GPO and Law Library of Congress Make Volumes of Nation's Most Treasured Publications Digitally Available

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), in collaboration with the Law Library of Congress, has digitized and made available volumes of the United States Congressional Serial Set on GPO’s govinfo, the one-stop shop to information published by the Federal Government. The release comes as part of a large decade-long partnership to digitize more than 15,000 volumes and more than 9.4 million pages of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817. GPO and the Law Library began this digitization effort two years ago.

This first public release contains selected volumes from the 69th Congress (1925–1927), the 82nd Congress (1951–1953), and several 19th century Congresses. The public can access these volumes of the Serial Set on govinfo at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/serialset

“GPO is proud of our continued partnership with the Library of Congress on this latest digitization initiative. Thanks go to the Librarian and Law Librarian for their leadership and support on this project. Making these first volumes of the Serial Set available gives the public easy access to the historic events of the Congress in a responsive format at home on mobile or desktop devices,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “Making these documents available is another example of how GPO continues to fulfill its mission of Keeping America Informed on the important work of Congress and Federal agencies.”

“We are immensely proud and excited about the release of the first set of digitized volumes of the Serial Set from the 69th Congress,” said Law Librarian Aslihan Bulut. “The collaboration with GPO has been a very successful partnership, and as we embark on our third year of digitization, we are looking forward to publishing additional congresses in the near future. Our determination to expand open access to these seminal, primary sources will continue, and this is only the beginning of additional collections to follow.”

Some notable information available in this release includes:

  • Plans for the District of Columbia, including the extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal;
  • Resolutions relative to slavery, the slave-trade, and the emancipation of slaves; and
  • The Teapot Dome scandal.

The remaining 15,118 volumes will be released throughout the next ten years.

The United States Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, is a compilation of all numbered House and Senate reports and documents, including executive reports and treaty documents, issued for each session of Congress. As a chronicle of events of the U.S. Congress over the years, the Serial Set is one of the Nation’s most treasured publications.

Jane Sanchez previously served GPO as its Director of Library Services and Content Management. Prior to her passing in early 2021, she worked as the Law Librarian of Congress and spearheaded the effort to digitize the Congressional Serial Set.

 

GPO is the Federal Government’s official, digital, secure resource for producing, procuring, cataloging, indexing, authenticating, disseminating, and preserving the official information products of the U.S. Government. The GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other Federal agencies in digital and print formats. GPO provides for permanent public access to Federal Government information at no charge through www.govinfo.gov and partnerships with approximately 1,100 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov.

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