The volumes that cover the First through the Fourteenth Congresses (1789- 1816) are called American State Papers.  There were 38 volumes published.  The volumes for the first volume issued for the Fifteenth Congress in 1817 and all subsequent volumes are the U.S. Congressional Serial Set.

The volumes for the first volume issued for the Fifteenth Congress in 1817 and all subsequent volumes are the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. There are now over 16,000 volumes in the Serial Set.  The  arrangement of the bound Serial Set is by volume number. The volumes are numbered so as to be in order by Congressional session, Congressional chamber (House or Senate), publication type (report or document), and publication number. For example, Senate Report 101-236 is the 236th Senate Report issued during the 101st Congress.  More information on citations is available on the "Reading Serial Set Citations" box under the Home tab of this guide. 

Some of the older Serial Set information is available in the Library in microcard and microfiche formats. The microcard volumes are located in the Mezzanine, a closed storage area. To retrieve this material, ask at Circulation. Microfiche may be photocopied, but the Library does not have facilities for photocopying microcard.  Other editions of the Serial Set are available in print and can be found in the Government Publications Mezzanine section of the library.  To retrieve this material ask at Circulation. The last three links in the list below will bring you to sites that allow electronic access to the Serial Set. 

This list provides access to the text of the Serial Set by Congress number and year.  If you do not have the citation information, you may need to search some of the index products available for the Serial Set.  You can browse these resources by clicking on the "Resources for Accessing the Serial Set" tab.