CORE REFERENCE COLLECTION FOR LEGISLATIVE LIBRARIES

CORE REFERENCE COLLECTION FOR LEGISLATIVE LIBRARIES
October 1999
Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section
Of the
National Conference of State Legislatures

Introduction
Reference Books
Periodicals
Federal Documents
Electronic Resources

Introduction

In 1988, the Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section of NCSL began a project to define and describe the libraries that serve the state legislatures. The results of the "Collection Survey," reporting on the size and nature of collections in legislative libraries, were published in 1988. The list of titles generated by the "Core Reference Collections Survey" (also collected in 1988) forms the base for the 1988 list of core references. The titles were reviewed by a staff section committee, as well as other members of the staff section, with the goal of developing a list of those public policy reference materials that are essential to the work of libraries serving state legislatures.

The "Core Reference Collection for Legislative Libraries" was presented in two parts - the core collection and the supplement to the core collection. The list of titles comprising the core collection is recommended for all legislative libraries; the supplement (or individual titles from the supplement) provides a guide for acquisitions by libraries with additional resources or with other types of information needs not met by the core collection. With this edition of the lists we will be using a different format, breaking the list into four separate groupings. They are General Reference, Periodicals, Government Documents and Electronic Resources.

The components of a good core reference collection are never static; therefore, the staff section plans periodic updates of the core collection list to reflect the changing research needs of legislators and staff and the availability of individual titles. Special thanks to Jonetta Douglas (IA), Beth Furbush (MT), David Harrell (OR), Marilyn Johnson (ND), and Dale Steele (AZ) for their work on this project. Please contact Janna Goodwin, NCSL Denver, with any comments, corrections, additions or deletions.

REFERENCE BOOKS

American Jurisprudence, Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co.
Black's Law Dictionary, West Publishing Co.
The Book of the States, Council of State Governments
Chase's Calendar of Events, Contemporary Books
Condition of Education, The, U.S. Department of Education
Congressional Yellow Book, Monitor Publishing Co.
Corpus Juris Secundum, West Publishing Co.
CQ's Desk Reference on American Government, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
CQ's State Fact Finder, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
CSG State Directories: Elective Officials & the Legislatures; Legislative Leadership, Committees & Staff ; and Administrative Officials Classified by Function, Council of State Governments
Directory of Education Statistics, U. S. Department of Education
Directory of Legislative Leaders, National Conference of State Legislatures
Directory of State Government Associations, Council of State Governments
Encyclopedia of Associations, vol. 1. Gale Research Co.
Facts and Figures on Governmental Finance, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
Federal Regulatory Directory, Congressional Quarterly Inc.
Federal Yellow Book, Monitor Publishing Co.
Legislative Research Librarians Directory, National Conference of State Legislatures
Legislative Research Librarians Directory, National Conference of State Legislatures
Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, National Conference of State Legislatures
National Survey of State Laws, Gale Research Co.
National Trade and Professional Associations, Columbia Books, Inc.
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), Executive Office of the President. Office of Management and Budget
Professional and Occupational Licensing Directory, Gale Publishing, Co.
Protocol: A Handbook for Legislative Staff, National Conference of State Legislatures
Public Interest Profiles, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
Resource Guide to State Environmental Management, Council of State Governments
Significant Features of Fiscal Federalism, American Council of Intergovernmental Relations
State and Regional Associations, Columbia Books, Inc.
State Rankings: A Statistical View of the 50 United States, Morgan Quinto
State Tax Guide, Commerce Clearing House Inc.
State Yellow Book, Monitor Publishing Co.
Statistical Abstract of the United States, U.S. Dept of Commerce, Bureau of Census
Subject Compilations of State Laws. Carol Boast and Cheryl Nyberg
Suggested State Legislation, Council of State Governments
Sutherland Statutory Construction, Callaghan & Co.
Think Tank Directory, Government Research Service
Uniform Laws Annotated, West Publishing Co.
Uniform System of Citation, Harvard Law Review Assn.
United States Code Annotated, West Publishing Co.
United States Code Congressional & Administrative News, West Publishing Co.
United States Code Service, Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co.
United States Government Manual, Office of the Federal Register
Want's Federal-State Court Directory, WANT Publishing Co.
Washington Information Directory, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
Yellow Book Series, Monitor Publishing Co. (see individual entries)

Additionally:

Almanac of general information
Appropriate religious authorities
Atlas
Book of quotations
Legal research guide
Medical dictionary
Style manual
Thesaurus

Reference material from the state

Administrative rules
Advisory opinions (attorney general opinions)
Bill drafting manual
Court Opinions (state supreme court/appellate court)
Digest of legislation
Directory of associations
Directory of local government offices
Directory of state government offices
Legislative calendars and journals
Legislative opinions
Legislative rules
Publications of key state legislative committees & research agencies
Roster of state officials
State bluebook
State constitution
State legal encyclopedia
State session laws/acts
State statutes (annotated if available)

PERIODICALS

ABA State Legislative Report, American Bar Association
Comparative State Politics, University of Illinois, Springfield
Governing, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.
Legisbriefs, National Conference of State Legislatures
Legislative Studies Quarterly, University of Iowa
Newsline, National Conference of State Legislatures
Solutions, Council of State Governments
Spectrum (formerly Jrnl. of State Government), Council of State Governments
State Fiscal Brief, Center for the Study of the States
State Government News, Council of State Governments
State Legislatures, National Conference of State Legislatures
State Policy Reports, State Policy Research, Inc.
State Revenue Report, Center for the Study of the States
State Trends, Council of State Governments
U.S. Law Week, Bureau of National Affairs

FEDERAL DOCUMENTS

Background Material and Data on Programs within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means.(Green Book)
Census CD-ROMs for the States
Code of Federal Regulations
Congressional Directory
Congressional Record
Constitution, Jefferson's Manual and Rules of the House of Representatives
County and City Data Book
County Business Patterns
Digest of Education Statistics
Economic Report of the President
Federal Register
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
State and Metropolitan Area Data Book
Statistical Abstract of the United States
U.S. Governmental Manual
Uniform Crime Reports for the United States
United State Governmental Policy and Supporting Positions (Plum Book)
World Fact Book

Please note that many if not all of the documents here are available on the World Wide Web.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

All Politics this site is sponsored by CNN and Time and includes news, analysis and special reports.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/

American Journalism Review of News Link newspapers, magazines, radio
http://ajr.newslink.org/news.html

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities the center's frequently requested reports.
http://www.cbpp.org/

Consumer Report Online
http://www.consumerreports.org
search only, pay for access

Cornell University Law School constitutions, statutes of other states and federal and state court opinions.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/

Council of State Governments
http://www.statesnews.org

Directory of Electronic Journals & Newsletters links to almost 1700 electronic serials
http://www.arl.org/scomm/edir/

Education Commission of the States
http://www.ecs.org/

Education Week on the Web Report Cards
http://www.edweek.org/sreports/qc99/states/grades/rc-map.htm

FindLaw statutes, constitutions, directories
http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/index.html

Full Text State Statutes and Legislation statutes, constitutions and administrative codes.
http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/f.htm

Gary Price's lists a compilation of links to the many CRS reports that are accessible via the WWW
http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/crs.htm

GPO Access federal government resources
http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/

InFoPeople: Best Search Tools extremely fast searching of Alta Vista, Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, Webcrawler and Yahoo all at once.
http://www.infopeople.org/src/srctools.html

Infoplease.com almanacs, encyclopedias and dictionaries
http://www.infoplease.com/

Librarians' Index to the Internet searchable annotated subject directory to 3,000 internet resources
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/

Minnesota Legislative Reference Library Links to the World
http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/links/links.htm

National Association of State Budget Officers Fiscal Survey of the State, Information Briefs
http://www.nasbo.org/
select: Publications
select: Fiscal Survey

National Atlas of the United States
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/mapit.html

National Conference of State Legislatures
http://www.ncsl.org

National Governors Association Issue Briefs
http://nga.org

NewsLibrary newspapers in the United States online
http://www.newslibrary.com/

Selected Congressional Research Service Reports
http://www.senate.gov/~dpc/crs/index.html

Telephone Directories on the Web
http://teldir.com/

Thomas Recent federal legislation, Congressional Record, committee information
http://thomas.loc.gov/

U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, USA Statistics in Brief, state rankings
http://www.census.gov

University of Northern Texas Libraries list of quick reference tools
http://www.library.unt.edu/genref/quickref/default.htm

Yahoo! Acronyms & Abbreviations
http://dir.yahoo.com/reference/acronyms_and_abbreviations/

Yahoo! Reference Quotations Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Quotations/

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