The United States Statutes at Large (AE 2.111:) is a chronological compilation -- laws are printed in the order in which they are passed. Each Congress usually has two volumes, and each volume has several separately bound parts.. The number of the Congress is given on the spine of the volume. The Hekman Library has Statutes in paper format starting with volume 37 which is the 62nd Congress, 1911-1913 (note that the number of the Congress does not correspond to the year of the Congress or the volume of the Statutes).

Before the library receives bound volumes of laws, we receive individual paper editions called slip laws (AE 2.110:). These are logically shelved AFTER the Statutes even though technically AE 2.110: comes before AE 2.111:. There is a note on the shelf reminding you of this in case you forget. NOTE: since around 1994, the library has been receiving cataloging records for the slip laws (not the bound set). Therefore, when you find a record on WebCat for a law, the SuDoc number will be AE 2.110 even if by now the law is actually in the bound set (AE 2.111).

Public Laws are numbered by Congress and then by consecutive number. For example the Family and Medical Leave Act is numbered Public Law 103-3 which means is it the third law passed by the 103rd Congress. The slip we had before the bound volume came out was numbered AE 2.110:103-3. Now that the bound edition is out, you would find this law by going to the first volume of the 103rd congress and looking for the 3rd law.

NOTE: Each volume has both a subject index and a name index.

ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT IT: When you are dealing with laws, there are three sets of numbers that may come into play: 1) the calendar year in which the law was passed; 2) the number of the Congress which passed the law; and 3) the volume and page number of the Statutes in which the law is cited. Unfortunately there is no immediately apparent way in which these three sets of numbers are related. If a user thinks a law was passed in a certain year, the easiest thing to do is to go to the Statutes and determine which Congress was in session. Don't use the number of the year as a volume number or as a number for the Congress. Each Congress has two sessions, and usually each session has its own volume number (not always the case in earlier volumes).

Public Laws - GPO Access covers the 104th Congress (1995-96) to the current. You can search laws by

	Public Law Number (i.e., "public law 104-4" -- you must use quotation marks and spell out the words "public law")
	US Code Citation (i.e., "40 USC 166" -- again, you must use quotation marks)
	Statutes-at-Large Citation (i.e., "109 Stat 3" -- use quotation marks. Remember, this is the volume and page number in the Statutes)
	Bill number (i.e., "s. 2" or "s 2" or "h r 2" -- you must use quotation marks and you must put use spaces as illustrated. Remember -- each congress probably has an "s 2" so you may get several hits.)
	Subject (use quotation marks around phrases; Boolean operators are allowed)

Public Laws by law number via Thomas goes back to the 93rd Congress (1973-74)

Remember that the Monthly Catalog serves as an index to laws -- the Monthly Catalog via GPO Access goes back to 1994, and the GPO Monthly Catalog database on FirstSearch goes back to 1976.

Also, WebCat contains records for laws back to about 1994. Good subject keywords are "law and legislation."

The United States Code is a compilation of all the laws by subject. This set is kept current by annual updates until a new edition is published. The Code is kept in the very first row of the govdocs compact shelving (where the tax forms are) even though the SuDoc number of the code is Y 1.2/5:. A shelf marker in the Y section will remind you of this, and the collection code on Dynix is given as Government Documents Reference.

There is an extensive subject index for the set, and in a separate volume there is an index which gives laws by their popular names.

The Statutes and the Code can be used together to give you more complete information on laws. Each set has references to the other set. If you wanted to know if a law has been updated you would find its location in the Code, and all further legislation, amendments, etc. affecting this law would be listed.

How to find a law: you know the number or name of the law, or keywords in the title of the law

Got the number? Piece of cake! From what you learned above you should know to go to the Statutes at Large, find the volume for the Congress, and then find the law number.

Got an exact citation from either the Statutes or the Code? Not too hard. For example, a citation for the Statutes is written as 107 STAT. 6 which means page 6 of volume (not Congress) 107. [This is the citation for the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.] A citation for the Code would be written as 29 USC 2601 which would be volume 29, section (not page) 2601. The section number is given at the outer corner of each page.

Got the name or some good keywords?

Try the most obvious place first: the online catalog. If at first you don't succeed with the name as the person gives it, try keywords.

Next go to the U.S. Code and try the Popular Name Index.

If you know the approximate year, you can browse the indexes of the Statutes at Large.

You would like laws on a given subject

Once again, try WebCat. The subject subdivision "law and legislation" is frequently used for laws, so try these in addition to the desired subject in a subject keyword search. If your search returns documents with different classification numbers, sort them by call number. Any starting with AE 2.110: you will recognize as laws.

United States Code

U.S. Code via GPO Access (all laws currently in force)

U.S. Code via the House of Representatives Internet Law Library

Subject approach to all laws in force as of January 1996 -- Several keyword search options -- For Boolean searching, indicate a phrase by placing "adj" between the words (eg. medicare and home adj health adj services) -- Summaries of selected subsequent laws -- Text of selected historic statutes

U.S. Code via Cornell Law School

Text of all laws in force as of January 1996 -- Searchable by popular title of law, title and section of the U.S. Code, or keyword -- Currently the best interface

The U.S. Code is also searchable in the Legal Research section of the LexisNexis Academic database.

Firstgov has an index of federal laws and regulations by subject category

A word about bills

GPO Access has full text of bills back to 103rd Congress(1993) and has a helpful section on searching bills and understanding all the different versions of bills.

Thomas has full text of bills back to 101st Congress (1989)

The History of Bills under GPO Access is an index of citations in the Congressional Record back to 1983.

Grace York at U of M has done a terrific job with the Michigan Laws and Michigan Legislature sections of her Documents Center pages.

Another good site is the Michigan Electronic Library's Michigan Government page.

The Legal Research section of the LexisNexis Academic database also includes state codes.