United States Federal Documents

1. Purpose, Program Description and General Selection Guidelines

   The Documents Service Center (DSC) is a selective depository for U.S. Federal documents at the 70% level. The collection generally covers 1976-present, although there is extended retrospective coverage for some important series. Pre-1976 documents are mostly located in Butler Library and are accessible via the Butler card catalog. Materials are received in many formats: paper, microfiche, CD-ROM, floppy disk, maps, video, and via the Internet. They include reference materials, monographs, periodicals and serials, manuals and handbooks, visual compilations, and databases. The materials are mostly in English, with a few titles also in Spanish or Braille.

   Much of the material received on depository is cataloged and routed to other departmental libraries. Items go to all CUL libraries, the major recipients being Business, Butler, Electronic Data Service, Engineering, Geoscience, Health Sciences, and Lehman. In general, the other departments receive only selected paper or CD-ROM titles, while the other formats remain in DSC.

   The 30% of available items not selected by DSC are categorized into two groups:

   1. Agencies less extensively selected – Agriculture Dept., Patent and Trademark Office, National Weather Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Education Dept., Farm Credit Administration, General Services Administration, Judiciary, National Credit Union Administration, Railroad Retirement Board.

   2. Types of publications not selected – Laws, Posters, Forms, Addresses, lectures, etc.

   The Documents Service Center has a cooperative relationship with the Columbia Law Library, which selects most law and judiciary material, and also provides DSC with second copies of some heavily used titles. We also rely upon our regional (100%) depository, the New York State Library, in Albany, as a source for those items, which we don’t select here. In practice, we will often send users to the New Jersey regional at the Newark Public Library. Additionally, we refer users to the New York Public Library for patent and trademark information.

   The (accelerating) trend in recent has been the electronic dissemination of Federal publications. CD-ROM production has increased dramatically, and with the establishment of GPO Access in August 1994, the Government Printing Office has been committing more resources to distribution via the Internet. Currently, there are 15 series distributed via GPO Access, with hundreds more available directly from the issuing agency, via WWW, FTP, Telnet, etc. This growth is sure to continue, and the very structure of the depository program may well change significantly in the future.

2. Specific Delimitations

   1. Formats Collected: We collect annuals, CD-ROMs, maps, monographs, other electronic tools, periodicals, and scholarly series extensively, audio-visual materials and reference tools selectively while dissertations, newspapers, and textbooks are excluded.

   2. Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current publications extensively, 20^th century publications selectively while 19^th and early century publications are excluded.

   3. Languages Collected: We collect publications in English extensively while all publications in other languages are excluded.

   4. Place of Publication: We collect materials published in the United States extensively while all other publications are excluded.

New York State Documents

1. Purpose, Program Description and General Selection Guidelines

   The Documents Service is a microfiche depository for New York State documents. Unfortunately, New York State fiscal problems have regularly disrupted the depository program and our holdings are very incomplete. The DSC receives a small number of core (reference) titles on paper depository. They are:

   1. Checklist of Official Publications of the State of New York
   2. Employment in New York State
   3. Employment Review
   4. Executive Budget of the State of New York
   5. Labor Area Summary & Monthly Statistical Review
   6. Legislative Trends
   7. New York State Business Statistics
   8. New York State Register
   9. New York State Statistical Yearbook
   10. Summary of Legislation
   11. Vital Statistics of New York State

   The Head of the Documents Service Center also maintains a Library Web page on New York State documents.

2. Specific Delimitations

   1. Formats Collected: We collect microfiche in our Microfiche Depository, annuals, CD-ROMs, maps, monographs, other electronic tools, periodicals, reference tools, and 12 core paper serial titles selectively. We exclude audio/visual materials, dissertations, newspapers, and textbooks.

   2. Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current publications extensively while all earlier publications are excluded.

   3. Languages Collected: We collect English publications extensively while all others are excluded.

   4. 4. Place of Publication: We collect publications from the U.S., especially N.Y., extensively while all others are excluded.

New York City Documents

1. Purpose, Program Description and General Selection Guidelines

   The Documents Service Center does not physically house copies of any New York City documents. They are collected in other departmental libraries by subject, as appropriate. Avery, Business, Butler, Health Sciences, Lehman, and Social Work are the major library locations for paper copies of New York City documents. The DSC restricts its collection to:

   1. the Index to Current Urban Documents and its accompanying microfiche collection (NYC subset only), 1972-present, which covers all subject areas

   2. the maintenance of a LibraryWeb page on New York City

      The Head of the Documents Service Center also coordinates the updating and maintenance of the CUL publication New York City Information Sources of the Columbia University Libraries, which is displayed on the New York City page on both LibraryWeb and ColumbiaWeb. As part of this coordination, the Head of DSC makes several trips a year to City Books and the Dept. of City Planning Bookstore, purchasing current titles which are then catalogued for Lehman, Social Work, Business, and on occasion, other departmental libraries.

2. Specific Delimitations

   1. Formats Collected: We collect annuals, CD-ROMs, maps, monographs, other electronic tools, periodicals, reference tools, and scholarly serials selectively while audio/visual materials, dissertations, newspapers, and textbooks are excluded.

   2. Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current publications extensively and exclude all early century publications.

   3. Languages Collected: We collect English publications extensively while all other publications are excluded.

   4. Place of Publication: We collect publications from the U.S., especially from New York City, and exclude all other places of publication.

International Governmental Organizations (IGO) Documents

1. Purpose, Program Description and General Selection Guidelines

   The Documents Service Center does not physically house copies of any IGO documents. They are collected in other departmental libraries by subject, as appropriate. Business, Butler, Law, and Lehman libraries are the major locations for these paper IGO publications. DSC restricts its collection to reference tools on all formats:

   1. the Index to International Statistics (IIS) and its accompanying microfiche collection, 1983-present

   2. the EuroCat CD-ROM – a catalogue of European Community publications, 1985-present

   3. the maintenance of a Library Web page on IGOs

2. Specific Delimitations

   1. Formats Collected: We collect CD-ROMs and reference tools selectively.

   2. Imprint Dates Collected: We collect current publications extensively, 20^th century publications selectively and early century publications are excluded.

   3. Languages Collected: We collect English publications extensively while all other publications are excluded.