journ398

Journalism 398 - Researching Government Information on the Web

Congressional/Legislative information:

Commercial Sites available to subscribers (Lehigh University Library pays the "rent")

Congressional UNIVERSE comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information from Congressional Information Service, Inc. The service offers value added access to a variety of information by and about the United States Congress. You can:

Search an index of congressional publications from 1970 to the present

Retrieve CIS Legislative Histories for public laws going back to 1970

Find testimony from congressional hearings

Track bills as they move through the House and Senate

Search the Congressional Record and Federal Register

Locate information about members and committees

CQ Weekly Report Used by Congress-watchers who need nonpartisan information on Capitol Hill. The weekly magazine's legislative news and analysis is known for accuracy and comprehensiveness. The library's subcription includes access to the full text of all articles published since 1983.

Government Legislative Sites

GPO Access Legislative information and much more; organized and archived by the United States Government Printing office.

Thomas (Library of Congress) THOMAS has the Congressional Record and full text of legislation available from 1989 (101st Congress) to the present. In addition, THOMAS has summaries (not full text) of legislation are available back to 1975 (94th Congress).

Congressional Research Service reports - The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is part of the Library of Congress. It prepares reports for the U.S. Congress. CRS products undergo review for accuracy and objectivity. While these reports are extremely valuable, they are not widely distributed to Federal Depository Libraries or made available as an entire body of work to the general public. A few of the websites that attempt to gather and post these documents are linked below.

Congressional Research Service WWW Accessible Reports compiled by Gary Price

National Council for Science and the Environment CRS Report Database

Selected CRS Reports posted by the Senate Democratic Leadership

Executive Agencies and Offices: Using the Agency Approach

Three-Step "Agency Approach" to finding government information on the Internet.

1. Identify which government agency deals with the type of information you are looking for.

The United States Government Manual is an excellent place to find a description of the roles assigned to government agencies. The table handed out in class illustrating the U.S. government's organizational structure is from this manual. The manual is available in print in most libraries and also on the web at http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/nara001.html .

2. Go to that agency's Web home page.

Below are two good internet directories that can lead you to the web pages of government agencies

3. Examine that agency's Web pages for information you are looking for.

examine relevant links on an agency's home page
Look for links to statistics of that agency
do a search within an agency's Web pages
search for a sub-agency within the main agency that deals with your subject
look for a link to publications of the agency.

( Adapted from a tutorial created by: Chuck Malone, Government Information Librarian, Western Illinois University Library http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfcem/agency.htm#1)

Statistics and Data

FedStats A gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies
StatUSA a service of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It provides U.S. business, economic and trade information. Some international trade data is also available. This site is a fee-based service to which individuals and libraries may subscribe. (Federal Depository libraries make it available at no charge to the general public)
Statistical Abstract of the United States Available in PDF files on the web. This compilation gathers statistical tables from the data produced by many government agencies. Use the sources cited at the bottom of each table to identify the agencies responsible for collecting this type of data. Also available in print in most libraries.
U. S. Census Bureau
The major data collecting agency of the U.S. government. Responsible for gathering economic, social and demographic information.

Good overall Gateways to Government Information

University of Michigan Documents Center/ Federal Resources
Government Information at the Lehigh Library

Search engines for Government Information

Both Google and Altavista have "special tools" to allow you to search just government web pages.

Google (my personal first choice because of its ability to index and retrieve PDF pages)
Altavista

The two search engines below were designed to retrieve government and military information in particular:

First Gov
GovBot

Specialized Resources

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse - TRACFED and FEDPROBE are TRAC's dynamic subscription sites where users can obtain the customized data they need for examining how federal agencies are enforcing the laws of the nation. TRACFED is designed for journalists and reporters and made available on a subscription basis.To see the type of data they collect and its uses try out their free public website.

GOVDOC-L - A discussion list for Government Documents Librarians. You can submit a question to the group or search the archives.

For additional assistance contact:
Roseann Bowerman
Social Sciences and Government Publications Librarian
Lehigh University
rb04@lehigh.edu
February 2001