Tag Archives: librarians

This week at the State Agency Databases project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases: NEW VOLUNTEERS AND A STATE HAND-OFF This week we officially welcome three new volunteers to our project:

• Susan Paterson (University of British Columbia) - District of Columbia
• Siu Min Yu (Rice University) - Maryland
• Flora Shrode (Utah State University) - Utah

Flora is taking over the management of the Utah page from Susanne Caro who recently took over the Montana page. Susanne had been one of two volunteers with two state pages. I (Daniel Cornwall) am the other. In addition to my home state of Alaska, I also do my best to maintain the Arizona page. If you live in Arizona and would like to take over the page, let me know. ORPHANS: THE FINAL FIVE With the successful adoption of Maryland and the District of Columbia, we now have five states up for adoption:

• Florida
• Hawaii
• Kansas
• Minnesota
• Oklahoma

If you are interested in adopting one of these pages, please read our volunteer guide and make sure you can accept the responsibilities of a project volunteer. Then contact project coordinator Daniel Cornwall at danielcornwall@gmail.com with a statement of interest and your favorite database from the page you are adopting. DATABASE ACTIVITY For a full listing of activity over the past week, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Here are some highlights: DATABASES ADDED OHIO (Audrey Hall) Empowerment through Education county highlights] Summary of program activities for each county. Additional keyword searching available. NEW RESOURCES ON THE "NOT DATABASES" PAGE The following non-database resources were added to the South Dakota section of our "not databases" page:

• Adoption Resources in South Dakota
• South Dakota Resource Directory for the Elderly

A LOOK AT THE VOLUNTEERS BEHIND THE STATE AGENCY DATABASES PROJECT We recently surveyed our project volunteers about who they were, where they worked and where they updated their pages from. About 70% of our volunteers responded to the survey. Here are the demographic findings: What best describes your current job position? Librarian - 77.8% Paraprofessional - 8.3% Library Student - 2.8% Other (please specify) - 11.1% Responses from the "other" category included: Circulation Manager Assistant Director with background in Government Documents Library consultant Archivist with a library degree working in a library -- What best describes your current workplace? Academic Library - 63.9% Special Library - 2.8% State Library - 33.3% Other options were offered on the survey, but only the three categories above had non-zero responses. -- Are you allowed work time to edit your page? Yes - 88.9% No - 11.1% The project coordinator is one of the people whose currrent job description is too far outside the project work to justify using work time to maintain his pages or write these reports. In full disclosure, I have not asked to. -- Where do you edit your page? Work - 58.3% Home - 11.1% Home and Work - 30.6% -- Do you live in the state of the page you edit? (If you have more than one state, choose "other" and note which state you live in.) Yes - 77.1% No - 17.1% Other (please specify) - 5.7% In addition to the demographic questions above, volunteers were asked several narrative questions. We'll be bringing those questions and selected responses to you over the next three weeks. Continue reading →

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This week at the State Agency Databases project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases: ORPHANS: AND THEN THERE WERE SIX With the pending adoption of the District of Columbia, we now have six states up for adoption:

• Florida
• Hawaii
• Kansas
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Oklahoma

If you are interested in adopting one of these pages, please read our volunteer guide and make sure you can accept the responsibilities of a project volunteer. Then contact project coordinator Daniel Cornwall at danielcornwall@gmail.com with a statement of interest and your favorite database from the page you are adopting. DATABASE ACTIVITY For a full listing of activity over the past week, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Here are some highlights: DATABASES ADDED ARKANSAS (April Sheppard) Child Care Provider Search - Search for licensed child care providers and ABC and Headstart facilities by name, facility number, location, child age, hours and voucher acceptance. UTAH (Susanne Caro) American Indian Collection - Part of a database of Utah publications, this section includes information on the Ute (Uintah and Ouray), Dine' (Navajo), Paiute, Confederated Tribes of Goshute, Northwestern Band of Shoshone, Skull Valley Goshutes, Ute Mountain Ute (White Mesa). NEW RESOURCES ON THE "NOT DATABASES" PAGE As mentioned in some previous activity reports, our project volunteers occasionally find useful materials out of scope for our main project pages. Usually this is either a state produced resource that is not a searchable database or it is a searchable database not produced by a state agency. These resources live on our Not Databases page. This week Janice Wilson, our Connecticut added Veterans.ct.gov, which contains information about CT and federal services and benefits available to veterans. Continue reading →

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New volunteers and ongoing work marked this week at the State Agency Databases project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. NEW PROJECT VOLUNTEERS Our project welcomed four new volunteers this week: April Sheppard - Arkansas Stephanie Martin - Indiana Mary Sauers - Nebraska (A hand off from departing volunteer Beth Goble.) Ed Sperr - South Carolina In other volunteer news, Susanne Caro adopted the Montana page. She also maintains the Utah page. SEVEN REMAINING ORPHANS With our additional volunteers, our list of orphan pages now stands at seven: District of Columbia Florida Hawaii Kansas Maryland Minnesota Oklahoma If you are interested in adopting one of these pages, please read our volunteer guide and make sure you can accept the responsibilities of a project volunteer. Then contact project coordinator Daniel Cornwall at danielcornwall@gmail.com with a statement of interest and your favorite database from the page you are adopting. DATABASE ACTIVITY For a full listing of activity over the past week, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Here are some highlights: DATABASES ADDED ARKANSAS (April Sheppard) National Register of Historic Places (AR) - Searchable by county, city, name and description. SOUTH CAROLINA (Ed Sperr) Most Wanted - is a listing with photographs of the most wanted, absconded criminals. TEXAS (Ann Ellis) Texas Higher Education Data - This site contains information organized for policymakers, parents and students, media, institutions and researchers, and educators. It includes forms, maps, charts, graphs and reports. Texas legislative issues related to higher education are included. WYOMING (Karen Kitchens) License Types and Fees - Search for current Wyoming fishing and hunting license fees by type (species) and resident or nonresident. Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Continue reading →

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This week we added new volunteers to the State Agency Databases project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. We welcomed Ellen Richardson and Jennifer Ekblaw as the new documents specialists for the Massachusetts project page. ORPHAN STATES With Ellen and Jennifer's adoption of Massachusetts and the pending adoption of Montana, the project is now looking for people to adopt the following pages:

• Arkansas
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina

If you are interested in one of these pages, please read through our volunteer guide and then contact Daniel Cornwall through the contact link on the main project page. PAGE ACTIVITY For a full listing of link repairs and other activity for the past week, see http://tinyurl.com/statedbs. Read on for a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED COLORADO (Samantha Hager) Colorado Environmental Public Health Tracking - Search environmental and health data by county, topic, and year. RESOURCES Added The original focus of the State Agency Databases project was on searchable databases produced by state agencies. Over the years our volunteers have found a number of use resources that are either not databases or databases not produced by state agencies. For these resources, we established the "not databases" page at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Not_Databases. This week Connecticut documents specialist Janice Wilson put up a sizable number of CT resources including:

• Banks in Connecticut - Lists institution, main office addresses, CEO, and regulating authority.
• Dealers, Licensed Repairers, and Licensed Recyclers only. Dept. of Revenue Services, Most Popular Downloadable Forms
• Directory of Performing & Teaching Artists - This directory provides lists of Connecticut artists (dance, traditional arts, literary arts, music, theater) willing to perform/provide specialized instruction in schools or community settings. Click on the individual discipline links for the listings.
• DMV Learner's Permit Test Appointments - Use the online Quick Service Center to schedule, reschedule and pay for the learner's permit test. Infraction Ticket Processing - You may either pay your ticket or plead Not Guilty on this website.

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There was a flurry of end of year activity at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project (http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases) over the last few weeks, including our annual compilation of usage statistics. We also had the sad duty of returning 11 pages to orphan status as they were not updated in 2012. But first, the good news! All together, state project pages were visited 201,084 times in 2012. This is nearly triple the number of visits in 2011. Our subject pages also got about three times more visits in 2012, logging 28,131 visits. The most popular state page was Alaska, followed closely by Missouri. The Prisoner Locater page continued in its number one spot among subject pages, but Lynn McClelland's Healthcare Practitioner pages were a close second. The full statistics worksheet listing individual stats for all states and subject pages is linked from our main project page under 2012 Usage Stats. DATABASE ACTIVITY For a full listing of all changes to project pages during the last two weeks, visit http://tinyurl.com/statedbs14d. Below are some highlights of activity. DATABASES ADDED MICHIGAN (Michael McDonnell) Michigan Healthcare Help - This site provides information on where to find free or inexpensive health related services. Included are links to free clinics, mental health services, dental care, prescription drug programs, family planning, and cancer screening and treatment services. You can also find assistance with Medicaid enrollment here. MISSOURI (Annie Moots) Field Guide - What plant or animal is that? - Search the database of plants, animals and mushrooms found in Missouri. OHIO (Audrey Hall) Interest Calculator - Select tax type, amount due, and payment date to calculate interest. WASHINGTON (Marilyn Von Seggern) Children's Safe Products Act Reports Database - Beginning in August 2012, manufacturers of children's products must report to Dept. of Ecology if their products contain toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium and phthalates. The Reporting List of Chemicals of High Concern to Children can be searched by chemical, company, or product. NEW ORPHANS FOR 2013 Some bad news for the project, but potentially good news for you. Since 2011, our project guidelines state that we will terminate volunteers who have not documented link checks or updated their pages in the past calendar year. State pages meeting that condition are put out for adoption the following January. So here is our new orphan list for 2013:

• Arkansas
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Indiana
• Kansas
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• Montana
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina

If you are interested in taking on one of these pages, first read our volunteer guide and make sure that you are willing and able to meet the requirements of a project volunteer. Then contact Daniel Cornwall, the project coordinator using the contact link on our main page. After you are given the page and a wiki account (if needed), you will have two weeks to change the page to reflect your ownership. We would love to have you join our group of 40 odd document enthusiasts and specialists. Just make sure you can fit quarterly link checks and database finding into your schedule. Continue reading →

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