Government Publications

Located on the first floor of Ned R. McWherter Library, government publications are arranged by the Superintendent of Documents classification system. 

Some documents have been relocated to a remote storage facility, as indicated in the Classic Catalog.
Upon patron request, staff will retrieve documents within 48 hours. 

Searching Our Collection

To search the Libraries' collection, start with the Classic Catalog or the search box below.
If you do not find what you are looking for, please contact us. 

• Classic Catalog - University of Memphis Libraries

For government publications held by the University Libraries. You can limit your search to government publications by changing the search location from All University of Memphis Libraries to Government Publications Department. Government publications in the Classic Catalog will be denoted by the FDLP eagle logo:

• Homepage Search - University of Memphis Libraries

You can also search for government publications held by the University Libraries from the Libraries' homepage (or the search box below). After you run a search, set the Filter by Format option on the left to Primary Source Documents. Government publications in your search results will be denoted by this image:

Searching Beyond Our Collection

To search all government publications, including those not held by the libraries, use one of the catalogs below.
If you find a resource that is not listed in the University of Memphis catalog, you can try checking for it on our shelves.

• Government Publications Index (MARCIVE)   UofM Access Only

For all government publications published from 1976 to present.

• Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

For materials published from 1895 to 2004.
(A print version of the Monthly Catalog is located in the Government Publications Department, on the wooden shelves on the wall past the entrance to the Reading Room)

• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)

The official catalog of the Government Publishing Office. For historical and current publications with direct links when available.

For more resources beyond the UofM Libraries collection, visit our Research Resources tab.

Materials in the Government Publications department are arranged according to the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification system. SuDoc uses an alphanumeric classification system which assigns a SuDoc number to each government publication. SuDoc is a provenance-based system, meaning it arranges publications according to the US Federal agency or department that issues them (e.g., a SuDoc number beginning with S indicates the publication was issued by the State Department). For this reason, federal government publications are browsable by agency or department but not by subject.

Understanding SuDoc Classification

• The dot (.) is a period, not a decimal. 

• All numbers are whole numbers, not decimals (for example: .9 comes before .12) 

• Letters come before Dates come before Numbers (for example: L 36.202 : F15/A precedes L 36.202 : F15/991 precedes L 36.202 : F15/2)

• Dates prior to the year 2000 omit the initial 1 from the year (for example: "982" at the end of J 29.2 : D 84/982 refers to the year 1982)

• Nothing comes before something (for example: AE 1.102 : G 28 precedes AE 1.102 : G 28/2/Trans.7) 

Example:

Other SuDoc Resources

• The Structure of the SuDoc Classification Number as explained by the Federal Depository Library Program
• This page from the Northwestern University Libraries provides a helpful explanation of the SuDoc Shelving Order

SuDoc Numbers by Agency

The Government Publications department has special locations for certain materials that are not shelved in the stacks by SuDoc number. This is done for several reasons, usually based upon the format.