Happy 50th to Paul Meek Library at Univ of TN!
According to govdoc-l poster Ania Lasota, the Paul Meek Library had a terrific 50th anniversary as a Federal Depository Library:
This week we have celebrated 50th Anniversary of our depository status. We did great: we had coverage by a local radio station, and also Jackson, local and college paper. We ran information about the docs anniversary on the web, and the campus main electronic marquee. The staff put together a nice display of government documents and posters, and we had a great reception - which went really well! Our guests included Congressman and Mrs. John Tanner, Mayor, Chancellor, and others. As an extra enticement for students to attend our event, we had a bunch of door prizes which local businesses graciously donated to us.
Our hats are off to Ania and others at the Paul Meek Library who did such a terrific job ensuring visibilty for their event!
It looks like it impressed Rep. Tanner as well who is reportedly planning to return to the library to give a lecture.
50-State subject database guides – what next?
Recently, the 50-State Agency Database Registry produced an annotated list of searchable inmate locaters. Many states have databases on many given subjects, so the volunteer staff of the Database Register is interested in expanding the offerings on our subject-focused databases page.
We (the Registry volunteers) would like to do this with subjects of interest to the community. So tell us what we should do next, either by leaving comments here or by participating in a brief poll on the main page of the State Agency Database Highlights blog at http://statedatabase.blogspot.com.
For databases from the 50 states, please see the 50-State Agency Database Registry
The Nurturing Librarian
An aspect of the job that I enjoy doing is public service. I really like the one-on-one contact that I have with my patrons. At times, you developed friendships with some of them. It has gotten to the point when they will stop by my office, the reference desk, or the gov. docs. desk to talk about what's going on in their lives or just have someone who will listen. There is this one patron whom I believe may have saved a great deal of money in pyschiatric services just because he stops by once a week to vent with me.
One of the biggest attractions of working at a library for me is the wonderful mix of research, history, and public service that is involved in the position. I am constantly learning something new everyday. Since my B.A. is in American history, I really am proud of the fact that I use my degree every day as a government documents coordinator. But, one of the aspects of the job that really makes it all worthwhile for me is the need to nurture. Being there for someone who might be in distress because they cannot find the resources they need or coming to you shyly because they need help using the online catalog. Yes, this is the part of the job I enjoy the most.
I guess, for me as a single male, that is the outlet for my nurturing tendencies. I imagine that for those of you who are married with children and grandchildren, having to nurture patrons as well might be more than you are willing to do. What I do know, though, is how appreciative they are after you have helped them. That usually makes my day and it also makes up for the times when I really don't want to be at work...its what motivates me to get up in the morning and head happily to work.
I am proud of the service the library community provides for its patrons and, for the most part, most patrons are grateful for the service you provide them. I really am very proud to serve my community as a librarian and for the opportunity to help meet their needs.
This is my last blog entry as guest blogger for FreeGovInfo. I am thankful for the opportunity to talk about life in the library.
I also would like to wish you:
Merry Christmas
Feliz Navidad
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
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Reinventing Ourselves–Part II
I hope everyone had a nice and restful holiday. May all the turkey you ate gave you the opportunity for some nice long naps and re-energized you for this week.
Since we are all feeling restful and sharp-minded, why don't we take some time to think about how the depository system could reinvent itself. Let's throw in some ideas that will help the folks at GPO to do sme great things for us and them. When thinking of these ideas, begin by creating in your mind your ideal depository. Also, think about what could GPO do for us that would help you with your work.
Just some things off the top of my head.
FDLP Desktop:
Since the FDLP Desktop is still in beta, this is a good time to make suggestions that will make it ideal for our work.
- I would like to see the ability to tailor some tasks according to a depository's profile. For example, have the New Electronic Titles be tailored to your profile. I would like to login, click on the NET link and it show me all the online publications that are part of our profile. This way, we wouldn't have to print the list, then scan through each one and compare it to our profile before being able to download it onto the online catalog.
- The ability to download bib. records from the CGP.
- Would like to see the manual dealing with Inactive/Discontinued lists of item numbers improved so you can differentiate between inactive and discontinued. To me, these are two different things. Inactive implies that it may return at some point in the future while discontinued means it has ceased and there is no hope of its return. Separating the lists within the same manual would be good or creating a column for status detailing if it is inactive or discontinued would be helpful.
I do like the new look of the beta site of the FDLP Desktop. You will be able to instant message, email, and create buddy lists from within the depository community. Seems to be better organized than the old Desktop website. I like the calendar feature and the ability to order promotional items online is a great tool as well.
New Services Suggestions:
- Creating a full-text database of government publication periodicals/serials. The government offers a variety of interesting articles through its periodicals/serials and most people are missing out because most of them are not indexed by commercial publishers. The great thing about this would be that depositories would have free access to this database while non-depositories would have to pay a subscription fee. This would allow GPO to actually make money and, at the same time, provide a service that would be attractive to non-depository libraries. The database could eventually become something like JSTOR which would include articles going as far back as possible. Make sure there is a way to search for peer-reviewed articles as well.
- A GPO Gift Shop that would allow you to promote the depository better like good cotton t-shirts with the GPO logo on it and customizing it with the name of the depository and the name of the employee so it can be worn at work. Such t-shirts would also be bought by the general public just for the nifty GPO logo alone. The handbags that were recently distributed at the Fall conference for attendees is a great idea as well. I didn't attend the conference but noticed at a recent depository meeting for WA State librarians that someone had one. I admired it and one of the librarians at the meeting told me I could have theirs. Ever since then, I have been using it for work. Again, its promtoing the depository library and is quite an attention catcher....ah, remember the washable GPO tattoo that someone created for an event at their library?
- Instruction on how to maintain a collection that soon will become archival. How to do some basic repairs of tangible documents and how to preserve online documents.
New Digital Project Suggestions:
- Would like to see the Congressional Record from 1876 - 1993 digitized. Pre-1876 has been digitized by the Library of Congress via their American Memory collection and, of course, we have it available since 1994 via GPO Access.
Community Service:
- Find ways to provide community services at the local level. Oregon State University took a giant step at their library by providing limited day care at their library.
- Some depositories are providing services as passport centers.
What ideas do you have?
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Happy 3rd anniversary FGI!
Where has the time gone? I was just looking at the list of FGI user accounts, and noticed that my account was created 3 years and 1 day ago!! In light of our 3rd anniversary, I'd like to highlight the FGI monthly archive located in the lower right column. This will add one more way of accessing FGI content besides the search, browse, categories and RSS feed. Take a few minutes, browse back through the last 3 years, and let us know if you have any favorites.
Thanks to all of our visitors (we get over 2000 hits/day!!) for continuing to come back and reading the FGI blog. We really appreciate it!
--The FGI admins (Jim Jacobs, Daniel Cornwall, James Staub, Shinjoung Yeo and James Jacobs)
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