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Unmatched depth and thoroughness of coverage
No other database—Web-based or otherwise
—covers congressional information as comprehensively as
the LexisNexis Congressional service.
You get complete and thorough access to
the full text of congressional working papers and legislation.
Plus you get access to a wide variety of information about Congress,
including member biographical and committee assignment information,
voting records, financial data, and the full text of the Congressional
Record. In addition, you gain access to the full text of key
regulatory and statutory resources.
And unlike other databases that cover just
a few years of information, the LexisNexis Congressional
service gives you access to more than 25 years of congressional
information. You can perform in-depth legislative history research;
see how congressional attitudes have evolved over time; and
locate information on critical topics that are simply not dealt
with by other, less substantive databases.
Congress—the first place to look for
information of topical interest
Congress is the single most important information-producing
institution in the United States. Behind every major bill debated,
behind every issue discussed lie months of intensive investigation
and analysis.
The "working papers" that result
from these efforts often represent the best information available
anywhere on a given subject. That’s because Congress has
some of the nation’s top experts on its staff, and the
authority to call witnesses from throughout the world to testify
on virtually any issue of concern. And the topics that concern
Congress are the same topics that are of interest to library
patrons.
For these reasons and more, Congress is
the first place researchers should look for timely and authoritative
information on practically any topic. And the LexisNexis Congressional
service is the best place to look for information published
by and about Congress.
With LexisNexis Congressional, researchers
can:
- Pinpoint expert testimony on the leading
issues of the day;
- Tap authoritative sources of statistics,
projections, and analyses;
- Discover a law’s intent by tracing
its legislative history;
- Gauge congressional attitudes toward
current topics;
- Find out how members of Congress voted
on legislation;
- Investigate the finances of members of
Congress;
- Monitor legislation and public policy
on almost any topic;
- Review the federal regulations that implement
legislation;
- Learn the makeup and mission of congressional
committees.
CIS/Index linked to full texts of documents
The reliable indexing and abstracting of
the CIS/Index to Publications of the U.S. Congress from
1970 forward sets LexisNexis Congressional apart from
other services. But the service is far more than the CIS/Index
on the Web. It provides a seamless link to the full range of
legislative and public policy resources, including:
- Hearing transcripts and submitted testimony
from 1988 forward;
- Committee reports from 1989 forward;
- Bills—all versions of legislation
introduced from 1989 forward;
- Bill tracking reports from 1989 forward;
- Selected committee prints from 1995 forward;
- Congressional documents from 1995 forward;
- Congressional Record from 1985 forward;
- Federal Register from 1980 forward;
- Current Code of Federal Regulations;
- Current U.S. Code;
- Public laws from 1988 forward.
The perfect way to introduce undergraduates
to primary sources
LexisNexis Congressional’s ease
of use and direct links to the full texts of documents let inexperienced
researchers find their own way, without librarian assistance,
to the material they need. Plus students love the World Wide
Web—the Web environment is comfortable and familiar to
them.
The vast range of subject matter on LexisNexis
Congressional encompasses topics in public policy, history,
sociology, political science, technology and society, and more.
The service’s combination of timeliness and chronological
depth adds to its usefulness. And with links to related websites,
LexisNexis Congressional enhances students’ ability
to explore the legislative scene even further.
Controlled vocabulary searching means fast,
precise access
LexisNexis Congressional is designed
so that undergraduates and other inexperienced searchers can
find information quickly and easily. The key is a thoroughly
cross-referenced, controlled vocabulary that lets you find information
from virtually any starting point. Fully featured free-text
searching lets students locate information regardless of how
much they know about a given topic.
Researchers can find information by:
- Subject;
- Source committee;
- Bill number;
- Session of Congress;
- SuDoc number;
- Publication number;
- Monthly Catalog entry number;
- Title;
- Witness name and affiliation;
- Public law number (for legislative histories);
- Date;
- LC card number.
While flexible and easy to use, the service
includes powerful search features that let experienced database
searchers perform complex searches successfully.
Campus-wide access direct to desktop
For colleges and universities, the Web-based
LexisNexis Congressional service is available for unlimited
student and faculty use. For public libraries, the service allows
unlimited use within the library building.
By having a common user interface across
such a wide variety of useful information, the service frees
librarians from repetitive, time-consuming training. And the
service is so easy to use that undergraduates will perform successful
searches from the very first use.
Content-specific help puts congressional
information in perspective
Undergraduates will especially like the
content-specific help feature. This exclusive research aid explains
the different kinds of congressional publications and their
relative importance as legislative and historical documents.
As a result, students who are unfamiliar with congressional
material can better understand the legislative process and more
effectively interpret and evaluate research results.
And to make research even easier, you get
detailed abstracts of congressional working papers. With the
abstracts, researchers can quickly and easily see the nature
and subject matter of a publication and get an outline of its
general contents.
Legislative tracking features enhance research
LexisNexis Congressional’s bill
tracking reports follow a bill’s movement through the legislative
system and the parliamentary maneuvering that takes place. Bill
tracking reports, updated daily when Congress is in session,
cover all bills from 1989 to the present. You can link from
the bill tracking report to the full text of the bill, the public
law, congressional committee reports, Congressional Record sections
about the bill, and voting records.
"Hot Bills" and "Hot Topics"
deliver congressional information on today’s key issues
The Hot Bills feature lets researchers see
the actual text of legislative proposals that are making news.
Researchers can then track changes in these items as they go
through the legislative process. The Hot Topics feature brings
together all recent congressional information and national media
coverage on widely-debated public policy issues. With this feature,
students and other researchers can quickly see opposing perspectives
on some of the most topical and controversial issues being deliberated
by Congress.
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