GPO Completes Digitization of 1,300 Congressional Hearings

From the Government Publishing Office:

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has digitized more than 1,300 historical Congressional Hearings dating back to 1958 and made them available on govinfo.

Through these digitization efforts, the public can access records of Congressional Hearings for free. These include the transcripts from meetings or sessions of a Senate, House, joint, or special committee of Congress, in which elected officials obtained information and opinions on proposed legislation, conducted an investigation, or evaluated the activities of a government department or the implementation of a Federal law. 

This project is part of a multi-year effort to digitize a collection of nearly 15,000 Congressional Hearings from Kansas State University Libraries, which serves the Nation as a Federal Depository Library.

The digitized documents include many historical sessions. As part of this project, GPO plans to digitize nearly six million pages, of which approximately 230,000 pages have been completed.

Some interesting information the public can expect to find in the Congressional Hearings includes:

• Portions of the Watergate Hearings
• Hearings on how three paintings, including a Rembrandt, were stolen from Germany in 1922 and ended up in Ohio
• A 1961 Hearing on bills to prohibit shipment of goods to the U.S. from Cuba and to prohibit the shipment of goods to Cuba from the U.S.

The Congressional Hearings are available on govinfo at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/CHRG.

Filed under: Digital Preservation, Libraries, News, Publishing