Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory Bodies: A Bibliographic Listing

Overview

Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory Bodies: A Bibliographic Listing by Louis W. Bookheim is a unique resource containing the most current and comprehensive listing of publications created by presidential advisory bodies. For at least the past one hundred and thirty years or so, U.S. presidents have created such advisory groups—also called committees, commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, or task forces—to advise them on particular problems or issues. Typically, the group's task is to analyze a situation, give an explanation as to the cause of the problem, and make recommendations for a change.

Presidential commissions have been established to explain catastrophes such as the Gulf oil spill, Challenger Space Shuttle accident, Pearl Harbor, the AIDS epidemic, and more. There have been many famous advisory groups, such as the Warren Commission (to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy), the Kerner Commission (on the riots of 1967), and the Tower Commission (the President's Special Review Board on Iran Contra). 

About the Database

Though started as an index—a resource to allow librarians to locate presidential advisory reports by group name and OCLC location—this collection has evolved into a bibliographic listing of more than 7,400 reports and other documents from the administrations of Andrew Jackson to Joseph Biden. The electronic database allows interactive exploration of not only the indexed reports, but also linking to the full text of those reports where possible. 

This database is vitally important to researchers interested in United States history, political science, and law, and especially to those interested in: 

• The discovery and analysis of the policies of United States presidents
• The determination of the administrative and political priorities of presidential administrations
• The development of contemporaneous laws and legislative history​

Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory bodies is indexed by commission/advisory body name, report title, report subject, and presidential administration. In addition, links to the full text of more than 2,400 reports are provided, as well as citations to published government documents and OCLC numbers when applicable. To maintain currency, the online resource is updated at least twice annually as new material is discovered, indexed, and integrated into the database. 

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