Search LawCat (BerkeleyLaw's online catalog) to see if the Library has any hearings or reports that pertain to a bill.
From LawCat's main menu choose a keyword search. Follow this format—California Senate [or Assembly] Judiciary [or other key word from the committee name, e.g., Aging, Criminal, Health, Utilities, Water]
You will retrieve all of the hearings and reports of that committee that BerkeleyLaw has. You can then click on Modify Search and specify the year range to search. In California, hearings are often held a year or two before a bill is introduced; it is best to provide a time span of several years before and after the date of the bill.
On the Modify Search page, you can also limit by subject words, e.g., environmental, medical, housing, etc. or by title words, e.g., probate, child abuse, insurance.
If you need assistance searching LawCat, please see a reference librarian.
Between 1849 and 1970 the California Legislature published selected reports in the Appendices of the Senate and Assembly Journals. The Journals are located in the Stacks (KFC5) following the bills for each year. They are also available online through the San Francisco Public Library here:
http://sflib1.sfpl.org/record=b1546998~S1
You may use the following indices to search for hearings and reports:
Index of economic material in documents of the states of the United States: California, 1849-1904
LOCATION: Doe Reference, Call No. AS32 .C3 v.85:D
Index to reports published in the Appendices to the Journals of the California Legislature, 1905-1970
The official California Legislative Information site has quick links to Senate and Assembly Hearing Archives on the right side of the page.
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