Researching Congressional Reports

The Congressional Research Service provides many reports to members of Congress that are relevant to current political events, but have heretofore been difficult to obtain as they are not publicly distributed. Some, either print of pdf versions have been catalogued in Portia. Others will show up on a Google search. Still others are redistributed online, but kept in databases that may or may not show up on a general internet search. See, e.g., the National Library for the Environment Reports on the National Council on Science and the Environment site.

Now a web site is attempting to make these reports more available by offering links to the reports that can be downloaded. Open CRS supplies links to databases like the NCSE (environment), the Center for Democracy and Technology (open government), and the National Memorial Institute for the prevention of Terrorism (Terror prevention). Open CRS offers a good search engine and links to reports on these sites, and appears to be adding many recent reports on a wide range of other issues in the news, from Afghanistan to Identity theft, to the Government's Energy Policy.

Researchers who are interested in policy especially should be aware of this resource, as these reports are an exceptionally rich and well researched source of information.

Online summer research: Cases

Unless you are taking summer school classes, or are a research assistant or involved in some other school activity, Westlaw and Lexis severely restrict your access during the summer. There are, however, a number of other resources that you should know about, for online access during the summer.

LoisLaw provides comprehensive online access to state and federal caselaw. Current NESL students can set up their own login and password here (to get the “access code,” contact a reference librarian: (617) 422-7299).

The Social Law Library provides access to Massachusetts state courts, and to the Massachusetts District Court and the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Students, alums, and members of the bar can access the databases from within the library, but remote access (access from outside of NESL library) is available for current students, staff and faculty, with their student ID and NESL Barcode.

Slip opinions from current cases only are generally available (e.g. no password required) from Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, and from the Social Law Library. (click on the SLIPS tab above the box on the left side of the screen).

Finally, we do have a terminal in the library that provides Westlaw access for students and alumni, available for use without a password.

The nomination wars, Supreme Court edition

From the lawyers at Goldstein & Howe, P.C., who bring you the indispensable SCOTUSblog (linking to newspaper articles and all the available left-leaning and right-leaning political commentary on U.S. Supreme Court decisions and dockets they can find), a new sister-blog The Supreme Court Nomination Blog which promises to be equally useful.

Protect yourself online

The Inter-Alia Weblog alerted me today (June 6) about a survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center which studied respondent's knowledge about seventeen facts about information gathering on the web and found that many people are woefully ignorant as to how much information they give away while surfing the web. Seventy-one percent of the respondents to the Center's survey, for example, did not know that banks could share information about you with their affiliates; 75% did not know that a site with a privacy policy does not necessarily have to protect your information or keep it private; and 28% did not know if spammers could tell if an email has been opened.

The official report is an interesting read. Among other things, the Center found that people who thought they knew how to protect themselves scored just as poorly on the survey as those who were less sure.