The Office for Intellectual Freedom, with the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee and others, develops toolkits on a variety of topics to assist librarians and the general public  http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/iftoolkits/intellectual.cfm

The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. The Center conducts computer-based research on campaign finance issues for the news media, academics, activists, and the public at large. The Center's work is aimed at creating a more educated voter, an involved citizenry, and a more responsive government.  http://www.opensecrets.org

The CDF Action Council provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. The CDF Action Council educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. Each year, the CDF Action Council releases a nonpartisan Congressional scorecard on how well members of Congress protect children. http://www.cdfactioncouncil.org/

The Citizens' Advisory Organization is working to take the money out of politics and make room for individual citizens once again. It's goal is to put the "i" back in "politics". That's "i" as in the individual voter, "aye" as in the voice of the average citizen, and "eye" as in keeping a watchful eye on politicians. The primary tool that accomplishes that purpose is a voting advice system that makes it easy to get voting recommendations from people you trust and which, in the process, empowers your selected advisors and advisory organizations with political influence--to even the playing field, so that corporate money no longer dominates the equation. http://www.citizensadvisory.org/

Congress for Kids gives you access to interactive, fun-filled experiences designed to help you learn about the foundation of our federal government and how its actions affect you. Although designed for students in grades fourth through high school, other students, teachers, parents, and interested citizens will find helpful, engaging activities, too.http://www.congressforkids.net/

Welcome to Congresspedia, the "citizen's encyclopedia on Congress" that anyone-including you-can edit. Congresspedia is a not-for-profit, collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy and the Sunlight Foundation and is overseen by an editor to help ensure fairness and accuracy. Congresspedia is part of the SourceWatch wiki. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia

There's an opportunity to build a new, open mass medium of online television. We're developing the Democracy internet TV platform so that watching internet video channels will be as easy as watching TV and broadcasting a channel will be open to everyone. Unlike traditional TV, everyone will have a voice.
http://www.getdemocracy.com/

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. http://www.factcheck.org/

GovTrack.us is a nexus of information about the United States Congress, bringing together information on the status of federal legislation, voting records, and campaign contributions. The site automatically tracks legislative events and categorizes them into thousands of subjects, such as "nuclear energy" and "medicine," so that users can subscribe to follow just the events that interest them. Events, like the passage of bills, are sent to users on a daily or weekly basis by email, or through RSS/Atom feeds. GovTrack is unique in two ways, first in that its intended audience is the average citizen with an interest in politics, and second in its use of web technologies to be both a comprehensive research tool as well as a personalized congress-tracker. All information and services provided by GovTrack are free.http://www.govtrack.us/

State Legislatures, State Laws and State Regulations - Web Site Links and Telephone Numbers http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/state-leg.htm

LEAD stands for Legislative Education Action Drive and is dedicated to informing the public on issues affecting education at the state level and presenting alternative concepts of school and educational choice to the public, elected officials, and the media.  Our mission is to encourage legislation in all states to provide for Universal Tuition Tax Credits; which would enable all children the freedom to pursue an education in the primary and secondary institution of their own choosing  http://www.leadaction.org/

The National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights works to ensure that the courts protect and preserve justice, fairness, and opportunity for everyone. http://www.rollbackcampaign.org/

A project of the Society of Professional Journalists, Open Doors is a tutorial on FOI laws. It offers such useful resources as the distinction between state and federal open government laws and an A to Z list of issues and topics that fall under FOI laws.  http://www.spj.org/foia_opendoors.asp#how

Our mission is to build an open and democratic television platform.
• Television is the defining medium of our culture. There's now an opportunity to create a television culture that is fluid, diverse, exciting, and beautiful. Built by people working together.

• The platform is open-source and built on open-standards. http://participatoryculture.org/

The People's Email Network is constructed to facilitate communication with our elected officials. By your participation you can establish that you are a voter who will call your government to account at each successive election. Your views do count. They will be heard. And most importantly, when you cast your votes in the section above, be sure to use the ground-breaking input functions of our website to also submit the email addresses of everyone you know. In this way we can together mobilize the entire country to speak in the loudest possible voice. http://www.usalone.com/

Politicopia aims to promote better politics by (1) politically empowering individuals, (2) encouraging better dialogue, and (3) producing better ideas. Politicopians believe that political solutions are possible and work together to craft those solutions. This allows for plenty of constructive give-and-take and plenty of civil disagreement. But, if it's a flame war or partisan echo-chamber you're after, there are plenty of other sites you might want to visit instead. We're trying to make a difference. If you'd like to help us, we enthusiastically welcome you! http://www.politicopia.com

PR Watch, a quarterly publication of the Center for Media & Democracy, is dedicated to investigative reporting on the public relations industry. It serves citizens, journalists and researchers seeking to recognize and combat manipulative and misleading PR practices. It specializes in blowing the lid off today's multi-billion dollar propaganda-for-hire industry, naming names and revealing how public relations wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony 'grassroots' front groups, spy on citizens, and conspire with lobbyists and politicians to thwart democracy. We expose the hidden activities of secretive, little-known mega-firms such as Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller and Ketchum PR--the "invisible men" who control our political debates and public opinion, twisting reality and protecting the powerful from scrutiny. http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/prwatch.html

Ripple Kids is a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering kids to take action in their communities by publicizing what their peers are doing.

The name comes from the idea that if one kid does something positive in her community, it will inspire someone else to do something, and so on and so on and so on. It's the ripple effect caused by one kid - a ‘Ripple Kid' - taking action.

Our goal with this web site is to create an interactive experience that makes community involvement cool and fun. We want community service to become part of the mainstream conversation where hearing about the good things kids are doing is the rule rather than the exception.  http://www.ripplekids.com/

Welcome to SourceWatch-your guide to the names behind the news. SourceWatch is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy. SourceWatch also includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists and government agencies. Unlike some other wikis, SourceWatch has a policy of strict referencing, and is overseen by a paid editor. SourceWatch has 30,177 articles http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch

TechPresident was started by Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry as a new group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign.  The 2008 election will be the first where the Internet will play a central role, not only in terms of how the campaigns use technology, but also in how voter-generated content affects its course.  TechPresident.com plans to track all these changes in real-time, covering everything from campaign websites, online advertising and email lists to the postings on YouTube and who's got the fastest growing group of friends on MySpace.

Our team of bloggers is made of veterans of the 2004 and 2006 elections, ranging across the political spectrum. Their expertise covers everything from website design to the latest in mobile tools and social networking sites. And we'll look closely not just at what the campaigns are or are not doing, but what voters and activists are doing online to independently affect the election. http://techpresident.com/

http://www.house.gov/house/Legproc.shtml

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/b_three_sections_with_teasers/active_leg_page.htm

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/b_three_sections_with_teasers/virtual.htm

Vote: The Machinery of Democracy explores how ballots and voting systems have evolved over the years as a response to political, social, and technological change, transforming the ways in which Americans vote. http://americanhistory.si.edu/vote/

This brochure provides basic guidance about the FOIA and the Privacy Act to assist citizens in exercising their rights. It uses a question-and-answer format to present information about these laws in a clear, simple manner. The brochure is not intended to be a comprehensive treatment of the complex issues associated with the FOIA and the Privacy Act. http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/fed_prog/foia/foia.htm

YOUTH NOISE is a group of young people--from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 176 countries--together with a small group of adults working to provide information from more than 300 nonprofit partners to date that will spark youth action and voice. YOUTH NOISE is a project of the Tides Center, a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, nonprofit organization www.youthnoise.com