How To Interpret a SuDoc Number
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The SuDoc classification system is designed specifically for United States government documents. The SuDoc number is assigned by the office of the Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) of the Government Printing Office. Unlike most classification systems, SuDoc numbers are not based on subject. Instead they are created based on the agency which issued the publication and because government agencies are organic -- they grow, split, merge, die, etc. -- SuDoc numbers can be quite simple or very complex. For instance,
| I 1.1:917 | Reports of the Department of the Interior. 1918. |
| I 29.6/6:F 75/988 | Ford's Theatre and the House Where Lincoln Died. 1988. |
| I 53.11/4:43109-E1-TM-100/991 | Ramshorn, Wyoming Surface Management Map. 1991. |
To read a SuDoc number, you must begin by recognizing the constituent parts. First off, SuDoc numbers are divided, usually at the colon, into two parts -- the stem and the book number which then combine to make a complete SuDoc number. We'll use I 29.6/6:F 75/988 as an example.
![image of [ I 29.6/6:F 75/988 ] SuDoc number](/library/images/sudoc2.gif)
Stem
All SuDoc numbers begin with one to four letters. Each department or independent agency of the United States government is assigned a letter or combination of letters of the alphabet based on the name of the agency. For instance, the Commerce Department has been assigned the C. The Defense Department uses the D, the Justice Department the J, etc. X and Y are reserved for Congress. Newer agencies tend to be assigned multi-letter designations -- the newly independent Social Security Administration, for instance, has been assigned SSA.
Therefore, in our example, we know from the I that the Department of the Interior issued the publication.
Subordinate bureaus within each agency are assigned numbers beginning with 2. The number 1 is reserved for the parent organization. (There is always a space between letters and numbers in the SuDoc system, unless there is punctuation between them.) The bureau number is then divided from the rest of the SuDoc number by a period. (Punctuation in a SuDoc number always acts as a divider, not as a decimal point.)
Thus, I 29. stands for the National Park Service, the 28th bureau of the Department of the Interior.
Following the period, each series issued by that bureau is also assigned a number. New series which are closely related to an existing series are "attached" to the existing series by putting a slash after the existing series number and then adding another letter or number. For instance:
| I 29.6: | National Parks Information Circulars |
| I 29.6/2: | National Seashores, Information Circulars |
| I 29.6/3: | National Lakeshores, Information Circulars |
| I 29.6/4: | National Rivers, Information Circulars |
| I 29.6/5: | National Scenic Trails, Information Circulars |
Sometimes the number after the period can be rather complicated, involving both slashes and dashes to relate series to each other. The stem then usually ends with a colon.
In our example, I 29.6/6: stands for the National Historic Site Information Circulars series from the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior.
A list of all the current series available from the United States Government Printing Office can be found in the List of Classes of United States Government Publications Available For Selection by Depository Libraries (PDF opens in new window). An historical list of all the series that have been created by the Government Printing Office can be found in Andriot's Guide to US Government Publications (Z1223.Z7 A572 1995 -- Document/Reference).
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Book Number
After the stem, each individual issue or publication in a series is assigned a unique identifier, called a book number, following the colon. Serials, numbered monographic series, and unnumbered monographs, all have different types of identifiers.
Monographs
For unnumbered monographs, the identifier is usually an alphanumeric Cutter number (like those used for the book number in Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal classification) based on the subject.
- for the first edition -- just the Cutter number
J 1.8/2:R 11 (the original edition of Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO): A Manual for Federal Prosecutors), or - for later editions -- the Cutter number/year
J 1.8/2:R 11/988 (the 1988 edition of Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO): A Manual for Federal Prosecutors)
For numbered series, the identifier usually is:
- the report number
A 1.76:709 (Agricultural Handbook 709 -- Dwarf Mistletoes: Biology, Pathology, and Systematics) - the report number/year (for revised editions)
A 1.76:643/989 (Agriculture Handbook 643 -- Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS): Analysis of Forage Quality. 1989 edition.)
Serials
For serials (magazines, journals, annual reports, etc.), the identifier is usually:
- the volume and issue number
LC 1.32/5:14/11 (volume 14, number 11 of Fedlink Technical Notes) - the date
E 3.9:96/10 (the October 1996 issue of the Monthly Energy Review) - the year or combination of years (for annual or biennial reports)
SI 1.1:865 (the 1865 edition of the Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution)
C 55.32:988/89 (the 1988-1989 edition of the Biennial Report to the Congress on Coastal Zone Management)
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Putting It All Together
Returning to our original example:
![[ I 29.6/6:F 75/988 ]](/library/images/sudoc.gif)
Therefore I 29.6/6:F 75/988 stands for the 1988 edition of Ford's Theatre and the House Where Lincoln Died in the series National Historic Site Information Circulars from the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior of the United States of America.
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More information
For more information on SuDoc classification, check out An Explanation of the Superintendent of Documents Classification System.
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