PHASE ONE:
Congressional Districts and Representatives
Interest Groups
Bush Administration
PHASE TWO:
Identifying and tracking legislation for the
project
News Sources
Position Papers and Background Information
Congressional Districts in the 1990's: a Portrait of America, Fairchild Library, Reference - 328.73 C 7491co 1990. This reference book describes each Congressional District, its industrial and economic base, provides information on the ethnic make-up, local institutions of higher education and identifies major businesses and employers.
Census 2000 - Demographic Profiles of Congressional Districts. First, click on the "Demographic Profile Data Search" link from the Census Bureau page, http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/demoprofiles.html - Select your state and then type an asterisk (*) into the box to the right of the state name. When a list of state localities appears, scroll down to Congressional Districts.
Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America. 342.73 C749p 2004 FM-RESERVE , This work is similar to the Almanac of American Politics. It provides a profile of each member of congress and congressional district with demographic information and descriptions of the political environment.
Project Vote Smart
- This website covers candidates and elected officials in federal and
state positions. You can find contact and biographical information,
issue positions, campaign contributions and interest group ratings for
these officials from over 100 liberal to conservative groups.
SEE ALSO NEWSPAPER
RESOURCES
Political Science Resources, U.S. Politics. A section of the Univ. of Michigan mega-site on Political information, this page provides well rounded access to information on U.S. Politics. Click on the link to "Lobby Groups" to jump to the section with links to interest groups. (URL- http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/psusp.html)
Directory of
Political Debates and Issues. This section of the
larger Politics1 website provides a listing of ideologies
and political and social issues with links to organizations which take
a serious interest in that issue.
(URL - http://www.politics1.com/issues.htm )
See also: Project
Vote Smart - In the upper banner, move your cursor over the
heading "Issues and Legislation." From the drop down menu which
appears, select "Issue Organization", now select the type of
organization you are working with.
Two good directories to
advocacy groups are also published by Project Vote Smart:
Vote Smart Web Yellow
Pages Fairchild Library - Reference Collection 324.973
V971 2002
Project Vote Smart 2002
Reporter's Source Book Fairchild Library - Reference
Collection 324.973 R425 2002
Finding information by or about an Interest group or organization:
To locate information in the WWW on a specific Interest group,
Political Action Committee, or Organization, use a Web Searching
tool and search by the exact name of the group. Use the "SEARCH"
button on your internet browser to open up a list of Web search
tools, or use Google or AlltheWeb.
SEE ALSO NEWSPAPER
RESOURCES
Weekly
Compilation of Presidential Documents contains
statements, messages, and other Presidential
materials released by the White House. Documents from 1993 to the
present can be found by performing key- word searches.
Executive Agencies, positions and policies of the Bush Administration. You should explore the appropriate Executive Agency websites to glean information on the policy statements of the Bush administration. Use the Federal Web Locator to get to the webpages of these Departments.
SEE ALSO NEWSPAPER
RESOURCES
Congressional Digest - This monthly journal focuses each issue on one topic which is being debated or considered in the Congress. A good place to get an understanding of the issues surrounding the topic and to find Pro/Con discussion from congressional leaders and special interests. Current Issues in the FM library Current periodical area.
Congressional Quarterly Almanac - This annual reference book surveys the activities of congress, describes and summarizes the accomplishments, debates and activities. A good place to find out what legislation was passed and which were the key votes and issues debated. 328.7305 C749a v.58,2002 FM library Reference.
Congressional
Quarterly Weekly Report This weekly publication
provides news and analysis of the political and legislative activities of congress.
Lexis
Nexis Congressional.This commercial resource available to
Lehigh users allows you to monitor legislation and public policy on
almost any topic and pinpoint testimony on legislative issues. It
can be used to identify Bills and Hearings on various topics. If you
have identified a Bill number for a piece of legislation, use it to
identify hearings and perhaps find the full text of some on the
web.Those hearings which are not available on the web can be obtained
in the Government Documents Department in Fairchild Martindale
Library. For assistance locating the printed copies
of hearings speak to Steve Firtko, Government Documents
Coordinator, 758-5337, EMAIL - e049@lehigh.edu
This database contains the full text articles for a large number of important newspapers. It can be useful for exploring the position of the Bush Administration, lobby groups or even to get a feel for the local coverage of a political issue.
If no newspaper for your community is included in Lexis, try:
Factiva - This database covers over 8000 publications including newspapers back to early 1980's It is the replacement for Dow Jones Interactive. You can narrow your search to publications from specific regions of the U.S. or specific newspapers.
Proquest Database - Use this to search for backfile articles older than 6 months from the Allentown Morning Call. (Lexis Academic has only the most recent 6 months.) Click on the Collections button and choose the Morning Call as your collection.
NEWSLINK - This Web site provides links to newspapers,magazines, radio and TV from around the world. Useful for browsing the local newspapers of communities in the U.S. (http://newslink.org)
Congressional Research Service Reports - These reports are created by the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Service for the use of Congress. They are not distributed to libraries but several congressmen have posted electronic versions on their websites.Use the links below to get to the web available reports.
Law Librarians Society CRS LIST
Congressman Christopher Shays web portal to CRS Reports
Congressman Mark
Green's web portal to CRS Reports