LEXIS SEARCHING FOR GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

The LEXIS data base provides full text searching of federal bills and their legislative status; the Congressional Record and committee schedules; federal and state laws, regulations, and court decisions; corporate reports, and newspapers.

Searching is limited to University faculty and students pursuing curricular needs. Searching for other purposes could result in the Graduate Library's loss of its subscription.

Dedicated workstations are located near the Graduate Library Information Desk and in the Documents Center.

Getting Started

1. Sign-up in advance for one or two half-hour time slots to use LEXIS. There can be a two-day waiting period during the busiest times of the semester.

2. Verify your University status with the Graduate Library Information Center or Documents Desk and request assistance in logging into the system.

3. The GL Information Center and Documents Center use a WINDOWS interface. In the instructions below:
   Dot commands (e.g. .cf) and function keys are the backup navigation protocols
   

   Clickable icons replace these commands at the Documents Center and Information Center workstations. At present the Documents Center and Information Center workstations have a slightly different Windows Interface.

4. The introductory screen will list the various LIBRARIES available. To see the additional "libraries", TYPE .np and <RETURN>.

   The most important LIBRARIES for Documents Center users are GENFED (Code of Federal Regulations, United States Code), LEGIS (pending federal and state legislation and as well as campaign political inform ation), and STATES (state laws, regulations, and pending regulations). NEWS indexes newspapers from around the world. Materials often appear in more than one LIBRARY.

5. TYPE the code for the LIBRARY and <RETURN>.

6. The Screen will show a list of FILES for that LIBRARY. TYPE .np and <RETURN> to page the list of libraries.
   GENFED files include:
   • ALLREG (Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations)
   • CFR (Code of Federal Regulations)
   • FEDREG (Federal Register)
   • PUBLAW (Public Laws)
   • USCODE (United States Code)

   STATES files include:

   • State Laws (ALLCDE for all 50 states or the abbreviations for the individual states, e.g. MICODE)
   • State Bills (Abbreviations for individual states, such as MITRCK, MITEXT, MIBILL)
   • State Regs (Abbreviations for individual states, such as MIRGTR)

   LEGIS files include:

   • BLTRCK (bill tracking)
   • BLTEXT (bill text)
   • CNGTST (Congressional testimony)
   • 104th (Congressional Record)
   • MLEGIS (Congressional ratings, votes and attendance)
   • PAC (PAC contributions)
   • AMPOL (Almanac of American Politics)

7. TYPE the name of the FILE you would like to search and <RETURN>.

Searching

1. Search protocols use Boolean logic and are very similar to MIRLYN.

2. A sample search in the Congressional Record might be:

   Ford and family leave

   (William D. Ford, former Representative for Ann Arbor, was the sponsor of the 1993 federal family leave legislation)

3. The search above assumes "family" and "leave" are adjacent words. To place "family" and "leave" within three words of one another, TYPE

   Ford and family w/ 3 leave

4. To modify this search, TYPE m.

5. You may then use the cursor and/or insert key to change the search. TYPE

   (Ford or Riegle or Levin) and family w/3 leave

6. To limit the search by date, TYPE m a second time and use the cursor and/or insert key. TYPE

   (Ford or Riegle or Levin) and family w/3 leave and date is 1993

   To search the status of a bill, TYPE h.r.631 and date is 1993

   Other sample "date commands"

   date is May 3, 1993

   date bef 7/27/93

   date aft August 1993

   date bef 8/31/93 and date aft 8/16/93

7. Each LEXIS file has different "segments," that is, fields or categories where you can specify your search must appear. To determine the field for any given file, TYPE .se.

   In this particular case, if we wanted to ensure our record provided a speech on family leave given by Representative Ford or one of Michigan's Senators in 1993, the search would read:

   speaker (ford or riegle or levin) and family w/3 leave and date is 1993)

   If you are updating the Code of Federal Regulations, the segment command would be

   cfr (40 and 16)

8. To identify only articles with a large concentration of keywords, use the "atleast" command.

   The following command insures that the phrase "family leave" will occur at least 20 times in the article:

   atleast 20 (family leave)

9. To conduct a different search, TYPE

   .ns (for new search)

10. Other important search protocols:

    LEXIS automatically searches the singular and plural of a word.

    diagnosis related group also yields diagnosis related groups

    The truncation symbol ! is used at the end of a word

    To obtain child or children, TYPE child!

    The truncation symbol * is used in the middle of a word.

    Bl**d would obtain blood, blind, blend, etc.

Displaying Results

1. All instructions to the computer, other than choosing libraries, files, and search terms, are given through a series of "dot" commands, a period followed by a two letter abbreviation. Function keys (DOS workstations) and icons (WINDOWS workstations) can be used as a substitute for many of these commands. A list of "dot" commands and function keys is appended.

2. Once the screen shows the number of your search results, TYPE

   .ci to receive a list of citations

3. All citations are numbered. TYPE [number] and <RETURN>.

4. There are two additional displays once you have chosen your document.

   .kw highlights the keywords in context (default)

   .fu provides the full text

5. To move to the next document, TYPE .nd.

6. To move to the previous document, TYPE .pd

7. To start a new search in the same file, TYPE .ns

Printing

The LEXIS system only permits page prints.


Click on the PRINT SCREEN icon.


It may be quicker to download your search onto a floppy disk and print it out later.

Downloading Your Search

1. Bring a 3-1/2" DOS-formatted (high or double-density) floppy disk to the workstation. A MacIntosh-formatted disk will not work. Disks may be purchased from a vending machine just as you enter the Shapiro Science Library from the Graduate Library's second floor connector.

2. Insert in the A: drive.

3. When you want to begin recording your session, click on FILE
   • Click on Record Session / Start
   • At Lookin: click on 3-1/2 Floppy [A:]
   • Type preferred file name
   • Click on Open

4. Material is recorded as you go through it so there is no need to wait until exiting before removing your disk.

5. TO PAUSE recording, click on FILE/Record Session/Pause

6. To RESUME recording after a pause, click on FILE/Record Session/Resume

7. To verify your downloading
   • Ask for assistance at the Documents Desk
   • You can check your disk yourself by clicking on the File Manager, clicking on the MSDOS prompt, switching to the a: drive by typing a:, and then typing type [filename] (e.g. type politics.rec)
   • If you log back into LEXIS, you can resume your search but give your recording file a new name so you don't overwrite it.

8. You can open up your session record at a later date using a word processing program. When using Microsoft Word, look for "All Files."

Ending a Search Session

1. To change files within a "library," click on Change File
2. To change "libraries," click on Change Library
3. To signoff, click on Sign Off

List of Dot Commands and Function Keys

DOT COMMANDS                            Function Keys

  .cf           change file                  F9
  .ci           citation list                F7
  .cl           change libraries             F10
  .fd           first document   
  .fp           first page                   SHIFT/F6
  .fu           full display                 F6
  .kw           keyword (kwic) display       F5
   m            modify
  .nd           next document                F3
  .np           next page                    F1
  .ns           new search                   F8
  .pd           previous document            F4
  .pp           previous page                F2
  .se           segment                      SHIFT/F10
  .so           signoff                      ALT-F9

DATE COMMANDS


date is
date bef
date aft
date bef [give date] and date aft [give date]

http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/lexis.html
Last updated on March 26, 1998