Economic Census at Risk
Congress is proposing cuts to the Census Bureau budget that would result in cancelling the next economic census.
- Census Confronts Budget Ax, By Ben Casselman, Wall Street Journal, (October 31, 2011). Economists warned that cutting the measure would rob policy makers of crucial information. "If you're trying to figure out what policy measures America should be taking right now to promote job growth for families and workers, without data sets like the 2012 economic census it's going to be a lot harder to do," said Matthew Slaughter, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and a former member of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. ...Conducted in various forms since the early 19th century, the economic census surveys roughly five million American businesses about their revenue, expenses, number and type of workers, and other information. The census data provide the framework for a swath of other economic measures, from inflation to industrial production to the gross domestic product, that are based on monthly or quarterly surveys. Because those surveys are far smaller than the Economic Census, they become less accurate over time unless recalibrated based on new census data.
- Census Chiefs: Cuts Will Leave Nation Flying Blind In Bad Economy, by Michael McAuliff, Huffington Post, (Oct. 27, 2011). Six of the last seven directors of the U.S. Census Bureau fear proposed cuts to the bureau's budget will blind the nation's financial experts. They're urging congressional leaders to reconsider reductions that could end the gathering of crucial economic data for the first time in 200 years.
PATRIOT Act anniversary roundup
The [w:USA PATRIOT Act] (aka Public Law 107-56) turned 10 last week. The ACLU did a great roundup including a telling infographic that was just too big to post here. Be sure to check it out.
So. The Patriot Act turned 10 on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. And all we got were violations of our civil liberties. Well, that and this really awesome infographic, which contains information like this fun fact: Did you know that under the relaxed National Security Letter (NSL) standards in the Patriot Act, between 2003 and 2005, the FBI issued 143,074 NSLs, and reported a big, whopping zero terrorism prosecutions as a result? Zero, zilch, none, nada. So what was the FBI using their shiny, new terrorism-fighting-intelligence-gathering powers for? Well, they did refer 17 criminal money laundering cases, 17 immigration-related cases, and 19 fraud cases. And the other 143,021 NSLs? Well, thanks to the gag order that accompanies them, the innocent people whose personal information was sought from third parties will never know.Continue reading
State Agency Databases Activity Report 10/30/2011
It has been a productive week at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. ORPHAN NEWS Our last official orphan remains Rhode Island. Will you be the one to take the last "unadopted orphan?" If you're interested in adopting Rhode Island, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt it. If you adopt Rhode Island, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. SUBJECT PAGE ACTIVITY Health Practitioner Databases (Lynn McClelland) By adding resources for AZ, CO, CT, GA and MI, Lynn now has 18 states plus the District of Columbia represented on this page. OTHER WIKI ACTIVITY See our last 7 days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED MICHIGAN (Michael McDonnell) Business Entity Search - A service that provides information on business corporations, limited liability companies, and limited partnerships authorized to transact business in the State of Michigan. you can search the database by name, keyword or ID number. NEW MEXICO (Adrienne Walker) Official Transparency and Accountability Portal - The Sunshine Portal is the official transparency and accountability portal for New Mexico state government. This is your window into government spending, budgets, revenues, employees, contracts and more. Continue reading
Library Census Maps 1,000 Federal Libraries
From an LC News Release: Profiles of U.S. federal libraries from around the world are now available online. Presented dynamically with an interactive mapping tool, the Federal Library Directory displays geographic and collections data from more than 1,000 libraries. This publicly available dataset identifies members of the federal library and information center community and offers current information on their locations, collections, services and specialties. Sponsored by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC), with research assistance from the Federal Research Division (FRD), this virtual directory provides a comprehensive view of agency library efforts both in the United States and throughout the world. The compiled data includes details on collections, staff size, leadership, circulation and reference services. "This directory raises awareness of federal libraries and information resource centers and the resources these organizations maintain," said Blane Dessy, FLICC’s Executive Director. "We are offering this data set to the public so that scholars can use the tool to locate government resources more easily and library researchers can access current data on federal libraries." FRD analysts surveyed federal library programs and then supplemented the survey data received with research and outreach to compile additional data from a variety of federal library programs. "Our collaboration with FLICC on this directory was an opportunity to engage the entire federal library community," said David L. Osborne, chief of the FRD. "With an updated directory and geospatial mapping of the results, patrons and agencies can now optimize their access to resources and target their research to meet any number of mission objectives." Federal Library Directory Info Page Access the Directory The mapping software is only viewed using the Mozilla Firefox browser. Please be patient if this link loads slowly. Continue reading
AP Report: Feds tighten belt by cutting agriculture reports
Via INFOdocket.com From the AP: The U.S. Agriculture Department has kept tabs for decades on a wide range of agricultural industries that generate billions of dollars for the U.S. economy. But that's about to change, as the agency eliminates some reports and reduces the frequency of others to save millions of dollars in tight budget times. [Clip] A spokeswoman for the USDA division that produces the reports said it didn't want to cut them but it had to do something to save money. Eliminating or reducing the frequency of 14 crop and livestock reports will save the National Agricultural Statistics Service about $10 million, Sue duPont said. NASS's $156 million budget was cut in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 and more reductions are expected this year as Congress and the White House aim to trim federal spending. The agency based its choices on the reports' impact on markets and use by other programs that provide assistance to farmers, along with the availability of information from other sources, DuPont said. Direct to Full Text Article Continue reading