Frequently Asked Questions
Online Access to Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online
Can our users log in from home to access Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online?
Yes, but they need to authenticate themselves with your server(s). This can be accomplished by having them log into your site and providing a “proxy server” to our site.
Can users log in from other buildings on our campus?
Yes, you can authorize up to 5 ranges of IP address from which users can log into the Congressional Digest website.
Can we put the username and password to Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online on our website?
No. That would allow anyone access to our copyrighted materials. If it is in a password secured section of your website you would have to change the password every time a user loses access to that secure section.
How do I know what IP addresses to enter to allow IP authenticated access by my organization’s campus computers to Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online?
Your IT department can provide this information.
Our institution has more than 5 IP addresses from which our users would need to access Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online. How do we enter more than 5?
The authentication process allows “ranges” of IP addresses. Most institutions do not have more than 5 ranges in one location from which users would access Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online. Please contact your IT department for more details. Alternatively, if you have multiple campuses/sites each location can subscribe separately each with its own set of 5 ranges.
Is our subscription limited to some number of simultaneous users?
There is no limit to the number of simultaneous users accessing the Congressional Digest site.
We have activated our free online subscription (which comes with a Congressional Digest print subscription) and we are not able to view Supreme Court Debates or International Debates.
The online access that comes with the print subscription to Congressional Digest (the only title we offer in print) is limited to the electronic edition of Congressional Digest. To get online access to the Supreme Court Debates and International Debates you will need to subscribe to the Congressional Digest Debates Online Service package.
We are a large institution with more than 5 IP ranges that would need access to Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates Online on our campus. What can we do?
There are two choices: 1. we can talk to your IT department and try to find a suitable solution or 2. you can obtain a second subscription. Since your population would be split across two subscriptions your pricing tiers would be ½ of your total population (i.e. two lower subscription rates).
We are not able to view articles from Supreme Court Debates or the International Debates archives.
You may have online access only to Congressional Digest that came with your print subscription to Congressional Digest. For online access to the Supreme Court Debates and the archives of International Debates you will need to subscribe to the Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates PRO&CON® Online Service.
Subscription Rates
We would like to upgrade from a print subscription to Congressional Digest to the Congressional Digest and Supreme Court Debates, a Pro & Con Online Service. How do we do this?
If you would like to upgrade we will credit the remainder of your print subscription to your new online subscription.
Subscription rate tiers are determined by your population for the campus or system which will have access through your subscription. This can be an entire system (see IP access Authentication limitations) or one or more campuses.
We are a public library. What are the rate tier criteria we should use?
It would be according to your most recently published “served population.”
Is the price shown for an institution or a single user?
Our pricing structure starts at $995 and reflects the understanding that most of our subscribers are institutions. Our pricing varies depending on the size of the population served by the institution. Please contact us at support@congressionaldigest.
Digest Digital Access Agreement Notes
Subscription is for the subscribing institution and its subscribers, members, students, or served population. Distribution to others than these expressly permitted is a violation of our Digital Access Agreement.
In order to continue to deliver the unbiased PRO&CON® debate for which Congressional Digest has been known for nearly 100 years we need to protect our content.
Our subscription policy provides for a tiered structure depending on the potential distribution of our copyrighted materials.
Access to Electronic Edition
Username/Password to the Congressional Digest website. Each subscriber is provided a username and password by which it can access our protected content on the website. This username and password must be protected so that only currently authorized constituents of the subscriber have access to our copyrighted materials. This method is not recommended for subscribers who have a dynamic constituency unless the password is frequently changed or password is limited to specific computers under the control of the subscriber.
IP Authentication. Each subscriber may provide Congressional Digest with up to 5 Internet Protocol (IP) ranges. Any computer reporting those IP address may access the Congressional Digest copyrighted materials. For computers behind a campus or corporate “firewall” which use “non-routable” IP addresses (typically beginning in 192.168 or 10. and sometimes 172.16 – 172.31) the firewall will report a “public” IP which needs to be in the authenticated range. Please do not provide non-routable IP addresses or addresses that you do not own or control.
Proxy Servers. A subscriber may establish a proxy server which would provide access to the copyrighted material at CongressionalDigest.com using either of the above two methods when a constituent authenticates him/herself to the subscribers proxy.