Chella Vaidyanathan: BOTM for January, 2009
Chella Vaidyanathan is the subject liaison librarian for History, Political Science, U.S. Govt. Information, International Documents, and GIS at the University of Miami. She enjoys teaching course-specific library instruction sessions for her assigned subject areas. Chella completed her MLS from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) in December 2006. Moreover, she has a Master of Arts in Modern European History, a Master of Philosophy in History, and a Master of Arts in Indian/South Asian History. At McKeldin Library in UMCP, Chella worked as the GIS Graduate Assistant in the Department of U.S. Gov. Information, Maps, & GIS Services, where she also served at the reference desk and helped patrons locate government information. Since then, she has always been very interested in teaching and promoting government documents. Continue reading
Some more background on how change.gov was created
Dorobek Insider has some additional background on the making of change.gov. 2 things of interest: 1) change.gov's use of Google moderator, a 3rd party app, which falls under google's privacy policy rather than the federal government requirements under the [w:Privacy Act of 1974]; and 2) both sides of the political debate seem to be trying to figure out how and why GSA set up change.gov, including submitting FOIA requests. Team Obama’s Change.gov — abuzz about how it was created — and how difficult change in government is [thanks for the heads-up Peggy Garvin!] Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Preparing for Public Health Emergencies
The Government Accountability Office recently identified Preparing for Public Health Emergencies as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. Today on Guide of the Week, we'll talk about some librarian produced guides from the ALA GODORT Exchange Wiki that can help inform citizens, Congress and President-Elect Obama on this issue. There appear to be two librarian produced guides that touch on public health emergencies:
- Government Documents on Health (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last updated 3/10/2008
- Chemical and Biological Disarmament (Grace York, University of Michigan, 2000) Last updated 1/9/2005
- PubMed
- Reading List for Princeton Biodefense R&D Workshops and Seminars
- Rand Corporation bioterrorism page
- World Health Organization
SEC to use XBRL for Financial Reporting
SEC Approves Interactive Data for Financial Reporting by Public Companies, Mutual Funds, Securities and Exchange Commission, Press Release 2008-300, Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2008. The SEC plans to phase out the EDGAR system and replace it with its Interactive Data Electronic Applications (IDEA) database. The IDEA system is based on eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), one of a number of XML markup languages which are used to encode documents and serialize data. The Press Release says that, "With interactive data, all of the facts in a financial statement are labeled with unique computer-readable 'tags,' which function like bar codes to make financial information more searchable on the Internet and more readable by spreadsheets and other software. Investors will be able to instantly find specific facts disclosed by companies and mutual funds, and compare that information with details about other companies and mutual funds to help them make investment decisions." See also: SEC To Replace EDGAR With 'IDEA' Test Drive Interactive Data!. SEC's Interactive Financial Report Viewer! The Viewer allows you to interact with XBRL filings made as part of the SEC's Voluntary Filing Program. Continue reading
Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government
A report by the Federal Web Managers Council provides some useful suggestions about how to make government information more useful.
- Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government A White Paper Written for the 2008 – 2009 Presidential Transition Team by the Federal Web Managers Council, November 2008.
There are approximately 24,000 U.S. Government websites now online (but no one knows the exact number). Only a minority of agencies have developed strong web policies and management controls. Some have hundreds of "legacy" websites with outdated or irrelevant content. We have too much content to categorize, search, and manage effectively, and there is no comprehensive system for removing or archiving old or underused content. Agencies should be required and funded to conduct regular content reviews, to ensure their online content is accurate, relevant, mission-related, and written in plain language. They should have a process for archiving content that is no longer in frequent use and no longer required on the website.The report solicits comments, so I wrote the following to one of the co-chairs, Sheila Campbell: Ms. Campbell, I am writing to comment on and make a suggestion for Putting Citizens First: Transforming Online Government A White Paper Written for the 2008 – 2009 Presidential Transition Team by the Federal Web Managers Council, November 2008 http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/Federal_Web_Managers_WhitePaper.pdf May I suggest that, as you work with Federal Web Managers and with Congress for information dissemination requirements, that you keep in mind two things: 1. Long-term preservation and usability of and access to even "out of date" government-created information is essential in a democracy. (We need an accurate *record* of government, not just a snapshot of what is current.) 2. The *primary* information role of the government is the creation and initial communication of information; government agencies will need help to ensure long-term preservation of information. (Agencies may cease to exist, or get merged with other agencies, or change their missions, or simply lack funding for providing long-term access to older information. Even the National Archives does not have a mandate to preserve everything that needs to be preserved.) In keeping these two assumptions in mind, I suggest you promote two simple procedures: 1. Agencies should always, at the time information products are created, instantiate their information in open, preservable, formats (e.g., not proprietary, commercial formats). 2. Agencies should always publicly announce and describe information products and make their digital information available through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and the Government Printing Office (GPO), where appropriate. GPO and the more than 1000 FDLP libraries can help preserve your digital information and keep it available for the long-term. Finally, I realize that the day-to-day requirements of e-government and creating reliable transaction-based information services for citizens may seem to conflict with the long-term usability requirements of instantiating information in preservable, open formats. But there are successful models of doing both. For example, the Census Bureau makes its statistical information available through a transaction-based service (American Factfinder (http://factfinder.census.gov/), while, at the same time making its raw data available in an operating-system-neutral, software-neutral format for researchers. There are many archivists and librarians and technical experts who can help agencies with these issues. Thank you for your thoughtful report. I hope these comments help. Continue reading