U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings, 1833+
Microform Collection
Location:
Pre-1970 - Microfiche Cabinets 24, Drawer 5- Cabinet 25;
1970-1982 - Microfiche Cabinets 29, Drawer 1-Cabinet 30, Drawer 8;
1983+ - Microfiche Cabinets 60, Drawer 9 - Cabinet 64, Drawer 8
Scope: The U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings include: senate, house and joint committee hearings; reports; and documents.
"The majority of public hearings are designed to gather information and opinions regarding proposed legislation. These hearings will usually be conducted by the committee or subcommittee to which the bills are referred after they are introduced.
The publications contain the full transcripts of the proceedings and are traditionally arranged in the order of appearance of the witnesses. Included within each publication is the record of both oral and written statements, the question asked by committee members, and the discussion which usually follows testimonies. Additional material may include the texts of reports, statistical analyses, exhibits, and other items entered into the record either by the witnesses or by committee members or staff. The testimonies of the witnesses are often extremely valuable presentations which contain opinions and interpretations of data from perspectives not available from other sources. Witnesses may be academic experts, public or private interest groups and their representatives, private individuals, technical experts, or elected officials who have either been invited to present testimony or requested to participate in the proceedings." (Locating Congressional Publications)
Before 1970 (Microfiche Cabinet 24 Drawer 5 - Cabinet 25):
There are two indexes you could use to find Congressional Hearings before 1970:
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CIS US Congressional Committee Hearing Index (Print) Ref KF 40 C57) |
CD-ROM Congressional Masterfile 1 |
CIS US Congressional Committee Hearing Index (Reference KF 40 C57). There are indexes by: subject and organization; title; bill number; Superintendent of Documents Classification Numbers; and report and document numbers. The index gives you numbers which refer you to the Reference Bibliographies in the index.
1. Look up your subject in the Index to Subjects and Organizations. Write down the CIS Accession Number.
2. Look at the User Instructions below to get a better idea of what kind of CIS Accession Number you have. It is important to pay attention to the Group Number for your CIS Accession Number.
Group I A (as described above) can be a bit of a problem.
The "H200" is expressed on the top of the microfiche as a volume number, "Vol.
200". The "1" is the place in all the microfiche for "Vol.200" where your
document starts.
The "A" is a part of your document.
3. Either go to Cabinet 24, Drawer 5 - Cabinet 26, Drawer 3 to get the actual hearing or look at the Reference Bibliography in the index (listed by CIS Accession Number) to get a little bit more information about your selection.
CD-ROM Congressional Masterfile 1 (across from the Reference Desk)
You can search by keyword in this index. This index covers from 1789-1969 but you can change the search range (years) if you want to do so.
1. Search for the keyword(s) for your topic.
2. You will get a reference that looks like this:
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Example from CD-ROM Congressional Masterfile 1 Index |
| CIS NO. H46-.015 (Published Hearing) TITLE: Statement of Hon. H.A. Herbert DATE: Jan. 18, 1907 COLLATION: 303-308 p. CONGRESS-SESSION: 59-2 SESSION Year(S): 1906, 1907 CONGRESS: 59 CIS MICROFICHE GROUP: 1 NOTES: Committee Serial No. 15 Microfiche Note: Hearing begins on microfiche No. 4-7 COMMITTEE: House Committee on Naval Affairs CONTENT NOTATION: Navy ret officers with Civil War service, retirement DESCRIPTORS: NAVY, RETIRED MILITARY PERSONNEL, CIVIL WAR BILLS: 59 H.R. 22129 WITNESSES: Herbert, Hilary A. |
3. Look at the User Instructions above to get a better idea of what kind of CIS Accession Number you have. It is important to pay attention to the Group Number for your CIS Accession Number.
4. Go to the Microfiche Cabinets 24, Drawer 5- Cabinet 26, Drawer 3.
The best index to find hearings from 1970-1982 is the LexisNexis Congressional Index. It covers hearings from 1970+. There are two other indexes, the CIS Annual/CIS Legislative Histories 1970-1998 (Reference KF 49 C62) and the Congressional Masterfile 2 CD-ROM 1970-1997 (across from the Reference Desk). LexisNexis Congressional Index gives the exact same information as the other two indexes and covers more years. It also has some hearings full text.
1. Use LexisNexis Congressional Index to look up your topic.
2. It will give you the CIS Number for
the hearing.
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CIS Number Example 78 H701-1 |
The "78" is the year. "H" is for house. "70" the committee, office or special category; "1" = hearing; "1" sequential number of the publication. (See CIS Accession Number for details)
3. Go to Microfiche Cabinets 29, Drawer 1-Cabinet 30, Drawer 8 to find the hearing that you want.
The best index to find hearings beyond1982 is the LexisNexis Congressional Index. It covers hearings from 1970+. It also has some hearings full text.
1. Use LexisNexis Congressional Index to look up your topic.
2. It will give you the SuDoc Number for the hearing.
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SuDoc Number example Y4.Sci2: 95/19 |
Y4.Sci2 is the SuDoc stem number. Y4 always stands for a Congressional Hearing. 95/19 is the book number. (See Superintendent of Documents Classification System for details)
3. Go to Microfiche Cabinet 60, Drawer 9 - Cabinet 64, Drawer 8 to find the hearing that you want.
CIS US Congressional Committee Hearing Index (Reference KF 40 C57)
CIS Annual 1970-1998 (Reference KF 49 C62)
Congressional Masterfile 2 CD-ROM 1970-1997 (across from the Reference Desk)
For more information about this subject in
our Library Catalog, check out these
Subject Categories:
Legislative Hearings United States
Time Period: 19th Century 20th Century 21st Century
Subject keywords: Congressional papers, Law
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