The Hekman Library has been a depository for United States federal documents since 1967 and for Michigan state documents since 2003. These materials are currently stored in the moveable stacks on the 2nd floor of the library and include reports, data, minutes, and other papers.
If you're using the library catalog, you can limit your search to government documents. In the regular search box, use the Limits options to change the location from "In Hekman Library" to "Government Documents." You can also use the Advanced Search option and select Government Documents as an item type.
Typical subject headings that will be found in government documents catalog records are:
The government documents collection is shelved according to the Superintendent of Documents classification schedule. At first glance the call numbers are pretty intuitive, because most call numbers begin with a letter (or letters) that represent the department or agency issuing the document. Here is a complete list:
Letter | Subject |
---|---|
A | Agriculture |
C | Commerce |
E | Energy |
ED | Education |
L | Labor |
LC | Library of Congress |
NAS | NASA |
S | State |
T | Treasury |
A few that are less intuitive are
AE | Laws and Regulations |
X and Y | Congress |
The rest of the call number is a series of numbers and punctuation that represent further subdivisions of the agency, the type of publication, the year of publication, etc. Please ask for assistance at the Research Assistance Desk if you are trying to find a document on the shelf and cannot locate it.
The Michigan documents are shelved according to the Library of Congress classification system, as are the books in the library's main collection.
Even if Hekman Library doesn't own a particular book or article that you need, you can borrow or get a copy from another library through our MeL and ILL sharing services. Just use the links below to search outside of Hekman's holdings and make requests - if you have any questions or problems, the librarians are always available to help!