Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian presents…
Beginner’s Guide to Legislative History on November 9, 2011
The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.
This webinar will be exploring legislative history (mostly from a North Carolina perspective, but all are welcome). Legislative history attempts to answer 2 questions: (1) *What* does the law say (or, more often, what did it say in the past), and (2) *Why* does the law say what it says. Being able to track legislation from inception to General Statute is vital to answering these questions. This session will explain more fully what legislative history is (and is not), look at the print and online resources available, show what roadblocks may prevent patrons from finding complete answers, and provide suggestions for alternative sources of information. Familiarity with the NC General Statutes and NC Session Laws is helpful but not required. (more…)
