Guide to Using USCA Library Government Documents

The Documents Department consists of 3 separate collections.

• US Federal Depository ( established November 1989 | approx. 45000 documents )
• SC State Depository ( established July, 1991 | approx. 3500 documents )
• US Dept. of Energy Public Reading Room ( established 1984 | approx. 22000 documents )

The collections contain documents in paper, microfilm, microfiche, map, cdrom and floppy disk formats. The Documents Department maintains records of all holdings in the collections down to the piece level regardless of format. Documents Department staff have developed databases for these collections that are searchable via the Library website. Links to search engines for these databases are provided below.

Additional information about all of these collections is available on the USCA Library Government Documents webpage.

UNITED STATES FEDERAL DEPOSITORY

The United States Government has been called the largest information machine in the world. Every agency of the federal government produces publications, often referred to as “documents”.

Publications from nearly every federal government agency are included in the USCA Library Federal Depository. These publications are generally extremely high quality information resources which can be very helpful for term paper research projects, especially in the areas of the sciences, social sciences, and business.

There are nearly 1300 Federal Depository Libraries nationwide and 20 of those are located in South Carolina. The USC Aiken Library was designated a Federal Depository in 1989.

Federal Depository Shelflist database:

Search here for federal documents received from 1989 to the present.

USCA Library Federal Depository Shelflist search page

The database provides simple keyword searching. The database contains records for all holdings of the Library’s US Federal Depository since the collection was established in 1989.

Please note that researchers may also utilize the Library Catalog to search for USCA Library Federal Depository documents. Several thousand USCA Library Federal Depository document records covering the period from 1989 to present are searchable in the Library Catalog. However, USCA Library Federal Depository records in the Library Catalog are limited primarily to paper format documents. This means that a search strategy that relies on the Library Catalog alone will miss information about thousands of Federal Depository microfiche and cdrom documents. Only approximately one quarter to one third of USC Aiken Library’s Federal Depository holdings are available in the Library Catalog. For a thorough search, users need to be aware of and rely on the Federal Depository search engine.

There are many other important federal government document search tools. A good example is the Catalog of US Government Publications Catalog of US Government Publications located at GPO ACCESS. Please see USCA Library Documents Department staff for assistance with questions about local or web based government information finding tools.

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE DEPOSITORY

The South Carolina State Depository is modeled on the Federal Depository program. The collection contains government documents from all South Carolina state government agencies.

Researchers are usually quite surprised by the variety and usefulness of resources available in the State Depository collection.

Keyword searching for items in the USCA Library’s South Carolina Depository collection is available.

USCA Library State Documents Search page.

A very limited number of State Depository records are in the Library Catalog.

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY PUBLIC READING ROOM

The USC Aiken Library USDOE Public Reading Room is one of about 20 USDOE Reading Rooms nationwide.

See Documents Department staff for access to the database of the USDOE Reading Room collection. UThe (Administrative Record File (ARF) contains about 12000 documents which are available on cdrom. See Documents Department staff for access to the ARF cdrom collection. The ARF database is maintained by Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) staff at the Savannah River Site. WSRC sends periodic updates of this database.

For a thorough search of all documents in the USDOE Public Reading Room, users are strongly encouraged to search both the main Reading Room database and the ARF database.

There are no USDOE Public Reading Room records in the main Library Catalog.