Congressional Document Collections
- ProQuest Congressional
ProQuest Congressional is especially useful for performing legislative histories and locating Congressional documents. It is also very useful for tracking legislation and major public policy issues, locating recent Congressional documents and related material in full text, and learning more about Congress and the legislative process. - ProQuest Legislative Insight
Congress produces a variety of publications as a bill moves through the legislative process on its way to becoming a law. A compilation of these full text primary source publications produces a legislative history that is valuable to a wide variety of researchers. Legislative Insight offers a research citation page that not only links to the full text of the associated primary source publications, but allows the user to do a Search Within from that very page that searches the full text of all the associated publications with one-click.
- Congress.gov
Full-text database useful for tracking legislation in Congress, produced by the Library of Congress.
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873 and is still published today. It is published daily when Congress is in session. At the back of each daily issue is the "Daily Digest," which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities.
- ProQuest Congressional RecordDebates and remarks given on the floor of the House and Senate from 1985 to present.
- GovInfo Congressional Record Daily Editioncontains Congressional Record volumes from 140 (1994) to the present.
- GovInfo Congressional Record Bound Editioncontains the daily editions of the Congressional Record that have been collected, re-paginated, and re-indexed into a permanent, bound edition. Contains volumes from 1873 to 2001 and 2005 to 2009.
- Congress.gov Congressional Record Daily Editioncontains the Congressional Record volumes from 1995 to the present.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
The United States Congressional Serial Set is a serially numbered collection of United States Congressional House and Senate Reports, Documents, and some related publications.
The official call number (Superintendent of Documents number) for the Serial Set is Y 1.1/2. It is a compilation of documents from the following series:
- Y 1.1/3 - Senate Documents
- Y 1.1/4 - Senate Treaty Documents
- Y 1.1/5 - Senate Reports
- Y 1.1/6 - Senate Executive Reports
- Y 1.1/7 - House Documents
- Y 1.1/8 - House Reports
- and other related publications
Publication of the set began in 1789 and continues today.
Online Access
- Proquest Congressional - Serial SetFull text access to the Serial Set (House and Senate Documents and Reports) from 1789 to the present.
- Hein Online - Serial SetFull text access to the Serial Set (House and Senate Documents and Reports) from 1817 to the present.
- govinfo - Serial SetGovinfo provides free public access to Congressional Documents (1985 - present) and Congressional Reports (1995 - present).
Print Format at Gleeson Library
Gleeson Library's print Serial Set collection spans from Volume 12559 (1963) to Volume 14393 (1997) with gaps in coverage. The Serial Set is shelved on the 3rd floor of Gleeson Library, along the south wall of the north wing.
Background
For a more detailed explanation of the Serial Set, see the following guides:
U.S. Congressional Serial Set: What it is and it's History (Virginia Saunders, GPO)
An Overview of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set (Richard J. McKinney, Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.)
Additional Congressional Publications
- CRS Reports
Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports are very handy for getting up to speed on major political issues without having to worry about spin — these are the reports requested and used by Congress.
CRS is Congress’ think tank, and its reports are relied upon by academics, businesses, judges, policy advocates, students, librarians, journalists, and policymakers for accurate and timely analysis of important policy issues. The reports are not classified and do not contain individualized advice to any specific member of Congress. - EveryCRSReport.comProvides free public access to every CRS report that’s available on Congress’s internal website CRS.gov, plus about 5,100 archived reports from the University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department CRS reports collection.
