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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: 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.
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:
- Agriculture (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008)
- Food Supply (University of Colorado at Boulder, Government Publications Library, 2008)
- Government Documents on Agriculture (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last modified 1/29/2008
- Food Supply (University of Colorado at Boulder, Government Publications Library, 2008)
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:
- Government Documents on Health (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
- PubMed
- Reading List for Princeton Biodefense R&D Workshops and Seminars
- Rand Corporation bioterrorism page
- World Health Organization
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