Since the January enhancements to THOMAS, I’ve been looking at the statistics on user searches and creating a list of the most searched legislation. Health care legislation has dominated the list since then, jumping around but always somewhere within the top ten.
The current top ten includes:
- H.R. 3590
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act- H.R. 4899
Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010- H.R. 4173
Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010- H.R. 4213
American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010- H.R. 5297
Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010- H.R. 3534
Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act of 2009- H.R. 847
James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010- H.R. 2267
Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act- H.R. 5175
Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act- H.R. 4872
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
Our enhancements are primarily based on user feedback. The Tip of the Week was created because people would ask for a particular feature for THOMAS that was already there. We took the Tip of the Week one step further with the June enhancements. Now there is an archive of the tips, an RSS feed, and an email alert.
Do you have any suggestions for THOMAS? Click on the [ + ] FEEDBACK in the lower right hand corner and share your thoughts on the content, design, ease of use, and overall impression of THOMAS.
Your suggestion might get incorporated into our next update!
Comments (3)
This is a great post. It is particularly useful for people interested in gauging which legislation is generating more interest among the general public.
This is an excellent post. I just wrote about it here, http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/08/05/law-loc-librarian-on-improving-thomas/, but want to compliment the Law Library for reaching out to the public to find out what’s important to them.
I have a list of suggestions for improving THOMAS, available here (http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/THOMAS_bulk_data_access#Ideas_for_Upgrading_THOMAS), but want to emphasize two of them.
First, bulk access to THOMAS data would enable significant reuse and transformation of the data in ways that would be of significant benefit to the public. A report on this from LOC/GPO was required by legislation, and it should be finished and released.
Second, please continue to bring the public into the discussion around THOMAS by forming user groups, holding roundtable discussions, and similar exercises.