On Wednesday the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ‘sustained Boeing’s protest‘ regarding the Air Force’s decision to award a contract to build aerial refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman.

The Air Force now has “60 days to inform [the GAO] of the Air Force’s actions in response to [these] recommendations.”  As I interpret the GAO statement, there are several directions in which the Air Force could go - it could ignore the recommendations and proceed with the contract as awarded or amend the solicitation and resume the competitive bidding process.  Some in Congress believe that the Air Force should simply award the contract to Boeing - which has Alabama lawmakers a bit upset.  (When the decision was made in late February, it was big news across the state of Alabama, but particularly in Mobile, where the tankers were scheduled to be built.  The Birmingham News indicated that it would bring at least 1500 new jobs to the state. )

The GAO has not yet made the decision publicly available, “because the decision contains proprietary and source selection sensitive information.” However, the statement issued on Wednesday does include the rationale for sustaining the protest.  Among them, it appears that the Air Force did not follow its own criteria for awarding the contract, as listed in the solicitation, and made several errors in calculating life cycle costs which, when corrected, revealed that Boeing did make a lower bid.

For more background information, the Mobile Press-Register has an informative podcast up on al.com

Alabama state agencies now have a place to post videos and images. “Media.alabama.gov offers State agencies a place to locate any media they may have in one convenient place, online.”

Videos can also be browsed by agency or by type of content, such as commercials and documentaries.  The Governor has his own channel. Images can only be posted if agencies have already posted a video.

The site also includes a news feed that pulls together press releases from all of the state agencies who use RSS. (Side note: I’m very glad to see state agencies beginning to use RSS more - it’s a great way to push out content to interested parties!)

The service is provided by the Office of Web Services within the Department of Finance’s Information Services Division.

According to Alabama Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks, Alabama-grown tomatoes are going to be placed on the FDA’s ’safe to eat’ list this evening.

From the FDA’s web site: “The Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide that a salmonellosis outbreak appears to be linked to consumption of certain types of raw red tomatoes and products containing raw red tomatoes. The bacteria causing the illnesses are Salmonella serotype Saintpaul, an uncommon type of Salmonella.

The specific type and source of tomatoes are under investigation. However, preliminary data suggest that raw red plum, raw red Roma, or raw round red tomatoes are the cause. At this time, consumers should limit their tomato consumption to tomatoes that have not been implicated in the outbreak. These include cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, and tomatoes grown at home.”

Earlier today it was announced that several restaurants and grocery stores have halted sales of tomatoes, following FDA guidelines.

Last week the Government Printing Office issued a draft report on Regional Depository Libraries in the 21st Century.  The report outlines some of the challenges facing Regionals (of which the University of Alabama is one), and suggests some recommendations “to ensure regional depository libraries are able to provide unimpaired access to Government information dissemination products for future generations.”  Comments on the draft are being accepted through June 15th.

Today the Sunlight Foundation launched Fortune535 -  a way to track the net worth of your Members of Congress (as taken from their financial disclosure statements).  As the site says, “So take what follows with a boulder-sized grain of salt: It’s all based on information from the seriously flawed disclosure system used by members of Congress.”

However, it’s still fun to play with - the Alabama lawmakers are listed in order of their 2006 net worth (from highest, Sen. Richard Shelby, to lowest, Rep. Artur Davis.)  Their 2006 net worth is compared with their 1995 net worth (if available) - and if their first disclosure form was filed before 1995 and after 1978, that information is available as a PDF. (Note: they weren’t required to type the forms, so some of the handwriting can take a bit of time to interpret!)

Tomorrow the Tuscaloosa County Extension Office will be conducting a goat management field day from 10-3, at Abby Farms.  According to a Tuscaloosa News article on the topic, more people in West Alabama are raising goats, leading to an increase in calls to the Office, so they decided to host a workshop.  The day’s activities will include “presentations and demonstrations to address healthcare and nutrition, management and marketing, hoof trimming and basic care for meat goats.”  The event is open to the public, and free.

Each county in the state has an extension office.  The Tuscaloosa County Office’s annual report is available on their web site - it’s pretty interesting all of the activities that the Extension Office does!  In fact, the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service web site contains a great deal of information on agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, and even the Master Gardeners program!

April 22nd is Earth Day in the U.S. In order to educate folks as to what they can do to ‘protect our planet’ the U.S. Government has set up an Earth Day portal.  The site includes information for students and teachers, volunteer opportunities, and information on what the Bush Administration is doing to further the goals of Earth Day.

Governor Riley has also proclaimed April 22, 2008 to be Earth Day in the state of Alabama.  While I can’t find much about it on state agency web sites, I did come across the publication “Celebrate Earth Day with ADEM - Today and Everyday!“

For more on the history of Earth Day, visit the EPA’s site.

Last week, in cooperation with county health departments, the Alabama Department of Public Health launched a new web site on food establishment scores.  The site allows you to search for restaurants or other food establishments and retrieve their latest inspection score, as well as a map to the establishment.
The site also educates consumers on how to interpret the inspection reports - including a guide to report scores.

Debra S. Van Tassel (DVT), Jennie Gerke (JG), Kirsten Clark (KC) [slides]

DVT:
For basic info, see brochure, webjunction site

Goals:
Develop a group of gov’t info pros who are available to train
- expand the base of library pros who have knowledge of and experience using e-gov resources
- increase level of satisfaction w/e-gov resources in mtg the info needs of their customers
- develop a new model for support and training of participants of the fdlp that can be adopted nationally

21 subject modules on webjunction

tried to customize training as much as possible for participants in session

training will continue through sept 2008

have trained 310 non-depository librarians/staff so far

some training at state/regional conferences, school district sessions, individual libraries and districts

Wyoming is developing webinars for their rural participants

Goal of 500 trained people by the end of the grant (September 200

JG: Preliminary data evaluation:

To evaluate training, do a pre- and post- test

‘how comfortable are you? How much do you think you know?

Comfort and knowledge levels don’t go up a ton, but there is interest in return sessions, more handouts, hands-on, etc. much happier with sessions in computer labs [being able to do, as opposed to being lectured to]

KC: next steps:

- Finish training sessions
- Final evaluation of data
- Grant funding ends sept 2008
- Final report to imls

How can we spread this out across the country?

How will an additional grant add something new?

Collaboration between the fdlp libraries and regional networks

Ideas:
Developing implementation models based on different needs of regional networks
- way to incorporate into regional networks, some of whom need to make a profit?
- Creating new module content by providing region-specific training guides
- example, based on different population demographics

develop a 2nd training level for the current grant’s region

developing an evaluation program that measures gov’t info knowledge growth and behavioral change on a national level

testing the ability to coordinate a national program

working with gpo, state professional associations, other national and local groups

DVT:
Why isn’t UColorado taking this forward?
- new people, priorities shifting.

Kirsten is taking this forward at Minnesota, leading the discussion
- strong relationship with regional network (minitex); is also a regional fdl

How can we take this forward?

Small group discussion; not sure if notes will be made available online.

[fall recs and gpo responses] [got here late, so missed fdsys discussion]

web harvesting:

need to update t44 to reflect changing nature of information

learn from state activities

what’s the deal with the lockss project? still have partners with caches.

ted priebe:

lockss content is on permanent archive; need to reach out to partners in terms of their role.

sandee mc: but is gpo still interested in multiple site preservation for digital materials, even if it’s not lockss?

ric davis: yes, gpo is still interested. lockss may still be the solution.

PAA:

council commends gpo’s activities. are there other concerns from the community that council needs to take into account?

kathy hale: like the idea of gpo developing a checklist as to what elements will be assessed.

michele mck: needs to be a way to ask what ppl want to do/are planning to do, not just what we’ve always been doing. in academic community, the term assessment has a different connotation. assessment shouldn’t just be the letter of the law.

arlene weible: agree with michele. concerns about info received re: process. assumption that you’re a good depository if you have info on your web site about the depository. just as good if all of your items cataloged, vs. having a logo on the web site. we have a lot of creative ways to provide access to this, and it’s not about putting — behind the logo. urge council to — develop criteria, it’s not something that’s hard and fast, but a dialogue. [not everyone has free reign on web site.]

kathy brazee: we do look at the whole picture. biennial survey questions 28a,b,c - we asked dep coords to fill in up to 5 entries re: public services and activites that you do. we’re interested in what you do. easy to look at web pages, but we’re looking at all of your activities and services. assessments are individual, and are based on legal and program requirements.

the more specific requirements we have, the less flexibility there is in the program.

checklist for assessment, but self-study will also be updated, with more info about activities, etc.

sandee mc: need some statements about regional services, and talk to selectives about what their expectations are

kathy brazee: would encourage the regionals to take a look at the focus — access and services paper; is specific info for regionals as well as selectives

outcomes-based program, so looking at feedback about each individual library.

barbie selby: agree re: plans and future things. when i talk to my selectives, i want to know what their expectations are of me. helps to have something to aspire to, so idea of checklist and suggestions are helpful.

kirsten clark: re: user comment form: - what do we want to get out of that? specific to the depository library? way to gpo to have public comment on the program itself?

kathy brazee: newer emblems being sent out, there’s a 1-800 # that goes to gpo help center. idea is to show partnership between fdls and gpo; ability to send comments, complaints, compliments, etc. will be testing on a voluntary basis at first.

partnerships, future fdlp:

doesn’t make sense to discuss this when the next session is following this one.

john shuler: any reaction from regionals re: discussion of last night?

cindy etkin: discussion at regionals mtg revolved around letter from jcp. letter specifically requested information on conditions [organizational, financial, technological] and meeting was focused on brainstorming in these areas.

shuler: might want to draw on data from pew [public libraries - aka uiuc study]

denise davis: offered more current library data

kathy hale: regionals were tasked to go back to our admins and provide additional data - how this will affect the public access to gov’t info if regionals aren’t allowed flexibility. letter will go out to all directors, cc’ing dep coordinators