Related Resources at the Library

What's New in THOMAS for June 2010

The June 2010 update to THOMAS includes many new features designed to improve the user's experience:

Bookmarking and Sharing Widget Expanded to Additional Dynamic Pages

The sharing toolbar (released to the Bill Summary & Status and Bill Text pages in January 2010) allows users to save or share a permanent link via bookmarks, email, or social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. This toolbar can now also be found on the Congressional Record, Committee Reports, and Nominations and Treaties pages as well as detail-level Bill Summary & Status (BSS) pages.

Consistent, Informative Headers and Improved Navigation for All Searches

All search pages now display updated page headings and titles, so you can tell at a glance where you are in the search process. In addition, detail-level BSS pages now link back to the higher-level BSS pages, allowing easier navigation of search results.

Years Now Included with the Numbers Identifying Sessions of Congress

THOMAS now displays the years of each Congress or provides a link to that information. For example, the page heading for a bill from the 108th Congress includes the text (2003-2004). Hovering over a Congress number on a search screen results in pop-up text of the corresponding years. Clicking Congress-to-Year Conversion displays a help page with a Congress-to-year conversion table. You no longer need hesitate in searching, or spend valuable time in looking up or calculating dates.

Home Page Enhancements

The Tip of the Week feature now includes a link to an archive, giving you ready access to tips from previous weeks. RSS Feeds and GovDelivery email alerts have been enabled for both the Top Bills feature and the Tip of the Week. A More link from the Weekly Top Five feature now brings up a list of the top ten bills searched on THOMAS during the current week.