The Internet and its increasingly ubiquitous World Wide Web (WWW) addresses "http: //www...." that appear in ads and announcements has brought Professor McLuhan's perception of the world into focus for us all. The ability to send electronic mail and use other means of global telecommunications means that, electronically, someone in Australia is as close as your neighbor across the street. The idea of the global village has become a "virtual reality" because communication is practically instantaneous, access is growing very rapidly and will approach universality in the next few years, and information is bountiful to the point of confusion.
The Internet is beginning to have a profound impact upon our society and culture, and it goes well beyond the physical manifestation of computer technology itself. According to Harley Hahn and Rick Stout, "It would be a mistake to think of the Internet as a computer network, or even a group of computer networks connected to one another. From my point of view, the computer networks are simply the medium that carries the information. The beauty and utility of the Internet lies in the information itself" (Hahn and Stout 1994:2).
The advent of the "Web" has brought about an evolution in the way that individuals can search for information on topics that interest them, and the way other individuals and organizations can present that information. While much of the computer revolution has remained inaccessible to the nontechnical computer user, the Web is a technology that is potentially eminently useful for everyone. Navigation on it is surprisingly easy. A few "point-and-clicks" of a mouse and the novice can begin to get the hang of it in a single session. But finding information of interest and genuine utility can be a somewhat more labor intensive task since it is a medium where just about anyone can publish with little or no effort and the quality of material varies widely.
The number, size, and quality of sites of interest to those who engage in state or local politics is increasing daily on the Web. Six months ago, there were a few morsels worth examining. Today, the Web exceeds most libraries in volume of information. Yet, unlike your local library, no Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress system for information categorization has yet emerged.
This article provides an introduction to the resources (or pages as they are referred to in the vernacular of the Web) that are likely to be of interest to state and local government officials in West Virginia. Few of us have the time to browse the Internet at leisure, and this article will provide a useful overview of some of the resources out there as well as create a bridge to a vastly larger amount of relevant information. The intent is to demonstrate the range of sites available on the Web, as well as examine some specific resources of particular interest to state and local government officials and others interested in state and local governance. It needs to be emphasized that the sites described and listed here are simply a modest selection of the thousands of sites available. Due to limits of time and space many relevant and valuable sites have been omitted.
The Web's Appeal
The Web has grown enormously in a very short time. As recently as early 1995, there were fewer than one million web pages generally available. Today some sites report indexing more than 50 million pages! No communications media in history has begun to approach it in terms of rapidity of development and general acceptance. The reasons for this become evident as one begins to use the Web as a tool for information collection or dissemination. A short laundry list of the inherent advantages of the web is essential to understanding its growth and its power.
Information that is readily displayed in text form, if
placed within a logical and clear page structure, is readily available
to any browser within seconds of a mouse click. It matters little whether
the information resides in the next room or the next continent.
A minor addition or an error in a page can be fixed within
seconds. A significant revision can occur in a matter of hours. The contents
of pages can grow daily. The immediacy and emergent nature of publishing
on the Web allows for a very dynamic and fluid publishing medium. The tendency
to correct or refine in "future versions" is outmoded, because the next
version can be only a few minutes away.
A wide range from standard text to multimedia with sound
and full motion video can be incorporated as needs or aesthetics require.
The advent of forms and the Java programming language will bring an increasing
degree of interactivity to the Web as well.
This is a technology in its infancy, and anyone can participate.
It can be satisfying, exciting, and challenging to join in this process.
While most things available on the Web can be found in
the library (and increasingly vice versa!), the core of what makes the
web attractive is that all of this information is available to you without
getting out of your chair. Having the equivalent of a university library
on your desk is a revolutionary concept. The barriers to the acquisition
of information are always a function of the inherent costs of obtaining
it, and searches for information are usually most costly in terms of time.
Desktop access to the Web revolutionizes costs in both time and dollars.
Access to the Web is available by possession of a moderate personal computer,
a modem, and Internet service (often as low as $15.00/month) and with more
than 40 million personal computers in the U.S. consumer market, access,
while not universal, is growing exponentially. Moreover, as microcomputer
and television technologies converge, access will continue to increase.
As a result, the home and desktop computer will become the primary avenue
for information collection in almost all aspects of life. The Web will
be its primary vehicle.
Different programs within an organization, with substantially
different needs for presenting their information, may share the same web
server. And any organization can acquire Web site access at relatively
low cost. In addition, the individual who learns to navigate the Web for
one purpose can navigate the Web for any information need. The ability
to use one instrument, the Web Browser, for such disparate functions as
a telephone book, news source, zip code directory, dictionary or thesaurus,
weather report, card catalog, atlas, etc., and do so in seconds places
real information power at your fingertips. The Web is going to literally
alter how we acquire our information about the world.
Conversion of standard text to a Web page is straightforward. This West Virginia Public Affairs Reporter article required about three hours of editing into a complete web page with all links established. Publication is as simple as placing the properly formatted text file in the appropriate directory on a Web server. While server costs and site maintenance require a modest commitment of resources, the equipment and access costs are the same for one Web page or a thousand. Once the initial investment is made for one page, publishing additional pages on the Web becomes essentially free. Accessing Web pages is also free as long as the provider allows public access. The actual transmission and receipt of a Web page, like e-mail, incurs no costs to either the provider or browser. The nature of the Internet protocol makes it substantially more expensive to account for a packet of information than to simply mail it. This guarantees that the costs of maintaining the Internet will be borne through basic access charges, rather than by the volume of activity. Hence publishing Web pages incurs only the costs of producing the original copy and the purchase and maintenance of the microcomputer or workstation server. In general, these costs are lower than for a single printing of a moderate-sized brochure. Any paper costs are borne by the browser, and are completely optional!
All these advantages of the Web do not mean that it does not have its problems. The quality of Web pages is, shall we say, variable. The desire to produce pages with graphic design elements and employ colors and textures in backgrounds will quickly convince the browser that art is truly in the eye of the beholder. In addition, finding information on the Web can be a hit-or- miss proposition. The absence and perhaps impracticality of a cataloging system, the rapid growth of new pages, and the occasional instability of the Web servers themselves means that finding specific information is not always straightforward. The browser also inevitably ends up looking at a number of pages that are of no use, in order to find the one or two that are. The Web is also problematic in that the browser will invariably get distracted and spend far too much time in exploring much lower priority interests. Fortunately, the occasional serendipitous find can make that twenty minutes of otherwise unsuccessful browsing worthwhile. It should be pointed out, however, that the same problem often occurs in libraries.
Why the Web? Two Case Studies
Web pages are an ideal medium for both producers and consumers of information. In most organizations, there is a need to provide information for individuals or other organizations. For governments, this may be program availability and requirements, services, application forms, directories of personnel, location of offices, budgets, laws, statutes, etc. The list is clearly endless and those who need this information are increasingly turning to the Web to find it. An example of a typical Web site oriented around each perspective will be instructive.
Many organizations have positions, opinions and information which they wish to make available to the interested public. One such organization is:
Take, for example, the case of a state legislator who is concerned with developing a position on welfare reform. Since state policy on welfare must evolve in reaction to changes in federal programs, keeping abreast of the positions of key actors in the process is important. The NCSL provides a comparison of the Congressional HR4/Conference Agreement, the National Governors' Association Policy on Welfare Reform, and H.R. 3266, the Castle/Tanner Welfare Reform Act. It also provides an analysis of the recently adopted Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. These comparisons can be useful to legislators attempting to familiarize themselves with federal strategies for welfare reform:
From another perspective, we can look at how a large organization, or a collection of organizations, may provide information and services to assist individuals in searching across a wide range of agencies and programs. A good example here is the
State government is an excellent example of using the Web as an information medium for a diverse consumer base. There are large numbers of state agencies and many officials and staff with the need for direct contact with the public as well as large number of demands for information. Browsers with very diverse interests can all start at the same point - the state Home Page - and quickly navigate an information tree to find the particular information desired.The State of Ohio has approached the Web with a well integrated and thoroughly developed set of web pages. First, the central home page provides links to the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the state government.
This classic information tree arranged along institutional lines is a common approach to state home pages. The Executive Branch lists over 40 links to cabinet departments, commissions, boards, and independent agencies. There are links for, among many other things:One way to assess the Web's usefulness is to examine West Virginia's and adjacent states' presence on the Web. In examining these pages, the browser needs to keep in mind that most of these pages are less than one year old, and all are "under construction." In the Web's early days (back about 1995), sites routinely displayed a construction symbol of some type and cautioned the browser that the site was being developed. Today, it is simply assumed that most pages are being revised. As a result, the pages listed here will likely be somewhat different than they were at the time of this writing. All of them will display information about their state, and begin to identify how further information may be acquired. The browser should examine a number of states to see how different approaches may be used, and to see how different display techniques work, or don't work. This article does not seek to offer a critique of these Web pages. Much of what is perceived as good will be a matter of personal aesthetics. Yet certain approaches do work better than others and exploration leads to better ability to assess what seems effective.
To begin, examine the West Virginia Home Page:
The West Virginia Department of Administration has recently established this page and it will provide the central nexus for individuals hunting for information about West Virginia state government. It includes links to the Governor's Office and to several state agencies including the Departments of Administration, Transportation, Environmental Protection, Health and Human Resources, as well as the state Development Office.
The degree of development of state home pages ranges considerably. Some states, like Ohio, have an extensive presence. Others are just beginning. All of them are growing. A look around the neighborhood demonstrates this:
It is enlightening to compare and contrast some of the features available on various state pages as there is an infinitely variable number of creative approaches to highlighting the resource strengths of the fifty states. Kentucky has a number of click-able images to direct the browser to pages on economic development, education and state government. They also have a brief "slide show" of pictures representative of the state. Virginia uses postage stamp-style icons to direct browsers to similar pages, including a current weather conditions page. Pennsylvania uses fewer images or icons, preferring to use the standard grey background and text links with button-style images. They also provide a direct link to the Pennsylvania state budget page. Ohio's tabular- style introductory guide has been discussed. Maryland's home page is a large image map with many selections to guide the browser. All of these pages possess certain features in common, and at the same time, display diverse sets of approaches to the presentation of their sites.Another useful Web page to take a look at for information concerning state governments is the Council of State Governments, easily accessible at http://www.csg.org. The Council of State Governments is a good example of a general site of significant utility to those in state government. For instance, the States Information Center (SIC) provides a free inquiry service to state government officials (and institutions with associate membership). They will respond to information requests "on a variety of issues, ranging from AIDS to economic development to workers' compensation." The CSG-SIC also state that they will provide confidential responses to queries about state and state/federal government issues within 48 hours. Given that the e-mail request form is simple and quick and provided on their Web page this site could be a valuable information resource.
They also have a link to 47 state home pages, although as of this writing West Virginia was not among them, which indicates one of the problems with the Web. While the communications media is virtually instantaneous, updating Web pages and links requires the commitment of human resources. As a result, many pages will lag weeks and even months behind. Organizations must generally take an activist approach to notifying appropriate site administrators of their page's existence.
Those interested in statistical data concerning the states can visit the U.S. Census Bureau.
These offer links to dozens of sites concerning state and local government structures, finance, tax collections, public employment, and demographic information. The Data Map shown in Figure 2 is an extremely easy way to browse an enormous data archive. The web page for the Statistical Abstract of the United States is also an extremely convenient means of providing this indispensable data source.Governors' Offices and State Agency Directories
Governors are a natural place to begin the exploration of state level Web resources. Since the executive agencies represent the majority of public services and programs for state government, these pages generally have excellent pointers to the rest of the state. The West Virginia Governor's Office home page is at http://www.state.wv.us/govoff/default.htm. In addition, there is also a personal home page for West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton provided at http://access.k12.wv.us/~governor/ as part of the World Schools project sponsored by Bell Atlantic.
Most states are in the process of setting up elaborate government pages and several noteworthy examples of Governors' personal home pages can be found at:
The range in approaches reflects the Web's diversity. The Governor of Colorado, for example, has a home page that emphasizes family issues and values, with links to the Colorado Child Care Financing Commission page and his Governor's Responsible Fatherhood Initiative Task Force Report page. Those citizens of Missouri who didn't catch Governor Mel Carnahan's State of the State Address can replay it at their convenience thanks to RealAudio, a means of delivering audio at reasonable quality over a Web page. North Dakota also provides a RealAudio version of Governor Edward T. Schafer's State of the State address, and also provides one of the more extensive uses of graphics and click-able maps of all the governors. In addition, many states use their state seal or emblem to produce a pale background image for the page. North Dakota's Governor's page with the actual seal and click- able image with a transparent image background is an interesting application of graphics in a Web page.State Legislatures
The National Conference on State Legislatures' (NCSL) home page provides an excellent place to begin searching the web for information useful to the state legislative process. It also provides links to the legislative home pages of 47 state legislatures that currently have web sites. Again, West Virginia's legislature is not represented due to its recent publication.
Among the particular state legislative sites worth visiting are:
State judicial systems also have much to offer on the Web. State Supreme Court decisions, statutes, constitutions, and court directories can all be found. For instance:
State Agencies and Administration
Most states have central administrative agencies, and many of these are often the central sites for maintenance of the state's Web page. West Virginia's initial government web pages follow this model. As noted, the state home page, the governor's home page or a central state agency directory is usually readily available to help the browser navigate the maze of state bureaucracy. However, an alternative to searching through a series of state pages is go to
StateSearch is sponsored by the National Association of State Information Directors and provides the most extensive organized list of state web pages on the Internet. They listed 1,846 web sites in their catalog as of October 1996, including all 50 state home pages. Maintenance of guides such as this, however, is difficult since web pages change considerably. As a result, some of the links provided in StateSearch are no longer functional. The site is revised periodically to take care of this problem.State sites often offer valuable services over the Web at virtually no cost to the taxpayer. Some examples of such services and functions are:
The Web also represents an alternate means of acquiring public opinion information. The City of San Francisco has an online survey concerning perceptions and attitudes toward city services. Of course, a Web-based survey would have the same problems of generalizability that any voluntary survey would have. The respondents are unlikely to be a random cross-section of San Francisco residents, and some selection bias will occur with voluntary survey selection. Interestingly, San Francisco will be testing the generalizability of their survey with a comparable random mail questionnaire. The results of comparisons of this nature will shed some insight on the viability of Web-based survey instruments.
This survey does show a novel means of acquiring information as well as providing it.Counties
State government has not monopolized the cybernetic revolution in government information and services. County governments around the country are also beginning to appear on the Web. A comprehensive list can be obtained at
Some West Virginia counties can be found already, including: Moreover, several county economic development authorities have gone online, including:Cities, perhaps more than counties, are able to capitalize on the Web as an information server. Cities represent a tremendously diverse set of Web pages. Rather than select any particular city, a good place to start is at one of the extensive city guides.
City.Net provides links to 2,449 cities and 879 other destinations, and among them are nine West Virginia cities. CityLink claims to be the largest city site on the Web, but provides no numbers. In addition, they list fewer West Virginia cities. Both, however, are extensive resources for city home pages. Of these, one particularly worth mentioning due to its extensive local government information is: West Virginia cities already on the Web include: Other West Virginia cities may be found at: Several local chambers of commerce have also established home pages that provide information about their cities. For example, Tucker County's Chamber of Commerce's home page provides information about Davis, West Virginia and the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce does the same for Oak Hill, West Virginia.Information concerning the federal government's impact on cities can be found at their national lobbying organizations:
Policy Issues The Web clearly offers a very large number of sites for state and local government sources. Indeed, governments have moved to the Web quickly. Just as valuable are the large number of sites that focus on particular policy issues. These pages have been developed by government agencies, academic centers, advocacy or interest groups, professional organizations, companies, and individuals. The Web provides anyone who desires a digital soapbox. As such, the volume of information available for policy research is also voluminous. A quick look at a few useful sites in some areas of topical interest reveals this diversity.Budget and Finance
No area of state politics is more central to the policy process than the state budget. A number of states put the state budget, or summaries of them, on line. Many also describe the budget process as well. Some noteworthy examples include:
Oklahoma's state budget can also be downloaded in electronic spreadsheet format. The ability to readily provide the state's citizenry a complete detailed budget is an invaluable aid to representative democracy. Of course, providing the budget does little to ensure that it will be read by the public, but with increased access due to the Web, familiarity with a state's budget is available to a much larger segment of the citizenry.In addition, some states now provide tax forms on the Web. Some of these require special software to print them, such as Adobe Acrobat (also free on the Web at http://www.adobe.com/), yet can be readily downloaded and printed once obtained. Others provide images that may be printed directly by the browser.
EnvironmentThere are a large number of sites of value for those interested in environmental issues. Many are concerned with specific areas of environmental problems or issues. The Federal Government has some of the most useful pages on the Web. Among the first major sites on the Web was the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). They have continued to maintain an active Web presence and anyone seeking information on land use or environmental resources would be well advised to consider one or more of their pages as a permanent bookmark. Among the useful databases the USGS provides are a mapping service:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides several sites of interest, especially if you are searching for information to assess environmental impacts. A few of the services worth a quick tour at EPA are:For further information on environmental issues, consult one of the following extensive guides to the environment on the Web:
Energy sites are also well represented on the Internet. Unlike many other areas of policy interest, commercial organizations seem to be more plentiful in this area than organizations, individuals and academic institutions. There are sites for Coal and Coal Mining:
Educators can take advantage of a number of sites as well. Notable among them are those at the National Education Association:
There are numerous agencies and foundations that support grants programs of interest to educators, such as: If you wish to browse a set of suggested standards for course content in grades k-12, try:The volume of material for education is tremendous, and Yahoo provides an excellent starting place for this rather extensive topic:
Unions, like most other organizations, want to get their message out. Recently, a number of Unions pages have become available:
Union pages generally have information about legislation of relevance to unions, information on jobs rights, and occasionally information on union activity.Prisons, Corrections, and Capital Punishment
A number of sites exist for information on prisons, criminal justice, and capital punishment. A rather useful guide to this area of policy concern can be found at
There are a number of links to such issues as prison statistics, educational information, and corrections departments in a number of states. Many links have a clear advocacy element to them, but many also provide useful information.The death penalty provides a social issue which engenders strong debate among proponents and opposition. Development of a policy position either for or against capital punishment should be made with an extensive review of both the moral foundations of both sides of the issue, and a review of the considerable amount of data and research relevant to the question. An excellent starting place is a page set up by the American Society of Criminology:
Here the browser can find U.S. Department of Justice data on number of executions and those awaiting execution, the methods of execution by state, and a list of supreme court cases involving the death penalty. There is also a list of wrongful convictions involving the death penalty. AbortionLooking for information on abortion? The Web offers numerous sites to support any position on this contentious issue. For example, pro-choice resources can be found at
while pro-life advocates can peruse The Web hosts sites of all persuasions and abortion clearly has many proponents and opponents who wish to present their messages.Gun Control
The National Rifle Association maintains an extensive site on issues and policies related to handgun and firearm ownership. In fact, the Web offers a large number of firearm-related sites. Some Web sites have attained a degree of notoriety due to the extreme positions taken in advocacy of gun ownership. On the other hand, gun control advocates seem to have a less- apparent presence on the Web. The authors can offer little to explain the dearth of gun control Web sites. Perhaps the most interesting comparison can be made between the NRA and the American Firearms Association, a moderate association seeking a middle ground on gun control issues.
This is an area that will likely see change and development.International Trade
Information on international trade can be obtained from the many Chambers of Commerce on the Web. These are useful for finding trade shows, business guides, committees, business opportunities, trade missions, and other information about conducting international business operations. A few of these useful sites are:
Several federal agencies have placed information useful for business and international trade data on their pages: The USTDA has an extensive set of links, and makes an excellent place to begin a search for international trade information. In addition to trade shows and missions, the U.S. Small Business Administration, in coordination with other agencies, has put up the U.S. Business Advisor for domestic business as well as for trade. This page is a compendium of related information including links to relevant laws and regulations, financing, insurance, and labor and employment. The Census Bureau is, of course, one of the major repositories of information online. In addition to the census data mentioned earlier, they provide extensive international trade data. Stat-USA is a subscription service, but appears to provide significant resources for those interested in international trade. As the growth of business activity on the Web picks up, this will be an area that will likely see considerable change and development.Other Sites of Interest
West Virginia Congressional Delegation
The federal government has moved rapidly to put as much information about its programs and institutions on the Web as possible. As such, the West Virginia Congressional Delegation Web pages are readily accessible:
The list of useful federal Web pages is limited only by one's perception of the utility of the federal government itself. A few obvious places to begin can readily be listed:
The federal government has moved rapidly to take advantage of the Web as a means of providing information. These agencies provide a wide range of sites and the beginning Web browser can learn much from seeing how the federal government takes advantage of it. Rather than select a few specific sites, it is useful to look at the scope of the federal presence on the Web by turning to the larger guides to federal web sites. A multitude of excellent resource links for navigating the federal Web exist. A few of the more useful are: Political Campaigns and ElectionsElection home pages are in vogue this campaign season, and will likely be routine by the next presidential election in 2000. They offer an extremely inexpensive means of providing a large volume of information to the interested browser. The Poly-Cy guide at West Virginia University has a West Virginia Political Campaign page which lists the Web pages of candidates for office which are known to the page's provider, with links to other elections pages for national elections.
If you are thinking of running for office yourself, or establishing a PAC to aid candidates who support your organization's principles, make sure that you examine the Federal Election Commission's "Help for Candidates, Parties and PACs." If you are simply a voter seeking to become better informed, then for the latest in campaign Web pages, point your browser at: West Virginia Economic DevelopmentThe Web's growth as a resource for economic development has already been touched on lightly by the mention of the presence of the West Virginia Development Office and several county economic development authorities already on the Web. There are also several other West Virginia sites of interest in the economic development area:
A Day in the Life on the Web
Perhaps the Web's most amazing aspect is how it will quickly become a part of daily routine. Just as E-mail has proven a very effective and low-cost addition to both public sector and private sector workplaces, the Web will become an indispensable tool for almost any business. A brief list of some services currently available that might save the browser considerable time or effort, and often expenditure, should further demonstrate the globalization of the information world.
News Sources
The Web has become a convenient place to obtain daily news. Most news sources such as local newspapers and magazines as well as the television networks provide a limited subset of their daily coverage online. There are, of course, larger news providers and sites that charge for their service as well. Most of these sites serve to entice the browser to subscribe, but one or two sites can be quite useful for a quick check for the prominent headlines of the day.
Weather
Let us not forget to check the weather. Need to check on the travel conditions for that trip in the morning? Look at The Weather Channel's current conditions and surface map as well as the AM forecast:
Lastly, there are innumerable reference sources of value popping up all the time. For instance, if you need to find a Zip Code, try:
Maybe you need to find a telephone number of a long-lost friend last known to live in Montana:Many of us are always on the search for new business or consulting opportunities, so a search of the
can be an indispensable asset by providing a large number of opportunities for businesses, consultants, academics, and occasionally government agencies. While this site does require registration prior to use, it does not charge for access. It also has a routine e-mail update service for automatically notifying the registered user of selected bids and contracts.Miscellaneous
Perhaps the most important tools for using the Web are the sites designed to let you search for Web pages of interest or utility. Such pages, or search engines, vary greatly in technology, organization, design and philosophy. The Web browser should take a few minutes on each page to become familiar with the way to structure search requests. Some of these search engines are well known, such as Net Search - the one with the Search button on Netscape's Navigator Web browser. Others may be larger or better organized or more appropriately specialized. A few of the search engines well worth the investigation are:
All of these services are provided without charge. They generate their revenues from the advertising that they put in their pages.Also of note are the newly appearing pages which list several search engines together or even allow you to combine or coordinate searches across several engines at the same time:
It is with the search engine that the Web starts to become a powerful tool for information gathering and research. Search routines are in their infancy today, but as they move into their second and third generations, these search mechanisms will become more skillful at finding your desired keywords, they will run in the background continuously, and will learn from your selections what you want and what you don't. The next few years will bring about significant changes in our ability to refine our information searches. These search engines will ultimately be the mechanisms whereby we have this global village of information literally at our fingertips.So how does a business, government agency, organization or individual develop a WWW page? The growth in access to the Web now allows almost anyone in the state to access the web through a newly emerging business - the Internet Service Provider (ISP). These small businesses are rapidly emerging as a center for local information. There are a number of them in West Virginia already, with more on the way. For instance:
Conclusion
This brief introduction to sites of interest to state and local government officials on the Internet does not really conclude here. It really just begins. The place the reader is directed toward is the Web itself. The printed text, such as this article, really has its utility in inviting the novice to try the Web. Most of us will begin to integrate the Web into our daily professional (and personal) lives and begin to utilize its power over the next year or so. The list of useful, and essential, Web sites will grow at a surprising pace. To this end, West Virginia University's Institute for Public Affairs and Department of Political Science maintain a large directory of WWW links of interest to political scientists, policy analysts, and the public affairs-minded public.
Pages of general interest are:
Endnotes
A Guide to Proper Citation Style may be found at:
ReferencesRobert D. Duval is an Associate Professor of Political Science at West Virginia University. Rebecca Barrett-Duval is a social research consultant based in Morgantown.
