Florida Government

 

Florida Documents

 

Documents produced by governmental agencies in the state of Florida are shelved together in the Documents Florida section in the compact shelving in the basement.  In the mid-1960s Florida librarians constructed a call number system especially for Florida documents.  It is called Fla-Doc.  Prior to that, Florida documents were classified in either the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress systems or shelved informally, by agency.  Today,we have 2 call number systems for Florida documents in the Documents area. The call number options are: 

                                     Fla-Doc                        

                                     Library of Congress 

 ·         The Fla-Doc system is used only in the Documents area and only for Florida documents, so it does not require a location symbol. 

 ·         Florida documents in the Library of Congress (LC) system must be kept separate not only from LC materials in the rest of the Library, but also from LC materials in other sections of the Documents area. Therefore, we use the double location symbol --  

                        Doc Fla           which denotes the Florida section of the Documents area. 

 

Fla-Doc Call Numbers

Fla-Doc call numbers are very easy to recognize because the first line of the call number is always Fla-Doc.

 Fla-Doc call numbers always:

 have at least three lines, of which the first line is always Fla-Doc.

The second line is either a geographical subdivider or a series of letters which denotes the issuing agency.

 It is often easy to decipher the meaning of Fla-Doc call numbers:

 Example:         Fla-Doc LEG/HR2. S63

                         LEG   -    Legislature

                        HR     -     House of Representatives

                        2.       -    monograph

                        S63    -    cuttered to the word “speakers” in the title

 

The second element of the call number ends in a number taken from the chart below, which most nearly describes the type of document that it classifies:

 

1.            Annual report

2.            General publications (monographs)

3.            Serials, series, periodicals (numbered or dated)

4.            Folders or circulars

5.            Laws administered by the agency

6.            Rules and regulations of the agency

7.            News releases and statistical releases, etc.

8.            Handbooks, guides, maps, manual, directories, catalogs, etc.

9.            Proceedings, minutes, transactions, journals

 

Other examples:

 

                        Fla-Doc           Fla-Doc           Fla-Doc           Fla-Doc

                        Municipal         VOA2.             EDU/PUS3.    County           

                        TAL/PL2.         P36                  M55                 PAS/CC2.      

                        R35                                         C47                 S58                 

 

            Fla-Doc --                    Numbers which only have Fla-Doc are state-wide agencies, such as the Legislature, the Governor's office, the Department of Education.

             Fla-Doc Region --       Documents produced by or for regional governmental agencies such as the Northwest Florida Water Management District or the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council.

             Fla-Doc County --       Documents from county governments.

             Fla-Doc Municipal --   Documents from city or town governments.

 

The subdivisions are shelved in this order (from largest entity to smallest), for example:

 

            Fla-Doc           Fla-Doc           Fla-Doc           Fla-Doc

            EDU/PUS3.    Region             County             Municipal

            M55                 NWW2.           PAS/CC2.       TAL/PL2.

                                    H92                 S58                  R35

 

Included in the Regions are the Water Management Districts, which are always part of the Fla-Doc Region call numbers.

 

Example:         Fla-Doc

                        Region

                        STJW1.

                        S76

 

So, the following call numbers are all in our Florida Documents section.   You need to be able to tell what variety of call number you are looking at in order to know where to look for them:

 

            Doc     Doc                 Fla-Doc              Fla-Doc          

            Fla       Fla                   VOA2.               Region            

            HV       KFF                 P36                   STJW2.          

            6793    30                    C47                   P19                 

            .F6       1906                                                   

            A3        .A2                                                      

 

Shelving order: Remember numbers file before letters

Fla-Doc                      Fla-Doc

LEG1.                         LEG/HR2.

B34                             B34

 

The abbreviations for number, (no.) or (#) are not filed alphabetically.  They are ignored when shelving, so your next filing element is whatever number comes after the number abbreviation.

 

Example:       Fla-Doc                                                          Fla-Doc

                        COD/E7.                    is filed as                   COD/E7.

                        L11                                                                 L11

                        no. 32                                                             32