January 14, 2026 Library of Congress and Government Publishing Office Make Available 10,000 Digitized Volumes of the United States Congressional Serial Set

The Law Library of Congress and the U.S. Government Publishing Office have achieved a major milestone by uploading and making available the 10,000^th volume of the United States Congressional Serial Set on the GovInfo website. Those volumes contain more than 185,000 individual government documents and reports.

This is part of a multi-year effort with the Law Library and GPO to digitize and make accessible the United States Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817. The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, is a compilation of all numbered House and Senate reports and documents, including executive reports and treaty documents, issued for each session of Congress.

“The digitization of and free public access to the 10,000th volume of the Congressional Serial Set marks a major milestone in our commitment to open government and historical preservation,” said Law Librarian of Congress, Aslihan Bulut. “This achievement would not be possible without our partnership with the U.S. Government Publishing Office, whose collaboration helps ensure that scholars, students and the public can explore the documentary record of Congress and better understand the decisions that have shaped our nation.”

“Congratulations to our team and our partners at the Library of Congress on reaching this significant milestone,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “This effort to preserve our nation’s history serves as one more way we continue to make government information available to the American people. We’re going to continue our digitization work to make even more of the documents available online.”

Highlights from the newly added documents include:

1. “Plan for the City of Washington DC” in Papers relating to the improvement of the city of Washington, District of Columbia: https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2024774734/                                            m The Law Library created a companion Story Map: https://aj.sunback.homes/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=3084b0ebb9f94436ad8648c48e02284e

2. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by order of the Government of the United States.: https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2024795279/
3. “Titanic” Disaster: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, Sixty-Second Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 283, Directing the Committee on Commerce to Investigate the Causes Leading to the Wreck of the White Star Liner “Titanic.”: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llserialsetpdf/06/16/7_/00/_0/0/06167_00_00/SERIALSET-06167_00_00.pdf#page=3

GPO is uploading volumes of the official Serial Set in phases for free public access on GovInfo. GPO has nearly 6,000 remaining volumes to upload and is aiming to release an additional 2,000 volumes in FY2026. The Law Library of Congress has digitized over 15,500 volumes in the collection, and GPO is currently cataloging and authenticating the PDFs. The collection will be available on both the GovInfo and loc.gov websites as authenticated documents are available.

About GPO
GPO is the Federal Government’s resource for publishing trusted information for the Federal Government to the American people. The GPO is responsible for producing and distributing information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State and the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other Federal agencies in digital and print formats. GPO provides permanent public access to Federal Government information at no charge through www.GovInfo.gov and partnerships with approximately 1,100 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov.

About the Law Library of Congress
The Law Library of Congress was founded in 1832 with the mission to make its resources available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. government and the global legal community, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of law for future generations. With more than 2.9 million volumes, the Law Library contains the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its website at law.gov.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.