Mid-Year Metrics: In Custodia Legis, Law.gov, and Congress.gov

Now that we are midway through the year I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at our metrics at this point.  What In Custodia Legis blog posts have been popular? What Law Library of Congress reports? What legislation?

The mix of the top ten new blog posts highlights both our foreign and U.S. law expertise.  All three of the Women in History posts made the top ten.  They were part of a series highlighting firsts from across the globe.  Two items from the new Frequently Asked Legal Questions series also made the list.  I was excited to see a post about a much-requested feature for Congress.gov, email alerts, at the top of the list.  Overall traffic to In Custodia Legis was up 34% over the first six months of last year.  Here is the list of top ten posts in order of popularity:

1. Legislation Email Alerts on Congress.gov
2. Treaties, Text, and Timely Updates – Congress.gov Spring Cleaning
3. Women in History: Lawyers and Judges
4. Women in History: Voting Rights
5. Congress.gov Continues…
6. Legalese
7. Twenty Years of THOMAS
8. FALQs: Freedom of Speech in France
9. FALQs: Cuban Legal System
10. Women in History: Elected Representatives

Jennifer recently blogged about our new Comprehensive Index of Legal Reports.  The Law Library makes a lot of terrific foreign law reports freely available to the public.  The most viewed reports at the year’s half birthday are:

1. Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Australia
2. Laws on Children Residing with Parents in Prison
3. Sex Selection & Abortion: India
4. Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Great Britain
5. Children’s Rights: Canada
6. Children’s Rights: China
7. Citizenship Based on Birth in Country
8. Children’s Rights: United Kingdom (England and Wales)
9. Children’s Rights: International Laws
10. Points-Based Immigration Systems: Canada

Putting more reports online is having a positive effect on our website as a whole.  The total number of page views across Law.gov has more than doubled in the first six months of 2015 compared to the first six months of 2014.

Over on Congress.gov, almost all of the most-viewed legislation is from the current Congress (2015-2016) except H.R.83, which is from the 113th (2013-2014).  If any of the legislation from the current Congress interests you, be sure to select it and click “Get alerts” to subscribe to email updates.

1. H.R.213 – Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2015
2. H.R.83 [113th] – Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015
3. H.R.240 – Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015
4. S.1 – Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act
5. H.R.378 – Responsible Body Armor Possession Act
6. H.R.2 – Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015
7. H.R.1314 – Trade Act of 2015
8. H.R.2232 – Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015
9. H.R.1735 – National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016
10. H.R.36 – Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

As Congress.gov continued to grow, the page views have grown as well.  They have increased over 70% as compared to the first six months of 2014.

Are there other blog posts, reports, or legislation that you are surprised did not make the list?