GovGab Turns One!
A tip of the FGI hat to GovGab blogger Jacob. He reminded me that this coming week the GovGab blog celebrates its first birthday. The GovGab blog is brought to you by the same agency that brings us usa.gov, which I find as staggeringly useful as others find the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. To celebrate this first birthday, each of the GovGab bloggers will blog about what the U.S. was like when they turned 1 year old. This sounds like fun. Since I'm subscribed to their RSS feed, I'll get to see every entry. How about you? Continue reading
What Should The Next President Read?
I'm begging your indulgence for a post that's not really within the scope of Free Government Information, but should be of interest to the many pro and amateur policy wonks out there. I got to thinking that no matter who wins in November, the next President will face some major challenges. But many of these challenges require knowledge and ways of thought that haven't seemed to be common to our political leaders. So, being a good librarian, I created a reading/viewing list for the next President. I used OCLC Open WorldCat to build my list and you can find it at http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/dcornwall/lists/188566. I tried to keep the list short because I know the next President may well be too busy to read much other than reports from his staff and hopefully some outside sources once in a while. Here are my choices:
Rosenberg, M. B. (2001). The basics of nonviolent communication an introductory training in nonviolent communication. Sherman, TX: Center for Nonviolent Communication. York, S., & Sheen, M. (2001). Bringing down a dictator. [Washington, D.C.]: York Zimmerman. Flynn, S. E. (2007). The edge of disaster: rebuilding a resilient nation. New York: Random House. Theoharis, A. G. (2004). The FBI & American democracy: a brief critical history. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. York, S., & Kingsley, B. (2000). A force more powerful. [Princeton, NJ]: Films for the Humanities & Sciences. Muller, R. (2007). Physics for future Presidents, supreme court justices, congressmen, CEOs, diplomats, professors, and other world leaders. Southbank, Victoria: Thomson. Beck, A. T. (1999). Prisoners of hate: the cognitive basis of anger, hostility, and violence. New York: HarperCollins. Prothero, S. R. (2007). Religious literacy: what every American needs to know--and doesn't. [San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco.You can read the reasons for my choices on my list. I think all these items could be consumed and digested between the election and Inauguration Day. What do *You* think the next President read or watch? Make up your own WorldCat list and post the link to the list here. Tell your friends to make up their own lists. If enough people take up this call, maybe I'll search for ways to get the lists to the attention of our next chief executive. Continue reading
Ringtones from Your Government
Did you know that a number of government agencies offer free ringtones for your cell phone? Here are the ones we know about
- US Federal Agencies
- Army
- GoArmy.com Games and Downloads http://www.goarmy.com/downloads/ringtones.jsp - Here you *could* get a ringtone of a DI telling you to "drop and give me 20!", but I'd go for the Army Strong theme. I can so see it in many bold action movies.
- Army
- US States and Localities
- Arizona
- Arizona Fish and Game Department - http://www.azgfd.gov/downloads/ringtones.shtml - Includes ringtones for eagles, elk, wild turkeys, coyotes, rattlesnakes and more
- Kentucky
- Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources - http://fw.ky.gov/ringtonedownloads.asp - Want an angry bear to announce you've got a call? This is the place to go! Or perhaps you'd prefer a barred owl or gray tree frog
- Arizona
Need more ringtones? Go to usa.gov and search on "ringtones." One caution, some of the pages, especially from schools, appear to have been spammed. Look for site excerpt featuring complete sentences and a meaningful page title. Do you have a gov't agency ringtone you'd like to share? Let us know in comments. Ringtones can come from any level of government from around the world, but must be identifiable as an official government agency page! Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Gerontology (Aging)
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.
Guide of the Week: Energy
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
- 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.
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