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CIS index to unpublished U.S. senate committee hearings and microfiche collection, 18th congress-88th congress, 1823–1964
Reviews
401
CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. Senate Committee Hearings and ~cro~che Coll~ion, 18th Congre~-88th Congress, 1823-1944 Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service, 1986, 5 ~01s. $1985 (Index), $18,400 (microfiche collection). ISBN (for the set) O-88692-089-2. LC 86-210230. Reviewed by Myrtle Smith Bolnec Myrtle Smith Bolner is Head, Business Administration/Government Documents Department, Troy H. Middleton Library, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803. The substance of congressional activity takes place in committee and not on the floor. Access to committee hearings is, therefore, essential to the student of the legislative process. For some years Congressional Information Service, Inc. (CIS) has been engaged in providing access to virtually all congressional materials by microfilming hearings and creating indexes that give researchers access to these proceedings. In the process of filming the published committee hearings the CIS editors were confronted with large numbers of committee hearings that were never published, either because they contained sensitive material or simply because they were victims of the haphazard way that the Congress handled the transcripts of its hearings. Prior to 1946 the United States Senate made no provision for the orderly preservation and recording of its committee and subcommittee hearings, and, as a result, many of the hearings were either lost or not filed in a central location. Beginning in 1946, the Senate initiated a policy of recording all of its hearings, but it was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that provisions were made for storing all Senate committee hearings at the National Archives and making them available to the public. The unpublished hearings were located by combing through thousands of committee files stored at the National Archives. The result is a collection that will be welcomed by researchers and information specialists. The full collection of unpublished hearings dates from 1823 to 1964. It includes approximately 7,300 hearings on microfiche and an accompanying index. The microfiche are all marked with easy-to-read headers and are arranged by accession numbers that are based on the committee name and the number of the Congress in which the hearing was held. The index comprises five bound volumes that provide access by subject or organization, personal names, title of legislation, and bill numbers. A “Reference Bibliography” is devoted to full bibliographical descriptions of each entry. The editors of the collection admit to “unevenness” in the committee hearings represented and the time periods covered in the collection. This shortcoming reflects the unsystematic ways of Senate recordkeeping and does not indicate editorial carelessness. It is unfortunate that the preponderance of items come from the 1940s to the 196Os, because the more important Senate committee hearings from that period are already accessible. Some important unpublished hearings are made available in this collection. (There
402
GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
QUARTERLY
Vol. ~/NO. 411987
are, for example, 14 hearings dealing with the Senate’s investigation of Bobby Baker, a Senate officer and a protege of then Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson; there are a number of hearings dealing with the governing of the District of Columbia; contirmation hearings, especially those of lower Federal court judges will be of interest to researchers.) A more important limiting factor is that a significant proportion of the hearings concern pro fomza sessions without substance or dealing with issues that researchers will consider entirely esoteric. These elements, however, do not detract from the collection’s merit of making it possible for researchers to access those important pre- 1964 Senate hearings, which, up until now, were unpublished. One major consideration for those contemplating acquiring this resource is cost: the complete service is priced at $20,385. Despite this constraint and the several limitations noted above, any research library pursuing a policy of acquiring a complete record of materials bearing on legislative history of the United States will find this a necessary acquisition.
Datamap 1986: Index of Published Tables of Statistical Data Edited by Jarol B. Manheim and Allison Ondrasik Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1986. 746 pages, $165.00. ISSN O-89774-293-1. LC 85-43552.
Reviewed by William R. Thompson William R. Thompson is Head of Documents Library, Amherst, Massachusetts 0 1003.
Datamap 1986 is a “. . . computer
at the University
of Massachusetts
generated, variable-specific cross index of the contents of almost 13,000 tables of statistical data on a wide range of topics.” The 28 source documents ( 16 Federal government publications, six IGO publications, and six privately printed publications) were chosen for their breadth of coverage and on the recommendation of experts. The large volume is divided into three sections: “Listing of Sources,” “ Listing of Tables,” and “Subject Index.” Each source is assigned an alphabetic code and each table within a source is given a sequential number which, together with the alphabetic code, make up the table reference code (i.e., DES 0 172 refers to the 172nd table in the Digest of Educational Statistics, 1983-1984. All references in the subject index are made to this alpha-numeric code that leads to the specific page reference in the edition of the source indexed). The subject index was compiled by identifying the primary terms and secondary terms within a table. The primary term is the main subject and the secondary terms are the associated subjects that tell about the primary subject. Because the primary terms are the only direct access in the subject section, this selection is critical and therefore becomes the focal point of criticism of Da&map. For information on land use in the United States by state, the subject index in Dutamap listed “Land Use” as a primary term and gave eight references to SA 0351 (Statistical Abstract of the United States,
401
CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. Senate Committee Hearings and ~cro~che Coll~ion, 18th Congre~-88th Congress, 1823-1944 Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service, 1986, 5 ~01s. $1985 (Index), $18,400 (microfiche collection). ISBN (for the set) O-88692-089-2. LC 86-210230. Reviewed by Myrtle Smith Bolnec Myrtle Smith Bolner is Head, Business Administration/Government Documents Department, Troy H. Middleton Library, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803. The substance of congressional activity takes place in committee and not on the floor. Access to committee hearings is, therefore, essential to the student of the legislative process. For some years Congressional Information Service, Inc. (CIS) has been engaged in providing access to virtually all congressional materials by microfilming hearings and creating indexes that give researchers access to these proceedings. In the process of filming the published committee hearings the CIS editors were confronted with large numbers of committee hearings that were never published, either because they contained sensitive material or simply because they were victims of the haphazard way that the Congress handled the transcripts of its hearings. Prior to 1946 the United States Senate made no provision for the orderly preservation and recording of its committee and subcommittee hearings, and, as a result, many of the hearings were either lost or not filed in a central location. Beginning in 1946, the Senate initiated a policy of recording all of its hearings, but it was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that provisions were made for storing all Senate committee hearings at the National Archives and making them available to the public. The unpublished hearings were located by combing through thousands of committee files stored at the National Archives. The result is a collection that will be welcomed by researchers and information specialists. The full collection of unpublished hearings dates from 1823 to 1964. It includes approximately 7,300 hearings on microfiche and an accompanying index. The microfiche are all marked with easy-to-read headers and are arranged by accession numbers that are based on the committee name and the number of the Congress in which the hearing was held. The index comprises five bound volumes that provide access by subject or organization, personal names, title of legislation, and bill numbers. A “Reference Bibliography” is devoted to full bibliographical descriptions of each entry. The editors of the collection admit to “unevenness” in the committee hearings represented and the time periods covered in the collection. This shortcoming reflects the unsystematic ways of Senate recordkeeping and does not indicate editorial carelessness. It is unfortunate that the preponderance of items come from the 1940s to the 196Os, because the more important Senate committee hearings from that period are already accessible. Some important unpublished hearings are made available in this collection. (There
402
GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
QUARTERLY
Vol. ~/NO. 411987
are, for example, 14 hearings dealing with the Senate’s investigation of Bobby Baker, a Senate officer and a protege of then Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson; there are a number of hearings dealing with the governing of the District of Columbia; contirmation hearings, especially those of lower Federal court judges will be of interest to researchers.) A more important limiting factor is that a significant proportion of the hearings concern pro fomza sessions without substance or dealing with issues that researchers will consider entirely esoteric. These elements, however, do not detract from the collection’s merit of making it possible for researchers to access those important pre- 1964 Senate hearings, which, up until now, were unpublished. One major consideration for those contemplating acquiring this resource is cost: the complete service is priced at $20,385. Despite this constraint and the several limitations noted above, any research library pursuing a policy of acquiring a complete record of materials bearing on legislative history of the United States will find this a necessary acquisition.
Datamap 1986: Index of Published Tables of Statistical Data Edited by Jarol B. Manheim and Allison Ondrasik Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1986. 746 pages, $165.00. ISSN O-89774-293-1. LC 85-43552.
Reviewed by William R. Thompson William R. Thompson is Head of Documents Library, Amherst, Massachusetts 0 1003.
Datamap 1986 is a “. . . computer
at the University
of Massachusetts
generated, variable-specific cross index of the contents of almost 13,000 tables of statistical data on a wide range of topics.” The 28 source documents ( 16 Federal government publications, six IGO publications, and six privately printed publications) were chosen for their breadth of coverage and on the recommendation of experts. The large volume is divided into three sections: “Listing of Sources,” “ Listing of Tables,” and “Subject Index.” Each source is assigned an alphabetic code and each table within a source is given a sequential number which, together with the alphabetic code, make up the table reference code (i.e., DES 0 172 refers to the 172nd table in the Digest of Educational Statistics, 1983-1984. All references in the subject index are made to this alpha-numeric code that leads to the specific page reference in the edition of the source indexed). The subject index was compiled by identifying the primary terms and secondary terms within a table. The primary term is the main subject and the secondary terms are the associated subjects that tell about the primary subject. Because the primary terms are the only direct access in the subject section, this selection is critical and therefore becomes the focal point of criticism of Da&map. For information on land use in the United States by state, the subject index in Dutamap listed “Land Use” as a primary term and gave eight references to SA 0351 (Statistical Abstract of the United States,