LIV – Legislative Indexing Vocabulary

Long Explanation

The Legislative Indexing Vocabulary (LIV) was the Congressional Research Service (CRS) thesaurus for subject searching in databases of the Library of Congress from 1973 to 2008. This controlled vocabulary provided access via specific subjects to legislative material, public policy literature, and CRS products. With increased availability of electronic full text of documents and accompanying search capabilities, the level of detail employed by LIV became unnecessary and work began to modernize and streamline the pool of vocabulary terms assigned by CRS analysts to classify and group legislation. Those efforts resulted in the far more compact list of legislative subject terms, in use since 2009.

In practice, LIV – Legislative Indexing Vocabulary is useful because it helps a visitor connect a word or phrase to government records, official decisions, public services, or civic responsibilities. When you see the term in an official source, ask which office has authority, what decision is being made, which deadline or rule matters, and where the public record can be checked.

Examples

Common Misconception

A common mistake is treating LIV – Legislative Indexing Vocabulary as a slogan instead of a term connected to a specific public process. The safest approach is to ask what authority, document, deadline, office, or public record gives the term its meaning.

Related Terms

Legislative ProcessGovernment ResourcesLIVLegislative Indexing Vocabulary