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Research Guides

Starting Points

A hearing is a meeting or session of a Senate, House, joint, or special committee of Congress, typically open to the public, that seeks to obtain information or opinions related to proposed legislation.  The published hearings include the transcripts of oral testimonies including the questions and statements made by the members of congress.  Written reports submitted by witnesses to congress may also be included.

Congressional Testimony Collections

Finding Aids

Finding aids are used to identify documents and pinpoint their location.  Information such as title, CIS number, and SuDoc number may be included.  The following finding aids are print resources and the items they index can be found via the above resources.

Decoding CIS Numbers

The CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings on microfiche are organized into five groups and the UW Libraries holds all.  Groups 1A, 1B, and 3 are filed in one cabinet, groups 2 and 4 in another cabinet.  Once you have found the group number and CIS number in ProQuest Congressional or the print index, use the following examples to understand the filing system.

Group 1A
CIS #: S448-3
Senate Volume 448 3rd document in the volume. Note: the 3 is visible on the body of the microfiche, not the header.

Group 1B (Hearings published as Documents or Reports)
Because these hearings were published as documents and reports, they can also be found in the Serial Set.  The first example is the CIS number from the print index.  When using ProQuest to identify the CIS number, you may encounter either of these numbering systems.  The Serial Set microfiche are shelved in M-5010.

CIS #: (46-1) H.rpt. v. 5 n. 785
Congress 46 - Session 1 House Report Volume 5 report number 785

CIS #: 1627 H.rpt.785
Serial Set volume number 1627 House Report report number 785
Note: the report number is visible on the body of the microfiche next to the first page of the hearing.

Group 2
Greenwood Supplement, 1839-1934
HAg
50-A

House Agriculture Committee 50th Congress, item designation A. Note: the year is visible on the header of the microfiche.

Group 3
CIS #: 79 H1085-2
79th Congress House volume 1085 2nd document in the volume. Note: the 2 is visible on the body of the microfiche, not the header.

Group 4
CIS #: (89) HAp-1
89th Congress House Appropriations Committee item designation 1. Note: the year is visible on the header of the microfiche.

Apollo 13 Senate Space Committee Hearing

A black and white photo of two men behind a table. One gestures to a model of the Apollo spacecraft.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Congressional Hearing - Google News

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Congressional Hearings: Bing News

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