Driving from courthouse to courthouse to dig through documents or ordering various faxes for background information can be minimized today with the many resources available on CD-ROM. Here's a wonderful reference list for CD-ROMs: DirectPhone/SelectPhone: Two/five regional discs containing both 10 million business and 90 million residential listings. SelectPhone can be searched by name, address, or telephone number.
11 Million Businesses Phone Directory: One disc containing business listings. 1.1 Million Health & Medical Industry Reference Directory: Listing everything from physicians to health clubs. The North American Facsimile Book: Contains 150,000 fax numbers. Military Personnel/Base Locator: Contains more than 128,000 service people and civilian employees. Statistical Abstract of the United States: Corresponds to the government bestseller containing a plethora of statistics.
Budget of the United States Government: Contains all parts of the budget. Regional Economic Information System: Local area economic data including personal income and employment. Crime and Justice Data: Wealth of crime and justice data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. School District Data Book on CD-ROM: Data derived from the 1990 Census data and the National Center for Education Statistics. Toxic Release Inventory for 1987-1990: Data about what plants are emitting what.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Agency develops more than a dozen CD-ROMs a year including Traffic Safety Data. Mutual Funds on Disc: Analysis by Morningstar on 3,000 mutual funds. PharmAssist: Multimedia disc explaining drugs, legal and illegal. Marriage Records Series: Genealogical information covering marriages from various states. Geographic Names Information System: From the U.S. Geological Survey with about 2,000,000 place names.
Federal News Service: Access to verbatim transcripts of Congressional hearings and briefings. U.S. Code: Laws of the United States. CIA World Fact Book: Profiles of countries. Military Contracts and Procurement Locator: Chronicles military contracts and purchasing. Defense Library on Disc: International affairs, science, defense, and military law. Street Atlas USA: Street level maps of the whole United States.
Global Explorer: Great maps of the earth down to street level in cities. InfoTax CD: Nonprofit organizations summary data. Current Population Survey Utilities: Raw data from the annual survey conducted by the Census Bureau. National Election Studies: Database of basic research on voting and public opinion.