<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html><!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/application.dwt" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" --> <head> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="doctitle" --> <title>Jefferson</title> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <link href="software.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="head" --><!-- InstanceEndEditable --> </head> <body bgcolor="#336699" link="#FFFF00" alink="#00FF00" vlink="#FF00FF" text="#CCCCCC"> <table class="bannerStyle" width="601" height="72" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <!--DWLayoutTable--> <tr> <td width="83" rowspan="2" valign="top"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="AppIcon" --><img src="images/JeffersonSm.gif" width="64" height="64"><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td> <td width="504" height="23" valign="top"><h5><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="Description" -->Legislative History from the Library of Congress<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></h5></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="50" valign="top"><h1><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="AppName" -->Jefferson<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></h1></td> </tr> </table> <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="pageBody" --> <p><span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span> is an Aqua front-end for the <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/">THOMAS</a> legislative-history database maintained by the Library of Congress. <span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span> uses the same <abbr title="Hypertext Markup Language">HTML</abbr> queries available to the general public at the THOMAS web site, but instead of displaying the results as a web page, it presents them in a form that is much easier to read and browse. You can save <span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span> browser documents on your computer for perusal offline.</p> <h4>Download</h4> <p>The current version of <span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span> is 1.1b5. <strong><a href="#NewIn11">See what's new!</a></strong> Download it here:</p> <table align="center" frame="border" rules="rows"> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td width="400"><b>Format</b></td> <td><b>Size</b></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="Jefferson.dmg" target="_blank"><img src="images/dmg-icon.gif" alt="[Disk Image Icon]" width="20" height="20"></a></td> <td><a href="Jefferson.dmg" target="_blank">Disk Image file</a></td> <td><p>496 KB</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="Jefferson.sit" target="_blank"><img src="images/sit-icon.gif" alt="[Stuffit File Icon]" width="20" height="19"></a></td> <td><a href="Jefferson.sit" target="_blank">Stuffit Archive file</a></td> <td>396 KB</td> </tr> </table> <h4>Example</h4> <p class="aqua">By clicking on <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:hr00001:@@@L&summ2=m&" target="_blank">this link</a>, you can see the results THOMAS gives for a full summary and details of bill H.R.&nbsp;1 of the 107th&nbsp;Congress (the education-reform bill). (The link will open in a separate window.) Here is how you make the same query using Jefferson:</p> <p><img src="images/jeff-ex/query.png" alt="Jefferson Query Window" name="Query" width="387" height="208" id="Query"></p> <p>And here are some examples of how Jefferson displays the results:</p> <!-- ImageReady Slices (Tableau.psd) --> <TABLE WIDTH=612 BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0> <TR> <TD> <A HREF="images/jeff-ex/titles.gif" TARGET="_blank" ONMOUSEOVER="window.status='Titles'; return true;" ONMOUSEOUT="window.status=''; return true;"> <IMG SRC="images/jeff-ex/images/Tableau_01.gif" WIDTH=206 HEIGHT=222 BORDER=0 ALT="Outline of titles for bill"></A></TD> <TD> <A HREF="images/jeff-ex/sponsors.gif" TARGET="_blank" ONMOUSEOVER="window.status='Sponsors'; return true;" ONMOUSEOUT="window.status=''; return true;"> <IMG SRC="images/jeff-ex/images/Tableau_02.gif" WIDTH=202 HEIGHT=222 BORDER=0 ALT="List of sponsor and cosponsors"></A></TD> <TD> <A HREF="images/jeff-ex/related.gif" TARGET="_blank" ONMOUSEOVER="window.status='Related (bills, etc.)'; return true;" ONMOUSEOUT="window.status=''; return true;"> <IMG SRC="images/jeff-ex/images/Tableau_03.gif" WIDTH=204 HEIGHT=222 BORDER=0 ALT="List of related bills"></A></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD> <A HREF="images/jeff-ex/amendments.gif" TARGET="_blank" ONMOUSEOVER="window.status='Amendments'; return true;" ONMOUSEOUT="window.status=''; return true;"> <IMG SRC="images/jeff-ex/images/Tableau_04.gif" WIDTH=206 HEIGHT=223 BORDER=0 ALT="List of amendments"></A></TD> <TD> <A HREF="images/jeff-ex/actions.gif" TARGET="_blank" ONMOUSEOVER="window.status='Actions'; return true;" ONMOUSEOUT="window.status=''; return true;"> <IMG SRC="images/jeff-ex/images/Tableau_05.gif" WIDTH=202 HEIGHT=223 BORDER=0 ALT="Chronology of actions taken on the bill"></A></TD> <TD> <A HREF="images/jeff-ex/summary.gif" TARGET="_blank" ONMOUSEOVER="window.status='Summary'; return true;" ONMOUSEOUT="window.status=''; return true;"> <IMG SRC="images/jeff-ex/images/Tableau_06.gif" WIDTH=204 HEIGHT=223 BORDER=0 ALT="Summary of the bill from the Congressional Research Service"></A></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <!-- End ImageReady Slices --> <h4>New in 1.1<a name="NewIn11"></a></h4> <p>In addition to bill-number queries, <span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span> now supports queries by keyword and sponsor:</p> <p><a href="images/jeff-ex/query-wind.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="images/jeff-ex/query-wind-sm.jpg" alt="Query windows for bill, subject, and sponsor" width="600" height="140" border="0"></a></p> <p>Just select the tab for the kind of query you want, fill in the particulars, and press the Fetch button. Results of keyword and sponsor searches will appear in listing windows, from which you can select bills to retrieve.</p> <p>Also new in 1.1: In addition to House (H.R.) and Senate (S.) bills, you can now use the bill query to retrieve resolutions (H.Res. and S.Res.) and joint resolutions (H.J. Res. and S.J. Res.).</p> <p><b>Recent fixes:</b> The LoC, as is their right, varied their page format a bit, causing Jefferson to reject valid returns (falsely suggesting the bills didn't exist). 1.1b5 is better about this.</p> <p>Parsing of sponsor records (which seem to vary a lot on Thomas) is now much more robust. This should reduce the number of "missing" bills in the 108th Congress.</p> <p>Bills from the 108th Congress now fetch properly. Bills introduced by request now fetch properly.</p> <h4>Future Directions</h4> <p><a href="mailto:fritza@manoverboard.org?subject=Jefferson%20Suggestion">Your suggestions</a> are important in the future development of <span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span>! Some of my ideas for future directions include</p> <ul type="square"> <li>AppleScript access (<i>e.g.</i>, <span class="exampleAppleScript">tell <span class="AppleScriptVocabulary">bill</span> <span class="AppleScriptString">&quot;H.R. 1&quot;</span> to get the <span class="AppleScriptVocabulary">description</span> of every <span class="AppleScriptVocabulary">amendment</span> whose <span class="AppleScriptVocabulary">sponsor's name</span> contains <span class="AppleScriptString">&quot;Tiahrt&quot;</span></span>)</li> <li>&quot;Live&quot; updates, so that <span class="titleStyle">Jefferson</span> can check periodically, or when a saved bill is open, for new information from THOMAS.</li> <li>Complete bill texts.</li> <li>Comparative display of versions of a bill.</li> <li>Clickable cross-references to related bills, amendments, floor actions, and members.</li> <li>Rendezvous integration under Mac&nbsp;OS&nbsp;X 10.2 (Jaguar)&#8212;why connect to THOMAS, or use an Internet connection at all, if someone else in your workgroup already has the bill you want?</li> <li>Coding of Members by party affiliation and state/district represented.</li> </ul> <h6>Page last updated 11 March 2003</h6> <!-- InstanceEndEditable --> </body> <!-- InstanceEnd --></html>