Government Documents - Smithsonian Institution: Government Documents Home Page

Location: Hamilton Library, ground floor (basement)

Reference hours: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday-Friday; other hours by appointment

Contact us Telephone: (808) 956-8230

Government Documents staff

The Government Documents Collection is comprised of two collections:

The Federal Documents Collection

The United Nations Collection

This library is a congressionally designated depository for U.S. government documents. Public access to the government documents collection is guaranteed by public law (Title 44 United States Code).

Documents from the State of Hawai`i are kept in the Hawaiian Collection.

To locate publications and documents in the Government Documents Collection:

• All United Nations and intergovernmental organization publications are in OneSearch.
• Only about 35% of our U.S. government documents are in OneSearch. To search for federal government documents, you may use the following catalogs:
  • Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (1976-present)
  • Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (1850-1999)
  • printed indexes or catalogs available in the Government Documents Collection

These tutorials will familiarize you with the SuDoc system used to arrange federal documents on the shelf:

View instructional videos related to government information.