New Website: CongressLink

Posted by on November 21, 2011

There’s a whole new look to CongressLink – http://www.congresslink.org

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of CongressLink, The Dirksen Congressional Center is proud to introduce a new edition of the site. Our interface has a brand new appearance, and we’ve streamlined the site to make it faster, easier, more intuitive – and a whole lot nicer to look at. Inspired and guided by suggestions and feedback from our users, we’ve re-designed it from the ground up and loaded it with new features. We didn’t stop at making it look better and work more efficiently. We’ve expanded the content. The site now hosts:

·  81 lesson plans
·  Links to 18 of the best lessons about Congress on the Web
·  12 special projects
·  184 editorial cartoons
·  7  WebQuests
·  Links to 27 of the best Web sites about Congress
· Links to 2 online textbooks
·  Glossary
·  Historical Notes
·  Up-to-date information about the current Congress: the senators and representatives (and how to contact them), their leaders, the congressional schedule, pending legislation, campaigns and elections, and more    ·  Contemporary and historical information about Congress as an institution, the lawmaking process, the nature of leadership in Congress, and the characteristics and duties of Congress members
·  27 Expert Views
·  118 Resources

What today we call CongressLink was originally titled “The Dirksen Congressional Studies Resource Network.” We changed the cumbersome title, but the purpose of the site remains essentially the same as first proposed in March 1996:

·  To take advantage of emerging information technologies to create a vehicle for ongoing education about and discussion of Congress and how it works
·  To promote the development of a community of learners who will develop an awareness and appreciation of Congress and its capabilities
·  To expand the use of The Center’s archives through the development of “a World Wide Web page”
·  To identify, annotate, and link the site to related World Wide Web-based resources

We define success for the site in terms of the people who use it. Does it satisfy their needs? Is it easy to use? Does it deliver something unique? We hope the new version, and the four additional sites in our Web Suite inspired by CongressLink, answers with a “yes.”

As one reviewer put it,”CongressLink is a model Web site for information on how the U.S. Congress works.  It is designed primarily for grade school and high school level government and civics teachers and students, but its sophistication and range of information make it useful to anyone interested in exploring Congress. This is a mature, well-designed, and intuitive site that has gone through a decade of revisions and improvements since it first went online in 1996.  The strength of this site lies in its original content and more in its ease of use and solid integration with many of the best and most useful Web sites on Congress.”

We would enjoy reading your comments about the site. If you have any feedback, click on the”Questions and Feedback” link located at the bottom of every page throughout the site and complete the online form.

Welcome to CongressLink 6.0 – http://www.congresslink.org!