Fondren Library has been a member of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) since 1925. This Library is one of six designated FDLP libraries in North Texas and houses a selective Depository collection that includes print, electronic and microfiche formats of current and historic information from the federal government. Content selections are based on campus curricular needs that match SMU's academic profile. Currently, 60% of all published government material is collected at Fondren. Collection preference is given to electronic formats when available.
Fondren also houses a Texas Collection with print resources up to 2012. State-level resources covering education, heath, workforce and other topics are available.
Notable strengths in the Federal collection are:
Most of the collection is searchable through the Library Search. Searching by subject using the Advanced Search option is helpful.
Fondren Library houses both Federal and Texas print government information collections. These collections are located on Blue, Level 1 in the Northwest corner of the building. The Texas documents line the East wall and the Federal documents line the adjacent shelves. Both collections are labeled with a "Federal" or "Texas" designation.
Both print collections are organized by unique classification systems. These systems are specific to federal and state government information. The federal collection is organized by the Superintendent of Documents systems, or SuDoc. The Texas Collection is organized by the Texas Documents Classification Scheme.
Example:
To locate Defense documents, find the "D" section and the corresponding number for the needed resource will be located in this area.
If you want a specific resource, it is best to have the resource number. Browsing by topic is good if you're open to learning about a variety of information within a given topic.
