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Related Resources at the Library
Legislative Handles are a new persistent URL service for creating links to legislative documents from the THOMAS web site (http://thomas.loc.gov). With a simple syntax, Legislative Handles make it easy to type in legislative links to bibliographies, reference guides, emails, blogs, or web pages. Legislative Handles, for instance, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hconres196, are a convenient way to cite legislation.
Handles are web addresses that do not change over time. The goal of the Handles project is to minimize the impact of any future search engine or database changes by providing persistent predictable links.
Handles are an additional way to access legislation. The current link structure for THOMAS has not changed. See Direct Links To Thomas Documents for more information about the current structure.
How to create a Legislative Handle
Begin the URL with the handle domain name -- http://hdl.loc.gov/ -- then add loc.uscongress. Add a slash and the name of the collection, legislation, followed by a period and the congress number, 110. Finally, add the bill type abbreviation and the bill number.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110s254
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110sconres33
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hr4544
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hres655
To learn the specifics for building any Handle, see Syntax below.
How Legislative Handles work
A Handle is a form of uniform resource identifier (URI) that resolves to a uniform resource locator (URL). As a stable pointer, the Handle will not change even if the underlying URL changes over time or the object moves to a new directory. The Global Handle Registry(TM) is run by CNRI (Corporation for National Research Initiatives), making it possible to resolve Handles from any computer on any network. The actual page URL, not the Handle, is shown in the browser address bar when the page is displayed.
Handles are being introduced in stages and currently apply only to legislation in the Bill Summary and Status database from the 93rd to the current Congress.
General Syntax - - Legislation (BSS) Syntax
GENERAL SYNTAX for any Legislative Handle
Handle Server
| http://hdl.loc.gov | / |
Naming Authority
| loc.uscongress | / |
Identifier - Collection
| legislation | . |
Identifier - Item
| 110hconres4544 |
- The Handle server
http://hdl.loc.gov - The naming authority indicates the handle administrators and the provenance of the digital document. Our naming authority represents current United States congressional documents held at the Library of Congress.
loc.uscongress - The collection identifier is the document type or database. In addition to legislation, we anticipate having Handles for the Congressional Record and other legislative documents.
- The item identifier uniquely describes one item in a collection. It contains a series of parts that logically divide the content within the collection. The item identifier syntax follows the handle punctuation rules outlined below and is specific to each collection.
110hconres4544
Handle punctuation
- Numbers will *not* use zero padding.
- A slash will be used as a delimiter between
- the Handle server and the naming authority hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress
- the naming authority and the item identifier loc.uscongress/legislation.110hconres4544 - A period will be used as a delimiter between
- subdivisions of the naming authority loc.uscongress
- the collection and the item legislation.110hconres4544
- repeated occurrences of a numbers in the item identifier treaty.110.34
LEGISLATION SYNTAX (Bill Summary and Status database)
http:// hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.###( s | sjres | sconres | sres | samdt | hr | hjres | hconres | hres | hamdt )###
- The collection name, legislation, is followed by a period and the Congress number.
- The bill type abbreviation ( s | sjres | sconres | sres | samdt | hr | hjres | hconres | hres | hamdt ) is followed immediately by the bill number.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110s254
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110sjres10
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110sconres33
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110sres69
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110samdt43http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hr622
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hjres65
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hconres27
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hres655
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hamdt234