Alaska State Library bibliography on Digital Preservation
The Alaska State Library has posted an annotated bibliography on digital preservation issues to their web site. Please note while the list of articles is available to anyone, you should contact your local library for the full articles and NOT the Alaska State Library. Continue reading
CQ Researcher examines government secrecy
Those people in libraries lucky enough to own CQ Researcher should check out the Vol. 15 Issue 42, December 2, 2005 issue on government secrecy. Issue includes a bibliography and items on selective disclosure of classified information, as well as a look at federal whistleblowing. Continue reading
Docs Librarian vs. Google: Number of Schools in Alaska
Today we start an occaisional series "Docs Librarian vs. Google" where I will take actual reference questions (or slightly tweaked to protect patron privacy) and try to show why it makes more sense to talk to a documents librarian than do a Google search if you are looking for specialized information. The Google searches I'll construct are ones that I believe your average user would make. If you don't find my examples fair, provide your own down in the comments. Today's question is "How many private and public schools are in Alaska? I need the latest figures available." Let's start with Google. A reasonable beginning searcher might try something like: 1) - how many public and private schools are in alaska? Nothing helpful appears on the first page of results. On the second page there is a undated FAQ page from the Alaska Department of Education showing "approximately 500 public schools" but offering no figure for private schools. Nothing helpful appears on the third page. Continue reading
Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy
Full disclosure: FGI got a favorable mention in the resource list that accompanies this article. Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy is an article by Laura Gordon-Murnane that appears in the January 2006 issue of Searcher. This article provides a thoughtful look at the expense of government secrecy, both in terms of money and lost opportunities to protect the country. Ms. Gordon-Murane also catalogs numerous removals of government publications and other information, showing once again why a simple "If you post it to your web site, consider it published" policy is a bad idea. Almost as valuable as the article itself is the attached "list of Web sites, blogs, listservs, and newsletters that could help clients needing access to government documents but who might experience difficulty locating that information." There are some sites I wasn't familar with and will spend some time exploring. Continue reading
NLA 2005 “50 States Blue Book” guide updated, need help
As part of my "finding state government information" talk at the 2005 Nevada Library Association annual conference, I presented a "work-in-progress" guide to "blue books" produced by state governments. That guide has now been updated with 10 new state guides and is available at http://web.acsalaska.net/~dcornwall/NLA2005/BlueBookList.html. Please let me know either by comments below or to e-mail to dnlcornwall AT alaska.net if you have information about other Blue Books/Almanacs/Government guides, etc published by state governments. Corrections are welcome as well. For those of you not familar with them, Blue Books are publications produced by SOME states that function as state almanacs. They will always have current information on the organization of state government, and will often have statistics, local history and more. Some states, like Alaska, used to have Blue Books, but had to stop publishing them for budgetary reasons. Sometimes related products will continue, like guides to government and directories of state officials. Continue reading
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