Library Guides: Government Information: Colorado

Colorado State Government Information & Resources

Rhodochrosite was adopted as the Colorado state mineral in 2002. Learn more about state symbols and emblems.

Colorado Official State Web Portal
Access to Colorado business, employment, education, history, and state government information
Colorado State Agency Databases
List of publicly searchable databases produced by agencies of the State of Colorado from the American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT).
Colorado General Assembly
Find Colorado bills, laws, state agencies/committees/other groups, legislators, initiatives, budgets, audits, schedules, and related publications
Colorado State Government Statistical Information
Various agencies of Colorado state government provide statistical data and related information on a large variety of topics. The web links included in this brief list will lead to additional resources. This is a quick information guide to selected print and electronic publications, as well as web sites, maintained by state agencies only. Many current and historical print publications on this topic are available to borrow from the State Publications Library.
State Demography Office
Access to Colorado population and demographic information, including the ability to download data

How to Locate Physical Colorado State Government Publications at Mines

The Government Publications collections are located on the 1st Floor of the Arthur Lakes Library.

The Colorado classification system used to order the print collection is similar to the U.S. Superintendent of Documents Classification system for the U.S. print collection. In the Colorado State Publications Classification system, the initial letters of the call number indicate the issuing agency. The numbers following the initial letters indicate the primary division while numbers following a slash designate any further subdivision of the agency.

Colorado Department of Natural Resources and selected sub-agencies within the Department

NR = all of the agencies and sub-agencies within the Department of Natural Resources
NR 1. = Colorado. Dept. of Natural Resources
NR 2. = Colorado. Soil Conservation Board
NR 5. = Colorado. Division of Water Resources
NR 12. = Colorado. Division of Minerals and Geology
NR 12/20. = Colorado Geological Survey
NR 12/40. = Colorado. Office of Mined Land Reclamation
NR 12/60. = Colorado. Office of Active and Inactive Mines

A period follows these numbers. THIS IS NOT A DECIMAL POINT. The number following the period needs to be read as a WHOLE NUMBER. This whole number designates the type of publication.

Selected types of publications within the Colorado Department of Natural Resources

NR 1.1 = Colorado. Dept. of Natural Resources Annual Reports (usually followed by a date)
NR 1.2 = Colorado. Dept. of Natural Resources General Publications (usually followed by a cutter number)
NR 1.3 = Colorado. Dept. of Natural Resources Bulletins (usually numbered)

Filing of Colorado state publications

The Colorado state publications are filed by agency first, followed by the sub-agencies within the larger agency. Therefore a period, which separates the agency from the type of publication, precedes the slash which designates a sub-agency (i.e. NR 1.3 precedes NR 1/2). Colorado state publications also follow the "nothing before something" and the DATE before LETTER before NUMBER before WORD rules. Below is a list of properly ordered Colorado state publications.

NR 1.1/1992
NR 1.3/13
NR 2.2/L3
NR 2.2/L3/1990
NR 2/2.1/1989
NR 3.1/1985
NR 12.2/F34/1985
NR 12.2/G87/1983
NR 12/20.1/1988
NR 12/20.2/P27/1991
NR 12/20.13/1979

Help Finding Colorado State Collections at Mines

Library Catalog - Colorado School of Mines This link opens in a new window
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The majority of the Colorado State collection is available electronically. For print items, Colorado State publications are not located in the government publications collection (1st floor) and, instead, can be found in the main collection (2nd, 2nd mezzanine, and 3rd floors).

Browse our virtual discovery collections:
Mines Authors
Diversity Collection
Sustainability Collection
Course Readings Collection
Colorado State Publications Library: Digital Repository This link opens in a new window
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The Colorado State Publications Library Digital Repository is a collection of born digital publications from Colorado state agencies. State publications are valuable sources of information published in print and electronic formats by state agencies that include annual reports, budgets, planning reports, newsletters, consumer information, legislative reports, and directories. They cover a wide variety of topics including health, business, education, crime, agriculture, mining, employment, taxes, water quality, wildlife, and the environment.
Prospector This link opens in a new window
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Prospector is a unified catalog of academic, public, and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Through Prospector you have access to millions of books, journals, DVDs, CDs, streaming videos, and other materials held in these libraries. With a single search, you can identify and borrow materials from the collections and have them delivered to your local library.