EconomicRecovery.gov

EconomicRecovery.gov is a new federal government site that’s designed to be a “resource for the American people to find help to keep their homes, find jobs and protect their savings.”

There are sections of the site aimed at “Americans,” “Workers,” and “Small Business and Financial Institutions,” which include tips on ‘Securing Your Retirement,’ ‘Eating Right When Money is Tight’ and ‘Information About Unemployment Insurance in Your State.’ Additional linked resources include the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act site produced by the Department of the Treasury, EconomicIndicators.gov, and ‘U.S. Economy at a Glance.’

Right now the site isn’t heavily populated, but it does pull together information from a variety of government agencies.  It will be interesting to see if it is further developed as we move into a new Presidential administration.

Daylight Saving Time

In case you weren’t aware, Daylight Saving Time ends this Sunday, November 2nd.  The U.S. Naval Observatory has a great overview, including the history of it in the United States.  The National Atlas site also contains some ‘did you know’ tips about saving time.  You can find more information about time in general at time.gov, a site put together by the USNO and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Halloween

Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, is this Friday, October 31st.  There are plenty of government resources on the topic of this particular holiday – enough to amaze even me!  Below is a sampling of what I’ve found:

• The Library of Congress’ (LC) American Folklife Center has information on the ‘Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows‘ – and there’s even a ‘Selected Bibliography on Halloween and Related Topics‘
• LC’s ‘This Day in History’ for October 31st focuses on Halloween, and links to some interesting items in their collection – including some video and audio clips
• The National Endowment for the Humanities’ monthly feature for October 2008 has information on Festivals of the Dead from around the World;
• The Consumer Product and Safety Commission publishes a Halloween Safety Alert;
• MedlinePlus offers tips on choosing a Halloween costume;
• The CDC lists some Halloween health and safety tips;
• The FDA also provides some safety tips – including information on wearing novelty contact lenses (the FTC has additional information about that topic);
• NASA has some Spooky Space Sounds;
• The White House’s Halloween page has a variety of games, including one where you can carve a pumpkin; it also provides some information on Ghosts of the White House;
• The Census Bureau has prepared some Halloween-related statistics, including the estimated number of potential trick-or-treaters and the per capita consumption of candy by Americans;
• The Patent and Trademark Office offers an online exhibit of ‘a little shop of patent and trademark horrors‘ – with thumbnail images of the patent application, as well as the patent number

As always, the wealth of government information on this topic was amazing to me – hopefully you can find something in the list above that is of interest to you this Halloween!

Teaching Non-Depository Librarians (Gi21), 10/22

project site

focus of presentation on the training experience, rather than the administration of the grant

75 training sessions, nearly 1K librarians (non-fdls) were trained

McKinley Sielaff (colorado college):

- by creating modules, had a good idea of how they were structured

- helped to have a hook – fun, cool link to grab ppl in. ie, for elections, being able to type in zip code & check out campaign donations

Chris Brown (U of Denver):

- took a lot of time to create modules; successful creation of 1, but not enough time for 2

- remember the audience – handouts can be extremely helpful; also helps to try and speak their language

- re: modules: trained on other ppl’s content. easiest way to train is to try and relate to the topic (ie, health and medicine)

Jennie Gerke (U of Colorado Boulder):

- did 7 sessions; handouts are key

- be prepared for things to go wrong (traveled to the trainees – don’t know how the local situation will be re: internet, etc.)

- leads to questions from folks, whereas before not so much. better relationships w/ppl in the state

Brad Vogus (Arizona State U):

- tried to keep modules simple – stick to basic sites, then various sites for steps in the process (did consumer info)

- keep it simple, trainers can customize; trainers put ppts on the webjunction site

- one training was a basic overview of govdocs, intro to fdls, etc. trainees weren’t necessarily informed before going to the session

- gi21 modules are available for others to use – training sessions don’t have to be a part of a grant, etc.

Janet Fisher (AZ state lib) – regional librarian, some administrative support functions

- don’t always need to prepare ppts; part of the training can be playing w/sites during the session

- assumptions:

– everyone would be in front of a computer (not always the case)

tips: tried to do quizzes, exercises within the session

as a state coordinator, she had support functions; since she was at the state library, used existing form to allow folks to register for training sessions. training was advertised in newsletters, etc. (after talking to state library folks). really helped to incorporate a tool ppl were already used to

tried to accommodate trainers who couldn’t go to training sites; used wimba (live classroom) for some training sessions.

occasionally hard to schedule with trainees; state library performed some administrative, support roles.

looking at continuing, but ways to do it w/out additional grant money

surveyed librarians in the state re: what subjects are you interested in? (before things really got going)

ppl like having local training

really helps to have the modules linking to one another

Kirsten Clark (U of Minnesota):

did some pre- and post-tests in training sessions; also 6-mo post-test. one question asked what about level of comfort with electronic gov’t info; most increased.

questions?

q: are all presentations available?

a: yep. on the webjunction site, are linked under relevant module

q: was there a typical length for a training session?

a: ranged from an hour to half-day; hour would be 1 module; half-day would cover several topics.

q: did train on mostly electronic info?

a: yep, b/c training was for non-fdls; focus was on freely available web sites. were also able to emphasize services provided by depository libraries (ie, ILL, etc.)

q: follow-up: how do you plan to keep this up to date now that the grant is over?

a: working on continuation grant; any new grant wouldn’t start until sept. 2009; webjunction is allowing for site updates until dec 2008. kirsten can still perform maintenance after; if no grant is awarded, could still be accessible thru mn wj site

q: what are the chances that the 2nd grant will be funded?

a: don’t know; looking at imls. 25 states have expressed interest in the 2nd grant. positive – very successful grant; doubled the projected training sessions for the 1st grant. application due dec. 15th.

continuation – az is still doing this through live classroom

Regionals’ mtg, 10/21

1) david cismowski & marianne mason – new regil ppl.

2) state updates:

ok – digitizing ok maps in serial set; continuing to do workshops around the state.

hi – winding down flood replacement – have replaced 75-80% of docs lost. gwen has funding to visit pompeii and guam

ga – digitizing historic ga usgs topo maps. hoping they’re online by next spring.

mo- staffing updates; will be hiring new librarian; docs processing happens in tech svcs

wa – planning for a ‘heritage bldg;’ space is getting smaller

mi – budget is dire; detroit public is downsizing & lib of michigan has taken 10K items; redoing the state plan this year & looking at disposal guidelines

az – new bldg – now able to consolidate collection into 1 bldg instead of 2 off-site bldgs.

ny – trying to work on new state plan soon

tn – 2 fewer docs libns; several depositories looking to go e-only

nm – state library no longer a regional; 2 new docs librarians in the state;

sc – next year 125th anniversary

ct – piloting a new discard process; one fewer depository – hartford public; other libraries downsizing; hiring freezes

id – retiring at the end of the year;

mn – lots of mtgs & planning about the future of docs at umn

ks – carmen is new; hrgs are recon’ed – now in storage

or – trying to figure out disposal process w/multiple institutions participating; gov is moving into their bldg

wv – celebrated 125th anniversary this year;

in – new regional librarian; still going on w/light archive

nj – doing more retro; new staff member

tx – tsl – renovations?; digitizing tx soil surveys; 20% of collection moving to off-site storage

ca – need to vacate entire bldg & relocate to temp quarters for 3 yrs; implementing a new ILS at the same time

md – closed docs ref desk this year – integrating w/main desk;

co – working on a state plan; gi21 grant is finished, final report is coming soon

wi – part of google books project – starting to send fed docs

oh – added a selective this year

la tech- minimal hurricane damage this year – still working to recover from katrina;

ia – poster digitization project in progress; storage facility tentatively approved. pre-76 retro for state dept

sc/clemson – new docs libn

mt – jennie is acting as co-head of tech svcs; working on pilot project for pre-76 cataloging

fl – last year was 100th anniversary; working on a state plan; cataloging 1/3 of their collection for remote storage; welcoming everyone to tampa for april

la/lsu – new web site; outreach, etc.

ky – celebrated 100th anniversary last year

3) updates from gpo

kathy brazee, public access assessments:

- 14 libraries participated in test; lots of diversity re: participants

- regionals were asked about selectives participating; in addition, asked 3 random selectives about 2 regionals

- were asked to expand the questionnaire

cindy etkin:

- 100% response rate on survey of directors; draft report elicited many comments

- not sure when final report will be released – hopefully by early november

recommendations (not yet approved by 8th floor):

- jcp:

1. support contiued approps for gpo’s initiative to create machine-readable records for legacy coll of pre-1976 depository publications to ensure completion in a timelier manner

2. improve implement of guidelines for establ shared regionals across state lines (interstate)

3. support continued dialogue betw gpo and the dep comm; take an in-depth look at financial, etc., issues facing fdls (not just regionals)

4. something about t44

5. authorizing gpo to digit the fdlp legacy collection

6. support gpo’s continued efforts to authenticate

7. support making funds available to regionals to offset storage, etc., costs
substitution vs. superseded:

substitution guidelines have been revised – http://www.fdlp.gov/subguide.html

list has gone away – was never intended to be comprehensive

remember: not all purls have been archived by gpo; how can we tell if a publication has been archived by gpo?

subgroup formed to work with gpo to clarify substitution guidelines for use by regionals in revising disposal guideliens.

4) cooperative retrospective conversation. (jennie burroughs, u of montana)

jennie updated on retro project described in KC. thanks to uc-boulder, have a batch of recs for usgs professional papers.

pre-76 wiki; draft procedures document

(Kansas uses voyager and has a macro for bound-withs – contact carmen for info.)

5) guidelines for leaving/changing status in fdlp (ann marie sanders, lib of michigan)

distributed guidelines for termination of selective libraries (based on existing guidelines used by kansas and michigan); regional libraries withdrawing to selective status (based on experience w/detroit public)

majority had no problem with either; might insert a bullet point in regionals withdrawing to selective status to handle transfer of regional status to another depository in the state.  these will probably become official gpo policy

6) superseded list issues (dan barkely, u of new mexico)

didn’t have much time; a subgroup was formed to look at these issues

Library Technical Info Svcs Update, 10/21

Laurie Hall, Director of LTIS

presentation slides

productivity:

GPO’s GRPA goal for fy08 is to increase cataloging production by 2%

beginning to organize metrics for acq.
overview of Acquisitions procedures

- acquire from various sources, via web harvesting, agency contacts, etc.; recent titles include fbi’s centennial history, war surgery in afghanistan and iraq, investigation into the removal of nine u.s. attorneys in 2006

activities: outreach to agency ‘forces’; training initiatives (ILS, web harvesting); internal adjustments (workflows)

epa web harvesting documents (pilot project)

- developing workflow

- testing stage (using portions of harvested material for various pilot projects)

Library Services Support (Linda Resler, GPO)

Classification – sudocs classification, box processing, shipping list prep, microfiche contracts

Systems support – ils, webtech notes, other library applications (trying to develop online tool in lieu of ants; more internal stuff)

microfiche: when claiming fiche – be sure to indicate library name/number

ILS fy08 accomplishments

wow – they got the ILS in fy04?

fdld – admin module, public interface; may be gathering feedback re: exporting of data such as director’s info, dep coord email/phone

upgrade of aleph

cgp web interface enhancements – navigatioin bar on basic page

z39.50 access; proposed to LC item number as a search attribute for z39.50 – was accepted and is now implemented

hearing ‘in the hopper’ quite a bit

fy09 plans

fdld enhancements

metalib – approx 35 seed resources as beginning setup; might be asking for suggestions later

version 16 to 18 of aleph – upgrade

indexing of the db to enable authority cross-references – currently aren’t in cgp;

serials mgmt – id of active serials; set up titles to check-in issues in aleph

- have currently set up essential titles; working on bound CRs

- test server: shipping list # and issue sudoc in record, searchable

fdlp login page
- customized environment for fdls

- links to gpo access, the desktop, z39.50 config & help page

- sdi (will allow users to set up searches and decide on delivery mechanism (rss or email) for notification of newly cataloged materials)

- save preferences and profiles across session

- e-shelf

-trying to use same password and login as fdld

- considering removing the author field and inserting item number in new titles report. want to keep the purl intact – only limited amount of display.

fdlp login page is an attempt to allow fdls to customize info, while not interfering w/public interface (ie, not confuse general users)

- might be setting up test group to give feedback before is released to the public. announcements will be on fdlp-l and the desktop

comments should be sent using askGPO

New Projects in Cataloging:

- separate record approach (began in june when went to conser standard for serials; should notice additional records soon. ie, electronic, paper, fiche)

- pre-1976 shelf list conversion project (separate handout)

contract w/ptfs to acquire bib metadata transcription svcs (ie, scanning shelflist cards)

est. 600K non-oclc cataloging cards in shelf list – 1870’s-10/1992

convert metadata on cards into machine readable records in marc21 format to be made accessible through cgp (will be offering to oclc, but gpo will not be uploading into oclc b/c records are very minimum, not sure what the matching results will be. difficult to tell if records are the same w/o the piece.) records will be available to fdls – possibly in batches, but how? drawers? sudoc range? always z39.50 option. looking for feedback on how/if fdls want records. will be announcements re: test records in cgp

list of sudoc ranges in handout

initial phase: convert ~100K cards, both mono and serial

creating a pdf verion; extracting text and moving into marc21 record format

using vendor’s software (archival ware) to bring up scanned image and compare to marc (QC)

- odu-dtic automated metadata extraction project

see handout

- authority control for cgp (contract awarded)

- draft cataloging practice & policy for digital reproductions

fy09 projects

digitization workflow (working w/robin’s area)

analysis of microfiche operation

workflow documentation – gpo-wide goal
test digitization workflow

~200 bur of rec, mid-pacific regional docs; going to fedscan at LC

goal – create digital versions available to the public thru cgp

Q&A:

q: separate records – will all be full recs?

a: plans are for full recs for mats that are disseminated. if format isn’t disemminated, will be full or abridged based on cat priorities. something about brief bib recs for born-digital?

q: what are the seed resources you mentioned?

a: pubmed, water resources, osti, major federal databases across agencies.
came up with them by going thru list of classes and extracting databases.

q: lot of valuable info in shelflist; hope that in the conversion as much will be preserved as possible.

a: we are scanning the shelflist, including the guide cards. not just marc records coming out of the project.

q: reason why fiche shipping lists are in a different location than the paper shipping lists on the fdlp desktop?

a: need to ask web designers

q: harvesting process – get response to submission of fugitive doc, but can’t see a record

a: process: make a determination if it’s in scope, then create brief bib or decide if should be disemminated in a different format; goes thru classification, then cataloging. at the time that the purl is created, have harvested/cataloged(?)

comment: could digi workflow be tested to use on scanned fiche? tech reports would be a good example…

q: separate record in place, or still coming?

a: is now going on – as of october 1st.

q: will single records that were created previously now go to separate records?

a: not going to change anything retrospectively. if record set up as a single record before this policy change, we’re not going to go back.

q: how will gpo handle additional workload for sep records?

a: handling the same material; basically same amount of brain effort. more time for additional record, but not overwhelming. still quicker than cataloging two different docs.

Fall 2008 Depository Library Conference

In case you hadn’t already guessed, I’m at the 2008 Federal Depository Library Conference and the Fall Meeting of the Depository Library Council, in Crystal City, VA.

Conference handouts have been posted on the fdlp desktop. Some attendees are posting their presentations on slideshare as well.

Getting Our Docs in a Row, 10/20

CONSORT colleges – Denison, Wooster, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan (Ohio schools)

presentation slides

have a history of cooperation – share a catalog, etc.

retro project – divided up collections by agencies to catalog

developed cooperative item selection

have a shared storage facility – constore. might be going away soon – led to some of these projects. kenyon/denison looked at a work redesign. designed to streamline tech svcs workflow across institutions. looked at acq, cat, mats procs. goal – to create additional staff time to deal w/new challenges of electronic resources

june 9, 2004 – began discussions about consolidating collections between kenyon & denison. july 7, 2004 – met w/regional librarian.

fall 2005 – pilot project re: govdocs. checking to see how many unique items were at kenyon. idea was that denison would weed certain areas that kenyon would keep. expanded to CONSORT colleges soon after.

they do have a selective housing agreement on file w/gpo – b/c had planned to include info from beyond 2003.

Implementation (Andrea – Kenyon)

- decided to consolidate based on sudoc number; each library measured collections

- libraries ranked collections in order of which ones they wanted

- designed a library of record for each given area

kenyon and ohio wesleyan are cataloging as they go – not included in the historical cataloging project

paper is preferred format – if available, are replacing fiche at the library of record (LOR)
repeat process for each class

how?

student assistants – have a lot of responsibility; very detail-oriented work

kenyon runs a list of LOR’s collection, and compares shelf to list.

tracking and communication are essential

have a google docs site – offers lists are posted online

doing piece-by-piece inventory – go to the shelf

ingredients for success:

- well-defined goal

flesh out procedures – pilot, lots of documentation

staff ability to do the work, commitment to the project on behalf of directors

coordinator’s role:

important to have a coordinator!

do not focus on daily details – keep things moving along; (planning, tracking, oversight)

important to communicate – detailed, complicated work

is successful b/c the group is willing to disagree; have worked together before; have respect for one another

example: recent mtg, shared values came up for discussion. ppl had strong opinions, were honest, open, respectful. didn’t come out w/consensus, but a good understand of what ppl are thinking and why; good idea of how we might rethink the things we are doing.

exciting to see people standing up for what they believe – engaged.

questions?

q: how long did you know each other? how often did you meet? how far physically away are you?

a: longest is 66 miles, wooster to denison. most have known each other for 20 years – at least for 10 years. ohio wesleyan – had a colleague who’d been there for only a year. in the beginning, met once/month-ish. now meet every 3-4 months. still calling, emailing.

q: what has been the impact on the users?

a: have two courier services, so can move materials quickly. ref experience? haven’t heard anything from patrons. don’t seem to be seeing a problem.

q: walk-in public?

a: public can get borrowing privileges at our library – allowed to request through CONSORT, so they can request these items that aren’t there

q: re: identifying where items are

a: everything that you’re a LOR for is cataloged – in yours and in the CONSORT catalog.

q: what was the initial reaction by the regional?

a: was very positive – thought it was an interesting project; allowed for online disposal lists, etc. CONSORT has been investigating cooperative collections on the LC side as well – the collaboration is not new.

q: are you merging your offers lists?

a: tried to merge; became really bad to check, so are offering the same item several times.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, 10/20

James Jacobs (Stanford), Molly Bragg (Internet Archive – IA)

MB: [presentation slides]

overview of IA. (interesting – designated as a library by the state of CA in 2007)

3 ways to partner: national libraries – domain crawls; curated crawls for large collections – iraq war, elections; archive-it (automated harvesting)

have done congressional harvests for LC since 107th.

for nara: EOT 2004, congressional election harvest, 2006, 2008

collaborative EOT this year

overview of archive-it

average life of a web page – 44 days. (where does this come from?)
see NC archives site for more info on their partnership

James Jacobs – Stanford’s experience [presentation slides]

archive-it collecion – archive.org/home/ssrg

part of admin interface – edit metadata for collections

demo of crs reports site as part of stanford’s archive-it – search at –

collections are also part of the archive-it search

why are we doing this? (part of an overall digital strategy that we’re trying at stanford, and hopefully the library community)

stanford also is harvesting mats from agency e-foia reading rooms

lockss & internet archive are in talks to collaborate

IADeposit – delicious project to tag items for IA’s govdocs collection (refer to James’ presentation from…Annual?)

what’s next?

would like to add more robust DC metadata to seeds

build new collections (send ideas to James)

Farmington Plan redux (ARL plan? to collaboratively collect int’l pubs) – concept could work really well for digital environment

- better access – ingesting into opacs, (stanford is using vufind); google site maps; more/better metadata

- better open source-digital mgmt tools (mentioned web-at-risk as an example of a non-archive-it tool)

- open metadata standards and repositories

q’s:

q: cost of archive-it, learning curve

a: various subscription levels, ranging from 11-16K; they do work w/individual budget needs

learning curve – designed to be user-friendly; training is provided at the beginning. you don’t need to know what an api is. really designed for non-tech savvy people.

crawler can be very broad or focused, depending on the need. there are some pre-scoping features in the works. certain kinds of content can be blocked. may be easier to block certain files

q: re: intellectual property. how are you dealing with that?

a: James: my work is part of public domain, educational aspect of that. if it’s a gov’t web site, it’s in the public domain. with .orgs, etc., james takes a liberal aspect of intellectual property. haven’t been approached by an org wanting something removed.

q: re: gao legislative histories:

a: carl malamud is trying to obtain the data; when that is, it’ll be part of the lockss project to preserve his publicresource.org site

New Docs Librarians Open Forum, 10/20

I’ve been a depository librarian for several years now, but I’ve never been to the New Documents Librarians Open Forum. I decided to go and see what new docs folks were asking about – thinking that it might be useful to take back to Alabama. Below are my notes – it was announced that the questions and answers would be in an upcoming issue of Administrative Notes.

Speakers: Cass Hartnett (U of Washington, GODORT Chair), Ann Sanders (Library of Michigan, Regional Librarian), Ashley Dahlen (GPO), Kathy Brazee (GPO)

Cass Hartnett: basic texts to orient you. Boyd & Rips. Guide to U.S. Gov’t Pubs (Andriot). Tapping the Gov’t Grapevine. Morehead. Sears and Moody.

Ann Sanders: re: Policies: (see handout)

Open questions:

Re: Textbooks: what about military documents?

CH: are included in the fdlp. (mentioned dtic, defenselink.gov). Greta Marlatt (NPS) – good about alerting the community to new defense publications via govdoc-l.

clarification of q: more concerned w/regulations, manuals, pamphlets, etc. how is that included?

AS: historical or current? (historical.) having people contact her about manuals from 1942. (AS: regional should have them; UMN has done a lot of cataloging; UNT is digitizing.)

What about recent Admin Notes – depository libraries having access to Homeland Security ‘files’

Janet Scheitle: Homeland Security Digital Library. Depositories need to register. Point of Contact is Suzanne Ebanues

KB: info in AdNotes – June issue.

Question re: GODORT session this evening

CH: meeting is focused on strategic planning.

how do i bring my collection more forward to my community?

AS: best thing you can use to promote your collection is in your collection itself. evaluating, collection development, get to know the collection.

consider cataloging if you’re not; marketing plan; include docs in new acquisitions shelves, etc.

CH: academic libs have a hard time promoting collections anyway; try to tie in w/exhibits, use web 2.0 tools (blog, something else that allows for user input)

as a branch campus on an institution where the parent library is a depository, do we need to create our own policies, or can we tailor theirs to meet local needs?

q: flexibility re: discard procedure

a: need to talk to your regional – figure out your state guidelines.

new substitution guidelines: http://www.fdlp.gov/subguide.html

q: id’ing serials no longer received in print, still accessible electronically. easy way to do that?

a: not really; GPO is working on additional tools for serials (similar to the print serials supplement to the MoCat)