Locating Congressionally Mandated Reports

 

Join The Library of Congress Law Library on January 28, 2025, at 1 p.m. EST for their latest Lunch and Learn webinar, “Locating Congressionally Mandated Reports.” This webinar is the latest installment in the Law Library’s lunchtime learning program. Earlier webinars in this series have covered federal legislative history research, the Law Library’s historical legal reports, and treaty research.

This presentation will answer several questions about congressionally mandated reports, including:

1. What is a congressionally mandated report?
2. Why do federal agencies write these reports?
3. Where do these reports go after they are written?
4. How do I know if a report was submitted to Congress?
5. How do I locate copies of these reports?

This webinar will also include live demonstrations and recommendations on when and how to consult the National Archives, commercial publications, or online resources to find these materials.

Information provided by the Library of Congress Law Library.

Public Feedback Sought for Congress.gov

If you want current information on the federal legislation that is accurate and official, the best site to use is Congress.gov. 

Congress.gov is a collaboration among the Library of Congress, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Government Publishing Office. The site is searchable and free and provides the status, full text, and summary to each bill before Congress. It also provides direct links to the Congressional Budget Office which analyzes the cost estimates of each bill. The Congressional Record (which provides a daily transcript of speeches and actions of Congress) provides the process of the bill through Congress. The site gives access to the entire Congressional Record back to its first publication in 1873. Background information on the site are profiles of each member of Congress, legislative process videos, Committee profile pages, historic access to previous bills, and previous public forums. 

Once a year, in September, the Library of Congress conducts a public forum to educate the public and to gather feedback on the site. The next public forum has been scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. 

If you would like to attend the forum virtually here is the registration link. If you are lucky enough to be in Washington and can attend in person at the beautiful Library of Congress, register here. 

The forum will present enhancements to Congress.gov based on previous user feedback. It will also show how “legislative information is gathered and made available to the public.” There will also be Q&A discussion segments where attendees can learn about the site and share ideas for future enhancements. Those who cannot attend can also submit suggestions before and after the forum at Congress.gov Public Forum Survey Form.

From the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

Library of Congress Creates Covid-19 Oral History Project

 

Oral histories, which record the intimate perceptions of people who have gone through a significant event, are a very important part of understanding history.  The goal of oral history projects is often to record the experiences of a group of people affected before they all pass away.  Some examples of these are the Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 collected by the Federal Government during the Depression, The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive held at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which collects testimonies of Jews, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, political prisoners, liberators, collaborators, witnesses, and rescuers, and the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation oral history collection of a series of interviews from 2011 called "500 Oral Histories Project" (the Houston area interviews are housed at Rice University’s Woodson Research Center in Fondren Library). 

However, the closer the collection of stories can be to the time the events took place the better for time always affects one’s perspective on events.  Therefore, the Library of Congress has recently partnered with the non-profit company StoryCorps to create an archive of stories from anyone effected by the recent Covid-19 pandemic in order to record these stories as soon as possible.  These stories will become part of the American Folklife Center collections and will be made available through StoryCorps archive.  Stories may be recorded at the Covid-19 Archive Activation website. 

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden stated “Curators and specialists at the Library of Congress are skilled at documenting history as it happens. Recording the voices and stories of Americans’ experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic for our national collections will honor this history and ensure these stories will not be forgotten. We are proud to collaborate with StoryCorps on this important work to build this archive of oral histories.”  Nicole Saylor, director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress says “We are particularly interested in doing this work through people’s stories, as storytelling is a crucial medium of communication and central to the work of the American Folklife Center.”

The collection is meant to commemorate and honor those lost to the illness, those whose lives were unalterably affected by the pandemic and those who worked the front lines during the crisis.  Moreover, preserving the stories will be an essential primary source to future generations attempting to analyze and understand the events on a national level. 

Anyone and everyone are encouraged to participate in the project, for a variety of voices with a variety of experiences and a variety of perspectives will create the fullest resource from which historians, researchers, and others interested in the events can draw. 

Black History Month Events at the Kluge Center

As part of the Library of Congress commemoration of African American History Month, the Kluge Center will be hosting two events that honor the African American scholars and activists who have contributed so much to American democracy.

Feb. 23 at 1 pm, join us for African American Women and the Suffrage Movement, with Martha S. Jones. Jones will discuss her recent book "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All"

Event info & free registration: prekindle.com/event/84828-martha-s-jones-on-african-american-women-and-the-suffrage-movement

Read more: blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2021/02/african-american-history-month-at-the-kluge-center/

Courtesy of Library of Congress

Celebrating Black History Month

Library blog posts highlighting African American Stories in honor of Black History Month by Library of Congress. 

africanamericanhistorymonth.gov

Blog posts from around the library:

Celebrating Artists’ Portraits at the Library of Congress for African American History Month blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2021/02/celebrating-artists-portraits-at-the-library-of-congress-for-african-american-history-month/

The Family Life of Ralph Ellison blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2021/02/the-family-life-of-ralph-ellison/

Honoring African American Contributions in Medicine: Midwives blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2020/06/honoring-african-american-contributions-in-medicine-midwives/

Katherine Dunham's Ethnographic Research in the Caribbean blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/02/katherine-dunham-in-the-caribbean/

Frederick Douglass Newspapers, 1847-1874: Now Online blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2020/01/frederick-douglass-newspapers-1847-1874-now-online/

Sojourner Truth and the Power of Copyright Registration blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2020/12/sojourner-truth-and-the-power-of-copyright-registration/

The Beauty Entrepreneur: Madam C. J. Walker  blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2020/03/madam-c-j-walker/

Performing Arts Blog Posts blogs.loc.gov/music/category/african-american-history/

 

The Hazel Scott Papers: blogs.loc.gov/music/2021/02/hazel-scott-now-playing/

 

African American Art Dolls and Puppets for Identity and Healing: blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/02/african-american-art-dolls-and-puppets/

Courtesy of Library of Congress

New Videos from the Library of Congress, August 5

Music, Magnets & Veteran Entrepreneurs Watch these videos just added to the Library of Congress website. Homegrown from Home: Jay Ungar & Molly Mason American roots music duo Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, best known for their work on the soundtrack of Ken Burns's PBS documentary series, "The Civil War," including the original composition "Ashokan Farewell," which became the musical centerpiece of the Grammy-winning soundtrack, perform in concert. Conversation with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Gil Kalish and Ian Rosenbaum of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center talk about their work with composer George Crumb before the performance of a new co-commissioned percussion quintet supported by the Irving and Verna Fine Fund. Write. Right. Rite. With Jason Reynolds Jason Reynolds, seventh National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, challenges kids to create a refrigerator magnet that encapsulates the best moment of their lives in the 26th installment of the "Write. Right. Rite." video series. Veteran Entrepreneurship and Post Traumatic Stress Every veteran has stories to tell, but those stories don't end when they leave the military, nor do they leave all of their wounds and traumas behind. In this panel, veteran entrepreneurs tell their stories of starting a business, and veteran advocates will speak on how they have helped vets achieve their goals of self-employment.