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. In 2004 CRS delivered more than 899,000 research responses to members of Congress and committees. Upon release of "The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States," a CRS inter-disciplinary team assisted Congress by analyzing issues arising from the report's recommendations and providing 70 written products about the resulting policy questions. These products were made accessible to members of Congress on the CRS Web page. In addition, continued enhancements were made to the Legislative Information System for Congress.
During the year the Law Library staff produced 995 written reports for Congress—an increase of nearly 60 percent over the previous year. The Law Library also embarked on a major upgrade of the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), a network of government agencies and international institutions that contribute official texts of laws and related legal materials to a database that is accessible over the Internet. 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 provides timely access to the laws of 48 of the world's governing bodies. During the year, there were some 1.5 million transactions recorded on the GLIN database.
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 Library's appropriations, the construction of a Capitol Visitor Center, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, the Veterans History Project and reauthorization of the National Film Preservation Program
