[LAW-LIB:58416] Re: All CRS reports (up till now) freely available [NOT REALLY ALL]

From: Rick.McKinney@frb.gov
Date: Thu Mar 05 2009 - 10:34:30 PST

  • Next message: Mimi Greenwood: "[LAW-LIB:58417] Thx! to Jody Kelley, Mary Jane Slipsky, Anna Cole, Nanna Frye, John Wilson & Carolyn Santanella for your help finding these opinions -& Kelly Fanning and ERic Bender"

    Please note that although Open CRS (http://www.opencrs.com) and Wikileaks
    (https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service) have
    downloaded more than 6,000 CRS reports they don't seem to go back more
    than 20 years, nor are "all" the most recent CRS reports included, nor are
    "all" editions of an updated report included. See for instance, CRS Report
    98-856 on Open CRS (http://opencrs.com/document/98-856/) which has only
    three editions listed, with none that are listed in 2009 (and there is at
    least one issued in 2009) and none before 2008, but the report series began
    in the 98th Congress (1983-1984).

    Since the Congressional Research Service does not willingly make their
    reports available to the public (generally you must go through a member of
    Congress), through somewhat secretive means commercial services have
    stepped into the breach. These include PennyHill Press (which does have a
    free listing of reports - http://www.pennyhill.com/), GalleryWatch.com
    (http://crs.gallerywatch.com/index.gw) and recently LexisNexis
    Congressional Research Digital Collection which has more than 60,000 CRS
    reports (and Congressional Committee Prints) including most all CRS report
    editions and most historical reports beyond 20 years (see
    http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Congressional_Research_Digital_Collection_(CRDC)
     ).

    Many other sites that are free also have CRS reports. See
    http://www.llsdc.org/crs-congress/#CRS.

    Rick McKinney
    Assistant Law Librarian
    Federal Reserve Board Law Library
    20th & C Streets, N.W.
    Washington, DC 20551
    rick.mckinney@frb.gov

                                                                               
                 Renee Rastorfer
                 <rrastorfer@mac.c
                 om> To
                 Sent by: pnewcombe@law.wnec.edu,
                 owner-law-lib@ucd mlarosa@law.wnec.edu,
                 avis.edu msantoro@law.wnec.edu,
                                           ptracey@law.wnec.edu
                                                                            cc
                 03/05/2009 11:28 Lorelle Anderson
                 AM <lorelle.anderson@famu.edu>,
                                           law-lib@ucdavis.edu
                                                                       Subject
                                           [LAW-LIB:58411] Re: All CRS reports
                                           (up till now) freely available
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                               

    As you all know, the CRS are an amazingly rich source of research on the
    many issues congress has considered - and we've already paid for it!

    So just FYI:

    >
    >>>> On 3/5/2009 at 8:10 AM, in message
    <5A1348EE09195A48874E9DF562FAA64464C53F@its-exch2k3be1.FAMU.EDU>,
    "Anderson, Lorelle" <lorelle.anderson@famu.edu> wrote:
    >Happy Thursday, all! I found out this morning that all CRS reports up
    till now are freely and legally available to be downloaded.
    https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service
    >
    >They have been sent to Open CRS (http://opencrs.com) for hosting. Will
    any of you add these to your catalogs? If so, do you plan to print and
    bind them, or link to the site?
    >
    >I'd be very interested to see what effect this has on the effort to make
    CRS reports available to the public going forward.
    >
    >
    >Lorelle Anderson
    >Assistant Director for Public Services
    >FAMU College of Law Library
    >201 Beggs Ave.
    >Orlando, FL 32801
    >(407) 254-3288
    >
    >--
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    >



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