The US Congressional Serial Set is the single most valuable resource on US history, economy, international relations, law, politics and society. Not only do these volumes include the reports, documents and journals of the US Senate and House of Representatives, they also contain annual reports, studies and serial publications from executive branch agencies and messages from the president. A third category of publications included is the miscellany of materials on topics of interest to members of congress, including reprints of newspaper and journal articles, reports and books, as well as publications from quasi or non‐governmental organizations.
Publications included range from congressional committee reports on bills, hearings on the Titanic disaster, Commodore Matthew Perry's account of his expedition to Japan, reports on venereal disease in the British Army in India, exploratory, geological and thematic maps, the annual report of the Boy Scouts of America and statistics on every subject conceivable. In addition, the serial set contains multiple statistical tables, illustrations (black and white and coloured) and 52,000 maps of all sizes. The serial set officially began with the 15th Congress in 1917, with publications from 1789‐1916 included in the American State Papers. Readex's digital edition of these two publications will cover the period 1789‐1980, and will be released in portions beginning with the 15th Congress. It will eventually total approximately 13,800 volumes and over 12 million pages. Readex has used multiple library collections for the source text, illustrations and maps, and the comprehensiveness of the digital edition is remarkable.
The serial set digital edition is part of Readex's archive of Americana, which aims to provide a comprehensive collection of primary source documents in American history, literature and culture. The interface will be familiar to users of Readex products such as Early American Imprints or Early American Newspapers. It utilizes a clean, uncluttered style where users can search or browse publications from the home page or top of each screen.
Browsing is facilitated by using pre‐determined subject categories organized hierarchically. A default basic search screen allows a keyword search within a citation or selected fields, while an advanced search allows users to link searches with “And”, “Or” or “Not”, to perform field and full‐text searches and set limits by date. Given the large proportion of statistical tables, maps and illustrations in the collection, the ability to limit searches to documents containing these features is extremely useful. Wildcard, truncation and adjacency operators are supported. Search hints provided directly on the search screen are useful. Search fields of particular value for specialist users include the personal names search field for genealogists and the bill/resolution number field for material relating to legislation. The geographic location field used together with the map limiter will be of particular interest to those interested in cartographic materials. With a collection this large and spanning such a long period, subject searching using controlled vocabulary and authority control become critical, as changes in terms and vocabulary render free‐text searching problematic. The large number of congressional, agency and organizational corporate authors in these volumes (the bane of many a searcher) make the care taken with authority control a great benefit. The availability of free‐text searching (excluding most text on maps, illustrations and statistical tables) deftly complements the other search options, and supports research needs of literary and linguistic scholars.
Users can search within retrieved results or within a selected publication. Once a publication is opened, navigation is facilitated with a clickable table of contents and navigation arrows located beside the main section of the screen where single document pages are presented. Search terms within the document are highlighted in the table of contents, although use of this feature necessitates much scrolling for longer documents. Search terms are not highlighted on the document images, a disadvantage of presenting documents in image format only. The page size can be changed (from 25 percent to 50 percent, 100 percent and 200 percent), though large maps may not fit on the screen regardless of size selected. In general page images are clear and legible, though the quality of the original documents makes a few difficult to read. Pages can also be viewed in PDF (image only) and TIFF formats. Maps and illustrations are viewed in a separate window, where users can navigate and zoom in and out of a higher resolution image by dragging a box over a thumbnail version of the image. Colour illustrations and maps are of extremely high quality. In contrast to many electronic products, Readex's serial set captures much of the feel of the original print documents.
A My Collection feature allows users to store documents temporarily for later saving or e‐mailing. Links are provided to documents using the OpenURL standard. Printing and downloading of documents in either GIF, PDF or TIFF is allowed, but can be awkward. Users may have to decide between using their browser's printing and saving functions, right‐clicking on images or selecting option links on the screen, depending on the material to be printed or saved. Documents can only be printed 25 pages at a time, unless a subscribing institution activates Readex's NetImage option. Help is available from every screen and offers detailed information on searching and using this resource with clear examples and language. It also includes a table with congressional sessions and dates, an extremely useful tool that could be more prominently featured.
The serial set has long been available in its original print format and later microcard or microfiche, supplemented with print and electronic indexes. However, few libraries possess a comprehensive print collection; micro‐format editions are often difficult to use; and the available indexing has often not revealed the breadth and richness of content in the serial set to those not already familiar with it. Another digital version of the serial set for 1789‐1969 is currently available from LexisNexis, utilizing the same interface as their popular LexisNexis academic and congressional products. This version has the benefit of integration with products already familiar to current academic users of US historical, legal and congressional materials. Along with additional field searches, specialized cartographic search features are offered by LexisNexis. MARC records for serial set volumes are also available to purchasers for loading into their online catalogues, another avenue to increase awareness of this resource.
Readex's digital edition (despite some occasional awkwardness) offers the comprehensiveness of coverage, flexibility of searching, browsing and access, as well as quality metadata and authority control, which will greatly expand awareness and use of the serial set, while retaining much of the flavor of the original.
