The newly hired chief executive at the Acme Widget Company, Betty Boss, wants to make sure that her business is in compliance with Federal regulations. Acme, a mythical manufacturing company with 432 employees that makes widgets, is subject to rules and regulations on safety, environmental practices, labor laws and trade. So, Ms. Boss turns to the World Wide Web to start her research.
Some Federal regulations can be obtained directly from the Web pages of regulatory agencies. For example, the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act is available on the home page of the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. There is also a searching mechanism for regulations and standards, which contains the detailed rules used to enforce the act.
A search for "lighting and manufacturing" yields information on inspections, equipment requirements, electrical standards and penalties. For instance, standard number 1926.56 lists minimum illumination requirements (in foot-candles) for construction areas, and standard number 1926.405 (a)(2)(ii)(B) directs: "Conductors shall be run as multiconductor cord or cable assemblies or open conductors, or shall be run in raceways." Obviously, the lawyers at Acme Widget are going to have to read through some of these regulations.
Other Federal agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, allow computer users to search for laws or the regulations and guidelines and items published in the Federal Register.
There are also two major sites to find related studies and reports published by the Federal Government. Fedworld is a home page set up by the National Technical Information Service, an agency that is part of the Technology Administration of the Department of Commerce. The agency, which sells its information, is a source for business, scientific and technical reports, surveys and data bases. Once a product is found, it can be ordered by telephone, mail, fax or over the Internet.
The second site is the Government Information Locator Service, which bills itself as an on-line catalogue of information resources. A search on this page yields the name of the Federal agency that gathered the information, a description of the document, and how to get it.Continue reading the main story
Finally, there is the Government Printing Office page. The page has a searching mechanism for the monthly catalogue of United States Government publications. When a document is chosen, the researcher can find the nearest Federal depository library through which it can be obtained. The site also provides the catalogue information for a publication and the closest Government Printing Office bookstore.
Many of these Federal Web sources are linked. But, if Betty Boss wants sites that offer a broader look at the Government, many universities and public-policy research institutes offer excellent pages.
Among these are the Federal Web Locator, which is run by the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy, and the United States Government information page of the Joseph Bartunek 3d Law Library of Cleveland State University.Continue reading the main story