Finding U.S. Government Documents from before 1970, at UConn.

1) Stacks. Start with Homer. If you know the name of the agency that might have produced the document, enter it in the "author" field, or in the "keyword" field with the agency's name in quotation marks. Some of these may be shelved in with all the other books, using a regular Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal call number. For instance, I typed in "Works Progress Administration" into Homer and came up with 155 hits, including this book that was reprinted by a commercial publishing house:

Some of the documents that show up in Homer are in the Government Documents Collection on Level B. The call numbers for these look a little different (see below for an explanation). For instance, here's another result from Homer:

2) Government Documents Collection. Babbidge is a Federal Depository Library, which means that it has received literally tons of federal publications in print form or microfiche. A microfiche is like a piece of film about the size of a large index card, with dozens of pages reproduced at microscopic size. You can read them in a microform reader, as you would with microfilm. The Government Documents collection is held on the west side of Level B (to your right after you pass the computer room with the stained glass windows).  There is no convenient finding aid. The documents are shelved by a special system, the SUDOCS (Superintendent of Documents Classification System).  Here is how the SUDOCS is described on the U.S. Government Printing Office website (http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/explain.html):
“Principles of the System. The Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification system is designed to group together publications by the same government author. Within an agency or department, publications are grouped according to the subordinate organization. The purpose of this system is to uniquely identify, logically relate, and physically arrange each publication so that all publications of a single agency or department may be found together.
“Author Symbols. Each executive department and agency, the Judiciary, Congress, and other major independent establishments are assigned a unique alphabetical identifier, based on the name of the organization, e.g., "A" for Agriculture Department, "JU" for Judiciary, and "NS" for National Science Foundation. However, the letters "X" and "Y" are reserved for Congress. The designation "Z" is not used.”
This means that if you want something from the Agriculture department, head for the A's. Good luck!
As I said, there is no convenient finding aid. There are, however, some inconvenient ones. If you are looking for something produced before 1971, consult the Cumulative Subject Index to the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, 1900-1971 (Babbidge Reference J83 .M663). It will give you a lot of titles and SUDOCS numbers. If you're lucky, Babbidge might have the document you see listed there, but I wouldn't count on it.
I think the most productive approach is to search on the WorldCat database. Many of the entries for government documents will include SUDOCS numbers. If you find something you like, jot down all the info including the SUDOCS number and then head for Level B. Maybe we own it even if Homer says we don’t.

3) U.S. Serial Set. Many government documents are reproduced in the bound volumes of the American State Papers (1789-1817) and the U.S Congressional Serial Set (1817-) and are housed at the Dodd Center. The US Serial Set includes over 14,000 volumes containing 325,000 documents, most of which were produced by Congress or Congressional committees. We don't own all of the volumes, of course.
To find a document on a particular subject, look up that subject in the Congressional Information Service (CIS) US Serial Set Index, which is shelved in the southeast corner of Floor 1 of Babbidge Library, in the Reference Collection. Bound volumes are arranged by date. (Call number: J74 .C66 1975). Write down all the information in the entry; the last number is the Serial Set volume number. Then, type in "Serial Set" into the search field in Homer, and scroll down to see if UConn owns that particular volume. If we do, go to the Dodd Center. Also, the Library of Congress has digitized parts of the Serial Set and put them on the Internet.

4) Internet. As mentioned above, many of the most recent government publications (the last 10 years) are available online through http://www.gpoaccess.gov/, but this won’t do you much good for historical research.
A good resource for a much earlier period is a website maintained by the Library of Congress, “A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875,” http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html. The site includes an extensive collection of documents from the Serial Set and the American State Papers, as well as the proceedings of Congress under various titles.

Some documents are available in multiple locations or in multiple formats: print, microfiche or digital. A good example is the proceedings and debates of Congress. Depending on the year, you could find the material at the Dodd Center, or Level B, or on the Internet. For another example, the mysterious publication on Telephones and Telegraphs is also available digitally at http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/04198721_TOC.pdf.
If you need help, the best person to contact is the library’s Federal Documents Librarian, Steven Batt. He is a friendly and helpful guy who knows the materials better than the other reference librarians. He can be reached at steven.batt@uconn.edu, or call him at 486-6128.