Using the Iowa Legislature Website Video Series
The Legislative Services Agency and Drake Law Library jointly created a series of videos to teach the public how to find information on the Iowa legislature website.
Please keep in mind that this website is always changing. If you are following along with the video, your screen may not be identical to the one displayed. As new sessions of the General Assembly convene and as website improvements are made, there may be changes to the look and feel of the site. The general functionality should mostly remain the same. If you have comments, questions, or concerns about the website itself, please email them to webmaster@legis.iowa.gov.
Site Introduction
You can find content on the Iowa legislature site using its search boxes, tabs, and links in the header and footer.
Quick Search Boxes
The Iowa legislature site has a series of quick search boxes to access the full-text of code section, administrative rules, session laws, and current bills when you have its citation (number). You can also locate current bills by keyword.
Search Iowa Legislative Documents
The Iowa legislature site offers an advanced search feature that allows you to find many kinds of documents, including legislation, current code and administrative code provisions, session laws and Iowa administrative rule-making documents. This feature used to be called Legislative Document Research, which is how the videos refer to it. It has been slightly renamed to Search Legislative Documents.
Subscriptions
The Iowa legislature site provides a variety of subscription options that will send you email updates related to legislative and agency actions. With Bills & Rules Watch you can customize the content you receive via email and also how often you receive these emails.
Video Captions and Transcripts
All of these videos offer captions and transcripts. These features help people with hearing loss, those who chose to view the video without the sound on, and those who wish to jump to a particular portion of the video. To open the captions from a web browser, simply click the CC button at the lower right of the player. This is a toggle button, so you can turn the captions off by clicking CC again. In the YouTube app, click more options (three dots) in the upper right of the player, choose Captions, and then English. To open the transcript from a web browser, click more options (three dots) to the far right of the line under the player, then click Open transcript. The transcript will open in a separate window to the right of the viewer. You can use the scroll bar to progress through the transcript. If you click on words within the transcript, the video will automatically advance to that section.