New Proquest Congressional Interface and Upcoming Webinars

By on October 22, 2012 in Social sciences

Proquest Congressional logo

With so much discussion in the media about elections, how can you get primary source material on the activities of Congress? Try ProQuest Congressional, which has a new look!

Now integrated into a new interface, ProQuest Congressional’s new features include:

  • Basic Search, Advanced Search or Search By Number options
  • Faceted search results, which may be arranged by document type, committee, and agency
  • Unlimited result set, with the ability to limit search results by date, document type, and more
  • Type-ahead in search forms based on subject index, popular names list, and House and Senate committee names
  • Enhanced Bill Tracking Composite View and Member Profile Composite

But it still covers the same vital congressional publications as it did formerly as LexisNexis Congressional:

  • Full text of reports, bills, public laws, and legislative histories
  • Links to selected fulltext documents, committee prints, and congressional hearings testimony
  • Also contains information on members of Congress, campaign financial data, congressional voting records, and other information about the legislative process
  • 1789-present for indexing, mid-1980s-present for full text.

Access Proquest Congressional at: //libraries.mit.edu/get/congress-u.

For more details, see the Proquest Congressional Information Site or attend one of the upcoming Proquest Congressional Webinars:

1. Using Legislative History to find legislative intent, Monday, November 5, 2012 3:00 pm, EST
Learn how to use ProQuest Congressional Digital Suite and Legislative Insight to:

  • Develop an understanding of the legislative process both:
  • Become familiar with the documents available pertinent to your issue;
  • Identify where in the process the changes you care about occurred – this provides a mechanism to narrow the scope of your search for explanations for why the language was changed

2. Congressional for Current Events, Tuesday, November 20, 2012 2:00 pm EST
From elections to the economy, the Arab Spring and global warming, sports concussions and fracking, Congress is the news and makes news. Join us to learn how to use the most comprehensive collection of historic and current congressional information available anywhere online. Since Congress is interested in all public policy, social, and economic issues, the database is an effective source for general research in many academic disciplines, in addition to research related to specific legislative proposals and laws.

For more sources on Congress, see the Libraries’ Guide to Congressional Publications or Ask Us!