The American Historical Association blog, AHA Today, has a wonderful weekly feature called "What we are reading." This week's edition has several entries that I think you will find interesting:

• How future historians will use the Twitter archives, By Christopher Beam, Slate (April 20, 2010).
• 21st Century Public History, Part I, Sharon Leon at the Center for History and New Media (April 21st, 2010).
• The Tea Party Challenge, By Erik Christiansen and Jeremy Sullivan, Inside Higher Ed (April 23, 2010).

There is more. Be sure to check out the complete list.
http://blog.historians.org/what-we-are-reading/1037/what-were-reading-ap...

As Jim mentioned, GPO has posted presentation materials from the recently concluded Depository Library Conference.

One of the files worthy of your attention is the presentation slides from:

A Tale of Two Economies: Government Information from the New Deal and Now by Marianne Ryan, Associate University Librarian for Public Services, Northwestern University Library and Catherine Jervey, Director, Market Planning Legislative and Historical Services, LexisNexis Academic and Library Solutions

The slides give a govdocs powered, side by side comparison of the reactions of FDR and President Obama to their respective economic crises. It makes for interesting reading and puts today's economic troubles in perspective.

It's not touched on in the presentation slides, but I'm interested in a big difference between the 1930s and today. For the most part, regular people didn't have access to the New Deal legislation before it was passed. Today, whether or not it's taken advantage of, people around the country have access to proposed legislation in their own homes.

Would the wide-ranging legislation of the New Deal have been passed if there had been wide public access to the proposed legislation? It's an interesting "What If" scenario.

I was cleaning my condo today and ran across a "government documents jounral" that I turned in as an assignment in grad school back in 1995. Part of what I did for this assignment was to subscribe to Govdoc-l, the documents librarians' electronic mailing list. I had to report my impressions. The three things I cited 13 years ago were:

1. Govdoc-L is practical.
2. Govdoc'rs are helpful
3. Govdoc-l is informative

I expanded on these ideas in my paper and then concluded with:

"In light of the three characteristics outlined above, I feel that it is extremely important for any documents librarian who has access to the internet to subscribe to this list!"

Aside from not being able to conceive a documents librarian without internet access in 2008, I think this advice is just as true today as it was 13 years ago!

These days govdoc-l has an RSS feed, so now there is even less excuse NOT to follow this important government information resource.

If you wish to pay your respects but cannot travel to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in D.C., can now do so from your computer. NARA and Footnote.com have released a searchable digital replica of the Memorial Wall.

The site also allows you to "leave a tribute, a story or photograph about any of the 58,256 veterans killed or missing in the Vietnam War".

Word of warning, the site claims that due to recent high traffic, you might experience slow loading pages or images. They are working to improve this.

The Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) began on January 3 in Washington DC and Rick Shenkman, the editor of the History News Network, is posting his "reporter's notebook" online with video excerpts of talks and panels.

• Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (Wash. DC) By Rick Shenkman

There are some really interesting and fun things to listen to here! For a sample, start by listening to Congresswoman Pat Schroeder on Day 2 recounting "the sorry history she experienced in the House as one of a handful of congresswomen."

Germany has agreed to work with the United States to open records on 17 million Jews and other victims of the Nazis and allow historians and survivors access to some 30 million to 50 million documents.

Read more on this article.