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January 2002
Ralph Szymczak
The Government Documents Collection at Brandeis University, serving as a "selective depository" supports the entire curriculum at all levels and, in addition, serves the general public in keeping with depository law (United States Code, Title 44).
The collection consists almost entirely of United States federal government publications issued by the Government Printing Office. No effort is made to systematically collect international, NTIS or U.S. State or local government publications. When these types of publications are acquired, it is at the request of a subject bibliographer, through the Collections Management Department, and they are added to the general library collection.
While, as a selective depository, we receive publications from virtually every department and agency of the U.S. government, our collection is dominated by material from Congress, the President's Office, the Census Bureau, and the Departments of Health & Human Services, Labor, State and Justice. The collection emphasizes statistical material (censuses, vital and health statistics series) Presidential documents (Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Presidential commission reports) diplomatic publications (Foreign Relations of the United States), Congressional hearings, debates and statutes, and legal /regulatory reports (United States Reports, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations). Monographic, occasional and serial materials are all collected. Materials of a technical, bureaucratic or extremely specialized nature are usually not collected. Brandeis acquires approximately 33% of all publications of the Government Printing Office.
In addition, Brandeis acquires online commercial indexes providing access to the collection. These include the First Search version of the GPO Monthly Catalog, LexisNexis Congressional and LexisNexis Statistical.
Certain categories are acquired through the depository program but are shelved outside the Documents Collection. United States Reports and United States Statutes at Large and reports of regulatory commissions such as the Federal Communications Commission and the National Labor Relations Board are shelved in the Legal Reference area.
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United States and any foreign countries or international organization with which it is concerned.
The collection covers United States affairs from 1776 to the present, but with a concentration on contemporary affairs, both domestic and foreign.
Brandeis has been a selective depository since 1967. Since that time, depository items have been shelved or stored in the Government Documents Collection by Superintendent of Documents call number as paper or microform. Government Documents monographs published before 1967 are shelved in the general collection rather than the Documents Collection. A very limited number of Documents were acquired before 1967. Most of them were hearings on important issues. Prior to 1967, the Library did acquire some major government serials, but these are now located in the Documents Collection, despite the fact that they were published before 1967. Increasingly, many government documents are available on the World Wide Web.
Most GPO publications are in English; however, some are published additionally in a foreign language.
Where possible, paper and electronic rather than microform copies are collected. Factors considered in selecting microform are availability and space. For example, some massive sets and series, such as the early censuses or the Federal Register are acquired or replaced by microfilm copies. Many congressional publications, particularly Appropriations hearings, have been acquired on microfiche. World Wide Web versions for many government documents are increasingly being made available.
See Section VII above.
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In keeping with the purpose of the collection, the level of selecting will adjust with any changes in the curriculum.
Related subject policies would include:
