Last updated on 06-20-2024
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What is the Congressional Serial Set?
The United States Congressional Serial Set collection was digitized by the Law Library of Congress, and is made publicly available through a partnership between the U.S. Government Publishing Office and the Law Library of Congress. The joint digitization project is a multi-year effort. Additional volumes of the Serial Set will be added to this collection as they are available.
The Serial Set is comprised of the numbered Senate and House Documents and Senate and House Reports, bound by session of Congress. The contents of the Serial Set have varied throughout the publication’s history, and at times have included House and Senate Journals, and the reports of executive departments and agencies.
Each volume is assigned a Serial Number, beginning with the 1st Session of the 15th Congress in 1817. Reports and Documents for each chamber are numbered sequentially by either Congress or session, depending on the year of publication. Senate Reports have been numbered sequentially by Congress since the beginning, but House Reports were numbered by session until the 1st Session of the 47th Congress in 1881 when they began to be numbered sequentially by Congress. Both Senate and House Documents were numbered by session until the 1st Session of the 60th Congress in 1907, after which time they have been numbered sequentially by Congress.
What is available?
Serial Set Document Types
House and Senate Documents
House and Senate Documents contain various materials ordered printed by both chambers of Congress. Documents can include reports of executive departments and agencies, some of which are submitted in accordance with Federal law, then later are ordered printed as congressional documents. Sometimes committee prints are ordered printed as congressional documents also, if the information they contain is in demand. Documents contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Congressional Documents collection.
House and Senate Executive Documents
Senate Executive Documents contain the text of a Treaty as it is submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification by the President of the United States. Beginning with the 97th Congress in 1981, Executive Documents became known as Treaty Documents, and they are now numbered instead of lettered alphabetically. Executive Documents contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Congressional Documents collection.
Senate Treaty Documents
Senate Treaty Documents contain the text of a Treaty as it is submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification by the President of the United States. Numbered consecutively from the 1st Session through the 2d Session of a Congress. Prior to the 97th Congress, known as Executive (Lettered) Documents, and identified by letters of the alphabet. Treaty Documents contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Congressional Documents collection.
House and Senate Miscellaneous Documents
House Miscellaneous Documents are usually other executive branch material included by request. Senate Miscellaneous Documents are usually other executive or legislative branch material included by request. Miscellaneous Documents contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Congressional Documents collection.
House and Senate Reports
House and Senate Reports contain reports of congressional committees concerning proposed legislation and/or contain findings on matters under investigation. Reports contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Congressional Reports collection.
Senate Executive Reports
Senate Executive Reports contain reports of the Committee on Foreign Relations relating to Treaties between the United States and foreign nations, which have been submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification, or reports of various Senate Committees regarding nomination of individuals. Executive Reports contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Congressional Reports collection.
Court of Claims Reports
Established by Congress in 1855, the Court of Claims has jurisdiction to hear all monetary claims based on congressional statute, an executive branch regulation, or a contract with the United States Government.
House Journals
The Journal is the official record of proceedings of each legislative day in the House of Representatives. House journals contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo House Journal collection.
Senate Journals
The Journal is the official record of proceedings of each legislative day in the Senate. Senate journals contained in a Serial Set volume will also appear in the govinfo Senate Journal collection.
Document Class | Chamber | Document Type |
---|---|---|
CCRPT |
Senate |
Court of Claims Report |
HDOC |
House |
House Document |
HEDOC |
House |
House Executive Document |
HMDOC |
House |
House Miscellaneous Document |
HRPT |
House |
House Report |
HJOURNAL |
House |
House Journal |
SDOC |
Senate |
Senate Document |
SEDOC |
Senate |
Senate Executive Document |
TDOC |
Senate |
Senate Treaty Document |
SMDOC |
Senate |
Senate Miscellaneous Document |
SRPT |
Senate |
Senate Report |
ERPT |
Senate |
Senate Executive Report |
SJOURNAL |
Senate |
Senate Journal |
View video tutorials that provide search tips and other useful information about searching the Serial Set. They are available for free through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Academy.
Metadata, OCR-ed text, and ALTO XML files produced as part of the digitization process for the Serial Set is intended to provide useful information to end users. Information may need to be validated by users, and may not be complete or fully accurate.
You can locate content in the Congressional Serial Set by:
Search | Example |
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Search by Congress Number and Chamber |
These examples will search for Serial Set documents from the House of Representatives from the 69th Congress.
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Search for keyword by Serial Set Volume Number |
These examples will search Serial Set Volume Number 8629 for the keyword river.
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Search by Document Number |
These examples will search for Serial Set documents with 77 as the document or report number.
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Search by President |
These examples will search for Serial Set documents that reference Lincoln as the President.
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Search by Citation |
These examples will search for House Miscellaneous Document 38-78
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Search for a Full Serial Set Volume |
Below provides guidance for searching for a full Serial Set Volume.
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govinfo uses two key pieces of information to construct predictable URLs to documents and Details pages:
Identifier | Structure/Metadata Field | Example |
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Package ID - Full Volume |
SERIALSET-{Full Serial Set Number} Note: Additional information regarding the structure of a full serial set number:
|
SERIALSET-08824_00_00 |
Package ID - Individual Document |
SERIALSET-{Serial Set Number}-{Sequence #}-{Document #}-{Doc Part #} NOTE: Additional information on the structure of an individual document package id:
|
SERIALSET-08824_00_00-008-0599-0000 |
Tip: You can also use the link service and API to construct predictable links.
Details Page for a Congressional Serial Set (Volume)
PDF File for a Congressional Serial Set (Volume)
Details Page for a Congressional Serial Set (Individual Document)
PDF File for a Congressional Serial Set (Individual Document)
Metadata fields and values can be used to increase the relevancy of your searches. Metadata fields and values are used throughout govinfo for:
Metadata fields and values can be entered into the Basic Search box using field operators. The metadata fields and values available for the Congressional Serial Set are listed in the table below, along with examples for each metadata field. Using Field Operators
Some of the metadata fields are made available for use in Advanced Search. The metadata values can be entered in the same format for the fields available on the Advanced Search Page. Using Advanced Search
Metadata Field Display Name | Metadata Field Definition | Field Operator | Field Operator Example |
---|---|---|---|
Collection |
The collection to which the document belongs. Typically the same as the publication or series. |
collection: |
collection:serialset |
Government Author |
The names of the Government organizations responsible for authoring or assembling the document. |
governmentauthor: |
governmentauthor:congress |
Publication Date |
The date the document was first made available to the public. |
publishdate: |
publishdate:1927-03-04 Date format is YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD |
Language |
The language code of the original document, from the ISO639-2b standard. |
language: |
language:eng |
ILS System ID |
The 9-digit integer number for the record of the publication in GPO's Integrated Library System, the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP). |
ilsid: |
|
SuDoc Class Number |
The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency. |
sudocclass: |
sudocclass:"Y 1.1/2:8824" or sudocclass:"69-1:S.RP.488" Note: The SuDoc Class Numbers in govinfo are typically at the class stem level, not the book number level. |
OCLC Number |
The OCLC number. |
oclcnum: |
oclcnum:1065567813 |
Ingestion Date |
The date the document was ingested into the preservation repository. |
ingestdate: |
ingestdate:2021-08-06 Note: Date format is YYYY-MM-DD |
Electronic Location (URL) |
The URL where the document or content detail page is located. |
url: |
url:"/pkg/SERIALSET-11530_04_00-002-0264-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-11530_04_00-002-0264-0000.pdf" |
Publisher |
The government organization who publishes the document or publication. |
publisher: |
publisher:"u.s. government publishing office" |
Branch |
The branch of Government responsible for the document's contents. |
branch: |
branch:legislative Possible Values: Executive, Legislative, Judicial |
Type of Resource |
The media type for the document, typically "text". Defined as part of the Library of Congress MODS standard. |
typeofresource: |
typeofresource:text |
Record Origin |
How the record was originally generated. |
recordorigin: |
recordorigin:"machine generated" |
Document Class |
The type of Serial Set document. |
docclass: |
docclass:HEDOC Serial Set possible values: CCRPT, HDOC, HEDOC, HMDOC, HRPT, HJOURNAL, SDOC, SEDOC, TDOC, SMDOC, SRPT, ERPT, SJOURNAL, SERIALSET |
Citation |
The GPO citation for Serial Set documents citation. Note that the "citation" field searches for the document itself. It does *not* locate references to the document from other documents. |
citation: |
citation:"H. Doc. 82-264" |
Title |
The title of the publication. |
title: |
title:"Annual report of the Public Printer 1926" |
Category |
The category to which the collection belongs. |
category: |
category:"Congressional Committee Materials" |
Congress Number |
The number of the Congress responsible for the document. Congresses typically last for two years, so for example, the 69th Congress was in session from 1925 through 1927. |
congress: |
congress:69 |
Session Number |
The session of Congress which produced the Serial Set. |
session: |
session:2 Possible Values: 0 (Special), 1, 2, 3, 4 |
Chamber of Congress |
The chamber of Congress which produced the document. This may not be the same as the chamber of origin. |
chamber: |
chamber:senate Possible Values: house, senate |
Serial Set Number |
The serial set volume number, e.g. "11975-23A". |
serialnum: |
serialnum:11530-4 |
Document Number |
The number associated with the Serial Set document. |
docnum: |
docnum:163 Search will return all document types with this number from all congresses. |
Document Part |
The part number of the document. |
docpart: |
docpart:2 |
Subject |
The topic or geographic subject associated with the document. |
subject: |
subject:"malicious mischief" |
Committee |
Congressional committee names associated with the document. |
committee: |
committee:"committee on public lands" |
President |
The name of the president who issued the document. |
president: |
president:lincoln |
Agency |
Agency or sub-agency name. |
agency: |
agency:"dept. of state" |
Bill Number Citation |
A referenced congressional bill citation. |
billscitation: |
billscitation:"h.r. 713" |
The Numerical List of Documents and Reports lists numerically, with a brief title, all of the Senate and House Documents and Reports issued during a Session of Congress. The Numerical List also indicates the specific volume of the Congressional Serial Set in which each Document and Report is bound. No alphabetical or subject indexing is contained in this publication.
114th Congress (2015-2016)
113th Congress (2013-2014)
112th Congress (2011-2012)
111th Congress (2009-2010)
110th Congress (2007-2008)
109th Congress (2005-2006)
108th Congress (2003-2004)
107th Congress (2001-2002)
106th Congress (1999-2000)
105th Congress (1997-1998)
104th Congress (1995-1996)
103d Congress (1993-1994)
102d Congress (1991-1992)
101st Congress (1989-1990)
100th Congress (1987-1988)
99th Congress (1985-1986)
98th Congress (1983-1984)
97th Congress (1981-1982)
96th Congress (1979-1980)
95th Congress (1977-1978)
94th Congress (1975-1976)
93d Congress (1973-1974)
92d Congress (1971-1972)
91st Congress (1969-1970)
90th Congress (1967-1968)
89th Congress (1965-1966)
88th Congress (1963-1964)
87th Congress (1961-1962)
86th Congress (1959-1960)
85th Congress (1957-1958)
The Schedule of Serial Set Volumes lists numerically, by Serial Number, each volume of the Congressional Serial Set as well as the contents of each volume. The Schedule of Volumes is usually planned at the beginning of a new Session of Congress and it is compiled as the Session of Congress progresses. All documents authorized to be printed during the Session must be submitted for printing or accounted for before the Schedule can be completed.
114th Congress (2015-2016)
113th Congress (2013-2014)
112th Congress (2011-2012)
111th Congress (2009-2010)
110th Congress (2007-2008)
109th Congress (2005-2006)
108th Congress (2003-2004)
107th Congress (2001-2002)
106th Congress (1999-2000)
105th Congress (1997-1998)
104th Congress (1995-1996)
103d Congress (1993-1994)
102d Congress (1991-1992)
101st Congress (1989-1990)
100th Congress (1987-1988)