Congressional Universe

Contents & Access | Searching | Display | Exporting Results | Further Assistance

Contents and Access

What does this database contain?
Congressional Universe provides access to information from and about the U.S. Congress. Includes congressional publications; bill tracking and full text of bills; legislative history; federal regulations; and member affiliations, demographic, financial, and voting records. Included are Committee Prints (1830-present), Hearings (1824-present); House & Senate Documents (1817-present); House & Senate Reports (1819-present); Legislative Histories (1969-present); Serial Set Maps (1789-1969); and Serial Set (1789-1969). Updated daily.

Where do I access this database?
Through the UTSA Library web page (http://www.lib.utsa.edu) under Databases & Article Searching > A - Z

Available off-campus?
Yes, to UTSA faculty, staff and currently enrolled students.

Full Text of articles available online?
Significant full text online content and on CIS microfiche collection at John Peace Library.

Language of articles?
English.

What is the date coverage of citations?
Citations date back to 1789. For coverage go to Help > Content Coverage Chart

Types of publications included in this database?
House and Senate Reports; CIS legislative histories for public law; testimonies from congressional hearings; information about members and committees (campaign contributions/voting records); the Congressional Record; Federal Register; bill tracking as they move through the House and Senate; Legislative Histories; Serial Set.

Searching

Basic search terms?

AND (will narrow your search)
OR (will broaden your search)
Atleastn (how many times a term must
appear in the document)

w/n (with n words of the first term)
w/p (within the same paragraph)
w/s (within the same sentence)

How do I limit by Date?
Use the pull-down menu from any of the search screens to select a predefined date range or enter your own custom date range.

Truncation?
Use the Exclamation Mark (!) to automatically retrieve most plural and possessive forms of words. The Asterisk (*) serves as a placeholder for a character within a word and it is possible to use more than one asterisk in a word.

Examples: child! Retrieves child's, children, children's and any word beginning with child (childbearing, childless, or childhood)
child*** retrieves children, children's or childish
wom*n retrieves woman, woman's, women, and women's

Display

How do I display my search results?
Congressional Universe lets you display your search results in one of four ways:
Result list (search results are automatically returned in this format)
Expanded list (provides headlines/bylines from your search results)
KWIC (shows the paragraphs that contain your search term or phrase)
Full format (full text of search results)

How do I sort my search results?
The default sort order is reverse chronological order within document types (Print, Report, Hearing, etc.)

Printing, Downloading, E-mailing

How do I print?
Click the "Print" icon at the top left of the page, then "Contine" for a printer-friendly version of the article. Then click your browser's print button.

Can I download or save the list?
Follow the directions above for printing, then choose "save as" from the file menu and save your file (if you are using a public workstation, type a:\myfile.txt (saves as a text document and not as HTML).

Can I e-mail an article to myself?
Yes. Click the "Email" icon at the top left of the page to email an article. You can also email the list of citations by clicking the "email" button on the results page.

Help

Where do I go for more help?
Feel free to ask at the Reference Desk or contact us for more assistance: (210)458-4573 or 2446. Or browse through the Outline of Congressional Universe help.

How do I cite electronic congressional publications?
Congressional Universe offers a complete online guide under "How to cite...guide".