Official U.S. House Committee Lists Released
Posted in the past day or so from the Clerk's Office * Official Alphabetical List of Members with Committee Assignments Also available as PDF. 20 pages. * Official List of Standing Committees 66 pages; PDF. Continue reading
Census Bureau Accidently Places Data Online
The Census Bureau today reported that a file containing limited respondent information on 302 households, commingled with fictitious test records, was improperly posted on one of the agency’s externally accessible servers in violation of strict agency policies regarding the protection of respondent information. The file was immediately removed. No Social Security numbers were contained in the files and the Census Bureau has no evidence that any respondent data were misused. “As soon as we learned of the improper posting, we moved quickly to fix the problem. We immediately shut down the site and began an investigation,†said Census Director Charles Louis Kincannon.Continue reading
2007 Congressional Pig Book Released and Online
CAGW (Citizens Against Government Waste) have released their 2007 Congressional Pig Book. From the news release: The 2007 Pig Book identifies 2,658 pork projects at a cost of $13.2 billion in the Defense and Homeland Security Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2007. Only two of the 11 appropriations bills were enacted by Congress and the remaining nine were subject to a moratorium on earmarks. CAGW has identified $254 billion in pork since 1991. 2007 Summary and Previous Books (back to 1991) The complete pork database can be downloaded as an Excel file. Also, historical trends: Thanks to my friend and colleague, Shirl Kennedy, for posting this one on DocuTicker. Continue reading
C-SPAN Announces New Copyright Policy
C-SPAN issued a press release today, announcing:
...a liberalized copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency-- about half of all programming offered on the C-SPAN television networks--which will allow non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution.(The emphases are C-SPAN's own.) You will find a bit of background about this development on National Journal's Beltway Blogroll posting. The C-SPAN announcement is causing a stir in the blogosphere, where bloggers are wondering about the definition of "non-commercial" and whether it includes them. Any FGI insight? Continue reading
Thanks Linda Resler – GPO OPAL session on Catalog
The following message was posted to the FDLP-L mailing list today:
The first FDLP web-based training session is now available for viewing in the GPO OPAL archive at http://www.opal-online.org/archiveGPO.htm. Linda Resler, Manager of GPO's Library Technical Services Support, demonstrated the functionality of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and provided tips for successful searching. This session will assist new users of the CGP, including depository library staff and the general public, in navigating through the online catalog as they search for U.S. Government information. Watch for announcements of other GPO online training sessions in the coming months, including live, interactive sessions, as we develop future programs. All sessions will be archived on the GPO OPAL site, so you will have convenient access at all times. If you have questions or comments, please use the GPO online help service at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/help. To ensure that your question is routed to the correct area, please choose the category "Federal Depository Libraries" and the appropriate subcategory, if any. You may also contact the GPO Customer Contact Center at 866-512-1800 (Toll-free), or at 202-512-1800 (DC Metropolitan Area), Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., EST. GPO Customer Contact CenterI've had a chance to this training and I think many will find it helpful. Slides 1-12 deal with background in the development of the Catalog of Government Publications, but after that is a solid tutorial for first time users. I'd strongly encourage people to sit through this 34 minute presentation to get a sense of this great finding aid. Thanks Linda! Continue reading