Black History Month Resources
As a librarian working in reference services, I am always looking for resources that can capture the interest of everyone who use my library and its website. After all, what better way to build grassroots support for the availability and preservation of government information? The Library of Congress is exploring The Quest for Black Citizenship in the Americas as its theme this year in its galleries and presentations. The website includes webcasts, photographs, and learning tools on African American history and the Civil Rights movement. One featured item is the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen exhibit, which may be of particular interest to those who watched the inauguration of Barack Obama. Another resource to highlight is the Black History Month section of America.gov. This website includes articles and photo galleries on contemporary topics and defining moments in American history. There's an RSS feed for articles so you can stay updated throughout the month. Through Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE is a great discovery tool for digital collections) I was reminded of the Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress. This enormous collection, part of the American Memory project, includes a diary Douglass kept on a tour to Europe and Africa, and correspondence with prominent abolitionists and political figures. One other fascinating resource for Black History Month is, unsurprisingly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FOIA Reading Room. While only about one percent of the entire FBI file for Martin Luther King, Jr. is available for viewing here, the file includes some information on surveillance practices and informants. Other files available in the reading room are on Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda, and Jackie Robinson. I'll be back throughout the month with more on topics and tools to build interest in government information resources. Continue reading
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 11
Another indication that we might have crossed a threshold in our civic and political discourse. Today's Washington Post has a long article about Obama's week old presidency trying to redefine the debate among the political parties. In one particular passage, there is the hope that he shares with many government information librarians that the fullness of the debate, and difference of view, are more important to a democracy then scoring political points. Here is the relevant passage: "The uncertainty over just how the new president defines bipartisanship traces back to the campaign trail. When Obama called for an end to "broken and divided politics," his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), and others contended that there were few instances in Obama's career when he had made major concessions that upset fellow Democrats to reach agreement with Republicans. But this, said some who have worked with Obama, overlooked his intent. To Obama, they said, fixing "broken politics" is less about making concessions just for the sake of finding common ground and more about elevating the debate -- replacing cynical gamesmanship and immature name-calling with intellectually honest arguments and respect for the other side's motives. In his book "The Audacity of Hope," Obama waxes nostalgic about the fellowship and vigorous debate of Congress's halcyon days in the mid-20th century more than about the centrist deals the era produced. Obama's bipartisanship "was as much about style, collegiality and civilness as it was actual movement on issues," said state Sen. Kirk W. Dillard, who was Obama's closest Republican ally in the Illinois legislature. Obama did compromise on major bills on ethics and the death penalty as a state senator, but there were limits, Dillard said: "He always listened to the other side and would move to some degree, but his bipartisanship was clearly about the tone and the way you treat one another . . . and trying to understand the other side -- and not necessarily all about caving in."" If he can eject even a smidgen of civility back into the discourse...that would be a good thing. See you Day 12 Continue reading
Guest blogger for February is … Shari Laster!
Let's welcome Shari Laster to the podium for the month of February! Shari's a govt documents/reference librarian at the University of Akron (Here's Shari's full bio). With the shift to a new administration and so much buzz about government transparency, we're sure that Shari will start some interesting conversations. And while we have your attention, we want to thank Chella Vaidyanathan for her work for the month of January. Below are the threads that she wove into our FGI fabric. Thanks again Chella! Continue reading
Shari Laster: BOTM for February, 2009 and July, 2010
Shari Laster is the government documents/reference librarian for University Libraries at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. She earned her MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her interest in the world of government information was sparked by her work as a student assistant at what is now the Kelley Center for Government Information at Rice University, where she discovered that governments produce nifty, pervasive, and useful information. Other professional interests include metadata, intellectual property law, and good design. [update July, 2010: besides all of those other things listed above, Shari has just been named to Depository Library Council for a 3 year term (2010 - 2013)!] Continue reading
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 10
The political and social mix continues to churn across our layers of government. Impeachment of a sitting governor in Illinois (the first in the land of Lincoln in over a century); budget crisis in California forcing unpaid furloughs of government workers and loss of funding for critical medical, social, and education programs. Not to mention the further widespread layoffs throughout all sectors of the economy. Library opportunities for civic engagement abound -- if we can just organize ourselves and our institutions to do so. Though, I well know from experience, the pressures bearing down outside the library are wreaking their own pressures on our own bibliographic decisions. This internal tension may suggest that we duck and cover during the storm. I would suggest that, in a profoundly contrary way, it may be the best time to reach out to our communities and engage them. I am sure there are hundreds of examples out there where special, public and academic libraries alike are reaching out to their communities in specific ways to help deal with the cascading social, economic and political turmoil. Here is one instance, from the Oak Park Library, that speaks to this -- watch the videos here and here. And this rather well designed web page about the event here. Note the emphasis on access to demographic and census information. See you on Day 11. Continue reading