Guide of the Week: International Documents Collection
If you want a quick way to find International Government Organizations or their publications, start with today's Guide of the Week from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki:
International Documents Collection (Northwestern University Library, for the GODORT International Documents Task Force, 2008)Northwestern is attempting to keep a comprehensive list of International Government Organizations (IGO) that maintain a web presence. They currently list many IGOs from the African Development Bank to the World Tourism Organization (WTO). To facilitate access to the publications and other IGO information, the guide maintains a Google Custom Search Engine. Northwestern staff use the following criteria to add IGOs to their list: Criteria used to maintain the Northwestern University Library IGO list:
- The primary audience for the site is the Northwestern University community.
- The international organizations included in the list are intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).
- International Documents staff intend the list to be comprehensive. They include all the IGOs of which they are aware. However, an IGO must have a web page to be included in the list. If any person recommends an IGO to add to the list, staff add it to the list.
- The list links to sites in English, when available.
- In general, the list links only to the main page (i.e. welcome or home page) of the IGO's web site. The list links to web pages that are located within an IGOs web site if:
- it is the web page of the IGO's statistical division or statistical publications.
- it is the web page of the IGO's publications, if there are a substantial number of full-text publications available there.
- it is a web page that is often used.
- it is a web page which had been used by staff or a patron as a source of information, but which is extremely difficult to locate using the site's navigation functions.
- If you have any questions or suggestions please email them to mailto:govinfo@northwestern.edu.
Keeping up with data rot
Here's an interesting segment from CBS Sunday Morning from March 1, 2009 in which NY Times Technology writer David Pogue talks about data preservation. There are some great pictures from the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley -- and don't miss Pogue's interview with the museum's curator Dag Spicer. One of the most memorable quotes is from Don Menerick (sp?), Archivist @ NY Public Library:
"...there's a consensus that as the ability to store more and more data, the data itself has become less and less reliable."
Review of Homeland Security Digital Library
Review of the Homeland Security Digital Library, by Mary Kate Boyd-Byrnes, The Charleston Advisor, Volume 10, Issue 3, pages 44-46. [subscription required] Continue reading
GSA allows agencies to use commerical social networking sites
GSA signs deals for agencies to use social networking sites, By Jill R. Aitoro, NextGov, 03/25/2009.
After nine months of negotiations, the General Services Administration signed agreements with four video-sharing and social networking sites: Flickr, Vimeo, blip.tv and YouTube. GSA also is negotiating with the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. ...At least 17 agencies have signed, or are in the process of signing....Continue reading
Senator Uses Google Ads to Respond to NYT Article
After the New York Times ran a front page article this morning about how Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) defended tobacco companies when she was a young lawyer (As New Lawyer, Senator Was Active in Tobacco’s Defense, By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI, New York Times, March 26, 2009), Gillibrand started using Google AdWords, to respond.
- Gillibrand Uses Web Ad For Rapid Response, National Journal "Tech Daily Dose" (March 27, 2009).
Simply search for "Gillibrand" on Google and an ad from her campaign proclaiming that "Gillibrand Fights Tobacco" should appear to the right.Continue reading