Federal Depository Library User Survey Report Released
via INFOdocket.com From the Federal Depository Library Program Web Site: In its efforts to address the value of Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) membership and to determine baseline outcomes-based performance measures, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), working with Outsell, Inc. and the Depository Library Council, developed a survey for depository library users. The survey ran from October 10, 2010 through March 4, 2011 and garnered over 3,300 responses from users of nearly 550 depository libraries. Submissions were well distributed both geographically and across different library types. Direct to Report: FDLP Users Speak: The Value and Performance of Libraries Participating in the Federal Depository Library Program (61 Pages; PDF) Recommendations From the Report * Undertake more promotional activity, not just on the web, but also through library help desks and other local facilities in participating libraries; * Increase training/tutorial activities both on the web and in participating libraries to assist users in finding Government documents on the web; * Make more materials available in library collections and online; and * Develop new tools to enhance access to and discoverability of Government information. Direct to Full Text Report (Results, Charts, and Analysis for Each Question) Continue reading
Gary’s Thursday Roundup: NLRB, Internet Archive, Ancestry.com, U.S. Census, and Much More (17 Items)
Hello From DC (I mean Shakeytown, it Was My First Quake) Everyone. As we prepare for our next event around hear and elsewhere along the east coast I thought it might be a good time to share a mountain of news, new resources, and other goodies with all of you. The material comes from posts Shirl Kennedy and I made to our INFOdocket.com site. This is just a small amount of what we post seven days a week. Plus, we also provide FullTextReports.com. New reports are listed in the left rail (Thanks Jim and James) We both hope you find and item or two of interest in the following update. More very soon. (-: 1. Hurricane Irene: FEMA’s National Situation Daily Update Available Online & Natl. Hurricane Center Mobile Resources 2. New Web Site: Feds Launch Performance.gov, Now Publicly Accessible 3. Acquisitions: Bloomberg is Buying BNA for $990 Million 4. US Department of Labor Improves Enforcement Databases Including Visualization/Animation Tools 5.U.S. History: “Rare Footage Unearthed Online” 6. New From the Internet Archive: “Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive” 7.“Google Forfeits $500 Million Generated by Online Ads & Prescription Drug Sales by Canadian Online Pharmacies” The full text of the statement from the USDOJ and FDA 8. Washington Post Op/Ed: “Don’t Kill America’s Databook” (U.S. Census Statistical Abstract) 9. NLRB — Acting General Counsel Releases Report on Social Media Cases 10. Back to School 2011-2012: Facts About Schools, Students and Teachers From the U.S. Census 11. 1940 U.S. Census to be Free on Ancestry.com 12. Government Information: GPO Releases API For FederalRegister.gov (Formal Announcement) 13. Teen Dating Violence: A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography From the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress 14. Update: More Digitized Historic U.S. Government Economic and Banking Documents and Reports via FRASER 15. A Look at a Few Resources Using U.S. Department of Agriculture Open Data 16. Cook County, IL: New online database lets anyone see who has outstanding warrants 17. Federal Agencies Take Action to Digitally Document Nearly 50 Endangered Languages Continue reading
#Wikileaks releases new batch of US State Department diplomatic cables. Follow #wlfind for details
Wikileaks announced via twitter that they are releasing 35,000 U.S. diplomatic cables today. The current count of US Diplomatic cables released is 51,122 out of a total of 251,287 total. Check out the Twitter hashtag #wlfind for crowdsourced finds. That thread is quite an interesting read. Continue reading
Should Government Be Run Like a Business?
GovLoop, the social network for government, has an interesting piece with lots of comments by government workers on the question "Should Government Be Run Like a Business?"
- Should Government Be Run Like a Business?, by Patrick Fiorenza, GovLoop (August 17, 2011).
Ethnographic study of student research methods
Here is an interesting overview of the findings of a two-year, five-campus ethnographic study examining how students view and use their campus libraries. It seems students rarely ask librarians for help, even when they need it, and they need help. Very, very interesting findings! Must read.
- What Students Don't Know, by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed (August 22, 2011). The ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) project -- a series of studies conducted at Illinois Wesleyan, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois’s Chicago and Springfield campuses -- was a meta-exercise for the librarians in practicing the sort of deep research they champion. Instead of relying on surveys, the libraries enlisted two anthropologists, along with their own staff members, to collect data using open-ended interviews and direct observation, among other methods. The goal was to generate data that, rather than being statistically significant but shallow, provided deep, subjective accounts of what students, librarians and professors think of the library and each other at those five institutions. The resulting papers are scheduled to be published by the American Library Association this fall, under the title: “Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know.”