The Government Accountability Office recently identified Preparing for Public Health Emergencies as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue.

There appear to be two librarian produced guides that touch on public health emergencies:

• Government Documents on Health (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 3/10/2008
• Chemical and Biological Disarmament (Grace York, University of Michigan, 2000) Last updated 1/9/2005

Bert's guide is to documents about health in general, but he points to resources like Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Reports, Public Health Reports, the Senate Homeland Security & Govt. Affairs Committee and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which all deal with public health emergencies. There is also the usual Chapman catalog instructions on how to seach for government health policy and reports.

Although Grace's guide is titled "Chemical and Biological Disarmament", the government's response to a mass epidemic would be similar whether or not the disease was man made. Some of the resources Grace includes that policymakers might find helpful are:

• PubMed
• Reading List for Princeton Biodefense R&D Workshops and Seminars
• Rand Corporation bioterrorism page
• World Health Organization

On an unrelated note, Grace's guide has a graphic illustration of boolean logic using Russians and Soviets that I think you'll find very helpful in sharing with the uninitiated.

There is more in both guides. I hope you'll read both and then share both if you find them useful.

I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised by what didn't show up on the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki. There was nothing about bird flu (pandemic influenza) or specifically about bioterrorism. I know some librarians somewhere must have produced SOMETHING on these topics and I encourage you to post your guides to the Handout Exchange.

Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "Food Safety" So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified Care for Service Members as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. The page on care for service members explains why this is an urgent issue:

As of October 2008, over 33,000 servicemembers have been wounded in action, resulting in serious injuries such as amputations, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We have identified a number of weaknesses with the health care returning servicemembers are receiving as well as the complex and cumbersome disability systems they must navigate.

Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue.

Although there is no guide currently on the wiki that focuses exclusively on Veterans Care, here are three guides that should provide helpful information to people studying this issue:

• Budget (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008
• Government Documents on Military History (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 3/10/2008.
• Chemical and Biological Disarmament (Grace York, University of Michigan, 2000) Last updated 1/9/2005

Bert Chapman's Budget guide provides a link to the Veterans Affairs budget page as well as to resources about the federal budget process. His guide on military history provides links and catalog information regarding the House and Senate veterans affairs committees.

Finally, Grace York's guide provides resources on Gulf War Syndrome, the now officially documented disease and example of how difficult it can be to get appropriate care for our veterans.

Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "preparing for public health emergencies." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week.

I and I'm sure others would be grateful if you posted any current Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) guides you have laying about.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified Finalizing plans for the 2010 Census as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. If you're not a docs librarian or a policy wonk (there are a few of you reading FGI, right?) you might not realize the importance of this issue. The GAO spells out why every American should care about this issue:

The results of the 2010 Census are central to apportionment, redistricting congressional boundaries, and distributing around $300 billion in federal aid to states and localities each year.

Translation - The results of the 2010 census will redraw the legislative districts in your state, possibly changing how you are represented. The results will spark the redrawing of your congressional district, unless you live in Alaska or Wyoming, which have statewide Representatives. This redrawing could make it easier or harder to unseat your current Member of Congress. In addition, the 2010 results will affect how much federal money each state will receive.

In terms of Census planning, I'm afraid that for the first time in considering these critical transistion issues, I can't find any guide from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that would help you understand planning for the next census. For that, you had best just read the GAO page on the subject.

On the other hand, if you're looking on how find and use census information once it's published, librarians can help. A lot. Check out these guides for a start.

Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "caring for service members." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week. Hopefully next week I won't get caught flat-footed again.

Note: Below is the entry that should have appeared last Saturday. My apologies for the delay.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified Improving the US Image Abroad as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue.

There appear to be two librarian-produced guides that look helpful in this area:

• Government Publications on Islam (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
• Public Opinion Sources (Univ. of California--Berkeley, 1999) Last updated 5/9/2006

The Islam guide provides a few links to efforts in American "public diplomacy" as well as hearings and studies about current thinking and opinion in Islamic countries. UC Berkeley's guide on public opinion sources provides information on current and past public opinion trends at home and abroad. It has a mix of print and electronic resources.

Next time I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "finalizing plans for the 2010 Census."

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified defense spending as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue.

While there do not appear to be any guides that specifically address defense spending alone, the guides below and taken together should be helpful:

• Military Information Resources and Periodicals (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
• Resources for Weapons Systems Policy Research (John Hernandez, New York University, 1999) Last updated 6/2004
• Budget (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008
• U.S. Government Documents: The Budget Process (Jerry Breeze, Columbia University, 1999) Last Updated sometime in 2008

I'm juggling several projects this week so I'm hoping you'll be willing to check out the above guides without teasers from each. I will say that John Hernandez's guide has a full section devoted to the budget and procurement process relating to weapons purchases. This section also helps you find out information on specific defense contractors.

Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "improving the U.S. image abroad." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week.

Continuing with our special "Guide of the Week" series relating to Presidential Transition issues:

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified protecting the homeland as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue.

"Protecting the homeland" is a broader topic than it sounds. GAO itself broke down "protecting the homeland" into five subtopics - Prevention, Preparedness and Response; Critical Infrastructure Protection; Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Radiological Threats, Homeland Security Acquisitions and Information Sharing. With these subtopics in mind, here are some guides that might better inform you on most of these issues:

• Depository Library Web Sites on Terrorism and Homeland Security (Karen Hogenboom, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 2004) (GODORT Education Clearinghouse)
• Homeland Security (University of Colorado Boulder Government Publications Library 2008)
• National Security Policy (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008
• Climate and Weather (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
• Intelligence (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008

I think three of the guide titles are fairly self explanatory as why I've included them. I included Climate and Weather from UCB because it links to a number of resources to major weather disasters and how to prepare for them. Statistically speaking, very few people will be object of a terrorist attack, but 90% of the country will be affected by natural disasters, including hurricanes and the like. Bert Chapman's guide on Intelligence contains links to resources that specifically address information sharing between agencies and with Congress and the public.

Since I'm not covering each guide listed here in my usual "Guide of the Week" depth, you know that there is lots more in each of the guides. So go check them out. If you find them helpful, send the guide links to your Senators and Representatives. It's their transition too! And if you're a docs librarian with a guide to some of the urgent issues listed above, then please QUICKLY post your guide to the Handout Exchange.

In addition to the government resources covered in this entry, I'd strongly recommend the book The edge of disaster : rebuilding a resilient nation by Stephen Flynn. It's a book that contains policy solutions in addition to diagnosing problems with how we handle both natural and manmade disasters. For specific information on nuclear and radiological threats, the book Physics for Future Presidents by Dr. Richard Muller would be helpful. Or you could just watch his lecture on Nukes:

Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "undisciplined defense spending." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week.

The Government Accountability Office recently identified our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on these countries.

Your first stop should be these three excellent country guides produced by the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB):

• Afghanistan: Country Guide (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
• Iraq: Country Guide (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
• Pakistan: Country Guide (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)

Each of the country guides above is divided into the following sections: Government Information, Country Profiles, Articles & Databases, Diplomatic Relations, Health, Peacekeeping & Military Information, Resources in the UCB Catalog and Related Topics. The "Government Information" section contains links to information direct from that country's government. This can be useful if you are looking for an unfiltered view of a country. One thing I really like about the "Country Profiles" section of UCB's country guides is that they don't stop with the CIA World Factbook or the State Department's Background Notes. These sources, while good, are just one perspective. The UCB guides adds profiles from a number of countries plus international organizations. So have a look at how Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan are viewed by Australia, Human Rights Watch, the European Commission and the BBC, among others.

Once you're done with the country-specific guides, check out the guides below if you need more background (historical, social, etc) on these regions of the world.

• U.S. State Department Microform Collections on Middle East and North Africa Last (Univ. of California--Berkeley) updated 9/11/2006
• Intelligence (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008
• Middle East Conflicts (Grace York, Univ. of Michigan, 1997) Last updated 7/26/2006
• Depository Library Web Sites on Terrorism and Homeland Security (Karen Hogenboom, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 2004) (GODORT Education Clearinghouse)

The microform collection at Berkeley provides historical background on America's activities in the Middle East going back into the 19th Century. This information is not online, but knowing about these collections might help you order materials through Interlibrary Loan.

Bert Chapman's guide on Intelligence contains some links to reports on Iraq as well as information about the intelligence communities role in our current wars.

Grace York's guide reminds us that the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are not the only conflicts going on in the world and provides materials on the various conflicts going on in the Middle East.

Finally, since both Afghanistan and Iraq were portrayed as being part of the "War on Terror", it seemed appropriate to include Karen Hogenboom's guide to terrorism resources from Federal Depository Libraries. Karen's guide has a link to Kathy Amen's War in Iraq/Afghanistan page that I think you will also find helpful.

Since I'm not covering each guide listed here in my usual "Guide of the Week" depth, you know that there is lots more in each of the guides. So go check them out. If you find them helpful, send the guide links to your Senators and Representatives. It's their transition too! And if you're a docs librarian with a guide to some of the urgent issues listed above, then please QUICKLY post your guide to the Handout Exchange.

Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "protecting the homeland." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week.

As promised, starting this week, Guide of the Week is supporting the "__ Days to Government Information Liberation" initiative by highlighting guides from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki that shed light on important Presidential transition issues as defined by the Government Accountability Office's urgent issues page at http://www.gao.gov/transition_2009/urgent/. This page highlights the following 13 "urgent issues":

• oversight of financial institutions and markets,
• U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,
• protecting the homeland,
• undisciplined defense spending,
• improving the U.S. image abroad,
• finalizing plans for the 2010 Census,
• caring for service members,
• preparing for public health emergencies,
• revamping oversight of food safety,
• restructuring the approach to surface transportation,
• retirement of the Space Shuttle,
• ensuring an effective transition to digital TV, and
• rebuilding military readiness.

Today, we focus on oversight of financial institutions and markets. The Handout Exchange Wiki offers several items that look helpful:

• Banking, Banks and Credit Unions (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
• Government Documents on Banking (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 3/10/2008
• Housing (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008

I've actually covered Bert Chapman's guide to housing in a prior edition of Guide of the Week, so I won't cover that guide in detail again. His banking guide provides the usual intro and helpful catalog terms. Then it highlights a number of resources helpful to monitoring oversight efforts, including:

• Annual Report Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
• House Financial Services Committee
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
• Australia Parliament House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance, & Public Administration

The UC Boulder guide provides links to national and international banking information including such resources as:

• FDIC Institution Directory contains demographic data and financial profiles of each FDIC-insured depository institution derived from quarterly reports filed with Federal regulators.
• Community Reinvestment Act Database "The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods." The database includes bank ratings and performance evaluations.
• Credit Union Data Detailed data on individual institutions and tool for data comparison.

The guide also offers a link to the informative yet lighthearted AmosWEB ECONOMIC GLOSS*arama.

As usual, there is a lot more in all three guides. Look them over. If you find them helpful, send the guide links to your Senators and Representatives. It's their transition too! And if you're a docs librarian with a guide to some of the urgent issues listed above, then please QUICKLY post your guide to the Handout Exchange.

Kudos to John for counting down the days to "Government Information Liberation!"

In support of this great concept, I will try to focus our "Guide of the Week" series on subjects related to the Presidential transition until the week of January 20th, 2009. I'll highlight guides related to subjects from the GAO transition page and the Agenda page at change.gov once it returns.

This week tho, I'd like to highlight two guides from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki concerning Presidents and their documents:

• POTUS: Presidents of the United States (Bob Summers, University of Michigan, Internet Public Library, 2008)
• Presidential Papers (University of California, Berkeley, 2006)

The POTUS guide is focused on information about individual Presidents - their biography, their margin of electoral victory, etc. A useful feature of this guide for the transition is the list of Cabinet members. Looking at the Cabinet members for the Clinton and Carter years might provide hints on who President Obama might pick or provide background on nominees who served during these years.

Berkeley's Presidential papers guide is a pathfinder to published materials published by Presidents. It includes sections on:

• About Presidential Papers
• Biographical Information
• Guides
• Elections
• Vetoes
• Executive Orders & Proclamations
• Official Papers and Speeches
• Personal papers and correspondence
• Declassified Documents
• Selected Internet Resources

There is a lot in both guides and I encourage you to look at them. And if you're a librarian with a guide to some other aspect of government information, please add it to the Handout Exchange.

I'd love to see more librarians highlighting their resource guides over the next few months. Between the transition and the major issues facing our country, this may be a great teachable moment to demonstrate the value of government information and the experts who deal with it on a daily basis.

Today's Guide of the Week from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange comes to us once again from Bert Chapman:

Government Documents on Immigration (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 6/18/2008

As Bert points out in his introduction, "Immigration has been and remains an important and controversial issue in U.S. history and contemporary public policy." After pointing helpful subject headings with which to search the Purdue library catalog, he turns to highlighting a number of sources including:

• Administrative Decisions Under Employer Sanctions & Unfair Immigration Related... HSSE DOC J 1.103:
• Immigration: Analysis of the Major Provisions of the REAL ID Act of 2005 (Congressional Research Service)
• Office of Immigration Statistics
• United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees
• New Zealand Immigration Service

There is, as usual, much more. Go check out the rest of the guide. Mark it and the Handout Exchange in del.icio.us, Facebook or whatever you use to share with your online friends. If you're a docs librarian with a handout or resource guide to share, then please add it to the wiki. Let's show people what librarians are made of.

In case I haven't made it clear by now, the ALA Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) Handout Exchange Wiki has guides for all levels of government information. For instance this week's guide:

Indiana Government and Politics (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2008)

is dedicated to the US State of Indiana, which has emerged as a battleground state in the 2008 Presidential Election. So what has Bert Chapman found out about Indiana resources? Here is a sampling of the materials he has listed:

• Here Is Your Indiana Government HSSE REF 353.9772 In2c
• Election Report: State of Indiana HSSE REF 324.772 In22a
• West's Indiana Law Encylopedia HSSE REF 347.03 W52
• Indiana Campaign Finance Database
• AJR Newslink Indiana Newspapers

This is actually one of the shorter guides I've highlighted so far, but there is more, so go check out the rest of the guide. Then check to see what else is available, either by browsing the guide or using the guide's custom search engine. And if you're a docs librarian, please post your handout!

This week, instead of highlighting a specific guide, I'd like to highlight the fact that the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki now has a Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) that covers 611 sites linked to from the Handout Exchange.

You can find the CSE at the bone crunchingly long URL of:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=004167096080728781323%3Aglzqvfjgqky.

If I were you, I'd just bookmark it now. There is also a link to the CSE from the front page of the guide.

It's not perfect because Google itself is not perfect, but it can be a good way to do cross disciplinary searches of guides or to find professionally selected information on countries. Here are some searches for you to try by clicking:

• Iran
• terrorism
• banking
• secrecy
• Cold War

Try some searches of your own. Give us some feedback in comments.

UC Berkeley contributed this annotated bibliography to the ALA GODORT Handout Wik:

Human Rights Resources (Univ. of California--Berkeley, 1999) Last updated 7/7/2006

It is separated into the following sections:

• Encyclopedias, Guides, and Handbooks
• Guides to Research
• Document Sources
• Directories
• Bibliographies
• Annuals
• Library Catalogs
• Periodicals Indexes/Databases
• Periodicals
• News Sources
• Government Information
• Internet Sources

Before I highlight specific resources, I wanted to give kudos to the UC Berkeley folks for including the "library catalogs" section and suggesting these terms for folks searching for human rights resources in library catalogs:

• Censorship
• Civil rights
• Detention of persons
• Dissenters
• Government, resistance to
• Human rights
• Human rights workers
• Political crimes and offenses
• Political persecution
• Political prisoners
• Race discrimination
• Refugees, political
• Self-determination
• Sex discrimination
• Social justice
• Torture

While controlled vocabulary *is* a wonderful concept and does a great job of tying related records together it is not always obvious what vocabulary to use. If we don't highlight what to use, who will? Another good thing about the catalogs section is that UC Berkeley offers a tip on browsing human rights in the stacks -- "Browse in the stacks for books on human rights in the call number range 'JC571-628.'"

As for the resources themselves, they are drawn from a number of print and electronic resources. A tiny sample includes:

• Encyclopedia of human rights. 2nd ed. E. Lawson.
  Doe Reference JC 571 .E67 1996
  Comprehensive compendium including texts of 200 instruments, descriptions of human rights organizations, status of human rights in countries, etc.

• Guide to human rights research. J. Tobin.
  Doe Reference K 3236 .T63 1994
  Comprehensive guide to the literature

• Multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General
  Doe Reference JX 1977 .A3652 .M8 Govt/Stat; latest.

• World refugee survey.
  Main Stack HV 640 .W63; latest in Doe Reference - Govt/Stat

• International journal of human rights.(JC571 I593 Main)

There is much, much more and you really ought to look at the rest of the guide. Then see what else is available. And if you're a docs librarian with a guide, annotated bibliography or handout, then add it to the exchange.

Housing has been an issue both this year in general and as an election issue. So this week I'm highlighting another Bert Chapman guide that he allowed the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki to link to:

* Housing (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 6/18/2008

In his introduction, Bert notes:

Housing affects our lives in many ways. We buy and sell homes, rent apartments, and invest in residential and commercial properties. Government agencies produce many publications on various aspects of housing. These publications can be found in various Purdue Libraries with the HSSE and MEL libraries having the largest collections. Examples of Library Catalog subject headings you can use to search for government documents on housing include:

• Government Sale of Real Property United States
• Home Ownership United States
• Housing Policy United States
• Housing Surveys United States
• Rental Housing Law and Legislation United States

He then identifies a number of resources including:

• A Chronology of Housing Legislation & Selected Executive Actions 1892-2003 HSSE DOC Y 4.F 49/20:108-D
• American Housing Survey (various cities) HSSE DOC C 3.215:H-170/
• Census of Construction Industries MEL REF, MEL, & STOR C 3.245/
• Mortgage Insurance Companies of America/Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Reports MEL REF FR 1.63/
• Germany Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, & Housing (In German)

Check out the rest of the guide. Then see what other topics are available. And if you are a documents librarian with a guide, please add your guide to the wiki!

According to the Census Bureau, by 2030 one in five Americans, including me, will be 65 or older. It's never too early to prepare for old age, it seems like a good time to highlight this guide linked from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange:

Selected Bibliography of Gerontology Resources in the Social Work Library, with Selected Web Resources (Sally Haines Lawler, University of Michigan, 2003) Last updated 9/26/2006

The scope note (introduction) to the guide emphasizes that this list is not comprehensive and that people should contact library staff for additional resources. While not comprehensive, the guide is pretty extensive with lists of books, journals, databases, web sites and more. A too brief sample of what's available includes:

• Andersson, L. (Ed.). (2002). Cultural gerontology. Westport, Conn.: Auburn House. HQ 1061 .C7931 2002
• Birren, J.E. (2001). Telling the stories of life through guided autobiography groups. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. RC 953.8 .R43 B5751 2001
• American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Albany, NY: American Orthopsychiatric Association

  * Full text available only to U-M students; available on campus at Social Work Library (1988-present), Shapiro Undergraduate Library (1980-present)
  * Indexed in: AGELINE, Psychological Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Work Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts

• AGELINE

  Conduct a subject search for gerontology. Also try subject searches for social gerontology, geropsychology, psychological aging, biological aging, successful aging, older adults, old old, and young old. Try to be as specific as possible in this database, as it covers aging and older adults, in particular the social, psychological, economic, policy and health care aspects. For additional information, see the Social Work Library's guide "How to Search CSA Illumina."

• http://www.americangeriatrices.org/ American Geriatrics Society.

Aside from the extensive list of resources, the guide also offers a number of search terms to use when searching gerontology issues in library catalogs. Some of the terms offered are: Aged offenders, Frail elderly, Hospice care, Rural aged, and Terminal care.

Check out the rest of the guide. Then see what other topics are available. And if you are a documents librarian with a guide, please add your guide to the wiki!