The government documents collection at Syracuse encompasses all subject areas and are available in different formats. The vast majority of our collection is in the traditional print format, which is what you will see on the shelves when you visit the collection on the 3rd floor of Bird Library. Government documents are also available in our collection on microfiche and on CD/DVDs as well as digital access to documents from numerous websites and databases.
Our collection holdings:
Our print documents collection comprises paper publications from every Federal Agency as well as other Executive Branch Departments; All portions of the Judicial Branch and the courts as well as the Legislative Branch including both the House and Senate and Departments that report to them. i.e. Congressional Research Service., Library of Congress and the Government Publishing Office, etc. The vast majority of print documents are legislative hearings and Agency publications, all of which can be discovered using the Library's online catalogs and specific government document related databases. i.e. ProQuest Congressional and Hein Online. Also search for other available databases on the database tab on this guide.
CD and DVDs from the Docs Collection are cataloged and can be found in the Document Collections's Annex next to the 3rd floor service desk. Ask for the disks you need by providing the call number and title to the attendant at the service desk and they will get it for you.
There are numerous online digital resources and website available for Federal documents. Many of the most used URLs and databases are available from other tabs at the top of this guide.
The Microfiche collection is broken down into four sections:
Sec. 1 Cabinets 1 - 15
U.S. Federal Depository Microfiche collection: 1980’s - 2010
Contains depository documents from all three branches of the Federal Government; Agencies, Executive, the Courts and from Congress, and are arranged in the cabinets by SuDoc call number. (A1.1: – Y10: ) Documents on fiche can be found in the Library’s online catalog.
Sec. 2 Cabinets 16 - 26
U.S. Federal Non-Depository Microfiche collection: 1981-1991
Contains non-depository documents from all three branches of the Federal Government; Agencies, Executive, the Courts and from Congress, and are arranged by U.S. Monthly Catalog number. To find documents in this collection you will need to download the PDF Document at the bottom of this box and use the Hein Online database through the Library’s catalog to search the Monthly Catalog. The documents in this collection are from 1981 – 1991 ONLY!
Sec. 3 Cabinets 27 - 40
Sec. 4 Cabinets 41 – 52
The collection of New York State documents is small and not extensive in coverage. Most documents in this collection are of an historic focus. They are located at the end of stack range #32 in the Gov Docs stacks. New York State documents on microfiche are located across from the print document collection in cabinet #27.
PRINT - SUL has an extensive historical collection of documents from the United Nations and the various programs administered by the UN. This collection is located between the US Congressional Hearings and the US Census Collections on the 3rd floor of Bird Library.
DIGITAL - See the International Documents tab on this guide for links to various UN databases, data repositories and websites.
MICROFICHE - The UN microfiche collection is extensive and has documents from the General Assembly and all other sub-agencies of the UN from 1946 - 2012.