Foreign Legal Gazettes in the Law Library of Congress

"The Law Library of Congress has been collecting foreign official gazettes since the mid-nineteenth century and maintains one of the largest collections of these sources in the world. Official gazettes are primary sources of law published by national governments to disseminate new legislation, regulations, and decisions of governmental bodies. These publications may also contain other information including the text of international agreements, court decisions, official announcements, and government notices. For countries with civil law systems, the official gazette often serves as the sole source of the authoritative texts of laws until updated codes are published. In most countries, a law enters into force on the date of publication in the official gazette.

The Law Library’s gazette collection includes current, historical, and subnational jurisdictions. The two dashboards (desktop External and mobile External) represent an interactive, geographic index of the gazette collection owned by the Law Library of Congress. Users can explore the collection via an interactive map, or use the dropdown menus to search and filter results. Each row represents a different record in the catalog and users can see specific holdings information by clicking on the Library Catalog link for that record. The collection represented in the dashboard is content owned by the Law Library of Congress meaning the “digital” filter in the search will yield only content that has been digitized by the Library and not gazettes in commercial databases or free online collections. Please refer to the Law Library's Guide to Law Online for gazettes that are freely available online. The dashboards are updated regularly to edit records and add additional jurisdictions.

For Law Library of Congress legal gazette holdings, please refer to the Foreign Legal Gazette Guide External, and for legal gazettes that are freely available online, please refer to the Law Library's Guide to Law Online. If you have questions about the collection, or need research assistance, please Ask a Librarian..."
Foreign Legal Gazettes 

The Lifecycle of Copyright: 1925 Works Enter the Public Domain

"On January 1, a new raft of creative works of expression entered the public domain in the United States. The term of copyright has ended for works published or registered in 1925, which now join pre-1924 works already in the public domain and available for use by everyone without restrictions.

Expiration of copyright term is a critical phase in the lifecycle of copyright. Under the U.S. Constitution, the purpose of copyright is “to promote the progress of science.” Article I, section 8, clause 8, outlines a two-part structure for Congress to follow when enacting copyright laws so that they will further that goal.

Specifically, Congress may secure to authors “the exclusive right to their respective writings.” Granting exclusive rights to authors acts as an incentive to writers, artists, composers, and others in creative fields and thus increases the universe of human knowledge and culture.

Additionally, the Constitution specifies that the protection shall be “for limited times.” This ensures that those works will become part of the storehouse of human creation and can serve as source material for further creation.

The critical role of the public domain in human culture is easily illustrated by the fact that so many new works are based on public domain works, such as the works of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Bram Stoker, Louisa May Alcott, the Brontë sisters, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle..."
Copyright 

Official Gazettes: Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

"While the United States does not publish an official gazette, most countries of the world do.  These primary law sources are invaluable for foreign legal research.  While no two countries’ gazettes are identical, most contain legislation, orders, regulations, statutory instruments, and international agreements.  Some even include decisions of courts and administrative agencies.  The currency of gazettes adds to their value.  A new law may be published in a gazette months before it appears in a statutory compilation or a bound volume of session laws.  In some cases, the official gazette becomes the only source of a legislative record.  The Law Library strives to collect official gazettes from all countries of the world (past, current, and future).

Government Gazette of Botswana

Collection maintenance / access

Official gazettes are a significant part of our collection and can pose a variety of maintenance issues.  Some countries see these publications as advance copies of legislation, and print their gazettes on cheap, low quality paper or newsprint.  This paper does not age well; it quickly turns yellow or brown and becomes brittle.  For gazettes published in this manner, we microfilm them to ensure continued access to this valuable information.  In fiscal year 2010, the Law Library sent 2,907,936 pages of gazettes for microfilming..."
Gazettes 

Library of Congress Launches New Tool to Search Historical Newspaper Images

"The public can now explore more than 1.5 million historical newspaper images online and free of charge. The latest machine learning experience from LC Labs, Newspaper Navigator allows users to search visual content in American newspapers dating from 1789-1963.

The user begins by entering a keyword that returns a selection of photos. Then the user can choose photos to search against, allowing the discovery of related images that were previously undetectable by search engines.

For decades, partners across the United States have collaborated to digitize newspapers through the Library’s Chronicling America website, a database of historical U.S. newspapers. The text of the newspapers is made searchable by character recognition technology, but users looking for specific images were required to page through the individual issues. Through the creative ingenuity of Innovator in Residence Benjamin Lee and advances in machine learning, Newspaper Navigator now makes images in the newspapers searchable by enabling users to search by visual similarity..."
Newspaper Navigator 

Limits on Freedom of Expression

"This report examines the scope of protection extended to freedom of speech in 13 selected countries. In particular, the report focuses on the limits of protection that may apply to the right to interrupt or affect in any other way public speech. The report also addresses the availability of mechanisms to control foreign broadcasters working on behalf of foreign governments. The terms “freedom of speech” and “freedom of expression” as used in this report are interchangeable..."
Freedom of Expression

Initiatives to Counter Fake News in Selected Countries

"This report examines the legal approaches of fifteen countries, representing all regions of the world, to the emerging problem of manipulation with “fake news” using mass and social media, especially the impact of fake news on ongoing political processes and elections, and the legislative measures undertaken to counteract the dissemination of false information. Fake news as a phenomenon is not new and has been known since ancient times, but the present-day proliferation of digital and social media platforms, which allow for much broader distribution of information to a global audience, makes the need to counter fake news much more acute. With the exception of Japan, which appears to be the only country in this study where fake news scandals are limited to newspapers and tweeted messages that have no outside influence, a fact explained by the difficulty of the Japanese language for foreigners, the widespread distribution of false information and its impact on decision making and democratic processes is becoming a challenge worldwide. In 2017, a parliamentary committee in Egypt identified the dissemination of 53,000 false rumors over a period of two months. In Germany, 59% of survey participants stated that they had encountered fake news, and in some segments of the population this number was up to almost 80%. In Kenya, a country where 90% of the population has access to high-speed internet, 90% of surveyed users said that they received false or inaccurate information regarding the recent elections through social media..."
Fake News

Compiling a Federal Legislative History: A Beginner’s Guide

"Compiling a federal legislative history may seem intimidating at first glance, but it does not have to be. In this research guide, we will walk you through the steps you can use to compile your own federal legislative history.
 

When you begin your legislative history research, the first thing you should ask yourself is whether you need to compile your own federal legislative history. In several cases, someone might have already done the work for you, and compiled a legislative history report. To find more information about resources for pre-compiled legislative history reports, select the "Locating a Compiled Federal Legislative History" menu page in this guide.

If you were not able to find a pre-compiled legislative history report, you will have to roll up your sleeves and compile your own. To begin, you have to use the information you already have about the legislation of interest to lead you to other important citation information. If you are beginning with a U.S. Code citation, you will want to use the information on the "How to Trace Federal Legislation"  page in this guide to find the public law numbers, U.S. Statutes at Large citations, and bill information for both the legislation that gave rise to that section of the U.S. Code and any legislation that amended it.

Once you have this citation information, you will want to use it to find the legislative history documents that will make up your own legislative history report. We strongly suggest using the different pages of this "Beginner's Guide" to help you complete your research..."
Federal legislative history

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress

"The papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865).  Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration...


The Index to the Abraham Lincoln Papers (PDF and page view) created by the Manuscript Division in 1960 after the bulk of the collection was microfilmed, provides a full list of the correspondents and notes the series number, dates, and mounting-sheet numbers for items in Series 1-3 of the Abraham Lincoln Papers. This information, in addition to the keyword search capability in the online presentation, is helpful in finding individual letters or documents in the online version. Additional letters received by the Library after 1960 are not listed in this index.

A current finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Abraham Lincoln Papers is also available online..."
Abraham Lincoln papers

Alexander Hamilton Papers

"The papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his personal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and correspondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families. The collection, consisting of approximately 12,000 items dating from 1708 to 1917, documents Hamilton's impoverished Caribbean boyhood (scantily); events in the lives of his family and that of his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton; his experience as a Revolutionary War officer and aide-de-camp to General George Washington; his terms as a New York delegate to the Continental Congress (1782-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787); and his careers as a New York state legislator, United States treasury secretary (1789-1795), political writer, and lawyer in private practice. Most of the papers date from 1777 until Hamilton's death in 1804. Additional details may be found in the collection's finding aid (HTML and PDF versions).

Among the many correspondents in the papers are John Adams, Angelica Schuyler Church, Henry Clay, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Rufus King, the Marquis de Lafayette, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, James McHenry, James Monroe, Robert Morris, Timothy Pickering, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Philip Schuyler, Baron von Steuben, Robert Troup, George Washington, James Wilkinson, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr..."
Alexander Hamilton

An App to Answer Your Questions about the Constitution

"Two years ago, in honor of Constitution Day—celebrated annually on September 17—I wrote a post about the publication “Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation,” also referred to as the “Constitution Annotated.” Along with the U.S. Code, it is one of my favorite work resources.

Unfortunately, it is a behemoth of a work—it takes two hands to hold the volume, which weighs a good 10 pounds. Fortunately, the text is also available online through Congress.gov and through the U.S. Government Publishing Office, whose digital system includes both the most recent edition (2016) as well as historic editions back to 1992.

But given my penchant for bringing work topics into social situations, even the online version is not very practical. I cannot, very easily, fire up the computer during a conversation at a dinner or cocktail party. However, fortunately for me, there is an app for the “Constitution Annotated.” It debuted in 2013, when Congress.gov was still in beta, and has since been updated..."
Constitution of the U.S. App

Alexander Hamilton Papers Online

"The Library of Congress has put the papers of Alexander Hamilton online for the first time in their original format.

The Library holds the world’s largest collection of Hamilton papers—approximately 12,000 items concentrated from 1777 until Hamilton’s death in 1804, including letters, legal papers and drafts of speeches and writings, among other items. Now, for the first time, these original documents—many in Hamilton’s own hand—will be available for researchers, students or the generally curious anywhere in the world to explore, zoom in and read at loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-papers/.

“The Library of Congress is home to millions of one-of-a-kind manuscripts that reveal America’s history directly from the minds of the individuals who helped shape it,” said Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. “Alexander Hamilton is certainly having his moment and I am so thrilled that people can learn more about him—actually read his descriptions of Revolutionary War battles, read letters to his wife, see the cross-outs in his draft of George Washington’s farewell address and so many other things. Sharing this history is what the Library is all about.”"
Alexander Hamilton

Refugee Law and Policy In Selected Countries

"This report describes the law and policy on refugees and other asylum seekers in twenty-two geographically dispersed countries and, at the supranational level, in the European Union (EU). The individual surveys cover such topics as participation in relevant international conventions; laws and regulations governing the admission of refugees and handling refugee claims; processes for handling refugees arriving at the border; procedures for evaluating whether an applicant is entitled to refugee status; the accommodations and assistance provided to refugees in the jurisdiction; requirements for naturalization; and whether asylum policy has been affected by international emergencies, such as the current refugee crisis in Europe..."
Refugee law

Guide to Law Online

"The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information..."
Online law resource

Chronicling America:Historic American Newspapers.

"Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories..."
Chronicling America

Refugee Law and Policy In Selected Countries

"This report describes the law and policy on refugees and other asylum seekers in twenty-two geographically dispersed countries and, at the supranational level, in the European Union (EU). The individual surveys cover such topics as participation in relevant international conventions; laws and regulations governing the admission of refugees and handling refugee claims; processes for handling refugees arriving at the border; procedures for evaluating whether an applicant is entitled to refugee status; the accommodations and assistance provided to refugees in the jurisdiction; requirements for naturalization; and whether asylum policy has been affected by international emergencies, such as the current refugee crisis in Europe. A bibliography of selected relevant English-language materials from recent years is included..."
Refugee law

The Rosa Parks Collection is Now Online

"The Rosa Parks Collection at the Library of Congress has been digitized and is now online.

The collection, which contains approximately 7,500 manuscripts and 2,500 photographs, is on loan to the Library for 10 years from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The Library received the materials in late 2014, formally opened them to researchers in the Library’s reading rooms in February 2015 and now has digitized them for optimal access by the public.

"It’s a great privilege to open the Rosa Parks Collection and help people worldwide discover more about her active life and her deep commitment to civil rights and to children," said David Mao, Acting Librarian of Congress. "From the thoughtful reflections she left us in her own handwriting to her "Featherlite Pancakes" recipe and smiling portraits, you’ll find much to explore in this collection about Mrs. Parks’ life beyond the bus."

Parks became an iconic figure in history on Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the Civil Rights Movement. Parks died at age 92 in 2005..."
Rosa Parks

The Library of Congress by the Numbers in 2015

"The Library of Congress today released statistics for fiscal year 2015. Its collection now comprises more than 162 million physical items in a wide variety of formats.

The daily business of being the world’s largest library, the home of the U.S. Copyright Office and a supportive agency to the U.S. Congress resulted in the Library adding 1.7 million physical items to its permanent collections, registering more than 443,000 copyright claims and responding to more than 1 million reference requests from Congress, the public and other federal agencies in fiscal year 2015.

Some notable items newly cataloged into the Library’s collection include the papers of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and composer Marvin Hamlisch; rare Civil War stereograph images; recordings from the pioneering folk music label Stinson Records, featuring Woody Guthrie, Peter Seeger and Lead Belly; the Archive of the Association of American Geographers; and the backfile of issues on microfilm of the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo," which began publishing in 1970...
Library of Congress

Library of Congress to Receive 9/11-Responder Oral History Collection

"The Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center will become the home of a significant collection of oral histories provided by responders to the devastating Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the New York World Trade Center, U.S. Rep. Steve Israel announced today. The collection, known as the "Remembering 9/11 Oral History Project," is being donated by physician Benjamin Luft, the Edmond Pellegrino Professor of Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and director of the Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program, who treated many of those responders following the tragedy..".
9/11 Reponders collection

Library of Congress Literacy Award: Best Practices, 2015

"Since 2013, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program has recognized 59 organizations worldwide for their effectiveness in promoting literacy. The programs of 17 organizations are being honored in 2015 and described in this publication. The work of the three 2015 prize winners is particularly notable, but outstanding specific examples, often presenting a unique approach, also are found among the best practices implemented by the 14 other organizations. The Library of Congress Literacy Awards, administered by the Library of Congress Center for the Book, are made possible through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein..."
Best Practices 2015

Library of Congress Magazine

"Library of Congress Magazine (LCM) is published bimonthly to tell the Library’s stories, to showcase its many talented staff, and to share and promote the use of the resources of the world’s largest library..."Library of Congress Magazine