In October 2018, HeinOnline embarked on a mission to make the American State Papers and U.S. Congressional Serial Set digitally available for its customers. As the official historical record of the U.S. government, these resources are essential for any historical, political, or cultural research of the United States.
For more than a year, we’ve been releasing this enormous collection in phases, averaging at more than a quarter-million pages each month—you know, bite-size pieces. While we steadily progress toward completing this project, we’ve decided it was time to make the Serial Set even easier to navigate for librarians, professors, students, and any other lovers of American history.
To this end, we’ve enhanced the Serial Set interface to include a brand-new lookup tool as well as more information about how to effectively use this indispensable resource.
The New Citation Lookup Tool
Let’s say you’re looking for a specific House report. You have the Congress and document numbers and are looking for a quick and easy way to locate the document without the hassle of figuring out the citation.
No problem! Head right over to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set landing page to utilize our new citation lookup tool, a series of drop-downs at the top left of the page. Select the document type, Congress, and document number as shown below.
Upon entering the correct document information, users will be directed to the exact House report in question.
Furthermore, this new tool limits the selection for each document type to all items that exist as official citations in the Serial Set. Never worry about going on a wild goose chase for a document that never existed in the first place!
If you’re already familiar with the citation formats available in the Serial Set,* you may also enter the correct report citation into the free-field citation lookup tool, as shown below. This tool already existed in HeinOnline but has now been moved to the top right of the page.
*Available citation formats highlighted below.
Additional Enhancements
Though essential for the study of American history, the U.S. Congressional Serial Set is both a relatively unknown and tremendously vast resource. To help researchers understand the material which resides in this database (as well as its incredible value), we have added two new access points for more information.
First, discover the history of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set with a landing page that describes the resource. Find it in the new Introduction tab within the database.
Second, learn about the hidden historical gems to be found in this resource with our monthly blog series, Secrets of the Serial Set. Access the blog posts from right within HeinOnline via the new Secrets of the Serial Set tab.
For more great content, HeinOnline updates, tips and tricks, and more, subscribe to the HeinOnline Blog today!
