ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES

                Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program



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                                   June 15, 2000
                                  GP 3.16/3-2:21/09
                                  (Vol. 21, no. 09)

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                  How to Find Congressional Hearings on GPO Access

     In response to questions regarding the availability of congressional hearings
     online through GPO Access, GPO staff have prepared the following report on the
     current status and future plans at GPO for providing hearings electronically.

     All congressional hearings are not centrally available on GPO servers at this
     time. This is due in large part to the fact that committees from the House and
     Senate do not provide GPO with all hearings to place on GPO servers. Also,
     there is frequently a delay between the receipt of hearings in hard copy and
     their subsequent availability online through GPO Access. Below, we outline
     five ways for users to find congressional hearings on or through GPO Access,
     and also present some enhancements currently being developed to further
     improve the ability of customers to access congressional hearings.

     Existing Tools

     The following examples use the existing tools available on GPO Access and
     external sites GPO links to for congressional hearings. "Cervical cancer" is
     the sample search used to find the hearing on "Women's Health: Raising
     Awareness of Cervical Cancer."

  1. GPO Access - Database of Congressional Hearings

     Starting at the GPO Access homepage <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/>,
     click on "Legislative." Scroll down the page and click on "congressional
     hearings, 105th Congress Forward." Enter the terms "cervical cancer" in the
     search box. The desired result "Women's Health: Raising Awareness of Cervical
     Cancer" comes back as the first result, available as a Text or PDF file.

  2. GPO Access - Committee Browse Page

     Starting at the GPO Access homepage <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/>,
     click on "Legislative." Scroll down the page to "Miscellaneous House
     Publications and Committees." Click on this. Scroll down the "U.S. House of
     Representatives" page until "Committees of the U.S. House of Representatives"
     appears. Click on "Commerce." You will notice on that page a link to
     "Committee Hearings." These are hearings that are physically located on GPO
     servers. Click on this link. The next page will contain a link to "Committee
     Hearings, 106th Congress." Click on this page. "Women's Health: Raising
     Awareness of Cervical Cancer" comes back as the fourth result, available as a
     Text or PDF file.

  3. GPO Access - Site Search

     Starting at the GPO Access homepage <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/>,
     click on "Site Search" and enter "cervical cancer." The results list (on the
     test day) shows the 11th result as "House Committee on Commerce, Committee
     Hearings (106th Congress). Click on that link, scroll down the page, and find
     "Women's Health: Raising Awareness of Cervical Cancer" as the fourth option,
     available as a Text or PDF file. It should be noted that Site Search was able
     to find this hearing because the title of the hearing appeared on a browseable
     HTML page. Site Search does not search for information within individual
     hearing databases on GPO Access.

  4. Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

     Starting at the GPO Access homepage <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/>,
     click on "Finding Aids." Next click on Catalog of U.S. Government
     Publications, and enter the sample search terms in the keyword search box.
     "Women's Health: Raising Awareness of Cervical Cancer" appears as the seventh
     result. There are two PURLs available; one for the Text and the other for the
     PDF file.

  5. Individual Committee Web Pages

     In order to find a congressional hearing through GPO Access on individual
     committee web pages, a user must know the committee name. For example, to find
     a hearing on terrorism from the House Committee on Armed Services, start at
     the GPO Access homepage <http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/> and click on
     "Legislative." Scroll down the page until the link to "Miscellaneous House
     Publications and Committees" appears. Click on this. Scroll down the "U.S.
     House of Representatives" page until "Committees of the U.S. House of
     Representatives" appears. Click on "Armed Services." There are no
     congressional hearings listed that are available directly from GPO servers on
     this page. However, by clicking on "Web Site" you leave GPO Access and go
     directly to the House Armed Services Committee Web Site. Click on "Schedules
     and Transcripts" to link to their page of hearings. A hearing on "Terrorist
     Threats to the United States" is listed. On the test day, however, only a
     press release about the hearing is posted, not the hearing itself.

     GPO cannot guarantee the authenticity of information on non-GPO sites, because
     we do not have control over the content or organization of that information.

Tools Under Development

GPO is in the process of developing a new application to create a browseable list
of all congressional hearings that are officially part of GPO Access. Eventually a
catalog of hearings will be available for customers to browse by Congress on
separate web pages, similar to the current Catalog of Congressional Bills
application.

Also, on a weekly basis, GPO will announce the availability of all new
congressional hearings that are being placed on GPO servers and made available
through GPO Access. This will be accomplished through weekly postings to New
Electronic Titles (NET), the service that will replace the Browse Electronic Titles
in July. (See New Electronic Titles Service Begins in July on p. 14.)