript---the small number above the line). Superscript
cannot be represented in most online systems so a slash was
substituted to represent the number above and to the right. The
information is the same either way, and all slashed numbers file
after the plain numbers.
Different editions are often distinguished by the addition of
the year of publication. In U.S. federal publications,
traditionally, only the last 3 digits of a year are used,
e.g. 1989 = 989
TD1.2: TD1.2:
Sy6/974 Sy6/979
Again, a VERY IMPORTANT note about federal documents' call
numbers: Any number found after a period (.) is read and filed as
a whole number, NOT a decimal, i.e. The order would be: C3.2,
C3.3, C3.4, C3.4/7, C3.8, C3.14, C3.21, C3.35, C3.43, etc.
The Cutter numbers for monographs should be filed as decimal
numbers (e.g. Y7.1:B439 files before Y7.1:B44) but shelving has
been inconsistent.
- Colorado State Documents (new system)
The Colorado State Library has devised a classification scheme
for Colorado documents which this library began using in 1988.
This system, like the U.S. federal publications', uses initial
letters and numbers to denote the name of the agency, but it uses
slashes (/) to separate the agency from any sub- agency, and uses
the period (.) to which separate agency (and any sub-agency) from
the title.
The second part of the call number (after the period)
identifies the individual document,
e.g. .1 = annual reports
.2 = general publications (monographs)
which would be followed by a Cutter
number.
.3 = bulletins (numbered)
Filing of Colorado classification numbers also follows the
"nothing before something rule" (so S1. files before SC1.). Since
the period separates the name of the agency from the title of the
document, it is crucial to filing; periods precede slashes:
Colorado Dept. of Education documents,
ED3.9/
ED3.45/
ED3.60/
all filed before:
Colorado Dept. of Education sub-agency documents
ED3/8.2/
ED3/13.2/
ED3/50.10/
ED3/110.2/
As with SuDoc numbers, the numbers after the period (.) are
read as WHOLE numbers, not decimals, i.e. the order would be: .2,
.3, .4, .8, .11, .20, .35, etc. As in other systems, the last line
for a monograph is a letter-number Cutter assigned to a keyword in
the title. This should be filed as a decimal (e.g. /L69 for List
which would file before /L7 Lit), but shelving has been
inconsistent.
- State Documents
At CU, the "Swank/Jackson" classification system is used for
state and foreign documents. As the other systems do, this system
arranges documents by issuing agency. All numbers follow the
"nothing-before-something" rule so 30-En8 2: would be filed before
30-En8W 1:.
The first number (1 through 50; interstate documents start with
61) designates the state. At the time the system was set up, there
were forty-eight states; these were placed in alphabetical order
and assigned a number,
i.e. Alabama = 1
California = 4
New York = 30
then came Alaska = 49
and Hawaii = 50
Usually, the next symbol is a dash (-) which separates a state
name from the state agency responsible for the document.
e.g. 4-R31 4 = California
R31 = Resources Agency
After the dash, the Cutter letter/number serves as a designator
for the name of the agency. If letters follow the Cutter, this
further subdivides the agency.
e.g. 4-R31 = California Resources Agency
4-R31W = California Resources Agency. Water
Resources Dept.
If there is no dash between the state number and the first
letter(s), the number is for a county or city (e.g. 4P26 is for
Pasadena) and should be shelved after all that state's documents
(but we've made a mess of that).
The second line of the call number describes the particular
document. There are two elements separated by a colon (:). The
first number indicates if the document is part of a series
(usually any number but 9), or if it is a monograph (9). After the
: there is a series volume number OR a Cutter based upon a keyword
in a monograph's title.
If the document is a periodical with volumes and numbers, the
second element in the second line contains a slash (/) which
separates the volume from the number information,
e.g. 30-En8
4:29/5
1993 29 = vol. 29, 5 = no. 5
Examples of state call numbers:
4-H34 = California. Dept. of Public Health.
5:19/2 California's health, vol.19, no.2
1993
4-H34 = California. Dept. of Public Health.
9:Ai7 Air conservation in California (a
1971 monograph).
Until the mid 1980's, Colorado documents were also classified
in this system, as 5's. (There is a title file index to these in
the GovPubs office.)
- Foreign Documents
The foreign document classification scheme is almost the same
as for the states. The major difference is the first number, which
designates the country--all country numbers are three digits long,
100 to 999.
Generally (and this is very generally) the country numbers, are
grouped by geographical location. (They are based, for those who
might be interested, upon the "General Legislative and Executive
Papers" section of the J schedule in the Library of Congress
classification system).
As with the state numbers, a dash separates the country numbers
from letter/number combinations designating agencies. If there is
no dash between a country number and the following letters on the
first line, the number is for a lower-level government--state,
county or city--and should be filed at the end of that country's
records.
- International Documents
All international organizations (excluding the United Nations)
can easily be identified by their call numbers, which begin with
1000,
e.g. 1000
E19
Eu74un
1990
The first line (1000) denotes the document is from an
international organization.
The second line (E19) is based upon a keyword in the name of
the organization,
i.e. E19 = European Community
F17 = Food and Agriculture Organization
I113 = International Monetary Fund
The third line, a Cutter number, designates the title.
The fourth line is used to denote:
1) series volume, or series volume and number (followed by
the year), or
2) year of coverage or of publication (if the document is
an annual or a monograph).
Several organizations have one base call number for the
organization as a whole (e.g. 1000 E19 for the European Community)
and another base call number for the sub-agencies of that
organization,
e.g. 1000 = international organization
E20EC = European Community. CEDEFOP (a
sub-agency).
For organizations other than the European Community, the sub-
agency designation falls on the third line, not the second,
e.g. 1000 = international organization
E5 = OECD
but 1000 = international organization
E6 = OECD sub-agencies
NEA = Nuclear Energy Agency
Eu74nr = Cutter
1994 = year of publication
- United Nations
The United Nations' documents classification system consists of
letters and numbers separated by a series of slashes (/). Document
numbers are usually assigned by the issuing agency, and generally
reflect the organization of the UN.
The first element of the call number is a letter or letters
used to signify the main body of the UN from which a document
originated,
e.g. A/ = General Assembly
E/ = Economic and Social Council
ID/ = International Development
Organization
S/ = Security Council
ST/ = Secretariat
T/ = Trusteeship Council
TD/ = Trade and Development Board
The second element of the number either: 1) subdivides the
agency further (always done with letters), 2) is a document number
of a main body of the UN, or 3) describes the nature of the
document of the parent agency,
e.g. E/ECE = Economic and Social Council.
Economic Commission for Europe.
E/1989/ = Economic and Social Council. (a
document from the 1989 session.)
ST/LIB = Secretariat. Dag Hammarskjold
Library.
A/343 = General Assembly. (publication
number 343).
A/PV = General Assembly. Provisional
verbatim record of a meeting.
There can be a third, fourth, fifth (or more) element in a UN
call number. These occur mostly when a document comes from a very
small agency within a larger agency. The last element of every UN
call number is a number or date.
For UN documents, all letters are filed alphabetically,
following the "nothing before something" rule, with one-letter
items preceding multiple-letter items. After the first element,
file numbers BEFORE letters,
e.g. A/343 before A/AC.6/
E/1989/32 before E/CN.3/12
When parentheses are used in UN documents numbers, it is in the
situation where an issuing agency publishes an item, but does not
assign a document number. In this situation, the UN Library
devises one (or we assign it here), and a number in parentheses is
included at the end of the agency/sub-agency portion of the
number. When filing, these call numbers with numbers in
parentheses are filed at the END of all documents for the
agency/sub-agency,
e.g. EP(05)/ will file at the end of the EP's
ST/OPI(05)/ will file at the end of the ST/OPI's
