HELIN Government Documents Committee Manual
Committee Charge: To oversee the creation and implementation of policies, procedures, documentation, and training related to the maintenance and enhancement of access to government documents.
MEMBERSHIP:
The committee is comprised of one appointed representative from each full membership
institution, and one representative for each group of affiliates.
Appointments are made at the discretion of institution administrators taking
into consideration the relevance of each committees charge to their own
institutions operations.
Each appointed representative will
serve for a term of two years, after which time they may be reappointed or
replaced at the discretion of member institution administrators.
The committee elects its own Chair for a term of two years.
MEETINGS:
Committee
meetings must be attended by the appointed representative from each
institution or an appropriate substitute. Attendance will be
agenda-driven, i.e. by the person whose responsibilities and areas of expertise
best suit the agenda topic(s). Meeting attendance is at the discretion of member
institution administrators and is not regulated by HELIN. All meetings
will be attended by a representative of the HELIN Central Office. The HELIN
listserv is the official means of communication for the committee. Meeting
agendas must be posted to the HELIN list by the Chair not less
than one week prior to the date of the meeting. Minutes for each committee
meeting are to be reviewed by the committee prior to posting and then
posted to the list within two weeks following the meeting.
Guidelines
Guidelines for adding records to the HELIN catalog are available in the HELIN Cataloging and Serials Committee manuals. Situations unique to government publications are outlined below.
I. Federal and State Requirements.
As required by federal and state law, all government documents must be cataloged in the HELIN catalog to the piece level using at least one attached record. For further information on Federal guidelines, go to the FDLP Desktop. RI State Publications Clearinghouse rules may be found at the State Publications Clearinghouse site.
II. Marcive Records
For those libraries utilizing Marcive records, the central office loads brief shipping records on a weekly basis and full bibliographic records monthly. These bibliographic records are sent out for authority work. Consortium libraries not using Marcive may attach holdings to these records.
III. To comply with the piece level requirements for serials, libraries can use one of the following methods.
1. Attach item record for each piece.
2. Attach a check in card using boxes for each piece.
3. If physically bound, boxes can be collapsed to a bound box or recorded in a binding statement on the check in record.
IV. Government Publications issued randomly in paper or microfiche.
For these titles, the committee agreed to use only one check-in record,
preferably for paper. Add note to box for microfiche issues. If title changes
format permanently, close out and start another Check-in record. Use identity
MICROFICHE for title on fiche only.
V. Call Number tags
The following tags are used in the Call number field for State and Federal publications in addition to others outlined in the HELIN Cataloging manual.
086 - Sudoc Number
098 - SWANK Number
099 - Locally derived call number
VI. Government Documents Scope.
The HELIN catalog has a scope
to allow users to limit to government publications. All depository
libraries must participate in the HELIN Government Publications scope.
This scope will include all federal and RI state documents.
Committee's Justification: The scope is necessary to promote the use of
government documents received through depositories as required on federal and
state levels.
Appearance in this scope is determined by the location code in attached records. Each institution must establish item level location codes for government publications to be included in the scope. The HELIN Central Office must be notified when a code should be included in the scope. A list of the current codes recognized by the scope may be found in Appendix B.
Appendix A
PROCEDURES FOR CLASSIFYING RHODE ISLAND STATE PUBLICATIONS
IN THE SWANK SYSTEM
by Deborah Mongeau
Government Publications Librarian
University of Rhode Island
May, 1989
All Rhode Island state publications in the Swank classification system will begin with the number 39 which is the number assigned to Rhode Island. Publications are arranged in the classification system according to the publishing agency. This portion of the call number appears after the 39. Agency classification is alphanumeric and is based on the keyword in the agency name, for example “Environmental” in Department of Environmental Management. The letter in the call number is the first letter of the keyword and the number is cuttered according to the 2nd and 3rd letters in the keyword. For convenience in cuttering, cutter tables are not used but rather the arrangement of the letters on the telephone dial. Therefore, Department of Environmental Management is E68: “E” is for “Environmental,” the “6” is from the location of “N” (second letter in the keyword) on the telephone dial, and the “8” is from the location of “V” (third letter in the keyword) on the telephone dial. The letter “Q” will be assigned number 7 as “Q” does not appear on the telephone dial.
Agencies that are under the jurisdiction of another agency will be assigned the same number as the parent agency but following that number will be a letter in lower case based on the keyword of the lesser agency. For example, the Division of Boating Safety which is under the Department of Environmental Management is E68b. An exception will be if an agency begins with the letter “L”. In this instance, lower case “l” will be capitalized.
Councils, like divisions, will be assigned a number based on the parent agency. However, the following types of agencies will be assigned their own separate numbers:
Ad Hoc Committees A10
Advisory Councils, Boards A38
Commissions C56
Governor’s Commissions, Committees, Councils, etc. G56
These individual agencies will be assigned a letter in lower case after the assigned number based on the first letter of the keyword in the name. For example, the Governor’s Justice Commission is G56j and the Commission to Study the Temporary Disability Insurance Fund is C56d. In the case of an agency that has a keyword with a letter that is already assigned, the first letter of a second keyword will be used in combination with the letter of the first keyword. For example, the Commission to Study Drug Addiction is C56da since C56d has already been used.
When an agency is reorganized or renamed a new number should resemble the old number as closely as possible. For example, E40 State Board of Education became E41 Board of Regents for Education.
When an agency is abolished, that number is closed, and any divisions under that agency that are transferred to a new agency are assigned new numbers based on the new parent agency.
The publications issued by an agency can be grouped according to type of publication. In addition many publications are serials. The publications are assigned a designated series number based on the type of publication. The designated series number is always placed on the second line of the call number and followed by a colon. The designated series numbers are as follows:
1. fiscal reports (annual reports) including interim annual reports
2. bulletins, leaflets, brochures, pamphlets
3. circulars
4. handbooks, manuals, guides, directories
5. laws
6. reports, papers (such as technical, research—sometimes they will have various names) including interim and final reports
7. regulations, rules, and instructions (including proposed rules)
8. releases, newsletters (releases—such as press releases)
9. unnumbered or general publications
10. serials (not appropriate to other categories)
11. bibliographies and lists of publications
For example, the annual report of the Department of Education is:
39-E38
1:
New types of publications may be added beyond number 11 (see “Procedures for Assigning New Swank Numbers”).
Once the agency and the type of publication are established, then the individual publication must be given a cutter number to make it unique. This number always follows the colon. The number is created by using the first letter in the keyword of the title followed by the numbers taken from the telephone dial based on the second and third letters in the keyword. For example, Vote! Published by the Secretary of State would be: 39-S82
9:V68
“S82” is the number assigned to the Secretary of State, “9” is the series “general publications” and “V68” is created from “V,” 6 for “O” on the telephone dial, and 8 for “T” on the telephone dial. Should another publication be published by the same agency with the same series and with the same keyword and no other keyword is possible, then the new publication is cuttered out to another number. For example, should the Secretary of State publish a publication called Voting, then the new publication would be given the cutter number of V684. If the publication is part of a catchall series such as “general publications” or “handbooks, manuals, guides,” the publication is assigned a cutter number based on the keyword in the title.
Publications that are part of a numbered series or are an annual, the cutter number, based on the keyword of the series title, appears after the colon and the series number or the year are placed on the third line. To use a previous example, the annual report of the Department of Education is:
39-E38
1:A66
1988
A66 is the cutter number for the series title “annual report” and 1988 is the year of the report. For serials that are published more than once a year, the date, or preferably, the volume and issue numbers are used on the third line.
Procedure for Assigning New Swank Numbers
For any new publication that is received and requires assignment of a new agency number or a new designated series number, the assigning library should check the existing list of Swank numbers thoroughly. If no existing number is found for this publication then a new one is created according to the procedures outlined above. The assigning library should then confer with the State Library for confirmation that the new number is acceptable. If both libraries agree that the number is acceptable then all other libraries using Swank are informed and the new number is used in all bibliographic records for that publication. If the State Library should create a new number then the State Library will confer with the University of Rhode Island.
Should the number be acceptable, it will be used on all bibliographic records and other libraries using Swank will be informed. The procedure outlined above will also be used on the creation of new numbers due to agency reorganization, change, or a reorganization of a publication series.
Bibliographic Control of State Publications
The State Library will make every effort to catalog publications currently received through the State Publications Clearinghouse. The cataloging data will be entered into the OCLC system. Records entered by the State Library will be considered an authoritative record. The State Library symbol is “RHO” which will appear in the 040 field. Swank numbers will appear on the State Library record and they will appear in the 086 field. The State Publications Checklist will include the Swank numbers that are assigned by the State Library.
Should a library receive a state publication that did not come through the State Publications Clearinghouse, the library should alert the Clearinghouse and send a photocopy of the title page so that the publication may be obtained for the Clearinghouse from the issuing agency.
Amendments to Swank Classification Procedures
Any changes to any procedures outlined in this manual must be agreed to by the State Library, Rhode Island College, and the University of Rhode Island with final approval by the State Publications Clearinghouse Advisory Committee.
Appendix B
The following codes are recognized by the government document scope:
JMGOV - J&W-Prov. RefDsk GovDocs
PRCG - PC Government Documents
PRCGC - PC Gov Doc CD-Roms
PRCGM - PC Gov Doc Microforms
PRCGW - PC Gov Doc E-Resource
PRCI - PC State Documents
RCMG - RIC Gov Pubs
RCMT - RIC State Pubs
RIUG - URI Govt Pub
RIUGE - URI Gov Pub CD
RIUGM - URI Govt Pub Microform
RIUGN - URI E-Resource
RIUGO - URI Govt Pub Oversize
RIUGR - URI Govt Pub Reference
RIUGS - URI Govt. Pubs Office
RIUT - URI State Pub
RIUTR - URI State Pub Reference
RWBBG - RWU Main Library
RWBYG - RWU Main Reference
SLCDG - Salve CDs
SLCRG - Salve CurrLib Reference
SLCUG - Salve Curriculum Library
SLOVG - Salve Oversize Main
SLPRG - Salve Periodicals
SLRFG - Salve Reference
SLVAG - Salve Main Collection
SLVDG - Salve Videos
DRAFT 1/12/07