Posts Tagged 'government information'

new Help! webinar

The newest Help! webinar has been announced. It is a bit off-topic from pure government information, but what isn’t these days. Join us!

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian presents … the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP), February 2, 2012

The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.
In this session Beth Ann Koelsch, the curator of the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will discuss the history of the WVHP, describe the collection development policy for the Project, and how the collections’ materials are made accessible to researchers. She will also examine some of the intersections between “govdocs” and the WVHP archives.

The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP), established at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1998, documents the contributions of women in the military and related service organizations since World War I. The collection offers a wide range of source material, including photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories, military patches and insignia, uniforms, and posters, as well as published works.

Beth Ann Koelsch has been the curator of the Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project (WVHP) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro since 2008. The WVHP has over 500 collections and has conducted over 325 oral history interviews with women veterans from WWII to the present conflicts in the Mideast. The Project has a strong digital component and puts the oral history transcriptions and other digitized materials online.  Koelsch previously worked as a project archivist at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University, Durham, NC.  She received her MLS from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007.
We will meet together for Session #13, online on February 2 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (EDT). Please RSVP for the Session by February 1 at 5:00 pm using this link: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session13

Technical requirements: We will be using collaborative software called Elluminate. It requires that you be able to download Java onto your computer, but you do not need any special software. After you RSVP, we will send you a link that you can use to test the software. If you have any questions, please contact Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). You do not need a microphone as a chat system is available in the software, but you do need speakers or headphones.

The session will be recorded and made available after the live session, linked from the NCLA GRS web page (http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources).

Get yer gov on in Hickory, NC

The North Carolina Library Association Conference is coming soon. These are the sessions for the Government Resources Section. We are a bit light this year (a session was canceled recently), but we’ve been putting most of our resources to the webinars anyway. Should be good times. My full schedule will be a-coming soon.

Thursday, October 6

9am-10am: “Do We Really Need to Pay for this Anymore?” The best free v. fee sources for statistics and country research

Lynda Kellam and Steve Cramer

A Government Resources Section (GRS) and Business Librarians in North Carolina (BLINC) co-production

These days it’s more important than ever to consider what’s worth paying for to support country & statistical research. Recently, some important databases, previously fee–‐ based, are now free. At the same time, some famous, expensive country reports are now available through NC LIVE. We’ll review core sources and cast a “vote” about whether certain subscriptions are still worth the money. This should be useful for reference, collection development, and subject specialists.

4:15-5pm: GRS business meeting

5pm-6pm: UNCG LIS alumni association happy hour at Carrabba’s in Hickory (feel free to crash)!

Friday, October 7

10:30 am – 12:00 pm: Census 2010: An Update

Michele Hayslett, Bob Coats, and  Erin Casullo Watkins

Come here Michele Hayslett talk about the new American Factfinder! Bob Coats will give us an update on the Census 2010 results and next steps.  Erin Casullo Watkins of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce will talk about Census 2010 at the local level, primarily trends and implications in the Charlotte area.

Help! #7 = health

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian presents… Good Health (Information) in North Carolina on September 7

The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.

North Carolina state government agencies and public universities publish a great deal of interesting health and healthcare information of value to researchers and reference librarians. In this webinar, learn about the important data sources and how to get access them.

Rebecca Hyman is the Reference and Outreach Librarian, Information Services Branch, and Kurt Brenneman is the Agency Outreach Librarian, Resource Management Services Branch, both at the Government & Heritage Library. The Library is part of the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

We will meet together for Session #7, online on September 7 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (EDT). Please RSVP for the Session by September 6 at 5:00 pm using this link: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session7

Technical requirements: We will be using collaborative software called Elluminate. It requires that you be able to download Java onto your computer, but you do not need any special software. After you RSVP, we will send you a link that you can use to test the software. If you have any questions, please contact Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). You do not need a microphone as a chat system is available in the software, but you do need speakers or headphones.

The session will be recorded and made available after the live session, linked from the NCLA GRS web page (http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources).

help, i need somebody! help, not just anybody!

[update!]: Here is the recording and the slides of the resources for reserve soldiers session.

Help, you know I need someone!

They probably could have used a government docs specialist.

Our newest installment of Help! is next week. After that comes Resources for Reserve Soldiers. And Sunday comes after…wards.

So, these will be our last two for the rest of the summer. UNCG is switching to a new version of Elluminate and I need to probably learn it before providing tech support. We will gear up again in late August and early September. I will do a evaluation post at the end of July, if you are interested to know how the webinars have done by the numbers.

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian presents … Resources for Guard and Reserve Soldiers and their Families

The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.

Unlike Regular Army soldiers, members of the North Carolina National Guard and Army Reserve often live dozens or even hundreds of miles from their home stations, thus making it more difficult for those soldiers and their families to access the resources they might need. Federal depository libraries can play an important role in filling this gap and providing them information about such benefits. In this session on July 27, learn about how you can help the Guard and Reserve soldiers in your community obtain the assistance they and their families are entitled to. Topics covered include education benefits, debt relief, VA benefits and health care, military medical insurance (Tricare), and resources for spouses and children of deploying service members.

David Durant is Federal Documents & Social Sciences Librarian at J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University. He holds a library science degree from the University of Michigan. He served in the North Carolina National Guard from 2005-2010, deploying to Iraq from April 2009-January 2010 as part of the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team.

We will meet together for Session #5, online on July 27 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (ET). Please RSVP for the Session by July 26 at 5:00 pm using this link: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session6

Technical requirements: We will be using collaborative software called Elluminate. It requires that you be able to download Java onto your computer, but you do not need any special software. After you RSVP, we will send you a link that you can use to test the software. If you have any questions, please contact Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). You do not need a microphone as a chat system is available in the software, but you do need speakers or headphones.

The session will be recorded and made available after the live session, linked from the NCLA GRS web page (http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources).

What happens in a room full of data professionals? Awesome sauce…

And IASSIST. I love my data peeps in the International Association for Social Sciences Information Services and Technology, even if the ridiculously long name almost got me turned away from the Canadian border (“Sorry, customs officer lady, it simply doesn’t roll off the tongue”). IASSIST’s annual conference was in the lovely city of Vancouver and it was simply the best IASSIST ever. I was pretty busy this year and didn’t have the concentration to take great notes. Plus, there is always SO MUCH information that it can be hard to process things quickly.

Here are some major ideas/take-away points:

  • The conference kicked off with a kick butt workshop on survey creation with Tom Lindsay and Andrew Sell of the University of Minnesota. They started by reminding us we needed to step back from the creation of the survey instrument to think critically about the research question we have in mind. Only with that pre-thinking are we able to create an instrument that will be viable. It was an excellent workshop with lots of information. If you are interested in more information, email me and I can put you in touch with the masters!
  • Joe Hurley from Georgia State University talked about his use of UN publications as gateway/intro resources for non-data savvy users. He trained other librarians at his university on UN resources and you can check out his great libguide.
  • A group of data citation ninjas had a great session on data citation. I couldn’t capture everything, but I will link to their slides once they become available. Part of what made it a great session was the inclusion of a scientist in the mix, Heather Piwowar of DataONE, which aims to preserve access to science data. Hailey Mooney and Mark Newton did a fabulous study of the data citation practices and guidance in various citation style guides. Their matrix of specific elements was pretty complex so I’m looking forward to getting their slides.
  • Our data guru, Chuck Humphrey, talked about the research data infrastructure and IASSIST’s place in that. One of his big points was that we need to explore better ways to collaborate with the stakeholders interested or involved with data (in whatever field). I liked his idea of having a data summit on campus that would bring together researchers, data archivists, sponsored programs, institutional research people, and more to talk about the institution’s goals and everyone’s needs. We do this at UNCG on an ad hoc basis, but something like a summit would make it more systematic.
  • Richard Wiseman and Dave Rawnsley discussed the Mimas Census Dissemination Unit’s new project to update its interface for accessing UK Census data. Unfortunately, UK data files aren’t available to non-UK researchers, but it is always interesting to learn about how we disseminate data and how we think about data presentation and usability.
  • Andrea Reimer is a Vancouver city councillor who was integral to the creation of the Open Data Catalogue. She gave a fabulous talk/ call-to-arms about the need for open government data and open source software. With the creation of the catalogue, others in the city have been able to create a variety of applications (and apps) for various needs. An example is recollect.net, a reminder service for when to put your trash at the street (apparently it is more complicated than our recycling service, which stills gets me sometimes). It was inspiring for all of us to hear a non-data person talk about the importance of government data and understand the need for it to be disseminated in innovative ways (even if that requires government-private company collaboration).

Our session, Teach This!:

  • From Katharin Peter: She took a modified approach to the one-shot library workshop by creating a series of workshops called, Data in the Library. She found the most successful workshops had very specific names and covered a limited number of sources. She also had an interesting and successful collaboration with an OECD student ambassador. Even if the student isn’t sponsored by a global organization, peer collaboration is a great model for getting students interested in library instruction and resources. Katharin has another peer mentoring project in the works that I’m really excited to hear more about.
  • From Nicole Scholtz: She created a series of GIS workshops at the University of Michigan. I so wish I could take this series myself! During all of their sessions they have a rover, or back-up, in the classroom. For the kinds of resources we teach this makes sense. It can be incredibly difficult to demo and conduct exercises when it is just you with the students, even working on an easier source (like SimplyMap). But of course the difficulty is having a back-up person with the same level of comfort as the teacher (or close to). This might be a job for some of our super interns!
  • From Jackie Carter: Jackie joined our session from Mimas, a UK designated data center, at the University of Manchester. Mimas has some really interesting projects in development, but at the session she talked about data literacy and efforts to promote data literacy. Mimas has been involved with this project: http://www.esds.ac.uk/international/elearning/teaching-tools/index.asp to help create open educational resources (using real data) that could be adopted or modified by any instructor. Right now the focus of the site is mostly Economics, so I’m looking forward to seeing more disciplinary examples added.
  • My paper was a bit more theoretical and focused on the idea of the embedded librarian. You can see the slides below. It was well-received, but I haven’t fully developed the idea of embedded data librarianship really. Ideas welcome!

We also had a pecha kucha (and many of us spent half of the time trying to remember how to say pecha kucha). My slides and notes are below. Everybody did a fantastic job and I think the audience enjoyed them all. I am really in love with the pk format. It requires a level of preparedness that most people don’t put into presentations (and sometimes I  miss that!).

Session 2 of Accidental Gov Info Librarian coming your way!

The NCLA Government Resources Section’s webinar series is up and running. We had a hugely successful kick-off webinar covering the basics of government information. At least 50 people participated with many logging on from a classroom with multiple attendees. We even had attendees from outside of NC. Remarkable turnout!

Up next we will be doing a subject I know absolutely nothing about, so I’m really excited. More information is below and I hope you can join us. I will post the calendar of events soon, but we have two sessions in the works for June–one on the Economic Census and other on the Census 2010. We are also planning sessions on patents and another on military history and documents.

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian Presents…Genealogy Using Government Information!

The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.

Our second session, “Genealogy Using Government Information,” will explore the different government resources you will use when researching family history.  The most frequently used and obvious documents are from the U. S. Census Bureau.  We will also cover online products from other sources, such as databases, libraries, state and local government offices, maps and photographs.

Leader for the second session will be Jane Johnson. Jane is a librarian in the special collections area of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room houses genealogical materials, state and local government documents, maps, and images. She began her library employment in 1996 and received her MLIS from the University of South Carolina in 1998.

We will meet together for Session #2: “Genealogy Using Government Information”, online on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (EDT).

Please RSVP for the Session #2 by May 10 at 5:00 pm using this link: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session2

Technical requirements: We will be using collaborative software called Elluminate. It requires that you be able to download Java onto your computer, but you do not need any special software. After you RSVP, we will send you a link that you can use to test the software. If you have any questions, please contact Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). You do not need a microphone as a chat system is available in the software, but you do need speakers or headphones. The session will be recorded and made available after the live session, linked from the NCLA GRS web page at http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources

Accidental GovInfo Librarian series kicks off and kicks butt!

The North Carolina Library Association’s Government Resources Section kicked off its Accidental Gov Info Librarian webinar series! If you missed it, the slides and the session recording are below. Join us for the next webinar on Genealogy and Government Information on Wednesday, May 11 at 12:00-1:00 pm (EDT). You can sign up for this second session using our handy form. Deadline for RSVP is May 10 at 5:00 pm. More information coming soon!

It was so exciting to have a number of participants from outside of North Carolina join the session! I tweeted about the event during the Depository Library Council and it went a bit viral. The interest in this session demonstrates a desire for virtual training sessions, and getting this organized wasn’t difficult. Mostly it was a matter of finding someone who was willing and had the knowledge to present in the first session. Luckily our GRS Chair knew someone, Bryna Coonin from East Carolina University, who could present on this topic and do a good job.

Ultimately the technical part isn’t a huge hurdle. A bigger hurdle is dealing with the demands (or expectations) of perfection. It just isn’t going to be an absolutely perfect situation (or even remotely analogous to the in-person presentation), but thems the breaks kid. Technology just requires that we be adaptable.

And, here’s where adaptability matters. The recording is less than ideal, but it works. We learned an important thing about our Elluminate room yesterday. The DE librarian had another session before ours and for some reason the recordings of both merged into one. Here is the awesome, super special, two for the price of one recording. The other session is on our not quite ready for prime-time Instructional Tech Toolkit. To get to the gov info session you can fast forward the video to the 2 hour mark using the controls at the very bottom of the screen. At first I was annoyed with the glitch, but in reality the session went well, we had few tech problems during the session, and ultimately the recording WORKS! If anything these glitches encourage us to practice my fave (and new) philosophy of librarianship: “Adapt and move on!” :)

Hope you enjoy! And please join us for the next webinar!

Help! I’ve got govdocs dust in my eye!

I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian…

My apologies to anyone who has used this title before, but well, you know, creativity and all that. Anyway, the NCLA’s Government Resources Section is trying out a webinar series starting in April and (fingers-crossed) having one once a month through the summer. Upcoming topics will include law, Economic Census, and lots more (maybe even military history??). I’ve opened this up to anyone hoping that our Elluminate software can manage it. Hope you can join us! It is a great prof dev opportunity to put on the pesky annual report.

Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions (or concerns). We can commiserate over a froyo.

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian…

For many reference staff, even those with years of reference experience, integrating government information into our ‘reference toolkit’ can be a daunting prospect.  The proliferation of electronic government information means that reference staff will be expected to have knowledge of government information that was previously largely the purview of government documents staff.

The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.

Our first session, “The Basics,” provides a general, basic overview of government information as it pertains to reference work.  What types of information flow from the three branches of government that are important to your patrons?  What major portals are most useful for finding U.S. Government information? What types of government statistics are available and how can they be found?  What basic knowledge do I need to effectively locate government information?

The introductory session will be followed over the next few months by more specialized government information sessions on congressional materials, legal materials, government information for business, statistical resources, historical/genealogical resources, science, state-level information, and more.

Leader for the first session, “The Basics,” will be Bryna Coonin, M.L.I.S, M.B.A.  Bryna served as a graduate student at UNC Libraries in the mid-1980’s for the late Ridley Kessler. She has worked as a reference librarian at the University of Georgia, NC State University, and is currently at Joyner Library, East Carolina University (ECU).  Bryna taught basic reference for the School of Information & Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill and basic reference and government documents courses for the graduate library school program at ECU. A longtime member of NCLA, she has chaired both the Reference & Adult Services Section (RASS) and the Government Resources Section (GRS).

We will meet together for Session #1: The Basics, online on Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Please RSVP for the Session #1 by April 13: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session1

Technical requirements: We will be using collaborative software called Elluminate. It requires that you be able to download Java onto your computer, but you do not need any special software. After you RSVP, we will send you a link that you can use to test the software. If you have any questions, please contact Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). You do not need a microphone as a chat system is available in the software. The session will be recorded and made available after the live session, linked from the NCLA GRS web page at http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources .

Stats Abstract: Not just a ‘govdocs’ issue

In the data and government information world there have been a lot of noise about the demise of the Statistical Abstract because of the planned termination of the Statistical Compendia Branch. Others have discussed this issue in much greater detail than I can do at this point. Below are their posts to help you make up your own mind about this issue.

Sources for more information

I don’t do govdocs! Why should I care?

I have had questions from non-gov info or non-data librarians about the situation, and some of those have hinted at why they should care. Well, here’s my two cents (or rant if you prefer).

  1. Stats Abstract is the entry-level source for finding basic statistics. You can then use it to find more statistics from the collecting agency. I know non-data/gov librarians who use it this way, and I do so myself as well.
  2. At a school with a data/gov info nerd, they could stand in as a human Stats Abstract (ideally), but some schools and public libraries aren’t so lucky to have one of our kind. I know, I know, shocking, but true.
  3. Other commercial sources aggregate the same kind of information, especially ProQuest Statisical Insight, but at $16K a pop there is no way my library can afford it. Beyond that, should we expect this kind of information to come from commercial publishers? Do you want to pay a commercial publisher for information that is produced by our government (and paid for by taxpayers)? It seems ludicrous to me.
  4. This may be my closet conspiracy theorist coming out, but the Census Bureau seems to be on a wild tear to make it HARDER for our citizens to access data. I say this because of the Bureau’s decision to remove the quick Fact Sheets in the new American FactFinder. The new interface is great for a person accustomed to using data, but for a novice it is horrible. It throws so much information at you at once that I swear they’ve made it less usable (detailed tables anyone?). Every time I look at I dread the intern training I have to do in two weeks. Is this a trend for the Bureau? Concentrate on the data collection programs at the expense of the the compendium approach? If so, it is going to make people turn to easier to use commercial sources or, even worse, crap sources like NationMaster, which takes me back to point 2.
  5. On a purely selfish side, Katharin Peter and I just wrote a book meant to introduce non-data librarians to numeric data in all its glory. The goal of the book is to make numeric data easier for anyone working in reference or instruction. A key source in that book is the Statistical Abstract because of the reasons given above.  I’m convinced the Census Bureau hates me.

Below is a sample letter for sending to your congress people (taken from FGI). Please spread the word! Write your Senators and Representatives!

TO YOUR SENATOR:
The Honorable (full name)
(Room #) (Name) Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator ___________:

TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE:
The Honorable (full name)
(Room #) (Name) House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative __________:

Paragraph 1: Why you are writing and who you are. List your “credentials.” (If you want a response, you must include your name and address, even when using email.)

My name is __________, and I’m a librarian at INSTITUTION which has served the government information needs of the constituents of your Congressional district and state since DATE LIBRARY BECAME A DEPOSITORY. I’m writing because I and many other librarians are deeply concerned that the U.S. Census Bureau’s Budget Estimates for Fiscal Year 2012 calls for the termination of the Statistical Compendia Branch which would mean the elimination of the United States Statistical Abstract and all titles produced by that branch (State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, County and City Data Book, USA Counties, Quick Facts). The library community is deeply upset at the thought of losing access to this important program and urges you to take action to stop this program change.

Paragraph 2: more details about the situation.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published annually since 1878, is a key publication for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which provides free, public access to government information. Both the print and online versions of the “Stat Abs,” as many librarians affectionately refer to it, are on the FDLP Essential Titles list. It is the first place that many librarians, researchers, students and your constituents(!) look for statistical information, because it compiles a vast amount of information, some of it unpublished and not available anywhere else. The Statistical Abstract also provides a citation for the original source for each table, acting as a guidebook to a huge array of diverse government statistics. The Stat Abs (as well as all of the titles published by the Statistical Compendia Branch!) is a staple of reference librarians and the public for its ease of use, comprehensive content, and as a guidebook to federal statistical sources.

These long published titles — and the federal depositories that distribute it to the American public — are not an earmark, but are critical to the provision of social, economic, and political indicators to the American public and greatly benefit every American in every Congressional district. Without it, librarians, the public and your constituents(!) will waste much valuable time looking for statistics in multiple places and compiling longitudinal data.

Paragraph 3: Close by requesting the action you want taken: a vote for or against a bill, or change in general policy. If a certain bill is involved, cite the correct title or number whenever possible.

Please urge the Department of Commerce to reinstate the budget for the Census Bureau’s Statistical Compendia Branch and the essential, valuable titles that the Branch provides to the public. Many thanks for your time and your service.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME
YOUR POSITION
YOUR INSTITUTION
INSTITUTION/CONTACT INFO

ATL rocks the docs

I attended the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) workshop because it was focused on the future of the government documents depository system in the southeast region. ASERL is trying to work within the system (and Title 44) to create a new model for depository libraries. The restrictions for being in the Federal Depository Library Program can be overly strict and at times archaic, but its overarching goal is valid–ensuring future access to government information.

The ASERL proposal attempts to create a regional focus for our depositories and to create Centers of Excellence (depositories that commit to collecting comprehensively in a particular agency or sub-agency). These centers would ensure that schools in the southeast have access to stronger print collections than one individual regional school could produce alone. (And I hear you asking already: “Isn’t everything already online?” No, not everything is born-digital and no, not everything is being digitized. Not even all of the important stuff is being digitized. No one has the money to digitize it all, even Google). The idea is great and needed, but it will be a long process to get to that point. The group met (mostly government docs librarians and deans) to work through the report and brainstorm and collaborate on improvement. Hopefully this approach will make the FDLP system stronger! UNCG may try to become a Center of Excellence for a smaller agency or sub-agency, but more to come as we move forward.

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