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Reminder: Librarian guide on the Federal Budget Process
With the release of President Obama's budget this week, I wanted to draw your attention to a "Guide of the Week" I did last July: Guide of the Week: Federal Budget Process Jerry Breeze's guide hasn't been updated for FY 2010, but I assume it will be when more FY 2010 budget docs are released. As is, it's really good background for people who are just starting to pay attention to the federal budget. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Afghanistan
With President Obama's recent decision to send as many as 17,000 additional US soldiers to Afghanistan, it is a good time to highlight one of the excellent country guides posted by the UC Boulder Government Publications Library to the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki: Afghanistan: Country Guide (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008) This guide starts off with official Afghanistan Government websites, which includes English language links to a number of ministries, including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and the Prime Minister's office. The guide moves on to a number of third party overviews of Afghanistan. These include profiles written by members of the NATO mission in Afghanistan, as well as those from non-combatant countries such as India. Looks at Afghanistan from international organizations are also provided. After the general country profile section, the guide links to a number of databases that contain reports and other documents on Afghanistan, including declassified documents from the CIA. Then the guide links to specific resources in diplomacy, health, and military operations. It concludes with tips on searching for Afghanistan related materials in the UCB catalog. This would be an excellent resource for the team the President has appointed to review conditions and policy in Afghanistan. And good for the rest of us to review as well. Please have a look. If you find it interesting or helpful, tell at least two friends. And if you're a docs librarian with a guide to Afghanistan or other other topic, please link it to the Handout Exchange. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Love at First Sight
After a 13 week stint of covering how librarian-produced information guides could help inform President Obama, the Congress and the general public on the General Accountability Office's 13 Urgent Transition issues, we return to our regular format of one guide per week. In honor of Valentine's day, we highlight the one handout in the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange with the word "Love" in the the title:
Documents Librarianship: Love at First Sight, Powerpoint file (Grace York, University of Michigan, 2002) Creative Commons License - may be reused or altered with attribution to creator.This 2002 powerpoint presentation is an introduction to documents librarianship for non-specialists. I think it does a great job of highlighting the great breadth of government information in people's lives. Grace shows how government documents eventually touch anyone you can think of - workers, family members, students, business owners and so on. The slides also document challenges and trends in documents librarianship and in particular the challenges and opportunities facing Federal Depository Libraries (FDLs). While the FDL stats Grace used are dated, they could quickly be brought up to date for a presentation on government documents. Despite being seven years old, this powerpoint still stands as a handy intro to the world of US government information. Check it out. Then, if you're a documents librarian, bring it up to date, give Grace York proper credit for the original and link the resulting product back to the Handout Exchange. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Defense Readiness
President Obama has been President a few weeks. On Guide of the Week we come to the last of the 13 urgent issues facing President Obama and the new Congress. The Government Accountability Office recently identified Defense Readiness as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about a librarian produced guide from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue. After searching through the Handout Exchange, the only guide that really seems helpful is the University of Colorado at Boulder's guide, Military Information Resources and Periodicals. The folks at UC Boulder link to several resources that should be of use to people studying military readiness and its possible improvement, including:
- Annual Defense Report - "Annual Report to the President and the Congress, commonly referred to as the Annual Defense Report, details how the Department of Defense built its capabilities and is working to maintain them in the future. In addition to fulfilling a statutory requirement, specifically U.S.C. Title 10, the Secretary of Defense's Annual Defense Report is widely distributed and serves as a basic reference document for those interested in national defense issues and programs."
- Federation of American Scientists Military Analysis Network - This group is a privately-funded, non-profit organization "engaged in analysis and advocacy on science, technology, and public policy for global security". The federation provides extensive information on U.S. military operations, aircraft, Navy ships, land warfare systems, missiles, smart weapons, dumb bombs, aircraft and naval equipment, and a directory of defense contractors. In addition, it provides analysis of significant issues, such as NATO expansion, and an extensive collection of Congressional material, such as budgets and GAO and CRS reports. The site also provides extensive information on military aircraft, ships, land warfare, and missile technologies in the "Rest of the World (ROW)".
Guide of the Week: Transition to Digital Television
Sad to say, for the second time during this Guide of the Week: Transition Edition, I've come up empty. While the General Accountability Office identified the Transition to Digital Television as one of 13 critical transition issues, there appears to be no librarian-produced guides linked to ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki to inform people about this issue. If you know of one, please post it to the Handout Exchange. As a consolation prize, it turns out that the phrase "Digital Television Transition" is a good way to kick the tires on the public beta of GPO's new FDSys at http://fdsys.gpo.gov. Type in the words without quotes and you'll get 2,654 results. That seems too many to look at once? Then use the "narrow your search" options in the left hand column. You might start with "congressional hearlings (761)" That brings you a new list of "narrow your search" options. From there you might choose "House appropriations committee (81)" After that, try clicking on "see more" under "keywords." Try clicking on "public broadcasting" and you'll find four hearings. The search results contain snippets with your search terms and come from several different congresses. As long as I'm talking about FDSys, I want to say THANKS to GPO for including "find in a library" links that are equal in effectiveness to their "purchase this item" links. Next week I'll be dealing with librarian produced guides relating to "Defense Readiness" 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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