Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) Call Numbers

The Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) classification system is an alphanumeric call number system used by many libraries to shelve U.S. government publications. It is the call number system our Alden Library's Documents Department uses for U.S. documents. It is a call number system widely used with U.S. government publications. SuDoc call numbers are frequently given as part of bibliographic citations.

Each publication is assigned a letter based on the issuing department such as:

Subagencies within each department are assigned a number. The Census Bureau, an agency within the Commerce Department, for example, is given the number 3 under the Commerce Department. All Census Bureau publications, therefore, have call numbers beginning with C 3. Within a subagency, each series is also assigned a number. For example, the Census Bureau's MONTHLY RETAIL TRADE, SALES AND INVENTORIES series is given the number C 3.138/3:. Each individual publication in a series is then assigned a unique number or alphabetical symbol based on year, volume, series number, or title. This unique publication number follows the colon. Thus, C 3.138/3:92-3 is the SuDocs number for the March 1992 issue of MONTHLY RETAIL TRADE, SALES AND INVENTORIES.

So, the first half of the number (up to the colon) identifies the agency and series, and the last half identifies the specific publication. Publications are filed alphabetically by letter and then numerically, first grouped by subagency, then by series, and finally, arranged alphabetically or numerically within each series.

It is NOT a decimal system!

The number after the point is a whole number.

If the call number is the same to a certain point, then varies, the order is: Years → Letters → Numbers

Until the year 2000, the first number was dropped from years, so those years have 3 digits. Beginning with the year 2000, years will be 4 digits.

Because the U.S. government sometimes re-organizes, or re-names Departments and agencies, material published at a certain point in time may have different SuDoc numbers than material from another time period. For instance, material that was issued by the War Department is on our shelves under a W call number. But now, there is no War Department in the U.S. government. It has been replaced by the Defense Department. Material currently issued by the Defense Department is on our shelves with D call numbers.

To sum up, it is important to remember that the material in the Documents Department is NOT arranged by subject as material in the rest of the library is. Instead the documents are shelved by call numbers for the agency that issued the document.

We will be glad to try to answer your specific questions about the SuDoc call number system.