GPub:  Government Publication

Record Type

BIB

Bytes

BKS, CNR, COM, MAP, VIS: 008/28; 006/11

Definition

One-character code that indicates whether the resource is published or produced by or for an international, national, state, provincial, or local government agency or by a subdivision of such a body. The code also describes the jurisdictional level of the government agency associated with the resource.

Guidelines

Use the following guidelines for GPub codes:

• Government bodies and their subdivisions. Treat a government body and all its subdivisions as government bodies regardless of how they are entered as access points (i.e., entered under jurisdiction or not). The government body need not be an access point, but it should be named as publisher in the imprint area or have caused the item to be published (usually inferred if the governmental body is responsible for the content of the item). If in doubt, treat the item as a government publication.
  
• Status of the governmental entity. Choose a code based on the status of the jurisdiction at the time of publication, e.g., for Texas government publications, use code f for the period 1836-1845 and code s for the period 1845 to the present.
• Joint publications by government bodies. If an item is published jointly by government agencies at two different levels, use the code for the higher level.
• Socialist countries. Since the coding of all items published in socialist countries as government publications would limit the usefulness of this element, coding should be used only for the same type of bodies that would be considered government in a non-socialist country. In coding items in this manner, when in doubt, treat the item as a government publication.
• American Indian tribes. Publications issued by American Indian tribes are government publications at the Federal/National level. Use code f.
• Academic publications. Publications such as college catalogs, faculty directories, annual reports, etc., of academic institutions that are created or controlled by a government in the United States should be coded as government publications. If such publications of a state university are reprinted by a commercial publisher, however, the reprint is not a government publication. Publications of state college or state university presses in the United States (e.g., Kent State University Press, Michigan State College Press) are not considered to be government publications.
• Theses and dissertations. Theses and dissertations, including those emanating from state colleges and universities, are not government publications.
• Non-governmental entities. Be aware that some corporate entities have names that resemble those of governmental bodies but are not actually governmental bodies. For example, the National Film Board of Canada and National Public Radio are not government entities.

Codes

Indexing

For indexing and searching information, see Searching WorldCat Indexes, 008/28.

MARC 21

For more information, including content designator history, see MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data, 008/28 (Books), etc.