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The United States Congress publishes bills and resolutions, reports and documents, floor debates, and laws. Many of these
publications are now available online in full text, but older, historic material is still only available in a tangible format--paper
or microfiche. The BGSU Documents collection holdings are listed below.
Bills in the Documents Collection
Bill Microfiche Collection in Jerome Library
- Filed in the Documents Microfiche Cabinets next to our office.
- We have the 97th - 106th Congresses (1981-2001)
- Changed to electronic only in January 2002, 107th Congress forward
- You need the Congress Number and bill number before you can retrieve your bill
| SuDoc Number |
Senate Bill Type |
SuDoc Number |
House Bill Type |
| Y 1.4/1: |
Senate Bills |
Y 1.4/6: |
House Bills |
| Y 1.4/2: |
Senate Resolutions |
Y 1.4/7: |
House Resolutions |
| Y 1.4/3: |
Senate Joint Resolutions |
Y 1.4/8: |
House Joint Resolutions |
| Y 1.4/4: |
Senate Concurrent Resolutions |
House Concurrent Resolutions |
Y 1.4/9: |
| Y 1.4/5: |
Senate Printed Amendments |
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Committee Hearings and Prints
Hearings include witnesses testimony, submitted reports,and exhibits about social and policy issues culminating in legislation.
Prints often provide historic or research background on legislative topics. Jerome Library has hearings and prints from the
early to mid 1970s to date. Most hearings are in print format, can be checked out, and are housed in the documents stacks;
however, some committee hearings (i.e. House and Senate Appropriations) are in microfiche. Microfiche are filed in the Documents
Microforms Area next to the Documents Office. Microfiche Reader/Printers are available in the Reserve Room
BGSU Online Catalog
- All hearings and prints owned by Jerome Library are indexed in BGLink.
- Search by subject, keyword, title, or committee.
- Hot links or PURLS are provided in the catalog record when available.
Lexis-Nexis Congressional
- Written submitted testimony from almost all congressional hearings, 1993 to date.
- Indexes hearings from 1789 to date
- Includes abstracts for hearings, 1970 to date
House and Senate Reports and Documents
Reports are issued by House and Senate Committees following the hearings. Reports describe proposed bills, outline what is
will cost to implement the legislation, and generally recommend passage. Congressional documents cover a wide range of topics
and usually provide in-depth background information. They are not usually involved with bills or legislation.
- Current reports are issued in slip format and eventually reissued as part of the Congressional Serial Set.
- These paper reports are shelved in the Documents Stacks as Y 1.1/no.:
- They are indexed in the BGSU Online Catalog
Available Full-text:
U.S. Congressional Serial Set -- Historic Reports
Reports and Documents are reissued as part of the bound U.S. Congressional Serial Set. BGSU owns most of the Serial Set but the formats vary. See the Serial Set Guide for details of our holdings and formats.
Lexis-Nexis Congressional
Indexes the all the reports and documents in the Congressional Serial Set.
Some of the early Serial Set volumes are available full-text at The Library of Congress American Memory Project
Congressional Record--Floor Debates
The floor debates and votes are recorded daily in the Congressional Record or its predecessors. Brief overviews or summaries of congressional action are recorded in the House and Senate Journals.
Congressional Record (1874-to date) 43rd Congress- Bound Editions
- online: (1873-1877) 43rd-44th Congress American Memory--Library of Congress
- paper: (1874-1875, 1902-1976) 43rd-44th; 57th-94th Congresses
- microfilm: (1876-1901) 44th-57th Congresses
- microfiche: (1977-1982) 95th-97th Congresses
- CD-ROM: (1985) 99th Congress
Congressional Predecessors
Annals of Congress (1789-1824) 1st. - 18th Congress
Register of Debates (1824-1837) 18th-25th Congress
Congressional Globe (1833-1873) 23rd-42nd Congress
Public Laws
Bills which are passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President become law. Each law is assigned a number composed
of the Congressional session and law number. Theses are issued as public laws or "slip" laws.
For Example:
- The first public law passed by the 103rd Congress would be: P.L. 103-1
- The fifty-third law passed by the 106th Congress would be: P.L. 106-53
At the close of a congress, the public laws are reissued as bound Statutes at Large and are cited as volume and page in the Statutes. Consequently public laws have two different ways of being cited.
For Example:
- P.L. 103-1 is in volume 107 of the Statutes on page 3 is cited as 107 STAT 3
- P.L. 106-53 is in volume 113 of the Statutes on page 269 is cited as 113 STAT 269
Finding Public Laws
Like most documents, search tools and techniques vary depending upon the information you have and the date the law was passed.
Known items or cited laws are pretty easy to track down. Finding a public law by topic or subject can be daunting and you
may have to employ several indexes and search strategies.
- Statutes at Large
- The Statutes are included in the Lexis-Nexis Congressional database.
- Full-text of the Statutes at Large (Public Laws), 1789-to present. Search by subject, popular name, browse by topic, browse
by congress and year.
The online congressional resource databases can also help you find public laws.
The United States Code
The United States Code is the codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is prepared and published by the Office of
the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, every six years.
Bound Versions Available in Jerome Library
United States Code
- Bound volumes shelved in Documents Reference (Y 1.2/5: )
- 1994 Edition and Supplements
- 2000 Edition
- The official version or edition of the U.S. Code.
United States Code Annotated
- Bound volumes shelved in Reference Stacks (KF 62 .A3x )
- 1994 and 2000 Editions updated with pocket parts
- A commercial edition with value-added enhancements and sophisticated indexing and cross-referencing.
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