Get Ready to Check Your House Links
Do you have links to pages at House.gov on your website or in your catalog? You might want to schedule a link check in April or May as the House Technology Operations Team is planning to revamp the House website and hopes to have changes in place in April. House Website To Get Facelift, By Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose (March 18, 2011). Continue reading
Data Reference in Depth
Do you do "data reference"? Would you like to do it better? Almost all of us who work with government information help users find statistical information. Many of us also help users locate and use the raw data from which statistical tables are built. Whether you love or fear questions related to statistical information or data, the current double issue of the IASSIST Quarterly (2009: Winter), "Data Reference in Depth" will be a welcome guide. Bobray Bordelon of Princeton University Library edited this special issue. It features articles by experts, many of whom you probably know:
- The Pedagogical Data Reference Interview, by Kristin Partlo
- Sources for International Trade, Prices, Production, and Consumption, by Amy West
- Data Reference in Depth: Sources of International Labour Data, by Walter Giesbrecht
- Financial Crisis Data Resources: A Brief Guide, by Mary Tao
- Data in Development: An Overview of Microdata on Developing Countries, by Kristi Thompson
- The American Community Survey: Benefits and Challenges, by Michelle Hayslett and Lynda Kellam
FOIA news: FOIA.gov launches and how to be a cooperative FOIA reviewer for EFF
Because it's Sunshine Week, there's lots of news about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). First off, the US Department of Justice just announced their new site FOIA.gov as a central repository for FOIA compliance across the Federal government, agency FOIA data since 2008 (detailed reports here), and FOIA spotlight in the news. Interestingly, they haven't put up a link to individual agency FOIA electronic reading rooms, but I've sent in that request and hopefully it'll soon be added to the site. Do you want to assist in the FOIA process? If so, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a job for you. The EFF has so many liberated/FOIA'd documents in the realms of privacy, due process and civil liberties, that they're seeking help from the public to pore over those liberated government docs as part of their cooperative FOIA review project.
Here's how the Cooperating FOIA list will work: Send us an email to put your name on our list. When we get government documents in response to a FOIA request, we'll post a note to the list with a basic description of the project (for example: "Documents from DHS detailing government use of social media - approximately 100 pages" or "Documents from FBI detailing misuse of National Security Letters - approximately 10,000 pages"). If you're on the list and are interested, you contact us, and we'll tell you how to access pdf versions of the documents and what we're looking for in the information. Then you review the documents and let us know what you find. Interested in being a Cooperating FOIA Reviewer? Send a note to coopfoia@eff.org with your name, email address, and some brief information on who you are and what you're interested in, and we'll add you to the list.And finally, check out SunshineWeek.org for FOI news roundup and event listings around the country. You can also play the Ray of Sunshine game! Continue reading
Update on Statistical Abstract
This just in from the Census Bureau via GPO:
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 11:43 AM To: Holmes, Mary A. Subject: FW: Fw: Statistical Abstract and the Consolidated Federal Funds Report Dear Mr. Lansky: The just released 2012 budget does not include funding for the Statistical Compendia Branch which would mean the elimination of not only the Statistical Abstract, but all titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, USA Counties, Quick Facts). No new editions would be produced in print or online. We have already started work on the Statistical Abstract 2012 edition and are still working on the local area products (highlighted above). We will continue to work on these products and have a contingency plan to have the Statistical Abtract 2012 out by the end of September, due to our uncertain future. Sincerely, Branch Chief Statistical Compendia Branch, ACSD U.S. Census BureauContinue reading
The demise of the Statistical Abstract and other critical Census titles
If you've been on govdoc-l over the last couple of days, you've no doubt read about the demise of the US Census' Statistical Abstract of the United States, published every year since 1878 and one of the most heavily used items in libraries across the US. According to the Department of Commerce's 2012 Congressional Budget Justification document (see pp 82-92), the entire Statistical Compendia Branch as well as the Federal Financial Statistics Program of the US Census is slated to be defunded. Not only will the Statistical Abstract no longer be published, but it also means the elimination of ALL titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR), Federal Aid to States (FAS) etc.). Please write/phone/email/fax your representatives NOW and let them know how critical these publications are to an informed citizenry and to your daily library work. Congress.org has a handy page that will allow you to write all of your representatives at once. Please also forward this message to any library listservs to which you subscribe and send to your friends and family. UPDATE 3/15/11: In reading further, this looks to be a decision by Census to shift funds to a new program that will use new ways to collect and disseminate data. But Census still seems to be putting the StatAb cart before the new data dissemination horse here. Census Bureau will first kill StatAb etc and *then* initiate a pilot project to see how this new method of disseminating data will work. The new program will not be in place for 1-2 years and in the meantime the American public will not have access to the easy to use and handy Statistical Abstract. Continue reading