Serving Congress is the Library's highest priority. During the year the Congressional Research Service (CRS), along with other Library service units, ensured timely congressional access to the Library's vast resources, particularly those involving homeland security. CRS delivered more than 875,000 research responses to members of Congress and committees.
CRS specialists provide nonpartisan analytical support to Congress.
Congressional use of the online Legislative Information System (LIS) continued to grow, as evidenced by a 20 percent increase in use from last year's level. A number of enhancements were made to the system during the year, including the redesign of search pages for LIS databases, the addition of new bill displays and completion of a system for creating and uploading bill summaries. CRS created and distributed an 11-minute instructional video on "How to Use LIS." Development continued on a plan to use electronic mailing lists for congressional notification of daily updates to the LIS database.
During the year the Law Library staff produced 617 written reports for Congress. Progress continued on the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN ), an online parliament-to-parliament cooperative exchange of laws and legal materials from more than 40 countries and institutions. Through the contributions of 25 countries and international institutions and the addition of laws for 23 other countries by the staff of the Law Library, GLIN provided timely access to the laws of 48 of the world's governing bodies. In fiscal 2003 there were about 1.7 million transactions on the GLIN database.
At year's end a project was completed to include retrospective laws in GLIN for 19 Latin American countries covering the period 1975-1995. Approximately 28,000 full texts of laws from these countries were linked to their corresponding summaries in the GLIN database, thereby providing digital access to this legal material.
In September GLIN's Executive Council decided to develop the technical capability to allow free public access to the GLIN database. Currently access to summary information is available to anyone with Internet connections, but access to the full texts of laws and related legal materials is restricted to GLIN members.
The Copyright Office provided policy advice and technical assistance to Congress on important copyright laws and related issues such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the setting of royalty rates for webcasting, distance education and Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) reform. The Copyright Office also responded to numerous congressional inquiries about domestic and international copyright law and registration and recordation of works of authorship.
In addition to assisting members of Congress and their staff in making use of the Library's collections, services and facilities, the Congressional Relations Office, along with other Library offices, worked with member and committee offices on current issues of legislative concern such as the construction of a Capitol Visitor Center, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, the Veterans History Project, the National Film Preservation Reauthorization and the publication of a history of the House of Representatives.
