GPO and the Library of Congress Digitize 10,000 Volumes of the United States Serial Set

  • Last Updated: January 14, 2026
  • Published: January 14, 2026

U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) achieved a major milestone by uploading and making available its 10,000th volume of the United States Congressional Serial Set on GPO’s GovInfo. Those volumes contain more than 185,000 individual Government documents and reports. This is part of a multi-year effort with the Law Library of Congress to digitize and make accessible the United States Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817.

“Congratulations to our team and our partners at the Library of Congress on reaching this significant milestone,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “This effort to preserve our Nation’s history serves as one more way we continue to make Government information available to the American people. We’re going to continue our digitization work to make even more of the documents available online.”

“The digitization of and free public access to the 10,000th volume of the Congressional Serial Set marks a major milestone in our commitment to open government and historical preservation,” said Law Librarian of Congress, Aslihan Bulut. “This achievement would not be possible without our partnership with the U.S. Government Publishing Office, whose collaboration helps ensure that scholars, students and the public can explore the documentary record of Congress and better understand the decisions that have shaped our Nation.”

Highlights from the newly added volumes include:

  1. Report with information on how the Navy, Treasury, Post Office, and Agriculture departments participated in the 1876 International Exhibit, America’s first world’s fair that celebrated the Nation’s 100th birthday.
  2. Compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies from 1861‒1865. This was GPO’s largest print job at the time.
  3. Committee hearing from 1912 with testimony from advocates of women’s suffrage.
  4. Report of polar expedition to Lady Franklin Bay in Canada in 1881‒1884. The expedition aimed to establish a meteorological station in the Canadian Arctic to gather data on weather, magnetism, tides, and more. Only seven of the 25 original men survived the expedition.

The United States Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, is a compilation of all numbered House and Senate reports and documents, including executive reports and treaty documents, issued for each session of Congress. GPO is uploading volumes of the official Serial Set in phases for free public access on GovInfo. GPO has nearly 6,000 remaining volumes to upload and is aiming to release an additional 2,000 volumes in FY2026.