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 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.

Our friends at The Gov Doc blog have put out an emergency appeal to help save the Nevada State Library's Head of Government Publications.

All of us on the FGI Volunteer team support asking the Nevada State Library to reconsider its position.

Here is The Gov Doc post in its entirety. I'll have a few comments after:

=====================
Greetings to all.

We hope everyone had a fun & refreshing Thanksgiving holiday. Ours were well spent with family and plenty of good food however we received some distressing news upon returning to work. We learned that the Nevada State Library and Archives has decided to eliminate the position, Head of Government Publications. The reason we are distressed is because this position is crucial for the capturing, cataloging, and dissemination of state publications and we fear that without the leadership that this position provides Nevada publications will slip into oblivion to the detriment of the people – the people whose taxes pay for this research and are therefore entitled to the opportunity to access this information.

Below is a letter of protest that you can cut & paste into a new message to send to Ms. Daphne DeLeon and Mr. Michael E. Fischer. Please feel free to edit the letter to personalize it or write your own. Don’t forget to sign your name at the bottom complete with your organization and title.

Here are their email addresses, please include both in the “Send To” line:

Daphne DeLeon, ddeleon@nevadaculture.org

Michael E. Fischer, mfischer@nevadaculture.org

One last thing, please send a blind copy of your email to Ian Campbell (icampbell@washoecounty.us) and Lisa Printz (lprintz@washoecounty.us).

Thank you and hopefully together we can make a difference,

Ian and Lisa

Attn: Daphne DeLeon, Division Administrator, Nevada State Library & Archive

Michael E. Fischer, Director, Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs

It was with shock and dismay that we learned about the Nevada State Library's decision to eradicate the position, Head of Government Publications. And it is with the great concern stimulated by this decision that we are writing to request that the state reconsider what we believe to be a short-sighted decision that will negatively impact current and future Nevada residents' access to critical information. When one considers that the federal government produces 70% of the world's information it becomes apparent that federally funded information is invaluable and since tax-payers dollars purchase or support these research endeavors the citizens of this nation have a right to access this information. Much of the states' research receives partial funding from the federal government and therefore is included in the figure (70%) given above. Compounding traditional problems of access to government funded research are the changes in the dissemination of this information to the populous. Due to advances in technology and in an effort to save money most government funded research is only available online therefore, capturing and cataloging this information for the purpose of retrieval are vital to the community's information needs especially since governmental agencies are not obligated to maintain access to this information. So, much of this information is ephemeral in its availability unless someone captures and catalogs it. Currently, there is a phenomenal amount of previously released information that needs to be captured and cataloged in addition to the present research being released now and future research that will require capturing and cataloging for without this work preserving access to federal and state research will not be possible. While there are many individuals attempting to apply order to federal documents, there are far fewer that work towards capturing, cataloging, and disseminating state government publications. This position, Head of Government Publications, fulfills this role and provides much needed leadership in the enactment of the NRS 378.170 and for the state of Nevada in developing a Nevada state publications depository to ensure the permanent retention of state publications. We feel that this position, Head of Government Publications, serves a critical and vital gap in the public's information needs and we therefore, strongly urge the Nevada State Library to reconsider this decision.

Thank you and sincerely,
=====================

As someone who participates in government virtual reference, I can assure our readers that having stuff online is NOT the same as being able to lay your digital fingers on it. Doubly so when that stuff isn't actually online.

As someone who used to run a state's document program, I can assure our readers that without someone whose primary role is state publications, a lot of stuff will fall through the cracks. This is based on the realization that a fair amount falls through the cracks even when there is dedicated staff.

Ian and Lisa didn't say whether the docs duties currently assigned to the position were going to be parceled out to others or be eliminated. Either choice would be a bad one. Most libraries that I'm familiar with already have most librarians doing about two positions worth of work.

So if you care about government information, especially if you live in Nevada, I hope you will consider joining this letter writing campaign. If you're familiar with the Nevada State Library, it would help if you could suggest some alternative cuts OR some alternative funding sources.

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.

Ok. It just hit me. I just set myself up with the goal of blogging for each of the next 72 days about government information that will court and spark, to steal a line from Joni Mitchell, in order to get people excited about their constitutional structures and the best values of civic information.

What was I thinking?

So, here is what caught my eye today, from the Nov. 9, 2008 "After the Imperial Presidency" article in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html.) But it wasn't just this article, there was another that, juxtaposed with the Presidency one -- Check Cashers, Redeemed -- that struck me there might be some lessons here about government information and neighborhood services.

In a very real sense the constitutional functions work because it requires the president and congress to exhcange trust and information -- much like a bank's liquidity -- and either part of the relationship freezes up, or ignores the other -- then we have severe information dislocation.

Libraries and other cultural institutions are like local branches in this national information exchange. The technology and social organization of these institutions should work hand in hand to keep the citizens constantly informed of what is happening inside their governing bodies.

Again, the opportunities are out, if we can just risk and grab at the opportunity.

Talk to you on Day 71 -- an hope we start getting some two-way traffic going....

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!

My apologies for anyone who relied on my post "Catloging Gets Results in Alaska." Revised data has forced me to retract my claim. Please see details at http://freegovinfo.info/node/1940.

But don't be afraid to share information and new ideas. Sometimes we're going to be wrong. That's just the nature of the game. But we as a community are stronger when we share information and admit our mistakes as well as celebrate our successes.

Update: September 4, 2008

It breaks my heart and embarrasses me to do this, but I've discovered that the circulation figures I used for the post below were flawed. Specifically, the reports I consulted treated internal processing as a checkout.

Once we recalculated our circ stats to only include transactions involving real patrons and ILL transactions, we found that our document circulation has been relatively low and flat for the last five years. No visible bump from cataloging the collection.

Is this the end of the story? I doubt it. First, we only completed the retro project this year, so a number of documents haven't been available in the catalog for too long. Second, staff are now in a better place to identify and promote federal documents then we were last year. This may make higher circulation possible. But I don't know. I'll get back to you.

- Daniel

======Original Post==========
At the Alaska State Library, we recently completed a barcoding project which finally let us put all of our manual shelflist items into our catalog for our patrons to find. This also meant that our holdings went onto Open WorldCat for others to find.

I'm happy to report that we've had a 7% increase in checkouts of federal documents compared to the previous fiscal year. I'm sure the cataloging project was responsible because the rate of increase for documents checkouts outperformed other parts of the collection.

Since the project was only completed in the fiscal year that ended on June 30th, I expect to see more growth in documents checkouts in the coming year.

There are many ways to make open a tangible collection to the world. Good cataloging is a start!

One of the presentations I was able to attend at ALA was Libraries & Government: Issues, Services and Strategies. Notes and handouts to this session should eventually be available on ALA's 2008 Conference materials site at http://presentations.ala.org/index.php?title=Monday%2C_June_30#Monday_10:30am_Start_Time.

The presenters were John Carlo Bertot, Mary Alice Baish, Suzanne Sears and Pat Ball. The presentation was a good mix of policy level and library level ideas on egovernment as it affects libraries. All libraries, not just Federal Depository Libraries.

John Bertot introduced the session and suggested people look at his college's E-Government for Public Librarians site at http://www.libraryegov.org/.

Suzanne Sears' part included tips on how to assist people looking to use egovernment services while respect most libraries time limits on Internet computers. The tip that most stood out to me was to have worksheets (like the ones for student aid FAFSA forms) available in the library. Encourage patrons to complete the worksheet prior to getting on the computer. This seems like it would decrease frustration for everyone.

Mary Alice Baish provided an overview of the E-Government Services Act of 2002 and of efforts to renew this expiring Act. Among other things, this is the Act that brought us usa.gov. If the Act ultimately expires, a lot of things could go away, including usa.gov. That would be bad.

There is a good chance that the Act will be renewed, since a recent OMB report said that while e-government initiatives cost agencies $121 million/year, the federal government is collecting $340 million in fees from egovernment sites. So it's a great deal for the government, if not for taxpayers. That's why Mary Alice's organization, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is working with ALA and other stakeholders for improvements in the legislation. She asked librarians to help in the reauthorization movement and offered several suggestions including:

• Contact your Senator, especially if they serve on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and tell them you support S. 2321
• Assess government web sites and services and publish your findings.

Pat Ball gave an overview of ALA's efforts regarding the egovernment issue. Among other things, an association-wide committee on e-government has been formed. You can learn more about its work at http://www.wo.ala.org/egovservices/index.php?title=Main_Page.

This isn't a complete summary of the session, but hopefully it is interesting enough to inspire. Please keep an eye out for presentation materials at the ALA conference site listed above.

If you were at the e-gov session and would like to add stuff, please leave a comment.

I saw the LITA's President's program at ALA on Sunday, June 29, 2008. The program was called "Isn't it great to be in the library? Wherever that is." The presenters were Joe Janes and the bloggers from OCLC's It's all good blog.

While it was aimed at libraries in general, I think it has special relevance for document depositories of all levels of government.

Joe Janes answered the question, "What does it mean to be in a library?" as follows, "Anywhere, anytime, any way, which people interact with information organized and/or provided that is supported by their own community via their library staff." Notice that this is a definition that takes in physical as well as virtual transactions. Janes suggested that a library in the 21st Century is both somewhere and everywhere. In terms of how to serve our patrons, Janes asserted, "We must be available, positioned, and ready to support our patrons, to assist and participate with them -- on their terms."

This seems like good advice for depositories, whether federal, state, or international. We need to remain physical places to accommodate the 80 million plus Americans who are not online and may not be joining the net anytime soon. But we also need to be available for the hundreds of millions of Americans who ARE online. Our libraries, our resources and our expertise must be easily discoverable on the web for our local and remote users. How can we do this?

• Like James Jacobs has suggested, we can blog our answers to interesting reference questions. Especially if the answers are not findable on the public internet.
• If you are a Federal Depository Library coordinator, stop reading this post right now and e-mail John Shuler about how your library can participate in Government Information Online, the nationwide govdoc chat reference service that now has about two dozen partners, including my library. It's easy to participate and will only get easier as more libraries join. The service is already been used. I've personally helped people locate documents on the 1960s New Left, found HUD info specific to Native Americans and point veterans towards educational benefits.
• Join Rebecca Blakeley and the Washington State Library in establishing LibraryThing accounts.
• Join the Alaska State Library in establishing Open WorldCat lists that come with RSS feeds.
• Join the growing number of libraries offering RSS feeds for new fed docs.
• Survey your users and see where they like to find information online. Then try to be in at least one of those places.

You don't have to do everything. No one can do everything, but please try to do just one thing this coming month to expand your online visibility. If you live in a community where most people aren't online, you're excused.

Have other ideas? Did something work especially well for you? Let us know in a comment.