Constitution Day: Gems from Government Documents Collection Display and Exhibit
by Rebecca Johnston, Social Sciences and Humanities Librarian; exhibit and display curated by Johnston; John Olson, Government and Geo-Information Librarian; and Kieran Hickey, Collection Development and Analysis Librarian
Syracuse University has a long history of cooperation with the US Federal Government in providing freely available government information to the SU community and the public. Syracuse University’s Library has been a Federal Depository Library for 147 years. On February 7, 1878, eight years after Syracuse’s founding, the Library was congressionally designated by Congressman Frank Hiscock.
The Government Documents collection is located on the 3rd floor of Bird Library and contains over 1 million federal depository documents that we have received from the Federal Government. Most of these older documents are either in tangible print format or on microform. With the change to digital publications by the government, 98% of the new titles we receive now that are produced by Congress, the Judiciary, the President and the Executive Offices, Departments and Agencies are now available electronically through our online catalog as digital content. Many other government documents, data and information can be found by searching one of the many government search engines found on the Libraries' Government Documents Research Guide.
To see some of the fascinating items in the Government Documents collection, visit the exhibit on the 1st floor of Bird Library and learn more at the Constitution Day Research Guide. The Research Guide also includes a list of books about the Constitution, its history and some of its most important amendments.