THOMAS.gov becoming CONGRESS.gov

November 8, 2013
Congress.gov Beta Legislative Site Readies for its Starring Role
THOMAS.gov Will Redirect to Congress.gov Beginning Nov. 19

News about the transition from Thomas.gov to Congress.gov. Training is provided.

Congress.gov online trainings are ongoing, with trainings currently scheduled for Nov. 14, Jan. 16, March 11 and May 15. To register, go to beta.congress.gov/help. For more information about the transition, please visit congress.gov/about.

How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online: A FREE CLE Program in Dallas

Please join the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress at the Renaissance Dallas for a FREE CLE program on how to conduct legal research online. Librarians, lawyers, students, and researchers are encouraged to attend.

How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online

Friday, February 8, 2013 ▪ 9:00am to 11:00am

Renaissance Dallas ▪ Lone Star 3, 4th Floor

This free program will focus on the legal research services and resources available from the Law Library of Congress, as well as several other free online collections. Following a general overview of the Law Library and its services available to lawyers, librarians, and researchers around the world, there will be an explanation of the organization and content of Congress.gov and THOMAS, the Library of Congress's federal legislative information sites, which together contain the full texts of House and Senate bills and resolutions, the Congressional Record, and much more, starting with the 101st Congress (1989‐90). Special emphasis will be given to Congress.gov, which was launched by the Library of Congress in September 2012, and is in an initial beta phase, with plans to transform the Library of Congress's existing congressional information system into a modern, durable, and user‐friendly resource. Eventually, it will incorporate all of the information available on THOMAS.

Learn about the Law Library's global research services, its vast collections in 195 languages from over 220 jurisdictions worldwide, and its expert staff equipped to answer your legal research questions.

The program will also highlight other free, yet trustworthy, online legal collections and search engines, such as the U.S. Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System (FDsys), Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute, the University of California, Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project, HG.org, FindLaw, Justia, LexisWeb, Google Scholar, and a number of others products.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Familiarity with the specialized services, websites, collections and expert legal research staff available from the Law Library of Congress free to all including solos, practicing lawyers, librarians, researchers and those new to the profession;

2. Understanding of the organization, structure, content, and search strategies to perform time‐saving legal research in Congress.gov and THOMAS and other free legal databases from your own computer wherever you are in the world; and

3. Interactive research demonstrations and explanations of websites and other research products produced and maintained
by the Law Library of Congress as well as other authoritative Web‐based collections and useful search engines.

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to your colleagues, students, etc.

For more information and to RSVP, please contact Jinny Choi at 202-662-1694 or jinny.choi@americanbar.org 

The New Law Library of Congress

The Law Library of Congress has revamped their homepage with a new look. View here.

Congressional record app

Congressional record app has been updated to work with the iPad and iPhone, support Retina display, and support copy and paste. Learn more at :

Congressional Record App Updated to Include iPhone

July 6th, 2012 by Andrew Weber

Congresional Record App

The Congressional Record by the Library of Congress has an app for iPad. You can browser editions of the Congressional Record from January 4, 1995 to present. Perform keyword searches, share documents via email, save documents to the iPad PDF reader, and identify the latest bills and resolutions from the House and Senate.

ABA Free Legal Research Training Session in New Orleans, LA

ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress Offers Free Training Session on How to Conduct Free Legal Research Online in NOLA Next Month

Hat tip to Amy E. Horton-Newell, Director, ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress for calling this interesting education and professional development opportunity to my attention.

The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress will host a free training program on how to conduct free legal research online at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans on Friday, February 3, 2012. Librarians, lawyers, law students and researchers are encouraged to attend.

Program Details

How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online
Friday, February 3, 2012
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Royal Sonesta Hotel, Fleur de Lis A, Lobby Level

This program will focus on the legal research services and resources available from the Law Library of Congress and other free online collections. Following a general overview of the Law Library and its services, there will be an explanation of the organization, structure and content of the two leading websites maintained by the Law Library—THOMAS, covering federal legislative information beginning with the 104th Congress (1995) with full texts of bills, resolutions, the Congressional Record, legislative calendars, committee information, treaties plus much more! Learn about the Law Library's global research services, vast collections in 195 languages from over 220 jurisdictions worldwide, and expert legal staff from Matthew Braun, Legal Reference Specialist at the Law Library of Congress. Expert legal researchers will also highlight other free online collections and search engines to equip participants with reliable sources for legal research.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Familiarity with the specialized services, websites, collections and expert legal research staff available from the Law Library of Congress free to all including solos, practicing lawyers, librarians, researchers and those new to the profession;
2. Understanding of the organization, structure, content, and search strategies to perform time‐saving legal research in THOMAS and other free legal databases from your own computer wherever you are in the world; and
3. Interactive research demonstrations and explanations of websites and other research products produced and maintained by the Law Library of Congress as well as other authoritative Web‐based collections and useful search engines.

Speaker: Matthew Braun, Legal Reference Specialist, Law Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Download the Program Announcement.