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Federal Register: Search TipsFielded Searches | Sample Searches | Identification Codes Fielded SearchesA fielded search page is provided for Federal Register databases from 1995 to the present. Fielded searches allow you to make your search more specific by limiting your results by preselected elements, such as volume, section, and date. The fields for the Federal Register databases are as follows:
To select or deselect a field, click on the appropriate box or circle. You may search one or multiple volumes and/or sections with a single query. However, you may choose only one option with regard to the issue date. Queries that do not specify a field will perform a search of the entire database.
Fielded searches are not available for the 1994 Federal Register database. In order to find a document in this database, you must perform a simple search. Choose "Federal Register, Volume 59 (1994)" and enter your search terms in the search box. Sample Searches (8)The following sample searches are provided as guides to general types of searches in the Federal Register databases. Unless otherwise indicated, the searches are performed in the 1998 Federal Register database. For the sake of space, only the top three hits in each results list are included with each example below.
Subject | Agency
| Table of Contents | CFR Part This type of search returns documents that are related to a specific subject. The word(s) that you enter as your search term(s) may appear anywhere within the document.
This type of search returns documents based on the name of the issuing agency. To make your search more specific, modify the query by also including a date, section, or subject.
3. Search for the Table of Contents by Issue Date This type of search returns the Federal Register table of contents for a specific date. The browse feature allows you to view the entire table of contents from a single issue of the Federal Register from 1998 to the present. For databases between 1995 and 1998, follow steps similar to those shown below.
The above query returns documents from the contents section that were published in the Federal Register for August 21, 1997. To view the table of contents, click on the text or PDF link for "fr21au97C CONTENTS," which will retrieve the document.
4. Search by Code of Federal Regulations Part Number This type of search returns documents from the Federal Register based on the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part that they affect. You must include the word "part" in your query in order to limit your search to the introductory material in each document that references the affected part.
5. Search for the List of CFR Parts Affected This type of search returns the list of CFR parts affected that appears in each issue of the Federal Register.
The above query returns two documents for the date of December 4, 1998. The first document (fr04de98C) is a list of CFR parts that are affected only by the December 4 issue. The second document (fr04de98A) includes a cumulative list of CFR parts affected during the entire month of December. Both of these lists are available for all dates.
This type of search returns documents that appear wholly or partially on a specified page. You must include the word "page" in your query in order to eliminate the return of documents that include the page number as a numeric reference within the text.
For documents that span more than one page, it is possible to find the full page range by consulting the heading in an ASCII text file or the "Go To Page" tool in the Adobe Reader. Page breaks are indicated by separators (e.g., [[Page 7423]]) in an ASCII text file or by a new page view in the Adobe Reader; they may, as in a printed document, fall in the middle of a sentence. 7. Search by Page Number in the 1994 Database Page numbers do not appear in the 1994 Federal Register database, except in the table of contents and the list of CFR parts affected. Therefore, in order to retrieve a specific document with a page number, you will have to perform a two-step search, utilizing one of those sections. First, perform a simple search, using the page number as your search term (type only the number itself, not "page" and then the number, as you would in a later Federal Register database). This search will return the contents and list of CFR parts affected for the appropriate date, as well as various other documents. Within either the table of contents or the list of CFR parts affected, find the document that corresponds to your page number. Select significant words from the title of that document and then, using those words, perform a second simple search of the database to retrieve your document.
8. Search by Citation (Volume and Page Number) This type of search returns documents based on Federal Register citation. A unique citation exists for every page of every volume of the online Federal Register database. Each citation includes a volume number, an abbreviation for Federal Register, and a page number. For example, in the citation "64FR618," 64 is the volume number, "FR" stands for Federal Register, and 618 is the page number. Searching by citation essentially amounts to searching by volume and page number. From the volume number, you must determine which year of the Federal Register is being referenced (volume 59 is 1994, volume 60 is 1995, and so on). Once you know the year and page number, you can perform a fielded or simple search to retrieve your document. (See above instructions for searching by page number.) Expanding on the example from the previous paragraph, 64FR618 refers to page 618 in the 1999 Federal Register. A search of the 1999 database for "page 618" returns the document entitled "fr05ja99R Minimum Internal Control Standards." Identification CodesIn the list that displays your query results, the title of each Federal Register document is preceded by an identification code. The identification code contains three elements: a database abbreviation, the issue date, and a section identifier. For example, in the identification code "fr17ja98R," "fr" stands for Federal Register, "17ja98" is the issue date (January 17, 1998), and R indicates that the document is from the rules and regulations section. The following is a list of all of the Federal Register section identifiers.
Effective March 1, 1996, the Sunshine Act meetings section of the Federal Register was eliminated. After that date, Sunshine Act notices appear in the notices section of the Federal Register but continue to be referred to as Sunshine Act meetings in the table of contents. Therefore, the Sunshine Act meetings field on the fielded search page should be used for documents published between January 1995 and February 1996; Sunshine Act meeting documents from March 1996 to the present may be found by selecting the notices field and using the search term "sunshine." |