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U.S. Congressional Committee Meetings Index

Search Tips

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General Tips | Boolean Expressions | Drop-Down Search Boxes | Narrow Search

General Tips

Truncation is automatic.
A search for Afghan
      returns Afghan, Afghans, Afghanistan

Phrase searching is also automatic.
A search for health care
      returns the phrase, health care

For exact match searches use a #
A search for civil#
      returns only civil

Boolean Expressions

The top boolean expression is executed first on the first two search terms.
Then the result of that operation is combined with the third search term.

So first enter terms to increase set size with OR and then AND the results of the first operation.
Example:
Search for Committee: Foreign Relations OR
                 Committee: International Relations AND then
                 Title (or Description or Keyword): Bosnia

Drop-Down Search Boxes

You are not required to enter any search term in the drop-down boxes.
If you choose, you may retrieve all records for a specific time period, by categories of committee or by meeting type, using the "Narrow Search" options below the drop-down boxes.

'Any Keyword' field searches for a selected term through the entire record,
without regard as to where in the record the term appears.

'Committee' and 'Subcommittee' fields:
use a descriptive keyword or phrase representing the name of the committee or subcommittee.
Examples:
      Aging, Agriculture, Armed Services,
      Africa, Aviation, Clean Air, Space
Use this field to search for one or more specific committee(s). If you wish to search for committee categories, e.g. all House committees, use the 'Limit by Committee Type' search feature.

'CongressNumber' and 'CongressSession' fields:
enter only the numerical designation of a Congress and Session
Example:
      CongressNumber: 108
      CongressSession: 1

'Description' field:
Searches that portion of records containing a summary of the meetings' contents.  This part of a record may consist of several paragraphs of information, and includes the subcommittee names, the subject matter of the meeting, references to Reports and Bills, and frequently the names of witnesses.  This is a narrower field of search than an 'Any Keyword' search.

'Title' field:
searches only the title headings given to meetings.  This is a narrower field of search than both a 'Description' or an 'Any Keyword' search.  For untitled meetings, NCSU Libraries staff have supplied titles, enclosing them in brackets.

Narrow Search

You may set limits for dates, committee categories, and type of meeting.

In the 'Limit by Years' area you have three choices:
      1. You may choose a range of years, between 1985 and the present, and restrict searches to those years.
      2. You may choose a range of months within a specified year, and search for meeting in that time frame.
      3. You may choose a specific day and search for meetings held that day.

Use the second 'Limit by Years' choice to learn the most recent date in the index.
      Choose the present year.
      In the first month/day input box, enter a date a few months old.
      In the second month/day input box, enter today's date.
      Run the search; the most recent day's meetings contained in the index are at the top of the results set.

Using the 'Limit by Committee type',
you may specify meetings held by different committee categories.
      'Ad-Hoc Joint' meetings are those held by a House committee (or subcommittee) with a similar group in the Senate for a specific, time-limited purpose.  Many such meetings are those of Conference committees which are formed to iron out differences between House and Senate versions of a bill.
      'Standing Committees and Commissions' are permanent bodies composed of members from both House and Senate.  Examples include the Joint Economic Committee, and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission).

The 'Limit by Meeting type' offers two choices:
      1. Limits searches to those meetings with the word 'hearing' in the meeting's description.
      2. Limits searches to meetings that are not hearings.
           Such meetings report, order, or approve measures before a committee.