Action Alert: Please Write For Nevada Docs Position
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. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Defense Spending
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
Guide of the Week: Protecting the Homeland
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
Change.gov hosting health care discussion
Change.gov continues to change. Now they seem to be hosting citizen led discussions on selected topics. They started a discussion on health care this week. The starting point was a video briefing from the health care team followed a few starter questions. As of this writing, there were 44 pages of comments. Comments default to be sorted by user rating. It appears to be working. The comments I saw at the top of page seemed to be thoughtful posts engaging the questions asked. Posts may also be sorted by date or "last activity." In addition, for hard core policy wonks, there is an RSS feed for new comments. There is what seems to me personally a reasonable comments policy. The discussion itself is hosted by a commercial third party called Intense Debate. Browsing around the first few pages, I didn't see comments back from the policy team, but that likely isn't feasible given the amount of comments. But I really appreciate them trying to have a constructive conversation among constituents. Check it out and let us know what you think. Now if only they'd adjust their copyright policy to make it worthy of a dot gov. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: U.S. efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
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)
- 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)
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