The Superintendent of Documents classification system arranges government documents on the shelves by which criterion?

The Superintendent of Documents classification system arranges government documents on the shelves by which criterion?

• A. By Publication Year
• B. By Format
• C. By Government Agency
• D. By Author

Answer: (C)

The primary organizing principle in the Superintendent of Documents system is the issuing government agency. Documents are shelved under the agency that produced them, so all items from the same agency are kept together, making it easier to locate related material and understand the collection by source. Sorting by publication year would scatter items from the same agency across many years, format sorting would mix different kinds of outputs, and author sorting isn’t reliable for government documents since many have corporate or agency authors rather than individual authors.

The primary organizing principle in the Superintendent of Documents system is the issuing government agency. Documents are shelved under the agency that produced them, so all items from the same agency are kept together, making it easier to locate related material and understand the collection by source. Sorting by publication year would scatter items from the same agency across many years, format sorting would mix different kinds of outputs, and author sorting isn’t reliable for government documents since many have corporate or agency authors rather than individual authors.