I’m going to leave it up for a few weeks, but will most likely take it down this summer. I hope that if you’ve visited this space, that it has provided you with some handy information.  Thanks.

First, I have to register my disappointment that the primary reason why I decided to attend the meeting was rendered invalid on Monday morning.  I’d been expecting to participate in a discussion regarding the report commissioned by GPO from Ithaka S+R on modeling the future of the FDLP; the item was on the agenda as of Friday afternoon prior to my departure, but on Monday when I received the revised agenda, it had been replaced by “Three Concepts in Building Robust FDLP Web Services” and a Council Discussion on Future Needs and Goals of the FDLP.   The official reason given was that GPO had not had enough time to review the report and had requested an extension; it was not completely clear as to whether that extension had been agreed to.  I think it’s safe to say that many other attendees were frustrated with the lack of transparency and communication surrounding the release of the report.

The new Superintendent of Documents is familiar to many of us in the depository library community, as she has lobbied on behalf of law libraries for many years.  In her first address to attendees, she outlined the four key themes for her tenure: transparency, collaboration, partnership, and training.  She’s hoping to strengthen the ties between GPO and the library community; given remarks, etc., at some of the sessions I attended it does seem as though there will be increased interaction between GPO and libraries.  MAB also announced that this would be the last Spring meeting of the DLC; in future years we will only have meetings in the fall, and they will alternate between DC and another city.

Library Services and Content Management update:

• Handout available on the Desktop
• Bibliographic inventory for serials:  There are currently over 28K active serials in the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP); GPO is about to undertake maintenance so that will have a better idea of how many of those are dead
• Pre-1976 shelflist conversion project: over 52K shelflist cards have been added to the CGP (minimal info, but able to be downloaded, etc.) monographs are done; beginning multi-parts and serials
• Cooperative cataloging partnership project w/UMontana. (Forest Service docs, pre-1976; not previously included in the program).  GPO will be classifying, adding LCSH, returning to UMontana for entry in their catalog. These items are in CGP.  The next cataloging partnership is w/the U of Florida [Note from vdg: I believe that this is for the Panama Canal Commission documents that UF has cataloged and digitized as part of the ASERL Center of Excellence project].
• RDA: look for some test recs in CGP by early-mid May.
• Biennial survey coming out this fall; questions will be similar to 2007 (not 2009) to track trends.
• Web harvesting: working with folks in Fdsys to work on ingest models. Figuring out metadata fields. Coastal zone information material is being tested for ingest. Also developing ingest model for generic pubs (what do I need to gather for ingest). Currently manual process, really need to automate.
• Legal requirements and program regulations for the FDLP. This document, consisting mainly of items that we are already supposed to be doing as depository libraries, will be released & on the desktop soon (perhaps mid-June?).  Includes 75 entries – very straightforward re: what you must do re: the program. What you should do will be phase 2.  There are 2 new items on the ‘must do’ list: 1. catalog new tangible materials and 2. include the depository emblem (eagle) on the library’s web page.

I’ve tried to focus on the more practical aspects of the meeting here, but I’d love to hear comments/impressions from other folks who were able to attend.

In order to vote in the election, you must be a registered voter in the city. The deadline for registering to vote in this election is February 11th at 5 p.m. Voter registration applications can be downloaded from Alabamavotes.gov, or can be picked up at the County Board of Registrars (2501 7th Street, Suite 200, Tuscaloosa).

The Alabama Department of Revenue is the place to go to download state forms; if you’re not an Alabama resident and need help figuring out the agency responsible for taxes in your state, check out USA.gov’s helpful section on filing taxes.

And, of course, if you don’t want to e-file or don’t have a printer, the post office on the UA campus has some forms, as does the Tuscaloosa Public Library.

Payroll/salary information is available through these portals, and is searchable by name of payee only. I know that often, folks who are seeking employment at our institution request salary information along the lines of “average salary for an Associate Professor in X Department” – to find that kind of information in these databases will require a little more work than simply looking at the salary book that’s kept at the Circulation Desk.  (That book is still organized by Department – not by last name like the database is.)

It is unclear as to whether or not Governor Bentley will continue this effort during his term – I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

The Army Corps of Engineers released its own draft After Action Report in July; communication difficulties with internal and external personnel were listed in that report’s “Lessons Learned” summary.

The press release accompanying the NWS report is available on the NOAA site; news coverage of the report is available from the Nashville Tennessean and the New York Times.

The president first announced his intent to nominate Mr. Boarman on April 15, 2010, and his confirmation hearing was held way back in May.

For more info, including more detail on recess appointments, visit the ResourceBlog.

• Code of Public Ethics and Accountability
• Legislative Double Dipping Ban
• PAC-to-PAC Ban
• Pass-Through Pork Ban
• Protect the Public Trust Act
• Restricting Political Activity on State Time
• Transparency and Accountability Act

If you want more detailed coverage of the session, head on over to Doc’s Political Parlor, where they’re archiving the audio of the session.  The Birmingham News is providing regular updates as well.

The report, with survey findings and appendices as well as other materials produced by the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” working group, is available on the DoD website.  The Pentagon held a briefing on the report, where Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen answered questions from reporters.  That briefing is available on The Pentagon Channel, and is being re-broadcast at 6 pm, midnight, and 6 am (all times Eastern).

What does that mean?  According to the report’s summary, “In households with very low food security, the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.” This is in addition to the 8.2% percent had low food security.  The numbers are up from the 2006-08 average, which 13.3% of households had low or very low food security.

These surveys have been conducted since 1995, and all of the reports are available on the ERS website.