AALL & SLA Support GPO Funding, Will you?
On May 1, 2007, Mary Alice Baish of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) testified in support of full funding for the Government Printing Office (GPO) before the House Committee on Appropriations for AALL and the Special Libraries Association (SLA). While readers know that FGI has its differences with GPO, it plays a vital role in informing American citizens through its publishing, the Federal Depository Library Program, and of course, GPO Access. In addition, GPO's proposed Future Digital System (FDSys) could be a vital PART of any government information ecosystem of the future. Like every other federal agency, GPO has been operating under a continuing resolution which held it to FY 2006 funding even though we are nearly at FY 2008. As Mary Alice points out, fully funding GPO’s request of $45.61 million for the Salaries and Expenses (S&E) account that funds the FDLP; $109.54 million for Congressional Printing and Binding; and $26.82 million for the revolving fund is vital for several reason including:
- The S&E request includes necessary funds for the cataloging, indexing, and distribution of Federal publications in print and electronic formats to depository libraries and other recipients designated by law.
- Providing money for digitizing pre-1976 cataloging records; cataloging documents harvested from agency Web sites and improving the GPO Access system.
- To provide GPO with GPO with the ability publish all the important congressional documents of the 110th Congress. In addition, $5 million of the CP&B request is needed to ensure that the 2006 U.S. Code, compiled by the Law Revision Counsel, is published and distributed to members of Congress and depository libraries in a timely fashion.
- Provide the last third of funding to bring FDSys online.
- Helping GPO to fulfill its partnership agreements with libraries around the country.
DomeNation: TV show about the intersection of technology and politics
Jerome Armstrong of the progressive blog MyDD and conservative Republican David All have launched an Internet-based TV show about the intersection of technology and politics. David says, "We’ll cover the beat from our perspective as admitted-partisan political operatives." You can see it at youtube.com/user/domeNation Watch it now! The first one is only three minutes long. Continue reading
National Wetlands Research Center Library
Welcome to the National Wetlands Research Center Library: Not Just Another Library -- A Special Library: Fact Sheet (FS) 2007-3028 provides information to visitors and other external users of the National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) library. Libraries are grouped into four major types: public, school, academic, and special. The NWRC library is classified as special because it is sponsored by the Federal government, and the collections focus on a specific subject. The NWRC library is the only USGS library dedicated to wetland science, and its collections include subject specialties in forested wetland ecology, fire science, spatial analysis, remote sensing, modeling, statistical analysis, marsh and coastal prairie management and restoration, plant communities, habitats, aquatic ecosystems, climate change, wetland loss, hurricanes, nutrient dynamics, and limnology. Editing, design, layout, and Web posting of this FS were provided by staff of the Lafayette and Denver PSCs. NWRC Fact Sheet Continue reading
GPO’s FDLP Podcasts available!
Only two weeks after the Spring FDLP/Depository Library Council meeting, GPO has released audio files via podcasts! Download them through iTunes, share them with friends and family, and use Audacity to couple them with phat beats. Continue reading