Planned upgrades include a new search engine and help section, improved visual appearance, the ability to browse legislation by sponsor, links to Senate hearings for nominations, and links to the full text of treaties.
“We hope, by year’s end, to deliver several enhancements to the current features to provide for quicker searches with more relevant results,” said Kevin Novak, director of education outreach and web services for the library’s Office of Strategic Initiatives.
LC launched Thomas in January 1995 as part of a congressional initiative to make federal legislative information available on the internet. Since then, some lawmakers have pushed for Thomas to offer access to more legislative information such as voting records, Congressional Research Service publications, and Senate gift reports, and to offer the ability to search information from previous congressional sessions.
Posted September 2, 2005.