Continuing Resources and Metadata Librarian Northeastern Illinois University
State documents classification systems developed in tandem with schemes for classifying other types of government publications (federal, local, NGO). However, general purpose schemes for government publications appeared first (in the late 1930s), with systems for individual states first appearing in the early 1950s and peaking in number in the early 1970s. The timeline of the creation of these systems gives us insight into trends in interest in government publications, and they correlate with specific events, such as the expansion of the FDLP in 1961 and the establishment of depository programs for state documents from the 1940s onward (with a peak in the 1960s). Many state classification systems are derived from SuDocs. However, others were inspired by other state systems (such as those of California and Florida). This indicates that the creation of state documents classifications was not only spurred on by trends in government and library science, but also by events occuring in other states. The data showing these trends will be represented with timelines showing trends and events, with the relationship between various events and classification systems also shown.