a website of the Illinois State Library

Browsing the Electronic Documents of Illinois Website

Browsing is the process of making a series of inspections and selections. Many people find kinds of browsing (e.g., following web links, or looking along library shelves) to sometimes be a very valuable way to find information. The EDI Depository provides sorted lists to support user browsing along common themes.

Browsing by Subject

Subject classification choices, and other descriptive 'metadata' choices, follow classification guidance prepared by the Illinois State Library. See the IL GILS Subject Tree links.

A browsable list of Subject Classification choices, or topics, is provided. More information on the classification system used is available on-line.

Within the Subject Classification browse pages, the following notation is used:

XYZ -- see 6 document listings here
Clicking this link will display brief descriptions of six documents which have been cataloged under subject heading 'XYZ'.
XYZ -- see subheadings
Clicking this link will display the sub-headings defined as parts of 'XYZ', but there are no documents currently in the EDI Depository classified under those sub-headings
XYZ -- see subheadings for 7 additional document listings
Clicking this link will display the sub-headings defined as parts of 'XYZ', and there are a total of 7 classification listings of current EDI content which use some of those sub-headings.

Browsing by Issuing Agency

A browseable list of the State of Illinois agencies, and sub-agencies, responsible for the publication of documents is provided. In Illinois State Government organizations, the publishing organization is usually listed as the author, instead of listing a person as the author.

Names of agencies, departments and offices may change over time. If you're having difficulties locating a document you believe would have been deposited by a particular agency, try a different browsing or search option to help uncover alternative names for agencies or sub-agencies. Contact your library for further assistance, or use the Ask a Librarian reference service.

Browsing by Title

A browseable list of document titles is provided. As government publications are often named to reflect the authoring organization, or the law or regulation or funding source requiring their creation, this tool is primarily for use when the sought title is already known. Use the pushbuttons on the left for 'Website search', or the for browsing 'by Issuing agency' or 'by Subject' if the specifics of a sought document are not known.