June 1998 Issue 8 |
Congressional Research Service Environmental Reports Online: A Service of the National Library for the Environment Frederick W. Stoss SUNY University at Buffalo |
|
.....................................
|
Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports provide a major link between
the scientific and public policy aspects of critical environmental issues.
The Committee for the National Institute for the Environment provides
free, full-text, online access to the CRS reports dealing with
environmental quality, natural resources, and general environmental
issues.
The Committee for National Institute for the Environment (CNIE) http://www.cnie.org/ began providing, for the first time ever, free online full-text access to technical reports produced by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in 1996. The CRS reports were provided from the CNIE's National Library for the Environment (NLE) Web site http://www.cnie.org/nle/. It was the desire by CNIE to identify a unique, major environmental information resource that was not readily available to the environmental research and policy communities (nor the public at- large), and provide free, direct access to that resource. Making these CRS environmental reports freely available was the first information component provided through the newly created NLE Web site, and serves as an example of the type of information resource that can be provided by this proposed library gateway. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research program of the Library of Congress. CRS provides comprehensive and reliable analysis, research, and information services that are timely, objective, nonpartisan, and confidential. CRS was created by an Act of Congress in 1914 as the Legislative Reference Service. It was renamed by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, which expanded CRS's mandate to serve the needs of both Houses of Congress, especially service to its committees. CRS works exclusively and directly for all Members and committees of the Congress. Today CRS provides a full range of analytical and evaluative research and information services to both Members and committees of Congress. CRS reports and documents undergo review for accuracy and objectivity and contain nontechnical information that can be very useful to people interested in environmental and natural resource policy issues. CRS reports provide thorough and concise overview of the scientific and technical aspects of the reports' topics. These overviews are then woven into a more detailed analysis of the public-policy aspects related to the topics, and are used by congressional members and members' and committees' staff. The Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division (ENRPD) carry out the CRS environmental efforts. ENRPD provides support in four core and interrelated areas: environmental protection, oceans and natural resources management, agricultural policy, and energy policy. Subject specialists in each area provide expertise on research results and programs, existing statutes, and legislative proposals. The CRS Science, Technology, and Medicine Division may also deal with environmental issues, such as those related to public and environmental health and global change issues. The division findings are summarized in the CRS reports and provide an assessment with regard to the topic's domestic and international implications. In many cases, CRS reports delve into the more complex and often controversial aspects of environmental, ecological, conservation, and natural resources issues. Despite their potential value to a broad audience, CRS does not itself provide these documents to the general public. CRS provides their reports only to members of Congress and their staff. CRS documents are prepared specifically for Congress and are clearly in the public domain. However, the reports are not distributed to the public at-large upon request. Public access to CRS reports is typically facilitated by individual requests to one's Senator or Representative or by purchase from commercial distributors. CNIE obtains copies of the CRS reports, converts them to an Internet-compatible format, and places them online. Table 1 shows the topical coverage of the CRS environmental reports provided by CNIE. Subject coverage provided by the NLE initiative is both broad and specific. Examination of the online contents of these categories reveals the level of specificity with which each category is treated. Table 1. Topical Coverage of CRS Environmental Reports Provided in Full-Text Formats by the National Library for the Environment (NLE) A. General and Broadly Defined Environmental Topics
Agency Profiles B. Natural Resources
Agriculture and Grazing C. Environmental Quality
Air Climate As new or updated CRS reports related to environmental or resource issues become available, CNIE adds them to the National Library for the Environment Web site. Table 2 shows the contents of a single "Newly-added" inventory of CRS reports. This typical update demonstrates the wide variety of environmental reports produced by CRS and made publicly available via the Internet by the NLE. Table 2. New and Updated Reports Added to the NLE inventory in April 1998
The Electronic Green Journal has provided several articles about the proposed NLE:
Congressional Research Service For additional information about the CNIE and the NLE contact:
David Blockstein, Senior Scientist Committee for the National Institute
for the Environment Frederick W. Stoss, <fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu> is the Biological Sciences Librarian, Science and Engineering Library at SUNY Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, USA. |
.....................................