Top of page

Time to Say Goodbye to THOMAS

Share this post:

A version of the following article originally appeared in the July 1, 2016, edition of Library of Congress staff newsletter, The Gazette.

THOMAS, which launched with great fanfare on January 5, 1995, twenty-one and a half years ago, is nearing its retirement on July 5, 2016.  Back when it launched, then-Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich led the initial celebration.

In his book, The Hill on the Net, Chris Casey describes why THOMAS ended up at the Library of Congress:

THOMAS Award. Photo by Bhaskaran Balakrishnan
SemiFinalist – National Information Infrastructure Government Award for THOMAS in 1996. Photo by Bhaskaran Balakrishnan.

As library to the legislative branch, and to the entire country, the Library of Congress provides a more appropriate symbolic home for the service. If it had originated in the House, it would have been difficult for many to escape the perception that the service was a partisan tool of the new Republican majority. But coming from the Library, it is easier to accept the source of the information as nonpartisan in nature. By rebuffing Speaker Gingrich’s desire to post his address to the nation in April 1995 on THOMAS, the Library later demonstrated the willingness and ability to protect the integrity of the service.

The Library reported that it took only nine days, from the site’s launch date, for 36,534 users to access THOMAS.

Not long after it launched in 1996, THOMAS was a semifinalist for a National Information Infrastructure (NII) Government Award.

THOMAS during the 106th Congress
THOMAS during the 106th Congress (1999-2000). Provided by Mike Newman.

THOMAS has gone through many changes over the years.  Mike Newman has worked on THOMAS for many years and shared what the site looked like during the 106th Congress (1999-2000) and 107th Congress (2001-2002).

In January 2000, “four hackers from a little country in Europe” defaced THOMAS for a short time period.

THOMAS had a facelift in 2005 that updated its facade to the familiar look it has today.  It was designed to look more like LOC.gov and American Memory looked at the time.

THOMAS even made its way into pop culture by appearing on Jeopardy in 2011 with the answer “THE loc.gov FEATURE CALLED THOMAS LETS YOU SEARCH FOR THESE MADE BY CONGRESS, LIKE H.R. 575″ to the question “What lets you search for laws passed by Congress?”

When new development of THOMAS picked up in 2010–with updates in January (before which THOMAS search results would time out after five minutes), June, and August–it became clear that the system just could not support the desired enhancements that users were looking for.  In August 2010, the first attempt was made to make the homepage mobile friendly. With a new system, the entire site would be mobile friendly.  Users were also repeatedly asking to receive alerts when legislation passed the House or Senate.

THOMAS during the 107th Congress
THOMAS during the 107th Congress (2001-2002). Provided by Mike Newman.

To meet these needs a dedicated team from across multiple service units at the Library of Congress began to meet weekly in September 2011 to plan for the system to replace THOMAS.

On September 19, 2012, the Library introduced Congress.gov and announced that the end was in sight for THOMAS.  Since then, the Library has continued to add data and refine Congress.gov into the site that it is today.  Two years after its introduction, the beta label was removed from Congress.gov.  More on the growth and development of Congress.gov can be found on the Law Library of Congress blog, In Custodia Legis.

Recently, ZDNet published “So long, Thomas.gov: Inside the retirement of a classic Web 1.0 application.”  THOMAS really was a classic Web 1.0 initiative by the Library of Congress.  And as sad as it might seem to see it go, the Library is well prepared with its replacement–Congress.gov.

As we work to continue to enhance Congress.gov, there is a new survey you can complete to share your thoughts.

Goodbye, THOMAS! Enjoy Monticello!

Comments (12)

  1. Will most all items with THOMAS urls (from 1995-2016) be redirected to their counterparts on Congress.gov?

    Also I understand that the text-based Congressional Record from 1989 thru 1994 that was on THOMAS is not being transferred to Congress.gov, but will instead be transferred to the Library of Congress Web Archive Collection. When is this happening as it does not appear to be there yet and will it be searchable?

    • Thanks for the questions, Rick! The plan is for all links to redirect starting on Tuesday, July 5. The details are described on our FAQ page. The Congressional Record Web Archive for the dates you mentioned is available now for browsing from Congress.gov.

  2. Perhaps I missed it–is there a chart showing coverage in terms of PDF format?

    • @KSC – Thank you for the question. Our Coverage Dates page does not specifically mention PDF.

  3. The new site is far too busy and confusing. Requires too many steps to get where you want to go. Not as user friendly as the old THOMAS site. This is an example of a solution that went in search of a problem (that didn’t exist).

  4. So far, I’m not fond of the new cite. I’m having trouble finding things that were easily found on Thomas.

  5. Thomas worked. This not so much. What purpose was served in taking down a useful and user-friendly site? If your aim was to obfuscate and delay information you succeeded. This was not pointless. It was an effort to make it more difficult for ordinary citizens to access information in a timely manner. Boo.

    • To provide feedback on particular issues with Congress.gov please fill in our feedback form. We appreciate your comments!

  6. Thomas made it easy to follow the progress of the budget through Congress. This does not see to be possible with the new web site.
    Please let me know where I can find this information easily.

    • Barbara, Try using the Appropriations Tables on Congress.gov. FY2017 is available. They have everything that the THOMAS charts had and a little more. Feel free to share comments.

  7. This is a sad example of the Peter Principle. The new system will not function as well as the old one. It will be up to private enterprise to fill in the holes in a *government* system.

    Beyond sad.

  8. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.