| Government Online |
| The amount of information produced by the government is staggering. | |
| Billions of bills, files, research studies and other paperwork are churned out annually. | |
| Much of this is now online. | |
| How does anyone begin to study it? Through gateways. |
| Gateways are simply guides or organizing sites to the plethora of government information. | |
| www.firstgov.gov is crucial | |
| Private sites have tried to organize government information. See: www.searchgov.com and www.google.com/unclesam |
| www.fedworld.gov is supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce. | |
| Its specialty is the treasure trove of U.S. databases, from health care studies to job listings. | |
| The site also is an excellent introduction to U.S. government reports. |
| FedLaw was developed, unsurprisingly, to organize federal legal and judicial information. | |
| http://fedlaw.gsa.gov can provide you with information about legislation, laws, courts, hearings and other legal stuff. |
| Other government sites rank among the best on the Internet: | |
| www.whitehouse.gov - see daily press briefings www.census.gov - profile your community | |
| www.sec.gov - profile a company | |
| www.loc.gov - The Library of Congress | |
| www.nara.gov - The National Archives and Records Administration | |
| www.epa.gov - Environmental Protection Agency |
| Online Business |
| The Internet is an incredible resource for information about business and businesses. | |
| You can track industries in which you’d like to work, like entertainment or news. | |
| You can use the Internet to do research on a company or person. | |
| You can get investment advice. |
| An important consideration: Is the business you are interested in private or public? | |
| Public companies have shares that are traded on a stock exchange. They must fill out out numerous forms and reports – that often are available online. |
| The Securities Exchange Commission – SEC – is responsible for collecting, organizing and distributing business information. | |
| The SEC has created an amazing online database – EDGAR, Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval. | |
| Find it at www.sec.gov |
| You will find that 10-K forms, filed annually at the end of the year, are perhaps the fastest and most comprehensive source of information on public traded companies. | |
| www.tenkwizard.com provides fast access. |
| Privately held companies don’t have to fill out the forms that public companies do. | |
| You can still get online information on private companies through business web sites, wire services and other outlets. | |
| www.hoovers.com | |
| www.companiesonline.com | |
| www.morningstar.com |
| Online Health Information |
| Some studies suggest that more than half the searches undertaken online are health related. | |
| As with many other areas, from business to law, the Internet has put more information into the hands of more people than ever before. |
| With health information in particular, the online researcher must carefully evaluate and judge Internet sources. | |
| Trusty Google can take you to many sites. Some are well intentioned but wrong. Others can be malicious and dangerous. |
| Many fine sites can provide researchers with a wealth of good, reliable information about sickness and health. | |
| The database, Medline, at the the National Library of Medicine, has been around since 1966. | |
| www.nlm.nih.gov |
| Although not a government site, Medscape has emerged as another authoritative health resource. | |
| Originally produced by the same medical professionals who created CBS Healthwatch, www.medscape.com eventually merged with Healthwatch. |
| Another authoritative site for online health information is: | |
| www.webmd.com | |
| As its name implies, WebMD offers services to doctors as well as patients. |
| www.healthfinder.org attempts to organize the array of health information available online. | |
| You can also try a subject directory, which has someone checking out listed sites for authenticity, such as www.yahoo.directory.health.com |
| The Merck Manual has been a staple of medical professionals for years. | |
| An online version is available at www.merck.com |
| Information about drugs is available at many of these sites. | |
| However, other sites have tried to organize the vast material on drugs available in the United States. | |
| www.rxlist.com, for example, has a listing of the Top 200 drugs and information on each. |
Political, Business and Health Wisdom
| For information on government, business, sickness and health, the Internet has become perhaps the most valuable tool. | |
| Knowledge of Internet research can make you a better citizen, more successful – and keep you alive! |