United States Congressional Serial Set
What is the Serial Set?
The Serial Set contains the numbered Senate and House Documents and Reports from 1817 to present which are bound by session of Congress. Also included are annual reports and statistical publications from Federal agencies, journals of the House of Representatives and Senate, and administrative reports of both chambers of Congress. Predecessor to the Serial Set is the American State Papers.
The reports provide insight to the legislative intent of Congress. Reports describe the purpose and intent of a bill and offer rationales for its approval.
Reports are submitted to the Congress by the Congressional committees which have studied the proposed legislation. When differing versions of legislation are passed by the House and Senate, a conference committee resolves the differences and issues its own report. Reports may also be written for reasons not related to specific proposed legislation, such as to summarize committee oversight or investigative functions.
House and Senate reports are individually numbered. The number indicates the Congress but does not have any relationship to the bill number under consideration.
Congressional hearings and debates are not included in the Serial Set
Finding Information in the Serial Set
Each Serial Set publication is assigned an identification number. These identifiers are composed of a report or document number and a serial set volume number. Below is an example of how an identification number is arranged:
H.rp 948 (78-1) 10764
H.rp = Chamber (House or Senate document type)
948 = (report number)
(78-1) = (Congress session)
10764 = (serial set volume number)
By Subject
The CIS (Congressional Information Service) US Serial Set Index is divided into twelve volumes, each covering a specified range of years from 1789-1969. The Serial Set Index lists all entries alphabetically by subject terms and names. This allows for quick and easy retrieval of identification numbers. For example, if a congressional report on the Confederate States of America during the Civil War is needed, pull the Serial Set Index volume for the particular range of years, i.e., “1857-1879”. Locate a subject term, i.e., “Confederacy”, in the index. The index is located in the Documents Department Z 1223 .Z9 C65 1975 (Docs/Ref).
From 1969 to 1998 the CIS Annual to Publications of the United States Congress. Published by year, each year contains an index volume to search under subjects and names, and an abstract volume, arranged by committee and report number, and provides a brief abstract for each report. This is also located in the Documents Department KF49 C62 (Docs/Ref).
By Report Number
To search by Congress and report number, use the Index to the Reports and Documents or the Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes. Entries are arranged numerically by report type. The corresponding Serial Set volume number is provided. These indexes are located in the Documents Department GP 3.7: and GP 3.7/2: (Docs/Ref).
Specialized Guides
- Guide to American Indian documents in the Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1899
- KF8201.A1 J63 Docs/Ref
What we have available at WTAMU
American State Papers
The American State papers cover Nos. 1-38 of the Congressional serial set. This collection, printed retrospectively under a contract between Congress and a private publisher, is considered part of the overall Serial Set and includes Congressional publications of the 1st - 14th Congresses (1789-1816).
- Readex Online (WTAMU only)
- From Readex's Archive of Americana series. Keyword searching or browse by subject, publication category, committee author, document class or congress.
- American State Papers Online
- From the Library of Congress American Memory project, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation provides online digital facsimile page images; some also have fully or partially searchable transcribed text.
- Print Volumes
- We have a series in Loan called "The New American State Papers" that you can check out if you want. Use the Cornette Library's Online Catalog and conduct a Keyword Search "New American State Papers" and select from the following topics:
- Agriculture
- Commerce and Navigation
- Explorations and Surveys
- Indian Affairs
- Labor and Slavery
- Manufactures
- Public Finance
- Public Land
- Science and Technology
- Social Policy
- Transportation
- Microtext
- A complete set (1-38) in Microtext, in Documents.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
- Print Serial Set Volumes
- The department has a number of volumes of the Serial Set in paper format with the Serial Set numbers 258 through 14385 from the years 1833-1996. Bound volume holdings are less complete for earlier years than for later ones.
- Y 1.1/2:SERIAL (Serial Set Number)
- Readex Online (WTAMU only)
- From Readex's Archive of Americana series. Now Available: 15th Congress through the 96th Congress, 2d Session, 1817 - 1980, Serial Set Vols. 1 - 13,384. Keyword searching or browse by subject, publication category, committee author, document class or congress.
- U.S. Serial Set
- From the Library of Congress American Memory project, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation provides online digital facsimile page images; some also have fully or partially searchable transcribed text. Coverage is from the 23rd (1833) to the 64th (1917) Congresses.
- Thomas: U.S. Congress on the Internet
- Thomas contains Congressional reports from the 104th to current Congress in full text online. Look under "Committee Information".
Find out More
- A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation (U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1873)
- The Library of Congress has compiled historical publications of Congress from the Continental Congress thru 1873.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set - What it is and its History
- From the Government Printing Office, this site provides a history, definitions of material contained in the serial set, and how the serial set is bound.
- An Overview of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set
- From the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., this site provides a schedule of volumes from 1970 to the present. The overview discussion below the schedule provides some history, as well as information on numbering and indexing.
- Library Resources for Administrative History: Congressional Serial Set
- Information on the serial set from the National Archives Library Information Center.
- Thomas: U.S. Congress on the Internet
- Thomas contains Congressional reports from the 104th to current Congress in full text online. Look under "Committee Information".
