PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Search just the Serial Set, or across multiple other congressional collections for a truly comprehensive, efficient means of finding the information you need, when you need it. For researchers—whether novice or advanced—this means fast, immediate access to a broad collection of historical congressional information that is relevant to their search.

Our CIS Team

In the 1970s, Congressional Information Service (CIS)—now part of LexisNexis—broke new ground by releasing the CIS U.S. Serial Set on Microfiche and companion Index. The core members of that CIS team are still an important part of the LexisNexis family, and have played key roles in building a powerfully indexed, easy to use, fully searchable, digital version of the U.S. Serial Set that was completed and delivered on time to more than 100 customers across the country. Learn more about these amazing individuals who are a part of the LexisNexis CIS Team.

What is the U.S. Serial Set

The U.S. Serial Set, an ongoing collection of U.S. Government publications compiled under the directive of Congress, captures every aspect of American life from the early 19th century onward, from farming, to westward expansion, scientific exploration, politics, international relations, business, and manufacturing. It includes Congressional reports and documents as well as executive agency and departmental reports ordered to be printed by Congress.

Of particular importance to those who study law, the Serial Set contains legislative reports of Congress and, thus, provides unrivaled insight into the legislative intent of laws enacted by Congress. Few, if any, research collections compare to the Serial Set in size, time span, subject variety, source authority and diversity, or relevance to modern studies of yesterday’s activities and attitudes.

The LexisNexis Collection

The LexisNexis collection, available now, provides users with the most comprehensive U.S. Serial Set Collection in digital format available today. It begins in 1789 with the American State Papers and details Congressional business through 1969, including:

• Serial Set volumes 1 through 12,880
• American State Papers volumes 1 through 38
• 335,157 total documents
• 1.67 million searchable table titles
• 52,000 maps
• Nearly 300,000 searchable illustrations

Learn More

Before you invest in a U.S. Serial Set digital collection, we recommend you consider some important facts that will help you make the best decision for your institution. “An Insider’s View of the U.S. Serial Set” is a free whitepaper authored by Andrea Sevetson, former documents librarian at University of California, Berkley, and 1996-97 GODORT Chair who is now an Information Professional Consultant with LexisNexis. In this paper, Andrea provides a highly readable overview of how the Serial Set was developed, who are the most likely users, and what types of functionality you should consider when purchasing a U.S. Serial Set digital collection for your institution. There is no cost associated with downloading this document and no obligation to buy.

FEATURES

Through the LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set Digital Collection, users are able to execute full-text searches across the entire collection of the U.S. Serial Set (through 1969) to discover previously inaccessible documents. Searches will run against OCR-generated ASCII text; each result will consist of metadata describing the retrieved document and a PDF image.

Using Adobe Acrobat, users can easily print selected pages or the entire document at one time. “Smart PDFs” will enable users to perform keyword searches within each PDF to locate the exact page(s) search terms occur within a document.

Enhanced Indexing

In addition to performing full-text searches, users will be able to have a more productive search of congressional documents, reports, and publications by:

• Search title
• Keywords
• Index terms
• Statistical table titles
• Illustration captions
• Bill numbers
• Public law or statues at large citations
• SuDoc numbers
• Issuing committees or agencies
• Witnesses
• Personal authors
• Even limit to document type, date, congress, or illustration

Search maps by geographical subject, map title and description, map author, and relief method.

Interface Fully Integrates the Congressional Online Product Suite

Institutions that purchase the Serial Set will receive access through LexisNexis® Congressional Standalone subscriptions are available for institutions that do not subscribe to LexisNexis Congressional. To facilitate even broader access, the collection will be compliant with federated search software by the time it is completed.

508 Compliance

While Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act deals with federal government procurement standards, in the spirit of accessibility LexisNexis has met Section 508’s standards and has looked at both the search interface and digital documents that were created for the Serial Set to make them as friendly as possible to the visually challenged.

Documents are Portable

The LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set Digital Collection is fully portable and screen reader friendly. Additionally, the product is compatible with major third-party screen readers such as JAWS®. Users can download searchable full-text PDFs to their desktop and use them when and where they want with all the same features and usability found on the native interface. This allows users to work with downloaded documents from any remote location with no Internet connection.

Easily Print, Download, or Email Documents

Getting the information you need is easy using the LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set Digital Collection. Document are delivered to you as web-optimized PDFs, using standard PDF functionality, so you can easily and quickly email, download, save and print citations, results lists, full PDF documents, or 50-page increments of larger documents.

PRICING/SUBSCRIPTIONS

For a price quotation, please contact your LexisNexis® sales rep or call 1-800-638-8380 (or 301-654-1550) to speak with a customer service representative.

Inquire about additional discounts for past purchasers of the CIS U.S. Serial Set on Microfiche or CIS U.S. Serial Set Index.