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Research Library Finding Aids

This LibGuide features finding aids to help patrons, researchers, and library staff navigate various collections.

What are Arizona State Publications?

What is the Arizona State Publications Collection?

The Arizona State Publications Collection includes publications produced by Arizona government agencies. The state library is the central depository of all official books, records, and documents not in current use of the various state officers and departments of this state per ARS 41-151.09.

The collection contains documents published by all the Arizona state agencies. The collection includes items such as annual reports, newsletters, audits, special reports, and studies. The collection includes books, periodicals/serials, and maps, dating back to when Arizona was a territory.

There is a growing online collection of these scanned and born-digital publications available on the Arizona Memory Project. Over 33,000 Arizona State publications can be found in the Arizona State Government Publications collection on the Arizona Memory Project.

To view state documents that have not been digitized, patrons must make an appointment to visit our Reading Room (Monday-Friday 8:30AM-12:00PM or 1:00PM-4:30PM, excluding holidays). Click here to make an appointment or request help

Understanding State Document Call Numbers

Arizona Document Call Numbers

The collection is organized in the Arizona Documents Classification System. The Arizona Documents (AZDOCS) is a unique classification system for Arizona publications that catalogs items by governmental agency instead of subject matter. It is patterned after the Superintendent of Documents (SUDOC) system used for U.S. Government publications.

 

Anatomy of an AZDOC

The AZDOC classification system is based on finding an item by determining which agency published the document and the type of document. Below is a breakdown of how to understand AZDOC call numbers to better help with searching for Arizona State Documents. 

 

Agency Codes:

Agencies are assigned 2-3 letter codes according to the political entities. You can search the  AZDocs Classification Guide to look up agency codes.

 

Subagency Codes:

Each subagency receives a number designation. Subagency code numbers do not reflect hierarchical or alphabetical arrangements and are assigned as needed. They may be 1-3 digit numbers.

 

Type of Publication:

Documents are assigned numbers according to the following schedule using numbers ranging from 1-9.

 

Groupings after the Decimal Point

1. Annual reports

2. Monographs and monographic series

3. Serials with number and/or date

4. Circulars, folders, descriptive materials, conf. packets

5. Laws & statues affecting the agency, city codes

6. Rules & regulations administered by the agency

7. News releases, statistical releases

8. Handbooks, guides, manuals, maps, directories, charts, checklists, indexes, biblios

9. Proceedings, minutes, transactions, memoranda, programs and hearings

 

Cutter Numbers:

The cutter is used after the agency numbers and colon. Cutter on the first significant word; i.e:

Water = W 17, Food = F 55, Pavement = TRT 1.2:P 18, Congestion = TRT 1.2:C 55