Sample Memo to Faculty

SUGGESTED USES: Customize this memo with your library's name and the name of a library contact. Then circulate it to interested faculty and staff. You may wish to offer demonstrations of the service for faculty members and their students.

DATE:     (date)

TO:          All faculty members

FROM:     (your name and title)

SUBJECT: Web access to congressional publications

(name of library) has acquired LexisNexis Congressional, a Web-based service that provides access to the full text of publications from and about the U.S. Congress. It includes twenty-five years of congressional information, with facts and figures on almost any topic of current interest. Congressional provides access to the full text of congressional working papers and bills, as well as the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, the U.S. Code, and the Congressional Record. It also covers a wide variety of additional information, including member biographical and committee assignment information, voting records, and financial data.

The database is available campus-wide, with no limit on the number of users. Library sources say that the new service requires no formal training and that even first-time database searchers can use the service productively. LexisNexis Congressional is a service of LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions, a leading publisher of information access and retrieval systems.

We will be glad to introduce you, along with your staff and students, to this new service. For more information or to arrange a personal or group demonstration, please contact me at (name of library, department, e-mail or other address).