US Congressional Serial Set
Encyclopedia
The United States Congressional Serial Set began in 1817 as the official collection of reports and documents of the United States Congress
. The collection was published in a "serial
" fashion, hence its name.
, resolutions
, hearings, committee prints, and publications from congressional support agencies such as the Government Accountability Office
and the Congressional Budget Office
. Proceedings of the Congress are published in the Congressional Record
, while committee hearings and prints in most cases are published separately through the Government Printing Office
(GPO). However, by special order some 300 selected committee hearings were included, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries." Coverage for the period 1789 to 1817 is via the separate compilation American State Papers, which consists of 38 volumes. The two series overlap, as American State Papers covers through 1838.
It is common for a volume of the Serial Set to be composed of a combination of documents and reports. Some of these reports may be one to two pages in length, while others can be hundreds of pages long. Although congressional in name, there are thousands of executive branch publications (e.g., the Annual Report of the Secretary of War and Official Records of the American Civil War
) included within its pages. It is this rich combination of legislative and executive publications that account for its tremendous value as a primary source
for American history.
Although its more than 14,000 bound volumes are an invaluable historical resource, it has often been neglected by researchers due to weak indexing and limited distribution. Volumes of the Serial Set have been sent to federal depository libraries
over the years by the GPO, but many such depositories hold only a partial collection of the set for a variety of reasons (e.g., age of the depository). Also House Report 104-657 directed beginning with volumes covering the 105th Congress (commencing with v.14388) distribution has been limited to regional depositories plus certain others designated by Congress. An exception are Serial Set volumes judged to be key Congressional publications by GPO and that thus receive distribution to all depository libraries.
Virginia Saunders, the longest serving employee at the Government Printing Office, dedicated most of her 64 years of federal employment to binding and proofreading the Congressional Serial Set. Saunders died June 19, 2009.
and Readex
have both undertaken digitization efforts to convert the text of American State Papers and the Serial Set to electronic format. Neither of these subscription services are generally available and it is best to consult with a local university librarian to determine where specific volumes can be located.
LexisNexis completed their efforts in late 2006 (covering 1789-1969) and has undertaken a digitization project for congressional hearings. LexisNexis is also rescanning the maps in the set via a partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park
, acknowledging the initial scans done from the CIS microfiche while adequate for text are inferior when it comes to maps versus scanning the originals. On November 30, 2010 Reed Elsevier
the parent company of LexisNexis, completed the sale of the CIS and UPA product lines (which includes the digital Serial Set) to ProQuest
.
Readex
, a division of NewsBank, is using original Serial Set volumes from Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College
to create fine new digital images of every publication through 1994, including approximately 56,000 maps. Additional Serial Set materials not available from Dartmouth are being provided by the United States Senate Library
, Middlebury College
, the Vermont State Library and the University of Vermont
. The Readex digital edition contains nearly 14,000 high-resolution color maps from the Library of Congress
and more than 8,000 high-resolution color illustrations. To ensure the best search results, Readex has created all-new indexing of subject terms, executive agencies and bill numbers as well as of personal, committee and geographic names. The Readex edition contains active links from terms in bibliographic records that enable retrieval of related publications, an integrated subject thesaurus, map-level indexing and OpenURLs for each publication.
In 2007, Google Books began to scan the Serial Set.
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. The collection was published in a "serial
Periodical publication
Periodical literature is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly...
" fashion, hence its name.
Overview
The Serial Set does not normally include the text of congressional debates, billsBill (proposed law)
A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....
, resolutions
Resolution (law)
A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion. For long or important motions, though, it is often better to have them written out so that discussion is easier or so that it can be...
, hearings, committee prints, and publications from congressional support agencies such as the Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
and the Congressional Budget Office
Congressional Budget Office
The Congressional Budget Office is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides economic data to Congress....
. Proceedings of the Congress are published in the Congressional Record
Congressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
, while committee hearings and prints in most cases are published separately through the Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...
(GPO). However, by special order some 300 selected committee hearings were included, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries." Coverage for the period 1789 to 1817 is via the separate compilation American State Papers, which consists of 38 volumes. The two series overlap, as American State Papers covers through 1838.
It is common for a volume of the Serial Set to be composed of a combination of documents and reports. Some of these reports may be one to two pages in length, while others can be hundreds of pages long. Although congressional in name, there are thousands of executive branch publications (e.g., the Annual Report of the Secretary of War and Official Records of the American Civil War
Official Records of the American Civil War
The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion or often more simply the Official Records or ORs, constitute the most extensive collection of primary sources of the history of the American Civil War. Cornell University lists the official title as, "The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the...
) included within its pages. It is this rich combination of legislative and executive publications that account for its tremendous value as a primary source
Primary source
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....
for American history.
Although its more than 14,000 bound volumes are an invaluable historical resource, it has often been neglected by researchers due to weak indexing and limited distribution. Volumes of the Serial Set have been sent to federal depository libraries
Federal depository library
The Federal Depository Library Program is a United States program created to make U.S. federal government publications available to the public at no cost. As of June 2008, there are 1,252 depository libraries in the United States and its territories. A "government publication" is defined in the U.S...
over the years by the GPO, but many such depositories hold only a partial collection of the set for a variety of reasons (e.g., age of the depository). Also House Report 104-657 directed beginning with volumes covering the 105th Congress (commencing with v.14388) distribution has been limited to regional depositories plus certain others designated by Congress. An exception are Serial Set volumes judged to be key Congressional publications by GPO and that thus receive distribution to all depository libraries.
Virginia Saunders, the longest serving employee at the Government Printing Office, dedicated most of her 64 years of federal employment to binding and proofreading the Congressional Serial Set. Saunders died June 19, 2009.
Technical detail on non-print format availability
In the late 1980s the Congressional Information Service issued the Serial Set, along with its predecessor American State Papers, through 1969 (v.1-12880) on microfiche; the entire set constituted about 117,000 fiches. CIS also issued a 56-volume hardcover comprehensive index to both series covering 1789-1969, for the first time providing access to their contents via multiple points (subject, name, bill number, etc.) including the many maps they contain. LexisNexisLexisNexis
LexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...
and Readex
Readex
Readex has published numerous collections of primary source research materials, first as Readex Microprint Corporation and since 1984 as a division of NewsBank....
have both undertaken digitization efforts to convert the text of American State Papers and the Serial Set to electronic format. Neither of these subscription services are generally available and it is best to consult with a local university librarian to determine where specific volumes can be located.
LexisNexis completed their efforts in late 2006 (covering 1789-1969) and has undertaken a digitization project for congressional hearings. LexisNexis is also rescanning the maps in the set via a partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, acknowledging the initial scans done from the CIS microfiche while adequate for text are inferior when it comes to maps versus scanning the originals. On November 30, 2010 Reed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier
Reed Elsevier is a publisher and information provider operating in the science, medical, legal, risk and business sectors. It is listed on several of the world's major stock exchanges. It is a FTSE 100 and FT500 Global company...
the parent company of LexisNexis, completed the sale of the CIS and UPA product lines (which includes the digital Serial Set) to ProQuest
ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...
.
Readex
Readex
Readex has published numerous collections of primary source research materials, first as Readex Microprint Corporation and since 1984 as a division of NewsBank....
, a division of NewsBank, is using original Serial Set volumes from Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
to create fine new digital images of every publication through 1994, including approximately 56,000 maps. Additional Serial Set materials not available from Dartmouth are being provided by the United States Senate Library
United States Senate Library
The United States Senate Library is the library of the United States Senate.The United States Senate Librarian manages the Senate Library, which is under the supervision of the Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate. Leona I. Faust has been the Senate Librarian since 2009...
, Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, the Vermont State Library and the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
. The Readex digital edition contains nearly 14,000 high-resolution color maps from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and more than 8,000 high-resolution color illustrations. To ensure the best search results, Readex has created all-new indexing of subject terms, executive agencies and bill numbers as well as of personal, committee and geographic names. The Readex edition contains active links from terms in bibliographic records that enable retrieval of related publications, an integrated subject thesaurus, map-level indexing and OpenURLs for each publication.
In 2007, Google Books began to scan the Serial Set.
Numbering
Research has confirmed in some cases volume numbers were assigned to particular titles that were never published or appeared in later volumes. GPO has issued a list of Assigned Serial Numbers Not Used.Citation
A bibliographic citation such as "35th Congress, 2nd Session, House Miscellaneous Document #43 Claims of citizens of Territory of Kansas" (or the equivalent shorthand version "35th-2nd H.misdoc 43") will be found in the Serial Set.External links
- Serial Set Overview (Library of Congress)
- Overview of the US Congressional Serial Set (Librarian presentation)
- List of Serial Set Volumes (1817-1969)
- List of Serial Set Volumes (1970 to Current)
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set Inventory
- An Insider’s View of The U.S. Serial Set
- Selected Volumes Digitized On Line
- Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994
- University of Michigan Graduate Library exhibit Congressional Serial Set Hidden Treasures in American History