Journalism: Reporters' Tools  Tags: medill journalism media  

·         American Diplomacy Concerned with the Foreign Service and diplomacy, but also includes dispatches and reports; maintained by U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

·         Bureau of Justice Statistics

·         Bureau of Labor Statistics

·         CenStats Statistics, demographic information and other data from several Census Bureau databases.

·         County & City Data Book (2000 edition) Census figures for U.S. counties and major cities. PDF version of the 2000 printed edition.

·         CQ Congress Collection An "analytical survey of the history and development, powers, personalities, current developments, and legislation considered and passed by the United States Congress." Organized into sections on public policy legislation, members of Congress, key votes, and the legislative branch.

·         Declassified Documents Reference System - U.S. This database makes accessible the texts and images of select declassified U.S. documents from diverse sources, including the CIA, Department of State, National Security Council, Department of Defense, and the FBI. It is a good source of primary documents related to the Cold War.

·         Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Provider of DoD scientific and technical information, reports, and summaries of ongoing research, host of 100 defense program web sites, and manager of 11 information analysis centers.

·         Digital National Security Archive Contains over 35,000 declassified national security documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Comprised of twelve collections -- Afghanistan, Berlin Crisis 1958-1962, Cuban Missile Crisis, El Salvador, Iran-Contra Affair, Intelligence Community, Iran Revolution, Military Uses of Space, Nicaragua, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Philippines, and South Africa.

·         Economic Report of the U.S. President " . . . overviews the nation's economic progress using text and extensive data appendices. The Economic Report of the President is transmitted to Congress no later than ten days after the submission of the Budget."

·         Federal Government Information

·         FBI Files Online Thousands of Federal Bureau of Investigation files, released through the Freedom of Information Act (content continues to be added). Includes historical events (16,277 pages on Watergate), political movements (2,895 pages on the Black Panther Party of North Carolina), as well as files on individuals (activists, artists, entertainers, politicians, etc.) such as Groucho Marx and Joseph McCarthy.

·         Fed in Print: An Index to Federal Reserve Economic Research Databases of the U.S. Federal Reserve Banks.

·         Government and Geographic Information and Data Services Department in the NU Library Includes U.S. government, State of Illinois, and international documents, maps and geographical information as well as data services and more.

·         GPO Access Provides access to U.S. Government legislative, executive, judicial, regulatory and other publications.

·         Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present Historical data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

·         Illinois Blue Books-1900-2000 Online historical articles, biographies of legislators, extensive indexes, a chronological outline of Illinois history and information on legislative apportionments, etc.

·         Illinois State Archives Depository of Public Records This link goes to databases of public records.

·         Index to Current Urban Documents A "regularly published guide to the reports and research that are generated by local government agencies, civic organizations . . . metropolitan and regional planning agencies in approximately 500 selected cities in the United States and Canada."

·         Legislative Information on the Internet

·         LexisNexis Congressional (formerly Congressional Universe) Congressional publications on key American public policy issues. Full text of proposed legislation and its status in the legislative process and the full text of recently signed law. Also contains full-text of U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers of 1789-1969 (to be completed by Dec. 2005).

·         LexisNexis Government Periodicals Index (formerly Government Periodicals Universe) Index of periodicals published by the U.S. Government.

·         National Archives & Records Administration
See also, the special Press/Journalists page.

·         National Security Archive

·         New Electronic Titles (NET) from GPO Access Lists new additions to the Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection. Can also access NET archives from this site.

·         OriginalSources In Their Own Words Significant publications of the U.S. government and its history including the Papers of the Presidents, the Federalist Papers, National Party Platforms, 1840-1996, 100 Key Documents of American History, quotes and speeches.

·         Oxford Guide to the United States Government

·         People & Public Records Finders The following are excellent gateways to various sources of information including public records, directories, expert finders, addresses, etc. Some of these resources charge fees.

§  Citizen Journalist's Guide to Open Government

§  Public Resource, Public Domain

§  PowerReporting 

§  US Search 

§  The Ultimates

§  Langenberg

§  Virtual Gumshoe

§  JournalismNet

§  People Search

§  Who is John Doe 

§  Records Project 

·         STAT-USA/Internet Commerce Department Internet service on a broad range of subjects in trade, business, and economics. The NU Library has access to this service through the Federal Depository Library Program.

·         State and Local Government Websites

·         Statistical Abstract of the United States

·         THOMAS: Legislative Information on the Internet Access bill summaries and statues, the Congressional Record, and information about House and Senate committees.

·         United States Congress

·         United States Senate

·         U.S. Federal Government Statistics- Fedstats Gateway to statistics of over 100 federal agencies. Search by topic or agency (e.g., abortion or the Center for Disease Control; air pollution or the Environmental Protection Agency).

·         U.S. Federal Resource Online A good index to online Government Printing Office publications (GPO Access) and other resources by topic.

·         U.S. Government Information--Northwestern University Library.

·         U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia Database See OYEZ Project. OYEZ Project Multimedia database of information about the United States Supreme Court providing abstracts of all recent cases and selective abstracts for older cases, digital audio of the Oral Arguments in all recent cases either streamed or as MP3 downloads, several recordings of the announcement of the Court's opinion, and links to the written opinions of the court in all cases since 1791, through Justia. Contains access to more than 3000 hours of Supreme Court audio. Objective is to make accessible all audio from 1955 to the present. Before 1980, the audio collection is selective. The project will ultimately be a complete audio archive of the Court spanning from October 1995 to the present. (Principal Investigator: NU Professor Jerry Goldman)

·         Voting Records in Congress Available through LexisNexis Congressional (1988 - current).