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Category: THOMAS

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Tip of the Congressional Iceberg

Posted by: Andrew Weber

The following is a guest post by Margaret Wood, Legal Reference Specialist in our Public Services Directorate. At the start of a new Congress, the librarians at the reference desk in the Law Library of Congress’ Reading Room receive a flurry of questions about Congress, THOMAS, and the legislative process.  So, at the start of …

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Lame Duck

Posted by: Andrew Weber

Now that the 111th Congress is officially over, we can start preparing for the 112th!  Since the election in November, the House and Senate were busy putting the final touches on several pieces of legislation.   This is commonly referred to as a lame-duck session.  So what is a lame-duck session? When Congress is in …

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THOMAS: The Last Update of the Year

Posted by: Andrew Weber

This has been an exciting year working on THOMAS.  We started enhancing the site in January on its fifteenth anniversary, expanded some of the improvements in June, and revamped it more during the summer recess.  There’s been some nice press too. Our goal at the start of the year was to roll out four sets …

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Our First Century of Lawmaking and More

Posted by: Andrew Weber

While I frequently mention THOMAS, I should point out that other parts of our website also feature legislative information, especially historic information.  We have one of the most complete collections of U.S. Congressional documents in their original format.  A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation provides access to U.S. congressional documents and debates from …

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Where to Watch Congress Online

Posted by: Andrew Weber

This has been a great year for watching Congress online!  C-SPAN launched their Video Library .  It is an incredible resource that contains: …[e]very C-SPAN program aired since 1987, now totaling over 160,000 hours, …in the C-SPAN Archives and [is] immediately accessible through the database and electronic archival systems developed and maintained by the C-SPAN …

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Welcome Back, Congress

Posted by: Andrew Weber

We’ve been busy the last few weeks prepping and enhancing THOMAS for this week.  I’ve enjoyed watching the message spread about the changes to THOMAS.  I was fortunate enough to be able to do my first radio interview discussing our enhancements from this year for the DorobekInsider on Federal News Radio.  (How many places besides …

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THOMAS: The Revamp during the Recess

Posted by: Andrew Weber

Over the past couple months I, along with the great THOMAS team here at the Library of Congress, have been working hard on the latest set of enhancements. Thankfully, we’ve been able to finish them before Congress returns from August recess.  User feedback is continuing to drive our newest update.  We collect feedback through OpinionLab …

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Tweeting THOMAS and Connecting with Congress

Posted by: Andrew Weber

We’re big into Twitter here at the Library of Congress.  The Library of Congress account is closing in on 100,000 followers.   The Law Library account has grown steadily since its launch last October.  I work with a colleague to tweet for the @LawLibCongress account.  Twitter can be a great tool for both finding out about …