Authoritative Resources on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
This new CRS report has lots of links to state and federal websites:
- Authoritative Resources on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). by Kim Walker Klarman and Julie Jennings, Congressional Research Service, R40244 (September 10, 2009) [11 pages. PDF].
The following list of authoritative resources is designed to assist in responding to a broad range of constituent questions and concerns about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), P.L. 111-5. Links to the full text of the act, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, White House fact sheets, and federal, state, and municipal government websites are included, along with other useful information. This list reflects information that is currently available on the Internet. It will be updated regularly as other relevant material becomes available.Here's a thought for CRS reports like this one that are largely lists of links that CRS intends to update regularly: Why not put this online and make it (and all the updates) available for everyone? Is there any reasonable reason not to do so? Continue reading
Thanks for all the docs
Thanks for having me as FGI September Blogger of the Month! I am signing off now and returning to my regular gig at the SLA Govt Info Blog but will remain a faithful reader. I will also keep spreading the news about the great work that FDLP librarians do. A fine example just came up on GOVDOC-L: the newly updated Federal Websites for Tribal Libraries and Tribal College Libraries, created by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Wonderful! Happy October, Peggy Continue reading
Recovery.gov 2.0
The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board released an upgraded version of the Recovery.gov website on Monday, September 28. Recovery.gov is, per the website, "the U.S. government’s official website providing easy access to data related to Recovery Act spending and allows for the reporting of potential fraud, waste, and abuse." The site now has a zip code search for finding local Recovery Act awards, a Data Download section, and a new home page layout with more information upfront. The reviews of the recent upgrade are out and can be summed up as "meh." The conclusion from interested bloggers seems to be that while a few improvements have been made around the edges, there is little new to shout about. Observers are waiting for the real show, the scheduled October 15 release of the first recipient contract data and October 30 release of the first recipient grant and loan data. From the blogs: Meet the New Recovery.gov, "(mostly) the same as the old Recovery.gov", from OMB Watch Blog, September 28. New Recovery.gov Goes Live, Key Data to be Released Later, from WSJ.com Washington Wire, September 28. Grading the New Recovery.gov, a substantial review from Sunlight Labs, September 29. Meanwhile, CRS librarians have updated their compilation of links to Recovery-related information on the web in this report available from OpenCRS.com: Authoritative Resources on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), updated September 10. Continue reading
LA Times Profiles Information Guerrillas
Los Angeles Time business columnist Michael Hiltzik discusses key players in the Free Government Information movement in the article These crusaders bring transparency to government (28 September 2009). Continue reading
FGI Wants YOUR LostDocs Receipts for new blog!
Have you wondered how many items get submitted to the Government Printing Office as fugitive documents through GPO's Lost Docs form at http://www.fdlp.gov/lostdocs? We have. Have you thought that a public "lost docs" list might be a good collection development tool? We have. Have you wondered how long it takes GPO to act on fugitive documents reports? We have. To answer these questions, Free Government Information (FGI) has established a new stand-alone blog called the Lost Docs Blog at http://lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/. You can also get to the blog by clicking on "Lostdocs" in the upper right-hand corner of the FGI home page. We think that the Lost Docs blog, if well utilized, will provide several important services to the Government Information Community:
- It will provide an indication of the volume of fugitive documents discovered by the community.
- It will reduce duplicate reports of fugitive documents, optimizing the time of GPO catalogers.
- It will allow depository libraries and other interested parties the opportunity to acquire materials found to be out of scope of the FDLP.
- Since blogs are indexed by Google and other search engines, lostdocs blog posts will raise awareness of government documents in search results. Participating in this blog is easy. All we need you to do is to send us your e-mail receipt from GPO to lostdocs@freegovinfo.info. That's it. If you're new to reporting fugitive documents, you might want to check out our instructions at http://lostdocs.freegovinfo.info/2009/07/how-to-report-a-fugitivelost-document/. We know there have been many respectable efforts at tackling the issue of fugitive documents. What we think makes this project different is the public listing of possible fugitive documents acknowledged by GPO's reporting system. If enough lost docs reporters forward their receipts to lostdocs@freegovinfo.info, then we'll have a good handle on what the documents community is finding and reporting. Because some will ask us why we didn't ask GPO for copies of their receipts, we wanted to let you know we did. GPO is involved in a number of worthy projects at the moment and was not able to commit to providing us copies of their lostdocs e-mail receipts. We appreciated the time they gave to review our proposal. Now it's up to you. If you have some lostdocs receipts on hand, send them to us. And start forwarding receipts for items you report to GPO in the future. Together we can create a new collection development resource that will benefit librarians and documents users alike. Sincerely, Continue reading