How to Read a SuDocs Number

SuDocs call numbers are used to shelve government documents. The term SuDocs is short for "Superintendent of Documents," the title of the person in charge of overseeing the distribution of government documents.

Parts of a SuDocs call number: NAS 1.83:2000-11-205-MSFC

• NAS: indicates the agency responsible, in this case NASA
• 1: indicates the issuing bureau within the agency
• 83: indicates the type of document
• Colon: breaks the number up
• 2000-11-205-MSFC: unique number given to each document

Tips to finding documents on the shelves:

1) Unlike Dewey or the Library of Congress system (which you use to find books in the rest of any library), SuDocs is not a decimal system.  Each number (even the one after the period) is a whole number:

2) If a call number starts the same then differs at the end, documents are shelved by year, then letters, then numbers.  (I remember it because L for letter comes before N for number.)

Before 2000, year designations have only three digits (993 instead of 1993).  After 2000, the whole year is written out. 

3) Call numbers with something slashed or dashed on always come after call numbers by themselves.  Remember: nothing (no numbers dashed or slashed) comes before something (numbers dashed or slashed).

For additional information and examples, plus a fun quiz (fun, I promise!), visit the Michigan State University Library's SuDocs Tutorial.