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.

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 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.

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!

I had a pretty humble beginning in government documents. In June 1993, I began work as a documents clerk at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). UTSA was enlightened enough to send a paraprofessional to the local government documents users group. It was there that I first met Kathy Amen, the author of today's ALA GODORT Handout Exchange guide and someone I consider to be both a mentor and friend even though we don't keep in great touch.

Kathy's Guide:

Government Information in the Study of History (Kathy Amen, St. Mary's University, 2003)

makes it's purpose clear with this intro statement:

This set of guides has 2 purposes:

* to identify historically significant materials in the Blume Library documents collection, housed on the main floor of the Library
* to provide convenient access to government (and related) web sites of interest to the historian and history students

Therefore, each of the guide's sections is subdivided into

* annotated listings of the Library's print holdings (with online versions noted if they are available)
* major web-based resources
* references to relevant links in our Government Information on the Web Subject Index, as an aid to finding more detailed online information.

Those guide sections would be: General, Archaeology, Archives, Area Studies, Biography, Institutions, Military, Places, Science/Technology, Social/Labor, and Sources. In addition to browsing these pages, a search is available.

Some of the many resources that Kathy identifies in the area of history are:

• Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 (D 1.2:H 75/3). This volume draws upon research in official records, published literature and interviews with former POW's to chart the history of those taken prisoner during the Vietnam conflict.
• Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record. This collection, part of the Library of Congress' American Memory project, "document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies." The website includes drawings, photographs, narrative descriptions, etc. You may search by keyword or browse by subject or location.
• Bibliography of the History of Medicine. (HE 20.3615:). Annual. 1964-1993. Covers articles, monographs, and conference proceedings world-wide. One section contains references to biographical information on the medical histories of famous persons, medical aspects of artistic works, and biographies of those in health related professions. A second section indexes references by subject, subdivided, where appropriate, by geographical or chronological headings. There is a detailed contents list of subject headings which includes cross references.
• Famous American Trials. Many, though not all, of the trials covered on this site developed by a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City were held in the U.S. Information given includes links to official documents, background and analytical studies, contemporary and later reactions, maps, photographs and other illustrations as relevant.
• Guide to the Research Collections of Former Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-1987. ( Y 1.1/2:13872). Identifies repositories of papers, oral history tapes and tape transcripts.

Check out the rest of the guide. I know I say this in every entry, but it is particularly true here. Kathy's guide is extensive and has many subtopics, so you really need to browse it awhile to get a sense of what's available.

Once you're done, take a break. 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!

Since energy policy has been in the news most of this year, it seems like a good time to highlight this guide from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange:

Energy (Ed Herman, University of Buffalo, 2007)

Ed has produced an annotated listing of web resources to these aspects of energy:

• National Policy Issues
• US Statistics
• Technical Information
• Nuclear Energy
• New York State
• International Data
• Additional Information

Some of the specific resources he includes are:

• The Energy Source (U.S. Congress. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources)
  http://energy.senate.gov/
  The hearings and news room sections are the most informative parts of this site. These abbreviated hearings reproduce testimonies of witnesses before the full committee and the subcommittees, but exclude dialogs among the witnesses and the Committee members. The Business and Government Documents Reference Center maintains the complete hearings in paper format. The news room includes two sets of press releases issued by the Committee Chair and the ranking minority member.

• States (U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Information Administration)
  http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/_seds.html
  Presents energy statistics pertaining to the 50 states.

• Building Energy Codes (U.S. Department of Energy. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy)
  http://www.energycodes.gov/
  Attempts to promote improved energy codes for buildings by working with government agencies, national code organizations, and industry. It also hopes to develop and distribute compliance tools; and provide financial and technical assistance to states.

• Nuclear Power Information Tracker (Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS))
  http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/nuclear_safety/reactor-map/embedded-flash-map.html
  Select power plants from a map or a list to view a brief box that describes safety issues and a detailed statement that cites the reactor's owners, locations, populations within a 10-mile radius, and safety issues. Links lead to more detailed documentation.

• International Energy Annual (U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Information Administration)
  http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/iea/contents.html
  Provides information and trends on world energy production and consumption for petroleum; natural gas; coal; and electricity. Statistics measuring population and GDP put the data in context. View information in PDF format or download Excel files that offer longer time series.

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!

One of the harder to find classes of government documents are declassified documents. In many cases these are not within the scope of the Federal Depository Library Program, so there isn't a centralized place to find them. Sometimes they're not actual publications, but stuff like memos, celebrity FBI files and the like. If you're researching public policy, especially national security, stuff that might be helpful might be declassified or subject to declassification under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). But before you start filing that FOIA request, check out today's Guide of the Week from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange, because what you want might already be out there:

Declassified Government Documents (UC-Berkeley, 2004) CC Last updated 9/15/2006

I really like how this guide starts out. Because the Berkeley librarians understand that declassified documents are a misty topic to most people, they start with an introduction:

About Declassified Documents

Documents may be classified for many reasons - issues of national security or privacy. A popular misconception is that when a document is declassified, it is somehow systematically made available to the public, for example, distributed to depository libraries. This is most often not the case. Exceptions to this might be

• a highly-publicized document is published as a part of an investigation. E.g. The Munson Report, a report from the fall of 1941 stemming from an intelligence gathering investigation on the loyalty of Japanese Americans is one of these exceptions. It was declassified and published as one of the many appendices in the Hearings held by the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1946.
• a document series that is specifically published by the government for researchers (e.g. Foreign Relations of the U.S. or the Library of Congress Presidential Papers collections).

As there are no clear patterns of publication for most declassified documents, it falls to the researcher interested in a document that is declassified to research which agency created the document, who may have researched the document originally, and where it might be now. The guides and resources shown below are intended to assist the research in finding federal records that have been declassified as part of the routine declassification, as well as records that are declassified through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests and other kinds of investigations.

After this intro, they have additional material about the declassification process and FOIA. Then they talk about resources including:

• The encyclopedia of American intelligence and espionage : from the Revolutionary War to the present. G.J.A. O'Toole. New York : Facts on File, c1988.
  UB271.U5 O85 1988 GREF
  References individuals, committees, and operations. Many of the entries have footnotes.

• Unlocking the files of the FBI : a guide to its records and classification system by Gerald K. Haines and David A. Langbart. Wilmington, Del. : Scholarly Resources, 1993. HV8144.F43 H35 1993 GREF
• OpenNet via Department of Energy
  OpenNet includes references to all documents declassified and made publicly available after October 1, 1994. New references are added periodically as they occur. These collections include citations to several types of documents. Some have been declassified in total, and are termed "declassified." Others have had classified or other restricted information removed to produce a "sanitized" copy. The term "redacted" is sometimes used to refer to these documents.

There are a lot more. See http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/govinfo/federal/gov_decldoc.html for details. Then check out what other subject guides are available. And if you're a docs librarian with a handout of your own, link it to the wiki!.

Because I'm a fanatic CSI fan, I just had to highlight:

Government Documents in Forensic Science (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2002) Last updated 3/10/2008

for this week's Guide of the Week from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange. This guide brings us back to the hardworking and prolific Bert Chapman. Like most of his document guides, he opens his guide with an introductory paragraph.

Forensic science is used by government agencies for a variety of legal, investigative, and public policy purposes. These agencies are as diverse as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), other U.S. Dept. of Justice agencies, the Defense Department, and the U.S. Congress. Purdue Libraries serve as a depository of U.S. Government documents and Purdue's government documents collections are kept in many Purdue Libraries. Most government documents dealing with criminal justice are in the Humanities, Social Science, and Education (HSSE) Library.

Then he moves on to providing tangible and internet resources on this subject from the state, federal and international levels. A tiny selection of what he highlights includes:

• Handbook of Forensic Services
• Managing Death Investigation
  HSSE DOC J 1.14/2:D 39/2

• A Guide for Explosion and Bombing Scene Investigation
  HSSE DOC J 28.24/3:EX 7

• Indiana State Police Laboratory
• Israel Police-Investigations & Crime Fighting Division

The above resources are just a highlight of what's available in the guide. See it for yourself, then check out what else is available. And if you're a docs librarian with a handout of your own, link it to the wiki!.

There are few things more complicated than the US federal budget process. This week's guide:

U.S. Government Documents: The Budget Process (Jerry Breeze, Columbia University, 1999) Last Updated sometime in 2008

Can help you untangle the fiscal knots that is the United States Budget. This selective guide points to information about the current budget, including state by state budget impacts as well as historical data and background materials.

This guide also has a federal budget calendar which can help you see when different budget publications becomes available. Finally, Jerry provides a section on News and Commentary which draws from non-governmental sources.

The next time you are faced with a concerned citizen or a student writing about an aspect of the US budget, point them to this guide. Then see what else is available from the Handout Exchange. Don't see the subject you're looking for? If you're a documents librarian why not research the subject yourself, put a guide together and link that to the Exchange? Or build a guide on the Exchange wiki itself?