to the classification applied by Miss Adelaide K. Hasse to the publica 

 tions of the Agriculture Department in a list issued by the Depart- 

 ment in 1895. 



It was soon found that this classification, however adequate for 

 a single Department, was not capable of meeting the needs of a great 

 library of Governmciit literature, and a new classification became 

 a necessity. 



It was no simple matter to devise a system of classification elastic 

 enough to meet the needs of such a mass of unrelated matter as neces- 

 sarily forms a library of United States pii})lic documents, nor to foresee, 

 though aided by the fruits of the former experience, the many incon- 

 sistencies and incongruities against which to guard. Decimal, alpha- 

 betical, numerical, chronological, author, subject, and serial methods 

 of classification were experimented with, until at last the present sys- 

 tem, a com] )i nation of various schemes, was decided upon as the most 

 simple and usable, and its application to the Library has proven satis- 

 factorj' in every way. 



But if the task of applying an acceptal)le system to the books was 

 hard, that of explaining it concisely and lucidly is certainly more 

 difiicult. In giving the following- explanation of the method of classi- 

 fication for United States public documents, as it is now used in the 

 Public Documents Librar}", which contains the largest collection of 

 such publications, the hope is entertained that many of the large 

 libraries may be led to use the scheme, thus insuring uniformit}^ of 

 classification, and making the lists of the various Departments, of 

 which this work is the first, a direct index to the publications on their 

 shelves. 



The classification is by governmental authors: First, by Departments 

 or independent publishing ofiices; second, by bureaus, oflSces, or divi- 

 sions of such Departments or independent publishing offices. 



Department symhol. 



The first letter of the distinctive word in the title of each of the nine 

 Executive Departments is used to designate the Department, and is 

 written as the first term in the "classification numl)er," as follows: 



A = Agriculture Department. 



C = Commerce and Labor Department. 



1 = Interior Department. 



J = Justice Department. 



N = Navy Department. 



P = Post-Office DepartmcMit. 



S = State Department. 



T = Treasury Departnient. 



W = War Department. 



