Public Affairs and Issues
Public Affairs and Issues
Always the best place to start for quality resources. You will need to log in with your regular user name and password. Including:
Opposing Viewpoints | Global Issues | Country Watch | OneFile: News | General OneFile | Academic OneFile | Gale eBooks | EBSCO eBooks | Salem Press eBooks | ABC-CLIO eBOOKs
Free Web Sites
Free Web Sites
Government Sites and Information
Government Sites and Information
"A web portal for discovering and requesting access to restricted microdata from federal statistical agencies." 16 agencies, 1000+ datasets.
Gateway to U.S. government data."The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academy of Sciences to publish the reports of the National Academy of Sciences,National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative information on important matters in science and health policy.""GIO is a free online information service supported by libraries that participate in the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s Federal Depository Library Program. Many are also official depository libraries for other types of governments and public agencies." From the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT).State Agency Databases Project
"In every US State and the District of Columbia, agencies are creating databases of useful information - information on businesses, licensed professionals, plots of land, even dates of fish stocking. Some of this content is available on search engines, but much of it is part of the invisible web. Since July 2007, librarians and other government information specialists have been working on identifying and annotating these databases in one place. We've chased across fifty state web sites so you don't have to!" From GODORT."Free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government.""Unprecedented level of access to government documents by allowing users to browse, search, and review hundreds of thousands of pages acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other public disclosure, or “sunshine,” laws."DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
"A community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals."U. S. Department of Education: Data and Statistics
Making "available materials unavailable elsewhere."Proceedings and Debates of the U.S. Congress.Office of the Clerk: U.S. House of Representatives
"House documents, including public disclosure forms,... historical information about the House of Representatives and information about its Members and Committees." Includes official vote counts for federal elections since 1920.From the Library of Congress.National Conference of State Legislatures
State and Local Government on the Net
International Statistical Activities
"Links to official statistical organizations active in the UNECE region""The result of an international survey of over 1,950 scholars, public and private donors, policy makers, and journalists who helped rank more than 6,500 think tanks using a set of 18 criteria developed by the TTCSP."Current and historical documentation of the U.S. Congress at work. From the Library of Congress."We publish the status of federal legislation, information about your representative and senators in Congress including voting records, and original research on GovTrack Insider."“Making Government Information More Accessible.”American Time Use Survey (ATUS)
"Measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing.""Historic programs of publicly funded radio and television across America. Watch and listen.""The Video Library records all three C-SPAN networks seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Programs are extensively indexed, making the database of C-SPAN programming an unparalleled chronological resource.""CRS is Congress’ think tank, and its reports are relied upon by academics, businesses, judges, policy advocates, students, librarians, journalists, and policymakers for accurate and timely analysis of important policy issues.""The National Library of Medicine (NLM) database of links to disaster medicine and public health documents available on the Internet at no cost. Documents include expert guidelines, research reports, conference proceedings, training classes, fact sheets, websites, databases, and similar materials for a professional audience. NLM selects materials from over 1,400 non-commercial publishing sources and supplements disaster-related resources from PubMed (biomedical journal literature) and MedlinePlus (health information for the public)."Back to Top
Civics and Voting
Civics and Voting
"Find answers to common questions about voting in the United States." From USA.gov.
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Voting and Election Toolkits: New York
From GODORT."Find out how to register." Official voter registration portal.The Purple Project for Democracy
"No matter the politics of the day, American democracy demands participation, and suffers amid indifference and mistrust. The ... Purple campaign will be the leading edge of a movement to promote and reward citizen engagement in our communities at every level.""Our games transform abstract concepts into real-life problems. Young people learn how government works by experiencing it. They step into the role of a judge, a member of Congress, a community activist, even the President of the United States - and do the job they do. Students gain civic knowledge and skills because the learning experience is fun and challenging. They learn without even realizing it.Our games are the centerpiece of a comprehensive digital platform. iCivics offers a range of practical, dynamic, and standards-aligned resources tailored to the needs of classroom teachers. They are free and accessible to all. iCivics is now a proven and popular solution. Nearly 200,000 teachers have registered. iCivics provides quality, non-partisan, and truly engaging civic education to more than 5 million students in all 50 states.""Action Civics curriculum is the crux of our work and of both our Democracy Coach-led and Teacher-led models. The curriculum is action-based, aligned to relevant standards, and academically rigorous.""The Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of the federal laws that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Acts." From the Department of Justice.U.S. Election Statistics: A Resource Guide
"This resource guide compiles a list of online and print resources that contain U.S. election statistics for both federal and state elections." From the Library of Congress.New York State Board of Elections
"This database contains all financial disclosure reports filed with NYSBOE from July of 1999 to the present."Federal Voting Assistance Program
"Voting assistance for Service members, their families and overseas citizens."Back to Top
General Sites and Directories Devoted to Issues
General Sites and Directories Devoted to Issues
"A research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous." A highly respected research organization.A treasure trove of searchable world data and statistics."Brings UN statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single entry point (http://data.un.org/). Users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system.""Presenting data as diverse as income distribution, energy consumption, water resources, dwellings, migration, land use, food production, nutrition, school enrollment or life expectancy materialises this broad view on globalisation and sustainable development. With this approach, GlobalStat contributes to a better understanding of the interrelations between human living conditions and globalisation trends." From the European University Institute's Global Governance Programme and the Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos."A global research center focused on the study of inequality and public policies that promote social, economic and environmental justice. "
SEI: Stockholm Environment Institute
"An international non-profit research and policy organization that tackles environment and development challenges."For Investigative Reporting and Emergency Coverage. "While it primarily targets journalists and aid providers, the handbook can be used by anyone. Its advice and guidance are valuable whether you are a news journalist, citizen reporter, relief responder, volunteer, journalism school student, emergency communication specialist, or an academic researching social media."Annenberg Political Fact Check. Find out how much of the truth the politicians are telling you.New York Public Interest Research Group.Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index
Scores of political cartoons on scores of subjects."Hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered interviews with today's leading thinkers, movers and shakers ... search them by question or by topic, and ... respond in kind.""Visualizes the spread of claims and related fact checking online. A claim may be a fake news article, hoax, rumor, conspiracy theory, satire, or even an accurate report. Anyone can use Hoaxy to explore how claims spread across social media. You can select any matching fact-checking articles to observe how those spread as well."Back to TopSites Devoted to Specific Issues
Sites Devoted to Specific Issues
From the Southern Poverty Law Center."EconBiz is a subject portal for economics and business studies. It offers: A literature search across important German and international databases, including the holdings of ZBW; Access to free and licensed full texts on the internet; A calendar of events for scholarly conferences and summer schools; The reference service Research Guide EconDesk which answers your questions about the search for literature and statistical data.; The section research skills with the online tutorial Guided Walk on how to search, evaluate and cite scholarly publications."
"NCAC’s Youth Free Expression Program and Kids’ Right to Read Project database of K-12 student censorship incidents includes book challenges in schools and libraries, as well as censorship of student art, journalism, and other types of student expression in schools."Information on religion of all sorts.From the BBC.
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MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute
A database of gender statistics from the World Bank.An International Women's Human Rights Organization."A publication of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization"Death Penalty Information Web Site
From Michigan State University.National Coalition for the Homeless
Learn about the ethical issues involved in cloning, genetics, stem-cell research, and more.From NOVA.CIEL: Center for International Environmental Law
"Since 1989, CIEL has used the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society."International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
"An award-winning independent think tank working to create a world where people and the planet thrive."Environmental Performance Index
"The 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world. Using 32 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the EPI ranks 180 countries on environmental health and ecosystem vitality.""A human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations.""NCAC’s Youth Free Expression Program and Kids’ Right to Read Project database of K-12 student censorship incidents includes book challenges in schools and libraries, as well as censorship of student art, journalism, and other types of student expression in schools."Information on religion of all sorts.From the BBC.
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Charity Information
Charity Information
"By guiding intelligent giving, we aim to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace, in which givers and the charities they support work in tandem to overcome our nation’s and the world’s most persistent challenges.""Provide as much information as we can about each nonprofit's mission, legitimacy, impact, reputation, finances, programs, transparency, governance, and so much more.""Helps donors make informed giving decisions and promotes high standards of conduct among organizations that solicit contributions from the public. It produces reports about national charities, evaluating them against comprehensive Standards for Charity Accountability."
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Nonprofit Explorer: Research Tax-Exempt Organizations
"Use this database to view summaries of 3 million tax returns from tax-exempt organizations and see financial details such as their executive compensation and revenue and expenses. You can browse IRS data released since 2013 and access more than 14 million tax filing documents going back as far as 2001." From Propublica."America's most independent and assertive charity watchdog. Rather than merely repeat charities' self-reported finances using simplistic or automated formulas, we delve deep to find the real story of how efficiently charities use your donations to fund the programs you want to support.""Unlike charity evaluators that focus solely on financials, assessing administrative or fundraising costs, we conduct in-depth research aiming to determine how much good a given program accomplishes (in terms of lives saved, lives improved, etc.) per dollar spent."Back to Top
Information about the Law
Information about the Law
"The best online legal sources in a fast 'single-view' format."From Cornell Law School.
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OYEZ: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia
"A free legal research website containing millions of legal opinions from federal and state courts. With CourtListener, lawyers, journalists, academics, and the public can research an important case, stay up to date with new opinions as they are filed, or do deep analysis using our raw data.""Web search utilities, cases and codes, legal news, and more."Back to Top