LSCM Library Technical Services Information Portal

We launched this resource as a portal to provide information and news about the ongoing work of the Library Technical Services staff, our initiatives, and our projects and major developments in the cataloging/metadata field that impact access to U.S. Federal Government publications.

We ask that you please send questions and suggestions to LTS by submitting an inquiry in the Cataloging/Metadata (Policy and Records) category via askGPO.

Since October of 2018, the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s (GPO’s) Library Technical Services (LTS) department has been cataloging Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports. As of January 31^st, 2024, our catalogers achieved a major milestone by surpassing 10,000 records, completing cataloging for 10,230 reports. This is approximately 86% of all reports available on the CRS website. New workflows have greatly improved cataloging efficiency, including a collaboration with the CRS to generate monthly reports of new publications, and the development of an automated process to generate preliminary records and PURLs. These improvements have allowed GPO to stay current in cataloging newly published reports each month.

The records can be retrieved in the CGP by this expert mode search: wlts=CRSREP. For questions about the records, contact us via askGPO, and use the category, Cataloging/Metadata (Policy and Records). The records are available in the Congressional Research Service Reports collection of the CGP on GitHub repository. The CRS reports website can be found at crsreports.congress.gov.

We compiled preliminary data on the number of records for the publications of standing and permanent House, joint, and Senate committees and commissions. We provide the number of records per committee or commission by publication year for 2017-2023. The data includes online, print, and microfiche records.

Please note: We stopped cataloging microfiche records in 2023.The data table is available on the LTS Data tab.

LTS completed the cataloging of the Law Library of Congress Historical Reports. GPO would like to thank the Law Library of Congress for their wonderful collaboration on this project.

In April 2020, the Law Library of Congress, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) began a collaboration on a multi-year project to catalog thousands of digitized and born-digital historical legal reports. The Law Library of Congress digitized the reports, and LTS cataloged the reports. The total number of reports is 3,927. In the near future, we will update the Law Library of Congress Reports collection of the CGP on GitHub repository with files of the records. Also, we will post data about the record set on the LTS Data tab. To retrieve the Law Library of Congress reports in the CGP, use this expert mode search, wlts=“LCLAW?”.

The Law Library of Congress will continue to alert GPO to the publication of new reports through GPO’s Document Discovery process. These records will be included in the GitHub collection.

For feedback and questions about the records, please submit an inquiry in the “Cataloging/Metadata (Policy and Records)” category via askGPO.

We have launched a six-month beta period to test a new process to generate MARC records for House and Senate bills and resolutions from the metadata of the GovInfo Congressional Bills Collection. LTS wishes to thank all staff members who have worked on this initiative and Programs, Strategy, and Technology and the Congressional Research Service for their great collaboration.

The records are in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and are available for downloading free of charge in MARC and MARC XML from the Congressional Bills and Resolutions Collection of the CGP Maintenance Files repository.

Please note: The records do not have OCLC numbers. In the near future, the OCLC numbers will be added in MARC 035 System Control Number Fields to the records, and the files will be re-posted on GitHub.

Our main goals are to provide access to these publications that LTS does not currently catalog and to develop a new product for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) community. The first set of records are for the 256 measures published in August in GovInfo. The records may be retrieved by the CGP expert mode search: wlts=BILLSRESOLUTIONS. The records do not have Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) item numbers. The records include all types of House and Senate legislation:

• Bills
• Concurrent resolutions
• Joint resolutions
• Simple resolutions.

The publications are cataloged as integrating resources based on the introduced versions of the bills and resolutions. The intention of this treatment is to make the records a starting point for information about the versions that are published and the actions that occur during the legislative process. Therefore, the records are linked to the great resources on GovInfo (PURLs to the related documents page) and Congress.gov (URLs to the summary page) for each measure.

As part of the beta period, LTS is testing several procedures. The records contain fields that we have not used before, such as:

• MARC 500 Fields
  • Branch of U.S. federal government: Legislative branch.
  • Referred committee(s)
• MARC 650 Fields
  • Based on the jurisdictions of the referred committees, one or two Library of Congress Subject Headings and Congress.gov Policy Areas terms are added to the records.
  • When no referred committee is available in GovInfo at the time the records are processed, no 650 fields are added.

LTS estimates that we will produce approximately 10,000-15,000 records per Congress based on the number of bills and resolutions in the GovInfo collection, 103rd Congress (1993-1994)-118th Congress (2023-2024).  During the beta period, we will post monthly files of new records and cumulative files of previously posted records. After the beta period, our plan is to post quarterly files of new records and the cumulative files. We will post files of MARC and MARC XML records.

Sample records:

• Title: To Provide for the Conservation of the Chesapeake Bay, and for Other Purposes (H.R. 5133)
• Item Number: None
• SuDoc Class Number: Y 1.4/6:118-1/5133/
• CGP System Number: 1248829
• PURL to the EL version

• Title: To Direct Restoration and Protection Efforts of the 5-State Connecticut River Watershed Region, and for Other Purposes (H.R. 5216)
• Item Number: None
• SuDoc Class Number: Y 1.4/6:118-1/5216/
• CGP System Number: 1248955
• PURL to the EL version

• Title: Expressing Support for the Designation of July 2023 As American Grown Flower and Foliage Month (H. Res. 638)
• Item Number: None
• SuDoc Class Number: Y 1.4/7:118-1/638/
• CGP System Number: 1248828
• PURL to the EL version

As the beta period proceeds, we will periodically issue news alerts with updates about the initiative and will report data about the records and the process in this guide. We posted preliminary data on the first set of records in the LTS Data tab.

LTS would like to emphasize that this is the first iteration of the process. LTS will evaluate each group of records and will work to enhance the metadata. LTS is aware of several issues, such as the capitalization of title words and the broad application of the Library of Congress subject headings and Congress.gov Policy Areas terms. LTS welcomes recommendations and comments via askGPO inquiries in the “Cataloging/Metadata (Policies and Records)” category.