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Guide of the Week: Food Safety

The Government Accountability Office recently identified Food Safety 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. There appear to be three guides that should be of help in this area:

As you might expect, the UC Boulder guides on Agriculture and Food Supply have some overlap. In addition to safety in food supply, the Food Supply guide has links to famine related resources and food and nutrition. The Agriculture guide has links to Agricola, the premier agricultural database and to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Bert Chapman's guide on agriculture has links to the House and Senate committees on Agriculture, which hold hearings on the nation's food supply. Among other resources he links to the National Agricultural Safety Database which deals with the safety of agricultural workers. As you've come to expect, there is more in all three guide. Read them. Share them. If you've guides on your own on this subject, please post them to the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki. Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "Surface Transportation" So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week. Continue reading

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Guide of the Week: Preparing for Public Health Emergencies

The Government Accountability Office recently identified Preparing for Public Health Emergencies 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. There appear to be two librarian produced guides that touch on public health emergencies:

Bert's guide is to documents about health in general, but he points to resources like Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Reports, Public Health Reports, the Senate Homeland Security & Govt. Affairs Committee and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which all deal with public health emergencies. There is also the usual Chapman catalog instructions on how to seach for government health policy and reports. Although Grace's guide is titled "Chemical and Biological Disarmament", the government's response to a mass epidemic would be similar whether or not the disease was man made. Some of the resources Grace includes that policymakers might find helpful are: On an unrelated note, Grace's guide has a graphic illustration of boolean logic using Russians and Soviets that I think you'll find very helpful in sharing with the uninitiated. There is more in both guides. I hope you'll read both and then share both if you find them useful. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised by what didn't show up on the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki. There was nothing about bird flu (pandemic influenza) or specifically about bioterrorism. I know some librarians somewhere must have produced SOMETHING on these topics and I encourage you to post your guides to the Handout Exchange. Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "Food Safety" So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week. Continue reading

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Guide of the Week: Care for Service Members

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified Care for Service Members as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. The page on care for service members explains why this is an urgent issue:

As of October 2008, over 33,000 servicemembers have been wounded in action, resulting in serious injuries such as amputations, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We have identified a number of weaknesses with the health care returning servicemembers are receiving as well as the complex and cumbersome disability systems they must navigate.
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. Although there is no guide currently on the wiki that focuses exclusively on Veterans Care, here are three guides that should provide helpful information to people studying this issue: Bert Chapman's Budget guide provides a link to the Veterans Affairs budget page as well as to resources about the federal budget process. His guide on military history provides links and catalog information regarding the House and Senate veterans affairs committees. Finally, Grace York's guide provides resources on Gulf War Syndrome, the now officially documented disease and example of how difficult it can be to get appropriate care for our veterans. Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "preparing for public health emergencies." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week. I and I'm sure others would be grateful if you posted any current Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) guides you have laying about. Continue reading

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Guide of the Week: finalizing plans for the 2010 Census

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified Finalizing plans for the 2010 Census as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. If you're not a docs librarian or a policy wonk (there are a few of you reading FGI, right?) you might not realize the importance of this issue. The GAO spells out why every American should care about this issue:

The results of the 2010 Census are central to apportionment, redistricting congressional boundaries, and distributing around $300 billion in federal aid to states and localities each year.
Translation - The results of the 2010 census will redraw the legislative districts in your state, possibly changing how you are represented. The results will spark the redrawing of your congressional district, unless you live in Alaska or Wyoming, which have statewide Representatives. This redrawing could make it easier or harder to unseat your current Member of Congress. In addition, the 2010 results will affect how much federal money each state will receive. In terms of Census planning, I'm afraid that for the first time in considering these critical transistion issues, I can't find any guide from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that would help you understand planning for the next census. For that, you had best just read the GAO page on the subject. On the other hand, if you're looking on how find and use census information once it's published, librarians can help. A lot. Check out these guides for a start. Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "caring for service members." So if you have any guides relating to that topic, please try and post them to the Handout Exchange this week. Hopefully next week I won't get caught flat-footed again. Continue reading

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Guide of the Week: Improving US Image

Note: Below is the entry that should have appeared last Saturday. My apologies for the delay. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently identified Improving the US Image Abroad 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. There appear to be two librarian-produced guides that look helpful in this area:

The Islam guide provides a few links to efforts in American "public diplomacy" as well as hearings and studies about current thinking and opinion in Islamic countries. UC Berkeley's guide on public opinion sources provides information on current and past public opinion trends at home and abroad. It has a mix of print and electronic resources. Next time I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "finalizing plans for the 2010 Census." Continue reading

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