The editorial cartoons and related lesson plans from The Dirksen Center will teach students to identify issues, analyze symbols, acknowledge the need for background knowledge, recognize stereotypes and caricatures, think critically, and appreciate the role of irony and humor.
Editorial cartoonists loved Everett Dirksen (1896-1969)—his position of influence as Minority Leader in the Senate (1959-69), his way with words, and, of course, his distinctive appearance. Over the years, Senator Dirksen’s staff compiled a scrapbook containing more than 300 editorial cartoons. Topics covered include Vietnam, civil rights, Republican Party politics, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, reapportionment, Taft-Hartley 14(b), school prayer, Dirksen’s recording career, Senate procedures, congressional pay, presidential appointments, and Dirksen’s legacy. Naturally, cartoonists also used these topics to depict Dirksen’s relationship with President Lyndon Johnson, with his Democratic colleagues in the Senate, and with the Supreme Court. In addition, cartoonists sent Dirksen between 50 and 60 original sketches on equally diverse topics.
Among the scores of cartoonists represented in the collection are Herblock, Gib Crockett, Hugo, Bill Mauldin, Gene Basset, Pat Oliphant, Al Capp, Wayne Stayskal, Jim Berry, Guernsey LePelley, Tom Engelhardt, Paul Conrad, and Jim Berryman.
Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room
The CIA has established this site to provide the public with an overview of access to CIA information, including electronic access to previously released documents. Because of CIA's need to comply with the national security laws of the United States, some documents or parts of documents cannot be released to the public. In particular, the CIA, like other U.S. intelligence agencies, has the responsibility to protect intelligence sources and methods from disclosure. However, a substantial amount of CIA information has been and/or can be released following review. See "Your Rights" for further details on the various methods of obtaining this information.
Here is one document to demonstrate the contents. Enjoy!
Are you doing research in politics or looking for some juicy bits for a blog posting? Take a look at the Political Ads Database, which is operated by the Washington Post. You can browse by candidate, organization, state, party, race, etc. So far the collection appears to be limited to the year 2006.
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.
Confessions of a Mad Librarian notes that C-SPAN has reduced restrictions on copyright. The new policy reduces restrictions on its coverage of federal activities, so bloggers and other sites can use the material "to increase the political dialogue".
Blogs are changing the information and copyright landscapes for future users.
The official portal of the U.S. government is changing its name -- to USA.gov. FirstGov.gov is now USA.gov; and FirstGov en español.gov is GobiernoUSA.gov.
USA.gov continues to offer the same great government services:
Shop government auctions
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The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. GPO Access contains Congressional Record volumes from 140 (1994) to the present. At the back of each daily issue is the "Daily Digest," which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities.
Status of Technology and Digitization in the Nation’s Museums and Libraries
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WIRED Magazine (File This Under Data Overload, January 2006) wrote about the new Electronic Records Archives project, which Lockheed-Martin will build at a cost of $308 million over the next six years.
So ERA will be a modular system, relying as much as possible on technologies (many of them open source) developed elsewhere. For example, one anticipated module will be responsible for determining what kind of software was used to create an incoming document. Another will translate it into a usable format. Others will handle distribution, backup, and searchability. The modules can be replaced or added as technology advances - there would never be a need to reengineer the entire system. Another boon, at least from a bureaucratic standpoint, is that nobody has to define the limits of what the system will actually do.
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the premier free, independent, one person produced Web journal dedicated to providing legal, library, IT/IS, marketing and administrative professionals with the most up-to-date information on a wide range of Internet research and technology-related issues, applications, resources and tools.
Celebrating a thirty-year partnership between the Library of Congress and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), the Maps in Our Lives exhibition explores surveying, cartography, geodesy, and geographic information systems--and draws on both the Library's historic map collections and the ACSM collection in the Library of Congress.
Here is an example what can be found:
George Washington, the first president of the United States, was trained as a surveyor and practiced in western Virginia in the early years of his career. In 1760 and 1766, he prepared two manuscript plats of land he had recently purchased, later known as the River Farm, adjacent to his ancestral home of Mount Vernon. These two maps are examples of colonial-era plantation maps.
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