About the Congressional Serial Set
The Serial Set is primarily comprised of the numbered Senate and House Documents and Reports which are bound by session of Congress, beginning with the 1st session of the 15th Congress in 1817. Also included are annual reports and statistical publications from agencies, and House and Senate Journals and administrative reports.
House and Senate Reports contain recommendations from committees to the House or Senate as a whole. These reports concern the findings of committee hearings or outcome of committee deliberations.
House and Senate Documents can contain materials such as Congressional rules and reports of investigations; special reports of executive branch agencies and independent establishments, reports of special investigations and research authorized by the President; reports of non-governmental organizations; or reports on committee activities.
The first 14 Congresses (1789-1816) were not part of the official Serial Set; these documents can be found in print through the American State Papers: Wyles Collection (Special Collections Library): J33 U5. The American State papers are also online through the Library of Congress.
Locating Serial Set Volumes
1st through 14th Congresses (1789–1816)
Not part of the official Serial Set; these documents can be found in American State Papers
- Print: Wyles Collection (Special Collections Library): J33 U5
- Microfiche: Government Information collection: Y 1.1/2:
15th through 95th Congresses (1817–1980)
- Microfiche: Government Information collection: Y 1.1/2:
- Some volumes in print in Government Information Reference Collection: Y 1.1/2:. Search holdings in the UCSB Library catalog (search title: congressional serial set)
96th Congress to the present (1979+)
- Microfiche: Government Information collection
- Search UCSB Library catalog by title to find call number of individual documents and reports:
- 96th Congress: X 96…:
- 97th Congress to present: Y 1.1/3: Senate documents
- Y 1.1/4: Senate treaty documents
- Y 1.1/5: Senate reports
- Y 1.1/6: Senate executive reports
- Y 1.1/7: House documents
- Y 1.1/8: House reports
House and Senate Reports and Documents
from 1985+ are full text in:
Access
UCSB subscribes to the full text Serial Set from 1817–1980, and American State Papers 1789–1838, through U.S. Congressional Serial Set (Archive of Americana). They are indexed 1789+, and full text 1990+ through ProQuest Congressional.
Some reports and documents from 1985 to the present are freely available online in GovInfo.gov and Congress.gov.
The print and fiche Serial Set must be retrieved by volume number: view the record in ProQuest Congressional to find this number.
Please note: For 1970–1978, these numbers do not appear in ProQuest Congressional. Instead, consult the Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes of the Reports and Documents of the…Congress: Government Information Reference GP 3.7/2:
Serial Set Discovery Tools
While ProQuest Congressional is an excellent discovery tool, there are other resources specific to the Serial Set that can help you find content related to your research.
- U.S. Serial Set: Selected Documents and Reports [23rd-64th Congress] (Library of Congress)The American Memory collection is useful for browsing reports of particular interest for 1833–1917, and includes HTML indexes for many of the volumes.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set Inventory (University of North Texas)This tool lists the volumes in order by Congress and volume number, so you can quickly see what is in each volume. Remember that earlier volumes are organized not just by date but also by size, so they may not be in strictly chronological order. Also, please note that the list of holding institutions is incomplete.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set (GovInfo.gov)This tool lists numerically, with a brief title, all of the Senate and House Documents and Reports issued during a Session of Congress for 1957+. The Numerical List also indicates the specific volume of the Congressional Serial Set in which each Document and Report is bound.