|
Volume
27 Number 2 Fall
2000
|
·
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
· DOCUMENTS SECTION SPRING WORKSHOP: CENSUS SPEAKER GIVES THE
SHORT AND LONG OF IT
· THE STATE LIBRARY OF NORTH CAROLINA AND STATE GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN UPDATE
·
NOTABLE INTERNATIONALS FALL 2000
· NUMBERS AND PEOPLE: POPULATION AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON
THE WEB
·
PEOPLE & EVENTS
·
NCLA DOCUMENTS SECTION EXECUTIVE BOARD, 2000
Message
from the Editor
I say it
every year, but I can't believe it's time for a new school year to begin.
Spring is traditionally the time of new beginnings, but in an academic and school
setting, fall is definitely the time of new beginnings. It's always an exciting
time - a time when there is a new group of students to encourage and assist in
their library experiences, to hopefully make the library an important and
inviting place for them to be. And for Documents Librarians, it's an
opportunity to expose more students to the incredible amount of information
found in government documents.
The process of government is alive and well
- the well part may be debatable - in the form of fall elections. In addition
to helping patrons with information about the elections, we need to be informed
as we participate in the election process ourselves. We can be sure that the
budget scenario that took place this past year will repeat itself in the years
to come. The conflict over making sure some key publications are still
available in paper and that all important government publications are available
and archived on the web, is not going to be easily won. As with other
governmental issues, we need to exercise our right to vote and our opportunity
to influence the outcome of this conflict. This issue is too important for us
to sit on the sidelines!
The Fall Workshop for the Documents Section
is scheduled for November 17th at the McKimmon Center on the campus
of NCSU in Raleigh. Mark your calendars!!
Elections for the Documents Section will also take place at the
workshop. Would you be willing to serve?
Marilyn Schuster, UNC Charlotte, Editor, The
Docket
Documents Section Spring Workshop:
Census Speaker Gives the Short and the Long of It
The
NCLA Documents Section spring workshop featured Ken Wright of the U.S. Census
Bureau on “Census 2000: Everything You Wanted to Know…But Were Afraid to Ask.”
Mr. Wright did indeed answer many questions about the decennial census now
underway. The short form of the answers follows.
How will sampling be done?
The
long form of the census questionnaire will be sent to varying proportions of
the population, depending on the size of the sampled area. The proportion
ranges from one out of eight in densely populated areas to fifty percent in the
smallest areas, with an overall rate of one out of six.
What are the major changes to the
census questions?
·
Race: Respondents can identify two or more races, choosing from 63
combinations. Hispanic or Latino ethnic origin is distinguished from race by
asking about it before the race question.
·
Grandparents as caregivers: this is a new question required by the
Welfare Reform Act.
·
Disability: Two questions have been revised to identify disabilities
more specifically, including learning and mental disabilities, and including
children as well as adults.
How has the format of the
questionnaire changed?
The
questionnaire is more user friendly, with navigational aids such as color
coding and icons. For the first time, the short form could be filled out
online. Sixty five thousand households responded this way.
Please give us a census geography
lesson.
The
census reports data by governmental units and Census-designated statistical
units. From smallest to largest, the main types are: blocks, block groups,
census tracts, places, counties, states, divisions, and regions. The larger the
area, the more subject detail will be available. Block data comes from short
form information only, e.g. population and housing counts. After this census is
tabulated, the Metropolitan Statistical Area or MSA, will probably disappear
but will be replaced by a totally new and different terminology by OMB.
When will we start seeing the
results of Census 2000?
The
first data set to be out will by March 2001, PL-94-171, for redistricting. This
will provide total population and population by race and Hispanic origin and
for population over the age of 18. This data will be available for geographies
down to the block level.
The 100% data products will be released from April through December
2001, followed by sample data products. National summary files are due in
spring 2002. Data will continue to be released into 2003.
What data products can we
anticipate?
Census
2000 data products will be available through American Fact Finder at http://www.census.gov, on CD, and in selected
printed reports. The Internet information is free, but there will be charges
for print or CD. Besides the usual profiles, summary files, and PUMS files,
they have added quick tables, geographic comparison tables, an advance query
function on the Internet, and improved zip code tabulated areas, which are
manipulated from collected data.
Can
you compare data from the 2000 census with the 1990 census?
Not necessarily. Changes in the questions
asked and data collection methods may make some data unusable for plotting
trends. The user must be well informed.
How
can we get data to cover the ten years between censuses?
The American Community Survey is a new
“rolling census” which samples selected sites each year. It is expected to
replace the long form by 2010. You can get a free CD of the data by e-mailing acs@census.gov or phoning 301-457-3109.
Mr. Wright advised that any library
interested in hosting a 2000 Census Products program can contact him to arrange
a date. This would include a presentation on product and hopefully a live
demonstration on the web including the new AFF.
The workshop was enthusiastically attended
by 51 registrants, and followed by a Documents Section business meeting.
--Catherine Shreve, Duke University,
Secretary/Treasurer, Documents Section
The
State Library of North Carolina and State Government Information in the
Electronic Age: An Update
In September of 1999, it was announced that
the North Carolina State Library Commission authorized the inception of a State
Government Information Committee to study and make recommendations for changes
in State Library programs (including the depository program), policies,
regulations and statutes relating to the acquisition and distribution of state
government information in the electronic age.
With the retirement of the Head of the
Documents Branch in late 1999, the ensuing vacancy of over four months, and my
acclimation to the position, the inception of the committee has been delayed.
The State Library still plans on convening this committee, and is considering
hosting a seminar on the implications of electronic government information. The
committee will be comprised of representatives from all the stakeholders in
state government information.
Recently I submitted a report to the State
Librarian that was an overview of developments in other state documents
programs and state GILS systems. The study found that some states are
implementing Government/Global Information Locator Service (GILS). A GILS is a
portal or information gateway to help Web users easily link to relevant state
government topics, publications, documents, forms, services, contacts and data.
GILS services are made possible by hardware, software, and personnel devoted to
making government more accessible through specialized indexing, shared subject
terminology, and easy-to-use search engines. The federal government began the
GILS information standard in 1994, and North Carolina and some other states
have since developed their own GILS services. Many states have developed a high
degree of cooperation and collaboration in the planning and implementation of
state GILS systems.
In the last several months, extensive work
has been done on FIND NC, the NC state GILS system, http://www.findnc.org/. FIND NC now indexes more than 40,000 state
government electronic publications from over 300 URLs. FIND NC is different
than most other state systems which harvest only state government web sites.
FIND NC provides index access to additional state agency databases and other
specialized electronic sources
.
Indexes
in FIND NC include:
·
State Government Databases and Data Elements (NC Federated Metadata
Repository)
·
State Library NC State Documents Collection (MARC records for NC state
documents held by the State Library)
·
State Records from the Manuscript and Archives Reference System (MARS)
·
Community Resource Information System (NC GILS records for the NC
Community Resource Information System (CRIS))
·
Department of Health and Human Services Computer Database Index.
·
Economic Development Information Locator (NC GILS records for a variety
of economic development information sources)
·
Geographic Data Clearinghouse (State’s corporate geographic database)
·
State Agency Operations (Includes about 2400 state agency operations
statements)
·
State Agency Performance Measures (About 7000)
Plans call for the addition of the State Government Statistical Register
and direct access to the LINC statistical database.
FIND NC now includes a “Simple Search” for state government web sites
and an “Advanced Search” for all the indexes. Both searches utilize the normal
Boolean operands, and the Advanced Search allows searching by field and by any
combination of indexes.
Another addition to FIND NC is a page of links to frequently requested
government information organized under 30 broad subject categories. As many of
the state government sites presently do not include metadata, tentative plans
are for the creation of a metadata database for state government sites at the
State Library. The addition of the metadata should greatly enhance the search
results in FIND NC. A subject thesaurus will also be integrated into FIND NC.
The subject thesaurus is one of the results of the cooperation and
collaboration in the planning and implementation of state GILS systems. In
addition to the thesaurus, it has led to several other efforts:
·
The establishment of an online discussion list for state GILS staff;
·
An annual state GILS conference;
·
A research effort into GILS interoperability through the use of Bib-1
identifier number “tokens”;
·
And increased cooperation between state libraries and technology
agencies.
Washington State will soon be beginning activities relating to a grant
to foster interoperability among the states. The focus of that activity is to
test server to server interoperability based on Z tokens embedded in metadata.
The second activity is to foster the common subject thesaurus. The State
Library is very keen on the interoperability of FIND NC with efforts in other
states.
Some states are just beginning to address the issues surrounding archiving
of electronic documents. Illinois, Washington, and Texas State Libraries and
the Ohio State Archives and Historical Society are all working on plans.
This leads me to the most recent report I am working on for the State
Librarian. She has asked me to identify all the major issues relating to the
collection, archiving and long-term preservation of digital state government
publications as a background piece for the State Government Information
Committee. The issues are many and complex. Ensuring long-term access to
digital publications is a two-step process. First, the materials have to be
identified, collected and made accessible in their current format (the
archiving format). Second, the materials have to be managed in such a way that
they remain accessible as technology changes (the preservation process).
For those of you who are interested in recent developments in this area,
an excellent subject gateway to digital preservation sources is the National
Library of Australia’s PADI (Preserving Access to Digital Information) at http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/ .
Exciting challenges and opportunities lie before us. I look forward to
working with all of you as we develop innovative strategies and policies for
providing access to state government information in this changing environment,
and in preserving this information for the future. I look forward to receiving your recommendations, comments, and
questions.
Duane
Bogenschneider, Head, Documents Branch, State Library of NC, dbogenschneider@library.dcr.state.nc.us
Notable Internationals
Fall 2000
Your library doesn’t need to be a United Nations depository for you
and your users to find many full-text documents relating to the UN and its
work. The UN has always been actively providing information electronically:
first on a gopher site, now on the Internet. Enriching the content of this site
has been a high priority of the Department of Public Information. This is a
brief overview of some of the useful sections of this large site.
The homepage at http://www.un.org is easy
to navigate with a site index as well as a search engine. The general keyword
search leads you to some of the treasures of this site: full-text, multimedia
formats, official documents and other informational material. A search of
“Iraq” and “resolution*” retrieves numerous resolutions passed by the Security
Council and General Assembly as well as press releases, letters, and related
memorandums. Another search option is only for documents of specific organs,
such as the Security Council or General Assembly, or press briefings or press
releases.
The “Publications and Databases” section
links to issues of print publications such as “UN Chronicle” and “Africa
Recovery.” It also links to the Sales Publications section, which includes a
searchable database. Among the free databases featured are “Refworld” (information about refugees),
“ReliefWeb” (information about international relief efforts), “UNISPAL: UN
Information System on the Question of Palestine,” a bibliographic database from
the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and a directory of
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's). Two subscription databases available
are the “Monthly Bulletin of Statistics Online” and the “Treaty Database.”
The Conferences and Events link includes functions from 1994 to
the present, such as the International Conference on Population and Development
(1994), Fourth World Conference on Women (1995), and the Earth Summit+5, (1997). The conference documents available
include background papers, speeches and statements from representatives of
individual countries, collections of resolutions and treaties and press
releases. Recent conference sites include audio, video and photos as well. Many
of the print documents from conferences were not distributed to UN depository
libraries. Click on “UN Member States,” then “Home Pages of Permanent Missions
to the UN—New York” to find pages with country information, doing business with
the UN, employment and internship opportunities, information for Model UN groups,
policy statements, press releases, and texts of speeches given in the General
Assembly and its committees. Students participating in Model UN groups look for
texts of speeches by representatives of specific countries, and this currently
is the only place some of these are available electronically.
“UN Documents and Maps” includes texts of
press releases, and selected documents, and resolutions from the General
Assembly (40th Session, 1985-present), Security Council (1974-present), and
Economic and Social Council (1982-present). The International Court of Justice
page includes Judgments, Advisory Orders, Pleadings, the Yearbook, and the
Bibliography.
Let’s stop here. Do look at the UN web site—you’ll be surprised at how much is
available.
Mike Van
Fossen, UNC Chapel Hill, NC Libraries Representative
Numbers
and People: Population and Demographic Information on the Web
The two
most common types of information requested of the Documents Department of
Davidson College are legislative/legal and statistical. In this column we are
going to look at web sites providing statistical information, specifically
those dealing with population and demographics. This information is spread
among a wide array of sources, being published by U.S. and foreign governments,
non-governmental organizations, and universities. What follows is a sampling of
some of the sites I have found useful.
It seems only fair to start with what is arguably the world's largest
gatherer of population and demographic data, the U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov. The
Bureau's mission is "To be the preeminent collector and provider of
timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United
States." I must continually remind folks that the Census Bureau is MUCH more than the decennial census.
There are large numbers of special reports and working papers on topics as
diverse as "Coresident Grandparents and Grandchildren" to
"Population and Housing Characteristics of Baby Boomers 26 to 44 years
old: 1990. The easiest way to pull up this type of information is to either
browse the "Subjects A to Z" section or to do a keyword search from
the search page.
A site I only recently became aware of is one providing historical U.S.
census data from 1770 to 1970 made available by the University of Virginia, http://fisher.lib.Virginia.EDU/census. The data is a product of ICPSR in Michigan.
The simple, easy to use interface allows you to pick variables from different
categories for display. Information can be displayed by state or by county
within a state. The interface also allows for creation of graphs and
proportions. I've found that students have much less trouble finding the information
they want using this web page than using the original print versions.
AmeriStat, http://www.ameristat.org, a
cooperative venture of the Population Reference Bureau and the Social Science
Data Analysis Network, is an expanding site that gathers and disseminates U.S.
population data. It covers timely topics in areas such as race and ethnicity,
population estimates and projections, and education. Information is displayed
in brief, easy to read reports with graphics. Each report also links to raw
data and related sites. The page is still under construction and a number of
categories have yet to be completed.
My favorite site for international population information is PopNet, http://www.popnet.org. This
page provides links to hundreds of organizations around the world that collect,
disseminate, or analyze population data. You can search by type of agency
(e.g., governmental, international, nongovernmental, university), world region,
or keyword. Where else can one find the Central Statistical Office of Ireland, http://www.cso.ie, with both English and Gaelic versions? Giulain
thu fhein gu tuigseach.
Frank
Molinek, Davidson College, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Documents Section
People & Events
From
Appalachian State:
Allan Scherlen, LTA in Government Documents
and Reference at Belk Library, Appalachian State University, presented a
workshop on the topic of improving workflow through office redesign of a
government documents processing area at the NASIG (North American Serials
Interest Group) conference in San Diego this past June. The workshop was
presented with John Blosser, Head, Serials Dept., Northwestern University and
Philenese Slaughter, Serials Librarian, Austin Peay State University and was
entitled: "Sink or Swim: Organizing Your Workspace Is a Lifesaver."
Allan described the decision making and physical process that went into
remodeling the Government Documents processing area at his library. His
PowerPoint presentation can be accessed for a limited time at:
http://am.appstate.edu/~scherlna/docsremodel/index.htm.
* * * * *
From East
Carolina:
Katrina Blount will retire August 1st
after 30 years. She will continue to work half-time. Anna Dougherty, formerly
head of Circulation, has transferred to the Documents Dept. and will take over
Katrina's responsibilities. Michael Cotter will retire on Sept. 1st
after 22 years. The library director will appoint a committee to study the
future organization of the Documents Dept. and appoint an interim department
head in early September. The Documents web pages have been redesigned,
according to the new university format, http://www.lib.ecu.edu/govdoc/gov1.html.
* * * * *
From
UNC Greensboro:
The UNCG Documents Librarian, Bob Gaines,
made presentations at two meetings during the year thus far: "Making Your
Cyber Voice Heard" for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce in January, and
"Government Information Sources for Small Businesses" to the
Greensboro/Guilford County chapter of SCORE (Service Corp. of Retired
Executives) in April. Bob Gaines is also instructing the LIS-614, "Public
Documents" course at UNCG this summer.
The course syllabus web site may be found at:
http://library.uncg.edu/depts/docs/lis614.html.
On
Wednesday evening, July 19th, Ken Wright of the Bureau of Census made a
presentation to the UNCG LIS-614 "Public Documents" class, and
members of the Jackson Library staff, concerning "Census 2000".
Melanie Buckingham, former LTA and North
Carolina Assistant with the UNCG Library Documents Department, finished her
MSLS degree in May and is now Library Director for the North Carolina
Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Melanie's position was taken
by Jenny Raabe, an MSLS graduate of UNCG and former UNCG Reference Department
information desk assistant. The Documents Department Library
Assistant/Microforms Assistant position has been filled with the arrival in
January of Ashley Brooks, a student assistant in the department since 1997 and
a recent BS graduate of UNCG.
Susan Gerritsen was promoted to the
position of Documents Dept. Staff Supervisor in February 1999. Prior to that,
Susan had been the evening supervisor for two years.
The whole department has turned over since
January of 1999, with two positions turning over twice! We hope things will
settle down now!
* * * * * *
From
UNC Pembroke:
Effective August 1st Rachel Nichol Blanton
will begin as the new Documents Library Assistant at the Sampson-Livermore
Library at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
NCLA
Documents Section Executive Board
Mary Horton, Chair
Wake Forest University
336-758-5829
hortonm@wfu.edu
Frank Molinek, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Davidson College
704-892-2154
frmolinek@davidson.edu
Catherine Shreve, Secretary/Treasurer
Duke University
919-660-5850
catherine.shreve@duke.edu
Nancy Kolenbrander, Past Chair
Western Carolina University
828-227-7252
kolenbran@wcu.edu
Marilyn Schuster, Docket Editor
UNC Charlotte
704-687-3983
mbschust@email.uncc.edu
Mike Van Fossen, NC Libraries Board
Representative
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
vanfosen@refstaff.lib.unc.edu
Ridley Kessler, Regional Librarian
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
kessler@refstaff.lib.unc.edu
Volume
27 Number 2 Fall 2000
Editor:
Marilyn Schuster, UNC Charlotte
Production:
Pat Langelier, Institute of Government, UNC-CH
The Docket (ISSN 0198-1048) is the
official newsletter of the Documents Section of the North Carolina Library
Association. Published twice a year in February and August, the deadline for
contributions is the first day of the month of publication. Permission to copy
is granted provided appropriate credit is given to The Docket and individual authors.
Current Contact Information and Back Issues of The Docket are available at:
http://www.nclaonline.org/grs/pub.html. [2/24/05]
Address
all editorial correspondence to Marilyn Schuster, Atkins Library, UNC
Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001; 704/687-3983;
fax 704/687-2232; email: mbschust@email.uncc.edu.
Address
other mail to Catherine Shreve, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC
27708-0199; 919/660-5850; email: catherine.shreve@duke.edu.
Top of this Document |
Government Resources
Section Home Page | NCLA
Home Page