Federal Government Documents Tutorial
CIS
Just as commercial firms have used electronic bibliographic data
from GPO to produce products sold to libraries, another company, CIS -
Congressional Information Service - found a market in libraries for government
information products. CIS compiles very good bibliographies of
government document titles, and sells these bibliographies in paper and
electronic form. In addition to the bibliographies, CIS also produces
microfiche of government information titles and sells copies of document
microfiche in sets or on demand.
All the CIS paper products are used in the same manner.
There is a two-step search process using index volumes and bibliographic
volumes.
Step 1.
Look up a name or subject of interest in the index. Citations
given in the index are to a sequence number used in the bibliographic
volume.
Step 2.
Look up the sequence number in the bibliographic citation
volume. The information given in the bibliographic volume frequently
includes a SuDoc number, and the publication could be on our shelves at that
SuDoc number. If the title is not in our depository collection, it may
be available in the Microforms Room. Use the sequence number from the
index plus the date and title of the index when asking for the material at the
Microforms desk. In case of doubt, ask for help locating the title at
the Reference desk.
Executive Branch Publications
Although this wasn't the first product produced by CIS, it was an
extremely ambitious one. Over a period of years the company tracked down
copies of all the publications recorded in the 1909 Checklist. CIS
produced a multi-part bibliography of these documents, and finally created the
index promised by GPO ninety five years ago. The CIS title is this:
CIS U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789 - 1909 in
6 parts plus a supplement
- part 1: Treasury, Commerce, and Labor
- part 2: War
- part 3: Interior, Justice, Labor, ICC, Library of Congress
- part 4: Agriculture, etc.
- part 5: Navy
- part 6: State, Post Office, President, Smithsonian, etc.
- supp: discovered titles not in the 1909 Checklist
All of the CIS titles discussed here are in the D.H. Hill Library,
and most are shelved in the Reference - U.S. Docs area in the second floor,
north bookstacks overlooking Hillsborough Street.
Most of the titles in the 1909 Checklist are too old to be
represented in this library's depository collection. The depositories at
Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill also had an interest in obtaining access to the
titles represented in the CIS U.S. Executive Branch Documents
bibliographies. The three universities made a cooperative purchase of
these microfiche, and each library houses the fiche from two parts of the
bibliographies. Parts 1-2 are in Duke's Perkins Library, Parts 3-4 are
in the Microforms Room here in D.H. Hill, and Parts 5-6 are at UNC's Davis
Library. The purchase status of the supplementary segment isn't known at
this time. If you wish to use titles that are housed at Duke or
Carolina, please ask the Interlibrary Loan staff to arrange a loan.
CIS U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1910 - 1932 in
7 parts
- part 1: Smithsonian, Treasury, VA, etc.
- part 2: Commerce
- part 3: War, etc.
- part 4: Interior, Justice, Labor etc.
- part 5: Agriculture
- part 6: LC, Navy, etc.
- part 7: President, State, etc.
Between 1996 and 2003 CIS compiled a second retrospective
bibliography and produced microfiche of Executive branch documents from the
period, 1910 - 1932. Microfiche purchases of this material may occur at
a later date.
Legislative Branch Publications
CIS/Index to Publications of the United States
Congress, 1970 to date
CIS' first publication established its reputation. The
CIS Index of Congressional publications indexes publications produced
by House, Senate, and joint committees and subcommittees. Included in
its coverage are committee hearings and prints, reports, documents, and
special publications.
From 1984 the printed CIS Index has included an annual
"Legislative Histories" volume tracking the progress of significant
legislation from introduction to enactment.
The federal documents collection contains almost all of the titles
listed in the CIS Index, either in paper, microfiche, or via electronic
Internet access. The Congressional publications in the library are
arranged by the SuDoc system, so use the Libraries' catalog or the federal
documents shelflist to determine whether a particular title is available, and
its format.
LexisNexis Congressional
LexisNexis purchased the CIS company, and has placed several
different databases with the bibliographic data from a number of CIS
publications on the Internet. The CIS Index may be searched in LexisNexis Congressional.
CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings Index, 1833-1969
CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. Senate Committee Hearings, 1823-1972
CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. House of Representatives Committee Hearings,
1833-1964
CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Prints Index, 1830-1969
These four titles from CIS represent other collections available
from that company. They either extend the coverage historically, or they
capture bibliographically titles that have previously not been known.
The Reference - U.S. Docs area on the second floor, north bookstacks, houses
each of these bibliographies. The library's Microforms room contains
many of the titles enumerated in these sets.
Statistical indexes
American Statistics Index, 1974 to date
Since 1974 the CIS product, American Statistics Index, has
provided an index to statistical publications produced by any U.S. federal
government department or agency. The D. H. Hill Library's Microforms
Room has a set of microfiche from the non-depository portion of the
publications indexed by the ASI index. In conjunction with the
publications received through the federal depository program, the library's
holdings of the titles indexed by ASI should be complete.
Statistical Reference Index, 1980 to date
Building on the success of the ASI, CIS began this second
statistical bibliography with a U.S. focus, one that covers statistical
publications released by state, trade, and academic publishers. The
Microforms room contains SRI microfiche.
IIS Index to International Statistics, 1983 to
date
CIS also compiles this third statistical bibliography, the
IIS, which concentrates on statistical publications issued by
multi-national organizations like the United Nations, World Bank, etc.
The Microforms room also holds IIS microfiche.
Ask for microfiche from these sets by requesting their sequence
numbers, made up of three parts: the year, the three letter abbreviation
for the bibliography, and a unique sequence number. These sequence
numbers are assigned to a specific title and remain constant from one year to
the next.
LexisNexis Statistical
LexisNexis Statistical allows
searches of data contained in the ASI, SRI, and IIS
indexes. It also has a feature allowing users to obtain summary
statistical data contained in tables from a variety of sources.
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