Historical Research
Overview of Historical Research
In 1963 Western Michigan University was designated a depository for publications
of the United States Government. Depository status entitled the library to receive,
on permanent deposit, publications of the legislative, executive, and judicial
branches of the federal government.
In addition to depository publications, Waldo Library has four large microfiche
collections creating a comprehensive collection of United States Government publications.
Scholars interested in history and political science as well as agriculture,
business, education and almost any other subject will find much of interest in
these collections.
All of these collections are available in the Government Documents Department
on the second floor of Waldo Library. Microfiche readers as well as reader/printers
are also available on this floor. In order to make paper copies from the microfiche
a Copy Card will be necessary. Cards are available for purchase at the Copy Center,
which is also located on the second floor of Waldo Library.
It is important to note that the documents contained in these microfiche collections
are not accessible through WestCat, the library's online catalog. Special indexes
to the collections need to be used. The indexes are available in the Documents
Department on the second floor of Waldo Library.
There is also an index to most of these materials available on the Web remotely
to students, faculty, and staff of Western Michigan University and in the library.
It is called simply Congressional and
is a service of LexisNexis. (When you get to the LexisNexis home page, click
on Congressional in the left hand column. Congressional indexes the publications
of the Legislative branch of the government but NOT the Executive branch materials.
Staff is available to assist you in the Documents Department. We would also
be pleased to provide instruction sessions to classes and groups. Please contact
Michael McDonnell to arrange for a session or to request further information.
(269) 387-5208 or michael.mcdonnell@wmich.edu
Serial Set
The Serial Set contains documents ordered printed by Congress. Today the set
contains the reports on legislation of the various congressional committees,
commemorative publications, budget and financial documents and the reports of
special, Congressionally appointed, boards. In the past, Congress reprinted many
documents in the Serial Set that originated in executive agencies. Reports of
expeditions of discovery and exploration, accounts of military expeditions and
wars, and treaty documents also appear in the Serial Set.
Sometimes called the Congressional Edition, the name Serial Set is derived
from the fact that each volume in the set is given a sequential number. The microfiche
collection contains volumes 1 through 12880 covering the years 1789 to 1969.
The first 38 volumes of the Serial Set are also known as the American State Papers.
The microfiche collection is accompanied by indexes providing access to the
documents by subject and by document number. A separate index by bill number
allows for speedy access to legislation reported on by committees and subcommittees
of both houses. There is also a 14 volume index to the maps which appeared in
the Serial Set that allows unprecedented access to this type of material.
Later volumes of the Serial Set are available in paper in the Documents Department.
These volumes are indexed in the Monthly Catalog of United States Government
Publications and the CIS Index. Both of these indexes are available in the Documents
Department. Since 1976 the Serial Set is indexed in the GPO
Monthly Catalog in FirstSearch as well as Congressional.
Congressional Hearings
Much of the work of Congress does not take place in the House and Senate chambers.
A lot is accomplished by committees. When a subject is being discussed or a bill
is being considered, it is first done at the committee or subcommittee level.
In order to make a more informed decision on the item in question, the committee
will bring in experts in the field and question them. These sessions are called
hearings.
The microfiche collection of hearings now available in the library's collection
covers the years 1833 through 1964. The depository collection contains most of
the hearings after 1964. The accompanying indexes, along with the online Congressional database,
cover the years 1833 to 1969. Later hearings are indexed in the Monthly Catalog
of United States Government Documents and the CIS Index. Both of these indexes
are available in the Documents Department. Since 1976 hearings are also indexed
in the GPO
Monthly Catalog on FirstSearch.
In addition to a subject and organizations index, there is a separate index
to personal names that includes references to all witnesses who appeared before
the committees. Indexes by title, bill number, report and document numbers and
Superintendent of Documents classification number are also available.
Separate collections of "unpublished" House and Senate hearings
are available and indexed in Congressional.
Executive Branch Documents 1789 - 1909
One of the first attempts at cataloging the vast number of government publications
was the Checklist of U.S. Public Documents, 1789-1909 published in 1911. The
Congressional Information Service, a much respected publisher of indexes to government
information and the publisher of all four of these historical collections, took
on the task of locating and microfilming as many of the documents indexed by
the 1909 Checklist as it could find.
The result of this undertaking is a massive set of fiche. The collection contains
general publications, reports, annual reports, circulars and periodicals, rules
and administrative decisions, books in series, and catalogs. Excluded from this
collection are most maps, as well as a number of esoteric documents such as forms.
The collection is indexed by subject, name, series or report number, and Superintendent
of Documents Classification Number.
If the document being indexed appears in the Serial Set, the indexes to this
collection refers the user to the microfiche in the Serial Set collection.
Executive Branch Documents 1910 - 1932
After the success of the 1909 Checklist collection, the Congressional Information
Service decided to extend the collection of executive branch publications to
1932. Waldo Library has subscribed to the complete collection. This collection
is still being produced, and the following departments have been completed:
Commerce, Interior, Interstate Commerce Commission, Justice, Labor, Smithsonian
Institution, Treasury, Tariff Commission, Veterans Administration, Veterans Bureau,
Vocational Education Board, War Department and the War Trade Board.
This microfiche collection is indexed by subject, name, series or report number,
and Superintendent of Documents Classification Number.
Web Resources
A Century of Lawmaking For a
New Nation US Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1873 Part of the Library
of Congress's American Memory project, this site includes materials from the
Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, the various "journals" of
the House and Senate, copies of bills from the 13th through 42nd congresses,
full text of the Annals of Congress, the Register of Debates, and the Congressional
Globe, as well as copies of Statutes at Large and the US Serial Set.
A Descriptive Catalog of the Government Publications of the United States
1774-1881 available in Series V in 19th
Century Masterfile provides an index to documents from the first one-hundred
years of the federal government. The database in Poole's Plus is a keyword version
of the index in the back of the printed edition of Benjamin Perley Poole's A
Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States and
as such needs to be used with the printed volume which is available in the Documents
Department of Waldo Library. The call number is: Z 1223 .A 1885 (Doc). It is
housed on one of the index tables in the department.
Historic Government Publications from
World War II The Libraries at Southern Methodist University bring you a collection
of scanned government publications concerning the Second World War. The adobe
Acrobat viewer is required for viewing these documents.
Kappler's Indian Affairs
and Treaties (Oklahoma State Universoty) This source contains the text of
treaties between the United States and Native Americans between 1778 and 1883.
It is keyword searchable and contains treaty name, year and tribe indexes.
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