Has the Law Library renovation left you missing the microfiche? HeinOnline (http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK00693) is here to help. The Law Library recently subscribed to a new library within the growing database, U.S. Congressional Documents. This new feature already includes searchable PDFs of the earliest sources of congressional debates: Annals of Congress (1789-1824), Register of Debates (1824-1837) and Congressional Globe (1833-1873).
However, the most exciting feature by far is Hein’s plan to digitize the complete series of the bound Congressional Record, which began publication in 1873. As law review students can unhappily attest, Bluebook rules require citation to the bound (permanent) version of the Congressional Record, which has different pagination from the daily edition available on Lexis, Westlaw, and GPO Access.
Currently, the new Hein database contains PDFs of the Congressional Record from volumes 1-10 (1873-1880) and volumes 142-149 (1996-2003). Hein will continue to upload the volumes in between; the project should be completed in 2008.
To explore this new feature, visit http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK00693 and scroll down to “U.S. Congressional Documents Library”.