Research Briefing Papers from UK
Gary Price at INFOdocket reminds us that "The UK House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries publish and update a large amount of research briefings each day." These are analogous to US CRS reports. Check out Gary's post on this for more links and suggestions:
- Selection of New Research Briefing Papers from UK House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries, by Gary D. Price, INFOdocket (December 1, 2011)
- Research briefings, UK Parliament. This page provides access to research briefings produced by the Libraries of the House of Commons and House of Lords and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). You can find research briefings by sorting by date, type, or one of 350 topics.
Roundup of Government Info News and New Resources
Time once again for a selection of news and new resources that we hope will be an interest to the FGI community. The posts are from INFOdocket.com (@infofodocket) where we compile and post new items daily from a variety of resources. 1. “Obama Wants Better Digital Archive of Federal Records” + Full Text of Presidential Memorandum 2. Now Available: EPA Releases Formerly Confidential Chemical Information 3. San Antonio, TX: New Online Database: Historical Election Results are Digitized 4. Statistics Canada to Make All Online Data Free 5. UK Parliament: MPs to Investigate Library Closures 6. TR Center Officially Launches the Theodore Roosevelt Digital Collection 7. Idaho: Libraries to Adjust to New Internet Filtering Law 8. U.S.: National Archives Trust Fund To Sell Copies of the 1940 Census (Digital & Microfilm Versions) Available 9. All Thing Preservation: New NARA (National Archives) Twitter Stream & Tumblr Page 10. U.S. History: Senator George Mitchell Oral History Project Debuts Online 11.New Social Media Resource: “PolitickerUSA is the Best Way to Track Politicians’ Tweets” 12. Video Now Online of NARA’s “What’s Next in Social Media” Forum 13. Child Welfare Information Gateway — State Guides & Manuals Search 14. GPO Releases Its First App 15. New UN Database Available: Expert Panel Launches Tool to Fight Arbitrary Deprivation of Freedom 16. State of Minnesota Posts Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD) 17. U.S. Government: USAID Launches New GeoCenter 18. Public Access to Indiana’s Historic Sanborn Maps Provides Treasure Trove of Information 19. California: More than 13,000 Online Maps Provide Historic View of State 20. UNESCO’s Global Open Access Portal Now Online Continue reading
DOD Reading Lists
Have you ever checked out the reading lists of the armed forces? Interesting!
- Reading Lists Aim to Promote Personal, Professional Growth, By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service (Nov. 22, 2011). [P]rofessional reading remains an important part of the military culture. Every service, most professional military schools and an increasing number of geographic and combatant commands offer up reading programs and reading lists as part of their professional development efforts. In fact, many have multiple reading lists, aimed at different groups within the military at different ranks and stages of their careers. "...What I discovered reading Hemingway, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, Updike, Forester, McCarthy and countless other authors shaped my world view and honed my understanding of the most complex terrain in the world: the human heart." [Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, commander of U.S. European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe] Hat tip to beSpacific! Continue reading
The best way to preserve digital content…
Here is an interesting article that examines the use of criminal digital forensic tools to discover and repair corrupted digital information in digital archives, but there is another story here as well. Although the title doesn't tell you this, Fox actually looks at two alternatives for digital preservation: digital forensics and what he calls "the buddy system."
- Fox, Robert, Forensics of Digital Librarianship, OCLC Systems & Services, 27 (2011), 264-271
Studies over the last decade have indicated that digital preservation is most successful when the information "is best preserved by replicating it at multiple archives run by autonomous organizations".... These concepts have been in place for almost ten years, but it has only been in the last four-to-five years that libraries have attempted to preserve anything beyond e-journal content using P2P network systems. [emphasis added]Continue reading
Policies for Increasing Economic Growth and Employment
Politics is so tiring. The same old talking points every day. Wouldn't it be nice if someone in Congress would give us a non-partisan objective view of our options? Oh, wait! The Congressional Budget Office does just that! Recent testimony by the CBO director tells us (yet again) what CBO has been telling us: that extending unemployment benefits produces more output and better increase in employment per dollar spent than any other option. Looking for a document (or an agency) to feature on your blog or GovInfo home page? Here you go!
- Policies for Increasing Economic Growth and Employment in 2012 and 2013, Statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director Congressional Budget Office, before the Committee on the Budget United States Senate, Congressional Budget Office (November 15, 2011) [54 pages, PDF].
Comparing the estimated effects of different policy actions shows the following:
- Policies that would have the largest effects on output and employment per dollar of budgetary cost in 2012 and 2013 are ones that would reduce the marginal cost to businesses of adding employees or that would be targeted toward people who would be most likely to spend the additional income. Such policies include reducing employers’ payroll taxes (especially if limited to firms that increase their payroll), increasing aid to the unemployed, and providing additional refundable tax credits in 2012 for lower- and middle-income households.
- Policies that would primarily affect businesses’ cash flow but would have little impact on their marginal incentives to hire or invest would have only small effects. Such policies include reducing business income taxes and reducing tax rates on repatriated foreign earnings.