A week or more ago, I asked the list for suggestions on gaining free
electronic access to the Federal Register.  I promised that I would post
what I learned to the list, here it is.

The mother lode is the access provided by the Govt Printing Office, at
<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces001.html>.  This
homepage will get you access to all of their services, including six
searchable databases, one of which is FR.  The table of contents of the
current edition is located at
<http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces800.shtml>, but of
course it changes daily.  I find the GPO system clunky but usable; some
of the folks who told me about it love it, some hate it.  Many use it.

One can also access the GPO database through Federal Depository
Libraries, listed on the GPO homepage.  One person uses three of these
libraries--Oklahoma State, LSU, and Purdue--regularly, says they're
generally faster than GPO.  They are at:
<http://bubba.ucc.okstate.edu/wais/gpoaccess/>
<http://Indigo.lib.lsu.edu/gpo/ >
<http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/gpo/>.

Someone told me about access through the Community of Science
homepage, I took a brief look and was impressed, told a few others, one
of them checked further to learn--of course!--that one has to be a
member to use it, costs big bucks.  Still, it's a slick interface.

Finally, InfoEd (The SPIN folks) offer access to the FR through their
webpage.  It retails for $500 a year, more than Counterpoint even, but
they offered me a 30 day trial, no doubt they would extend that to others
(right Tammy?).  Their service is slick, one can browse or search by
year, month or day, text is retrievable and readable.

The ultimate question is, how much is it worth to have a service which is
slicker than the one GPO provides?  We've already paid for that one, of
course; do we want to pay Counterpoint, CoS, or InfoEd again to dress
up the same information a little?

Anyhow, that's what I learned.  Thanks to the dozen or so folks who
advised me, I appreciate it, the rest of the list will too.

Regards, Bill Campbell
Director, Grants & Research
University of Wisconsin-River Falls