Excerpt from Comprehensive Index of the Publications of the United States Government, 1889-1893

To anyone familiar with the publications of the Government, it must be evident that a satisfactory index Of the same must be sui generis, differing, in certain important respects, from that Of any other series of publications. 'this is rendered necessary, in the first place, by the peculiar and complicated classification Of public documents; and, in the second place, by the multiplicity Of editions of many of these documents, issued in distinct series and under different titles. Such an index must not only contain a reference to every document published, but it must clearly indicate where the document is to be found in the several series under which Government publications are classified, and if issued in more than one edition or series, then a reference to each edition or series must be given.

Many documents, for instance, are published as Executive or miscellaneous documents Of the Senate or House of Representatives, again, in a different style Of binding and with a different title, as reports or publications of an Executive Department, and again, with still another title, as reports Of a particular bureau or office of the department. To subserve the largest convenience, therefore, an index must take cognizance of each of these edition s.

The question Of making the work an authors', as well as a subject, index has received careful consideration. Of course the one essential element in such an index is the subject, to which the author must be held entirely subordinate. To incorporate an authors' index with the subject index would materially increase the bulk of the work, with no corresponding advantage. At the same time it is regarded as important that the author of every document, or the source from which it emanates, should be indicated.

As all public documents are printed at the Government Printing Office at Washington, no reference is made to their place of publication; and as they are all publications Of the United States, none of them are indexed under the title United States. In an index of miscellaneous books, these references might be necessary or important, but not in an index devoted exclusively to public documents.

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