Home » Articles posted by James A Jacobs (Page 124)
Author Archives: James A Jacobs
Performance.gov goes live
As Gary noted yesterday, Performance.gov is now online.
- Performance.gov goes live after lengthy preparations, By Charles S. Clark, NextGov (08/25/2011). The long-anticipated and many-times-delayed central federal website Performance.gov went live Thursday morning, providing a new dashboard through which the general public can track spending, cost-cutting and progress in hiring agency by agency. ...Peformance.gov links to related dashboard sites at USAspending.gov, Data.gov, Whitehouse.gov, Recovery.gov and USA.gov. The new site also invites feedback to improve usability.
Should Government Be Run Like a Business?
GovLoop, the social network for government, has an interesting piece with lots of comments by government workers on the question "Should Government Be Run Like a Business?"
- Should Government Be Run Like a Business?, by Patrick Fiorenza, GovLoop (August 17, 2011).
Ethnographic study of student research methods
Here is an interesting overview of the findings of a two-year, five-campus ethnographic study examining how students view and use their campus libraries. It seems students rarely ask librarians for help, even when they need it, and they need help. Very, very interesting findings! Must read.
- What Students Don't Know, by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed (August 22, 2011). The ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) project -- a series of studies conducted at Illinois Wesleyan, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois’s Chicago and Springfield campuses -- was a meta-exercise for the librarians in practicing the sort of deep research they champion. Instead of relying on surveys, the libraries enlisted two anthropologists, along with their own staff members, to collect data using open-ended interviews and direct observation, among other methods. The goal was to generate data that, rather than being statistically significant but shallow, provided deep, subjective accounts of what students, librarians and professors think of the library and each other at those five institutions. The resulting papers are scheduled to be published by the American Library Association this fall, under the title: “Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know.”
Links to USGS Publications Changing
Richard Huffine, Director of USGS Libraries Program, announced on govdoc-l this week that direct links to USGS publications will be changing by September 1, 2011.
- Direct Links to USGS Publications Changing by September 1, 2011, Richard L Huffine, Discussion of Government Document Issues, (11 Aug 2011). The U.S. Geological Survey's Publications Warehouse (pubs.usgs.gov) will complete a process to migrate all of its' on-line publications into Portable Document Format (PDF) files by September 1, 2011. At that time, the USGS will no longer support the previous DJVU format for its on-line publications. Libraries and Web site managers should link to the publications citation page for USGS publications. At sometime after September 1, 2011, direct links to DJVU files will stop working and there will be no automatic redirect to the PDF version of those materials. A direct link to a USGS DVJU file currently looks like: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/djvu/B/bull_1967.djvu Once loaded in PDF, individual publications will have a link like this: http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1967/report.pdf However, the preferred link to this publication is: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/b1967 The citation link is the preferred link because it may include links to plates, maps, appendices, etc. as well as links to the USGS Store to purchase paper copies if they are available. This migration has been sought by members of the research community for some time. The DJVU format offered many benefits at a time when bandwidth was a challenge. The PDF format offers a consistent format for both historical and current publications and it allows users to download and use information from USGS publications in the same way that they use research journal articles and other scientific research products. Over 70% of all USGS-published reports are available in an on-line format from the USGS Publications Warehouse. The system currently includes citations to over 100,000 research articles, reports, and products produced by the USGS over the last 130 years. The system also offers an RSS feed to keep users of earth and natural science research informed about the products of the USGS. Richard Huffine, Director USGS Libraries Program
Dueling Reports on NSF and the Social Sciences
Here are two reports from the Senate that have been in the news, but may not be preserved by GPO or any library. As noted here earlier, "GPO does not typically catalog majority or minority reports unless it is a joint effort within a committee." Back in April, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a report that he called "the first comprehensive overview of NSF."
- The National Science Foundation: Under The Microscope. "A report by Tom A. Coburn, M.D., U.S. Senator, Oklahoma." (April 2011).
- Out of Focus: A Critical Assessment of the Senate Report, "The National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope". A Staff Report By The Democratic Staff Of The House Committee On Science, Space, And Technology July 5, 2011 v. 1.1.
- Social Science, Spared Again, by Ken Prewitt, Ken Prewitt, President of The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), and professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Science Magazine (August 5, 2011).
Latest Comments