The Sudoc classification system is designed to group together publications
by the government author. Each government department is assigned its own
alphabetical identifier, based on the name of the organization, e.g.,
JU is used for Judiciary , and NAS is used for NASA. To distinguish the
subordinate bureaus and the offices, numbers are added to the alphabetic
identifiers with "1" designating the secretary's or administrative's office.
Beginning with "2", the numbers are applied in numerical order to each
subordinate office. A period follows the combination of letters and numbers
representing the bureau or office.
For Example:
Justice Department (including Secretary's Office) J1.
Prisons Bureau J16.
Marshals Service J25.
National Institute of Justice J28.
By adding a number after the period the SuDoc classification system
also allows for the identification of the various series of publications
issued by a particular bureau or office.
For Example:
J1.1 is for annual reports published by the Justice Department.
J1.1:995 would be the annual report for 1995.
The Sudoc number is written on the upper left hand corner of the document.
The number may also be found on the inside front cover, especially on
hard cover books.Here is an example on of how to find the SuDoc number
NAS 1.2:R 11:
NAS is a section in the N's after NA and before the NF's. Once you have
found the NAS section you need to concentrate on finding the NAS 1.2's.
These will be after the NAS 1.1: documents and before the NAS 1.3: documents.
After you have found the NAS 1.2: section, the NAS 1.2:R 11 will fit in
this group in alphabetical order.
One thing to remember with Government Documents
is, numbers always come before letters.
For Example:
NAS 1.2:613 would be shelved before NAS
1.2:R 11
If you have any problems understanding how to find a Government Document
using the SuDoc number, ask someone at the Periodicals Service Desk (1st
floor, West) for help.
