Gov Docs on the Bayou!

Digital Deposit Presentation

2009-10-29T13:36:00.001-05:00

I was in D.C. for a few days at a conference for Depository Librarians, where my colleague and I did a presentation on Digital Deposit. Here it is for your viewing and downloading pleasure:

Demystifying Digital Deposit

View more presentations from Rebecca Blakeley.

Search Tips for Google Books & Internet Archive

2009-10-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

Historical Books @ Your Fingertips: Using Google Books & Internet Archive to Discover, Collect, and Share Digitized Public Domain Books

View more presentations from Rebecca Blakeley.

Gov Docs for Kids!

2009-08-21T10:46:00.028-05:00

Yes, the U.S. Government publishes all kinds of government related information for children, including coloring books, stories, videos, puzzles, and websites.

One of my favorite recent government documents published for kids include "The Little Acorn" published by the Dept. of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service. According to the GPO Bookstore, "This labor of love by USDA staff members conveys the seasonal cycle of tree growth, the importance of trees in soil conservation, water purification, and benefits to wildlife, as seen by one of the forest's inhabitants. It is suitable for preschool and early elementary school students." We own a copy up here on the 4th floor and the Call No. is A 57.2:AC 7.

The government produces lots of coloring books for kids (including one about Disaster Preparedness from FEMA!) and a popular choice is "Symbols of the United States Government" which is filled with information, illustrations, and activities that teach students of all ages about symbols of the U.S. Government. We own a copy of this too and the Call No. is GP 1.2:SY 6.

That coloring book is a supplement to the interactive website, Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids which provides learning tools for K-12 students, parents, and teachers. This website is in the process of being redesigned, so keep your eye out for its relaunch!

Another great government website for children, is Kids.gov, the official kids’ portal to the U.S. government with links to over 1,200 web pages from educational organizations, schools, and government agencies, it’s geared to the learning levels and interests of girls and boys in grades K-5 and 6-8. They also have a "Free for Teachers" page also has free publications, colorful posters, and practical lesson plans.

Of course, certain government agencies have their own kid's version too, such as FEMA for Kids. This cheerfully morbid website teaches kids how to be prepared for disasters. You can play games, print out coloring pages, and read E-book stories.

To learn more about finding government information for kids, visit the Gov Doc Kids Group website for a list of resources for librarians, teachers, parents, and children.

Gov Info Mashups! LITA BIGWIG Social Software Showcase Slides

2009-07-12T22:58:00.010-05:00

Had a great time sharing and discussing information about Government Information Mashups! Your enthusiasm and input was very encouraging.

Download/view the slides and transcript notes here.

Gov Info Mashups

View more presentations from Rebecca Blakeley.

ALA Unconference Discussion Group Slides

2009-07-12T22:41:00.002-05:00

We had a great discussion in our discussion group about Gov Info and Libraries. Here are my slides/notes you can download at Slideshare or just view 'em here:

Unconference Discussion on Gov Info & Libraries

View more presentations from Rebecca Blakeley.

My Gov Info Presentations at ALA Annual

2009-07-01T11:00:00.007-05:00

Attention fellow librarians! I will be attending the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago from July 9th-14th.

I am very excited because I will be leading a broad discussion at the "ALA Unconference" on Friday, July 10th from 11:10-12:00 on the library's role in current & emerging trends of civic engagement, transparency, preservation and access to Government information. Stop on by if you can! The supporting materials and presentation will be linked in the Unconference wiki.

Also, please come to the LITA BIGWIG Social Software Showcase to discuss and learn about Government Information Mashups! I will be presenting on this topic and would love to have you help out and/or join in on the conversation! It will be a fun, casual atmosphere. The presentation will be posted on their website but the face to face portion of the BIGWIG Showcase presentations will take place Monday, July 13th from 10:30am - 12:30pm in the McCormick Convention Center West, Room W-184.

President's Remarks on Iran

2009-06-24T10:51:00.003-05:00

The President discussed Iran during his opening remarks at the Press Conference at the White House. You can read an English and Persian transcript, here.

Statement from the President on Iran

2009-06-22T16:16:00.002-05:00

The White House released a brief statement on Iran from the President over the weekend, and spoke on CBS News. An excerpt was posted on the White House blog:

"What you're seeing in Iran are hundreds of thousands of people who believe their voices were not heard and who are peacefully protesting and seeking justice. And the world is watching. And we stand behind those who are seeking justice in a peaceful way."

President Obama's Thoughts on Fatherhood

2009-06-22T16:05:00.003-05:00

Happy Belated Fathers Day!

Read and/or watch the video about President Obama's thoughts on responsible fatherhood:

Bo the White House Dog!

2009-06-19T11:37:00.004-05:00

This counts as official government information, right? ;-)
Bo's official portrait:

Iran Election

2009-06-15T13:54:00.023-05:00

Iran held its presidential elections on June 12th. Ahmadinejad beat rival Mousavi, which has led to riots across Iran, charges of voting fraud, and protests worldwide. Mashable.com has a compilation of resources and suggestions for keyword and hashtag searches for tracking the Iran elections using social media such as YouTube and Twitter.

For government resources on this topic, see:
White House Press Briefing, June 15th, 2009.
"White House Monitoring Iran Situation" blog post from America.gov
"The President...Comments on Iran" blog post from Whitehouse.gov
"Iran Must Respect the Right of Its People to Peaceful Expression" article from America.gov
"It would be wrong for me to be silent" blog post from America.gov
White House Press Briefing, June 16th, 2009.
Dept. of State Press Briefing, June 16th, 2009.
White House Press Briefing, June 17th, 2009.
Dept. of State Press Briefing, June 17th, 2009.
White House Press Briefing, June 18th, 2009.
Dept. of State Press Briefing, June 18th, 2009.
Human Rights Watch Reports on Iran from a non-gov organization.
Congressman Pence introduces Resolution (H. Res 549) in Support of Iranian Dissidents. Full text of H. Res 549 here.
H. Res. 560, "Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law, and for other purposes."
Statement from the President on Iran
President Discusses Iran w/ Persian Translation

For more information on the Iran election situation, view the results from this FDsys.gov search.

To learn more about Iran, visit these government resources:
CIA World Factbook on Iran
Library of Congress Country Studies on Iran and Internet Resources on Iran
UCB Library's Guide to Iran
State Dept. page on Iran
Iran's Official Website

Louisiana Budget & Louisiana Legislature

2009-06-11T13:02:00.006-05:00

If you are interested in following the Louisiana state budget during the current Louisiana legislative session you may find these webpages helpful:

The General Appropriations Bill is always designated as HB 1. You can find the latest one here.

Executive Budget documents are available through the Division of Administration Office of Planning and Budget.

Home Page of the Louisiana House Committee on Appropriations

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget

Louisiana House Legislative Services' Fiscal Division posted their Appropriations publications & presentations.

Louisiana House and Senate Agendas, Schedules and Video are available on the Louisiana House and Louisiana Senate Home Pages.

The current day's agendas and live video are posted on the Legislature's Home Page under "Today at the Capitol" at http://www.legis.state.la.us/.

An explanation of state government finance is given in State and Local Government in Louisiana, an Overview: 2008-2012 Term. Go to Chapter 2, Part A.

It's a large document! The table of contents tells you what page each agency/department is on (i.e. the Department of Education budget information starts on page 281).

For future reference, if you ever want to look at HB 1 for budget information in any government agency/department in Louisiana, just go to http://www.legis.state.la.us/ and scroll down the page till you see "Bill Search" and some search drop down menus that say "Select a session" (you can search all the way back to 1997 online! The older bills are in our stacks up here on the 4th floor) and where it says "Select a specific instrument" it says "HB" and type in "1" in the box. It lets you search by keyword too so you could type "education" and that budget HB 1 will always be the first result. Then you just click on the bill you want to see and click on the link that say "Text - Current" to see the PDF full text of the bill.

Digital TV Transition on Friday

2009-06-10T15:06:00.003-05:00

This Friday (June 12th), our country's television stations will switch to all-digital programming and analog television sets that are not connected to a converter box, cable, or satellite will stop working! This transition is very important because it will free up airwaves for broadband and enhanced emergency communications for our police, firefighters, and other first responders.

In February, the President and Congress delayed the digital television transition from February 17th to June 12th because it was clear that many Americans would have been "left in the dark" had the conversion taken place as planned. If you have a converter box, a digital TV, or subscribe to cable or satellite TV, you’re ready for the transition and have no need to worry!

Be prepared for the transition by visiting the following sources to learn more information:

DTV.gov - The Digtial TV Transition: What You Need to Know

DTV Made Easy and DTV FAQ

How to install converter box

Four New FDsys Collections Online

2009-06-10T09:55:00.003-05:00

GPO announced that four new collections are now available from the Federal Digital System (FDsys) at www.fdsys.gov.

These new collections are:

* Congressional Calendars (104th Congress - Present)
* Congressional Committee Prints (105th Congress - Present)
* List of CFR Sections Affected (1997 - Present)
* Economic Indicators (1995 - Present)

President's Speech in Cairo, Egypt

2009-06-04T09:26:00.005-05:00

The President gave a speech in Cairo, Egypt, outlining his personal commitment to engagement with the Muslim world, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, and discussed how the U.S. and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them. A transcript of the speech is at the whitehouse.gov website.

Data.gov

2009-05-21T12:08:00.010-05:00

Data.gov is now live and ready for you to explore!

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

Data.gov has a searchable data catalog that gives access to data through the "raw" data catalog and by using tools. "The Raw Data Catalog provides an instant download of machine readable, platform-independent datasets while the Tools Catalog provides hyperlinks to tools that allow you to mine datasets."

You have a say in the future of Data.gov by suggesting datasets to include and suggest improvements/enhancements to the website.

For more information, visit their FAQ and Tutorial.

2008 Notable Government Documents

2009-05-18T14:00:00.006-05:00

Library Journal recently published an article Looking Back, Moving On: 2008 Best Notable Government Documents, many of which are in the McNeese Library's Government Documents Department. Come see them on display!

Learn more about the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).

May 18th - June, 2009

First Floor, Exhibit Cases

For more information, check out the McNeese Library Government Information homepage.

Virtual Student Foreign Service

2009-05-14T13:13:00.008-05:00

Secretary Clinton announced the launch of the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) Internships, an initiative from the State Department. The VSFS Internships will be developed over the next year.

Working from college and university campuses in the United States, American students will partner with our embassies abroad to conduct digital diplomacy that reflects the realities of our networked world. By combining the talents of young people across America and the right technology, we can forge the solutions that our century demands.

If you are interested in learning more, go to the VSFS website and join their Facebook page.

Meet the Office of Public Engagement

2009-05-12T09:46:00.015-05:00

Meet the Office of Public Engagement (formerly known as Office of the Public Liaison) which now places more of an emphasis on citizen engagement with the government.

They've created a Citizen Briefing Book based on "a process by which Americans outside of Washington could come together to present ideas directly to the President."

"The idea was to use the Transition website, change.gov, to create a grassroots version of the research binders that presidents receive every day. But instead of advice from top government officials, the Citizen’s Briefing Book is composed of ideas submitted by ordinary people and reflecting the enthusiastic engagement from the public we saw throughout the course of Change.gov. 125,000 users submitted over 44,000 ideas and cast over 1.4 million votes, with the most popular ideas accumulating tens of thousands of votes each. This book contains some of the top ideas, broken into groups by issue area."

I really enjoy the fact that the book contains "word clouds" on the topics, such as this one for the "Energy" section:

Learn more about the OPE, read the OPE Blog, and learn more about their staff, at whitehouse.gov/ope.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T18:19:00.006-05:00

Happy Mother's Day! I did a quick post about this holiday last year, but here is an interesting bit of information about this holiday that was established by President Woodrow Wilson but was conceived by a woman named Anna Jarvis.

Anna Jarvis, according to memory.loc.gov, conceived and launched the campaign that resulted in a national holiday honoring mothers:

Legislative actions and annual Congressional proclamations documented in the Congressional Record praise her tireless efforts to create a lasting commemoration to her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, as well as to all mothers, living and deceased.

After her mother’s death on May 9, 1905, Anna Jarvis was determined to fulfill her mother’s hope that a Memorial Mothers Day be established to recognize the important roles that mothers play in the family, church, and community. Anna Reeves Jarvis embodied the attributes of many nineteenth-century women who believed that mothers, and in fact all women, could be a powerful force in their communities. Mrs. Jarvis acted upon her beliefs and created Mothers Day Work Clubs that tackled local problems such as poor sanitary conditions and epidemic diseases."

You can view and download the original Mother's Day Proclamation at archives.gov.

Kids.gov

2009-05-04T22:02:00.003-05:00

Check out Kids.gov. Find links to government and other kids' sites. Use the navigation bar to browse through the site. Explore, learn, and have fun! There is also a section for educators where you can find free lesson plans.

Exhibit: Highlights of the McNeese Library's Government Documents Collection

2009-05-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

Explore interesting, bizarre, and eclectic government publications from the McNeese Library's Government Documents Department! Learn more about the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).

May - June, 2009
First Floor, Exhibit Cases

For more information, check out the McNeese Library Government Information homepage.

Exhibit: Swine Flu, Epidemics & Pandemics!

2009-05-04T10:18:00.005-05:00

Swine Flu, Swine Flu, everyone's talkin' 'bout Swine Flu! There are many government resources and library resources about the current Swine Flu (H1N1) outbreak. Did you know there was a swine flu outbreak in the 1970s? Government Documents from this time period will also be on display, as well as resources on epidemics and pandemics.

May 3rd - May 18, 2009
First Floor, Exhibit Cases

You can access a bibliography of resources pertaining to swine flu here.

PandemicFlu.gov and More on the Swine Flu

2009-04-29T17:21:00.006-05:00

Check out the new website created by our government: PandemicFlu.gov, a "one-stop access to U.S. Government swine, avian, and pandemic flu information". They have a clickable map to find your state's local planning response/activities, so check out Louisiana's.

Hey, did you know that we had a swine flu scare back in the mid 1970s? I wasn't born till 1980, so I had no idea. I'll be posting about a display I'm working on for the library on government documents and books about swine flu, bird flu, epidemics, pandemics, etc. so keep an eye out for that. You could always use the info for a research paper topic next semester. My colleague created a list of the 1970s gov docs on the swine flu over at the Free Government Information website.

Here's an old PSA video about the swine flu from the 1970s:

Follow us on Twitter!

2009-04-28T14:41:00.004-05:00

Do you use Twitter? Follow the MSUGovDocs Twitter account to get instant updates on government information at the international, federal, state, and local level!