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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
Guide of the Week: Retirement of the Space Shuttle
President Obama was sworn in on January 20th, but we're still continuing the "75 days until Government Information Liberation" inspired "Guide of the Week: Transition Issues edition until we finish all of the 13 "urgent issues" identified by the GAO. The Government Accountability Office recently identified Retirement of the Space Shuttle 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 can provide information about the Space Shuttle and its possible successors:
- Government Documents on Space Policy (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) CC Last updated 3/10/2008
- Space (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
Guide of the Week: Surface Transportation
Note: In three days, President Elect Obama will officially become our 44th President. On John Shuler's calendar, it will be day zero for government information liberation. While I'll drink a toast that day as soon as I'm off duty, the "Transition edition" of Guide of the Week will continue until we finish off GAO's 13 critical issues on February 7, 2009. The Government Accountability Office recently identified surface transportation 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 are three librarian produced guides on the Handout Exchange which look useful:
- Government Documents on Railroads (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2002) CC Last updated 3/10/2008
- Government Documents on Transportation (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999)Last updated 3/10/2008
- Transportation as a Civil Rights Issue (Sally Lawler, University of Michigan, 2004) Last updated 7/5/2007
Can you take a bus to Detroit Metro Airport? to downtown Detroit? Can you commute to work on Amtrak? Get around the city and suburbs on a mass transit system? In contrast, think about the number of highways in and around Detroit and the amount of time news channels spend on traffic reports.While not part of the Handout Exchange Wiki, people interested in surface transportation issues should also check out state transportation department databases linked from another ALA GODORT project, State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States. Some of the available databases include:
- California - Caltrans Cost Data - This database contains cost data at the bid item level for contracts from 1993 to the present, and is updated approximately every other week. From 2002 to present, the data includes bid data from non-awarded bidders as well. Search is by item code/description, bidder, district/county, year, price and quantity.
- Colorado - Transportation Statistics and Data - "Information is provided on current and projected traffic volumes, state highway attributes, summary roadway statistics, demographics and geographic data. Listings, calculators, GIS shape files, maps and database files are provided to access data that are used and maintained by CDOT."
- Iowa - Bridges in Iowa - Requires Google Earth. From the website, "To provide increased access to bridge information, the Iowa DOT has developed a Web program that allows Iowans to pinpoint a state highway bridge in their area using Google Earth software and Iowa DOT data. Information available online now includes the year a bridge was originally constructed and reconstructed, if it has undergone major work, the average daily traffic count, the highway it carries and feature crossed, and its national bridge sufficiency rating."
- Ohio - Bridge Photos - Access photos of Ohio bridges by county.
Call to Action: Document Good Ideas at Change.gov
Throughout his "75 Days to Government Information Liberation", John Shuler has been exhorting documents librarians to look for ways to inject themselves into the transition-fueled interest in civics and citizen participation. I think one opportunity is upon us and I call on you to join me. Change.gov has established a Citizen's Briefing Book to give President Obama ideas from America at large. This site allows you to submit ideas, vote on others ideas and make comments. What I think we could be doing in a non-partisan way is to provide comments on ideas that point out studies and reports (especially govdocs!) that either support or detract from the proposed idea. For example, one idea is titled School Libraries need Librarians which requests federal funding for school libraries. I did a quick search in ERIC at http://www.eric.ed.gov and found two studies that appear to show the presence of school librarians is associated with academic achievement. I then posted a comment linking to the two studies and mentioning ERIC. So here is your mission, should you decide to accept it:
- Decide a subject that is important to you and that you have subject expertise in.
- Visit http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov and use the search box to find an idea in your area of passion.
- Vote the idea up or down and leave a short comment pointing to at least one resource that supports your vote.
- Tell at least one other librarian friend what you have done.
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:
- Budget (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 3/10/2008
- Government Documents on Military History (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 3/10/2008.
- Chemical and Biological Disarmament (Grace York, University of Michigan, 2000) Last updated 1/9/2005
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