Legislative Journals in the Library

The Cornell Library Catalog can be useful tools in locating state government legislative materials, particularly state legislative journals because it allows the efficient use of Library of Congress Subject Headings as search terms. Unlike searching by keyword, where any term or wording of a topic can be entered into the computer, subject searching requires you to use the exact wording of an official Library of Congress subject heading in order to retrieve search results. In the catalog, be sure to select subject before entering your search. Multiple word headings enclosed in quotation marks will yield more accurate searches.

Some useful subject headings for locating state legislative documents:

LAW--[name of state]

Note: Use this heading to locate the printed compiled or consolidated sets of state laws residing in the Law Library.
 

LEGISLATIVE JOURNALS--[name of state]

Note: Not all state legislative journals are given this subject heading (e.g., Nebraska). If you don't find your state on the Subject Heading list, try an Advanced Search.

  • journal [all] [in Title]
  • AND nebraska [all] [in Author/Creator]
  • AND (legislature assembly house senate)[any][in Author/Creator]

(Most state legislative journals we have can be found in the J 87 or J 87+ sections on the Lower Level.)

BILLS, LEGISLATIVE--[name of state]
SESSION LAWS--[name of state]
COURT RULES--[name of state]
AGRICULTURAL LAWS AND LEGISLATION--[name of state]
PUBLIC WELFARE--LAW AND LEGISLATION--[name of state]

Legislative Journals Online

Through a long-running joint effort by LLMC and the Center for Research Libraries, the rich trove of state legislative journals held by CRL is undergoing digitization and archiving. The digitized Journals are being added to the LLMC Digital database and will be made available for searching and browsing to participating library partners (such as Cornell) of the CRL.