POLT 504: American Presidency

US government publications that are distributed through the federal depository library program are organized by the publishing agency, not by subject. The Superintendent of Documents classification (call number) scheme differs from the Library of Congress scheme used elsewhere in the UNH Library.

Publications from each president are classed as PR[# of presidency], so Donald Trump is PR45, Barack Obama was PR44, etc. The UNH Library's collection has material from PR32 (FDR) to present. This category usually includes publications from agencies or commissions created by executive order of the president.

Publications from the Executive Office of the President are classes under PREX.

Publications from the Vice President are classed under PRVP.

Tangible publications include paper (Dimond Level 1) and microfiche (Dimond 210). The UNH Library catalog includes links to thousands of online federal government publications.

Example of a SuDoc (Superintendent of Documents) number:

PREX 6.2:G 87

PREX = Executive Office of the President
PREX 6. = Council of Economic Advisors
PREX 6.2: = General Publications (category)
PREX 6.2:F 26 = Incorporating Renewables into the Electric Grid: Expanding Opportunities for Smart Markets and Energy Storage (report)

NOTE:

• The dot (.) is a period, not a decimal. All numbers are whole numbers (.8 comes before .14)
  • This differs from the Library of Congress call numbers used elsewhere
• Order: Years, Letters, Numbers
  • Before 2000, the first number was dropped from the year, so those years have 3 digits
    (997, 998...).
• Nothing comes before something (for ex. PREX 2.2:SE 2 precedes PREX 2.2:SE 2/2/EXEC.SUM)