Access to U.S. Government Information: Guide to Executive and Legislative Authors and Authority

(Hardback)

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Description

This unique guide helps to answer two important questions for researchers planning to use government information sources. First, over which aspects of individual, organizational, national, and international affairs does the U.S. government exert authority or influence Second, which units of the federal government are empowered to probe and pursue these matters The contents and format of Jerrold Zwirn's new research aid offer a concise, yet complete, overview of contemporary public affairs and governmental policy agents. In this guide, Zwirn provides the researcher with comprehensive coverage of the issues and topics addressed by all key units of the national executive and legislative branches. He identifies each entity that exercises jurisdiction over a specific subject in order to facilitate optimum access to the entire domain of federal business and the corresponding sources of federal information. By using a tandem subject and author approach, the guide enables users to focus quickly on functions assigned or implied by a legal mandate. This scheme records and reveals the relationships between formal powers and official authors. Zwirn's immediate aim is to assist those who plan to enter and explore the federal information thicket. His ultimate goal is to devise a framework that can be adapted to the dynamic character of national governance and its information output. Access to U.S. Government Information will be an essential tool for political scientists, legal researchers, librarians, and anyone interested in public policy, policymakers, and the links between them.

Reviews

. . . Zwirn intends to make using government publications easier by showing which federal executive agencies and subunits, House and Senate committees and appropriations subcommittees, have jurisdiction in, and issue publications about, various subjects. The author has gleaned information from the U.S. Government Manual, U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, and other government sources, as well as several privately published guides to Congress and executive agencies in Washington, including Congressional Information Service, Congressional Staff Directory and Federal Staff Directory. Zwirn lists general and specific subject categories by agency or committee having jurisdiction, then lists agencies and committees and the subjects they cover. There is also an index showing abbreviations for agencies and committees.-Choice
." . . Zwirn intends to make using government publications easier by showing which federal executive agencies and subunits, House and Senate committees and appropriations subcommittees, have jurisdiction in, and issue publications about, various subjects. The author has gleaned information from the U.S. Government Manual, U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, and other government sources, as well as several privately published guides to Congress and executive agencies in Washington, including Congressional Information Service, Congressional Staff Directory and Federal Staff Directory. Zwirn lists general and specific subject categories by agency or committee having jurisdiction, then lists agencies and committees and the subjects they cover. There is also an index showing abbreviations for agencies and committees."-Choice

Author Bio

JERROLD ZWIRN is Reference Librarian at Washington, D.C. Public Library. He is the author of Congressional Publications and Congressional Publications and Proceedings.