THE DOCKET
Newsletter
of the Documents Section of the North Carolina Library Association
| Volume 28 Number 2 |
Fall 2001 |
Truth be told I’m closer to the rocking chair these days. Paula Hinton of UNC-CH will become chair in just a short time. I know I am being replaced by someone with energy and enthusiasm, which will serve the Section well. Paula has taken care of the planning for the Section’s program at the 54th Biennial Conference in October. For those of you who don’t already know, Grace York, the Documents Librarian at University of Michigan, and creator of one of the best government information sites available, will be speaking at 2:30 on Wednesday, October 3rd. Her talk, titled “The Web Came True: What Do We Do?” will discuss the impact of web based information on the profession. It’s sort of like having Betty Crocker come to talk about cakes. It doesn’t get any better. Hope to see you all there. We are also beginning to look for a new Chair-Elect. We would gladly accept nominations, and self-nomination is encouraged.
--Frank Molinek, Davidson College, Chair, Documents Section
Grace York, Coordinator of the Documents Center at the University of Michigan Library, will present the program for the NCLA Documents Section’s biennial conference program at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 3, 2001. Ms. York, perhaps most well known for the Documents Center’s web pages, http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/, will reveal to us some background information regarding the development of these highly useful web pages, and then will discuss with us ways in which the broadening and deepening of web offerings is changing our roles as librarians.
--Paula Hinton, UNC, Chapel Hill, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Documents Section
Documents Section Spring Workshop
[Let me start this section by making a confession. I didn’t ask the presenters at the Spring Workshop to write up something about their individual part of the program. And when I realized it was too late to ask – without risking my life – I decided to do a brief article highlighting some of the web sites that were discussed or presented on the handouts. I admit that I have probably emphasized web sites that I personally find useful – see what happens when you have power.]
The Documents Section Spring Workshop for 2001 was entitled “Freely Given, Freely Received: Internet Resources to Support Our Services.” The workshop took place at McKimmon Center on the campus of NCSU on April 27, 2001. It was an excellent workshop, with some emphasis on web sites that were familiar and some web sites with information that we may have been unaware of.
Mike Van Fossen, International and State Documents Librarian at UNC, spoke to us about international resources. Following are some of the international sites:
International Documents Task Force (GODORT), http://govinfo.ucsd.edu/idtf/links.html
University of Michigan Documents Center, http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs.
NGO Global Network, http://www.ngo.org/index2.htm.
UNBISNET (UN Bibliographic Information System), http://unbisnet.un.org/ (voting
records here for Model UN students).
United Nations Documentation: Research Guide,
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/index.html.
World Area Studies (Western Connecticut State University),
http://www.wcsu.ctstateu.edu/socialsci/area.html.
WHO Statistical Information System (World Health Organization),
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, http://www.oecd.org.
FINDLAW: International Resources, http://guide.lp.findlaw.com/12international/.
Guide to Law Online, Law Library of Congress,
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/law/GLINv1/GLIN.html.
Rita Moss, Business and Economics Librarian, UNC, led us through the world of business resources. The business-oriented web sites included the following:
U.S. Department of Commerce, http://www.doc.gov.
U.S. Bureau of the Census, http://www.census.gov.
Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.doc.gov - look here for economic
indicators.
International Trade Administration, http://www.ita.doc.gov - all forms now online.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices - Basic Facts about
Trademarks or General Information about Patents at this site.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, http://www.sec.gov/.
FEDSTATS, http://www.fedstats.gov.
Directory of Online Statistics Sources, http://www.berinsteinresearch.com/stats.htm.
Nancy Kolenbrander, Head of Government Documents at Western Carolina University presented historical documents resources. Following are several of the sites discussed or provided from the handout:
GPO Access, http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs.
Thomas Historical Documents, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/mdbquery.html.
U.S. Historical Documents, http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/.
A Century of Law Making for a New Nation,
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html - this is a fabulous resource!
American Slave Narratives, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html.
Historical United States Census Data Browser, http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/.
Women in the Civil War, http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/cwdocs.html.
Documenting the American South, http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html - another great
resource.
A People at War, http://www.nara.gov/exhall/people/people.html.
Tamika Barnes, Engineering Services Librarian at North Carolina State University informed us about standards resources. The web sites for standards included the following:
NSSN, http://www.nssn.org - free searching.
Military Specifications and Standards, http://astimage.daps.dla.mil/online.
National Information Standards, http://www.niso.org.
NC State Publications
Clearinghouse News
The Documents
Branch of the State Library of North Carolina serves as the official, complete,
and permanent depository for all State publications and is responsible for
administering the North Carolina State Documents Depository System as established
in G.S. 125-11, effective October 1, 1987.
The purpose of the Act is to enable citizens throughout North Carolina
to have timely and easy access to current and historical publications of their
state government. Staff of the NC State
Publications Clearinghouse in the Documents Branch currently receive print
publications from over 150 state agencies, catalog and process them, and
distribute copies to 26 depository libraries throughout the state. Two originals and microfiche copies of each
item are kept in the State Library Documents collection in Raleigh.
As we are all aware, the world of publishing, distribution, and access to state documents is quite different in 2001 than when the State Library began collecting state documents in the late 1800’s and the State Documents Depository System was established in 1987. Today’s digital environment affords broader distribution and more timely access to state documents through online publishing. At the same time, however, it presents a myriad of new challenges regarding retrieval of information, lifespan of the digital medium, and historical collection and preservation of documents. The State Publications Clearinghouse continues to collect and distribute state documents in paper and microfiche, while Documents staff are beginning to work with state agencies, digital publishing/access experts, and documents librarians throughout North Carolina and the U.S. on the issues of identifying, accessing, and preserving documents in electronic formats.
The staff of the Documents Branch encourage you to consult our Web site or contact us with any questions or issues you may have concerning state documents or the NC State Publications Clearinghouse. The Handbook for Depository Libraries, Handbook for State Agencies, Checklist of Official North Carolina Publications, Classification Scheme for NC State Publications, and Shipping Lists are available on our Web site. We look forward to working with each of you to assure continuous access to publications produced by North Carolina state government entities.
http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/tss/deposito.htm
919-733-3683
Policies, operations, program initiatives, NC State Publications Clearinghouse, FIND NC
Contact: Jan Reagan (jreagan@library.dcr.state.nc.us)
Shipping Lists/Missing Items (for depository libraries)
Contact: Ernestine Corbin (ecorbin@library.dcr.state.nc.us)
Microfiche Documents – shipments and cataloging
Depository Library Profiles – contact name changes, item selection
Contact: Swayzine McLean (smclean@library.dcr.state.nc.us)
Cataloging – NC state documents/OCLC records
Contact: Karen O’Keefe (kokeefe@library.dcr.state.nc.us)
Federal Depository Collection (selective depository)
Contact: Roseanna Covington (rcovington@library.dcr.state.nc.us)
--Jan Reagan, Head, Documents Branch, State Library of North Carolina
Many noteworthy documents have been cataloged recently at the State Library as part of the State Clearinghouse depository system. The documents to be discussed in this article are a sampling of those we have processed in the last six months that represent a wide range of interests to a diverse North Carolina audience.
Informational brochures from several of the universities, colleges, and community colleges in North Carolina’s university system are designed to attract undergraduates, graduate students, transfer students, non-traditional students, those interested in continuing or evening education courses, and others. The brochures show off the beauty of North Carolina’s campuses, point out the strengths of each school’s programs, and often include a campus map and application for admission. Several of the larger universities have publications focused on specific schools or departments, such as The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC-CH) schools of Law, Information and Library Science, Education, and Department of Computer Science. UNC-CH also prints a media guide annually for each of its athletic teams such as men’s lacrosse and women’s rowing. These University publications attract students of all types and inform the world of the successes of the North Carolina University system.
The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center located at UNC-CH has published several reports evaluating the success of North Carolina’s Smart Start program. Some items discuss measures to ensure the success of inclusive education, or the interaction of children of different cultural backgrounds, abilities and special needs in each classroom. Others look at the longitudinal success of Smart Start children when they go to Kindergarten, or later on in their educational careers. Some of the studies look at behaviors such as attentiveness, classroom disruptions, social interaction, and self-esteem. Educators interested in creating, or learning about the effectiveness of, an effective early intervention program, will be interested in these studies.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources places a substantial emphasis on preventing pollution. As a result DENR’s publications often concentrate on water quality management and preservation, safe disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, separating such pollution from groundwater, keeping nitrogenous animal wastes out of the drinking water supply, and improving air quality through restoration of the ozone layer. This focus reflects the Department’s ongoing efforts to enhance the air we breathe and the water we drink in North Carolina, and may be of value to businesses, entrepreneurs and citizens of North Carolina.
Each of the General Assembly’s legislative commissions must present a fiscal end of year report to the General Assembly. The Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporations discusses the advantages and feasibility of incorporation of cities and towns such as Duck, Kipling, Millers Creek, and Slanting Bridge. The Legislative Committee on New Licensing Boards has recently determined standards for the licensing of midwives, landscape/irrigation contractors, mortgage lenders and brokers, and interpreters/transliterators. The great majority of such legislative commissions and committees focus on widely varying but socially relevant issues such as the death penalty in cases of mental retardation or race bias, managed care issues, substance use and child abuse, and the effect of electric industry restructuring on state and local taxes. Each legislative commission or committee records its activities and presents an in-depth study of its assigned issue.
The Department of Health and Human Services publishes many items of interest to health professionals as well as those with special health needs. The State Center for Health Statistics (also called the Center for Health Informatics and Statistics) publishes statistical studies that may impact policies for health care providers in North Carolina. The studies are of high quality, both medically and statistically, and represent socially relevant issues for the North Carolina health population. Some of the issues covered include: survival rates of women with breast cancer, treatment of asthma in the pediatric Medicaid population, maternal mortality, prenatal WIC participation in relation to low birth weight, birth defects monitoring, lead screening, and racial and ethnic differences in health in North Carolina. Health professionals and public health professionals may benefit from these studies.
The Department of Health and Human Services also published reports this Spring on its programs for pregnant teens and assistance with drugs for AIDS patients, as well as information for disabled persons concerning recreation, depression, and accessibility while traveling or on vacation. These reports reveal the state’s interest in addressing some of these crucial social health issues and making it easier for those in such situations to live a healthier, more independent life.
From students to educators, voters to politicians, state employees to the general public, state documents are a useful resource for everyone.
--Karen O’Keefe, State Library of North Carolina, Secretary/Treasurer, Documents Section
People
& Events
The reference pages for the Documents Section are being revised and the URL will change a little --- to: http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncladocs/.
* * * * * *
There have been several changes in the Government Documents personnel at Appalachian State University. The following people are now on our staff:
Virginia Branch, Reference & Instruction, Government Documents Librarian – Half-time
David DeHart, Materials Processing & Reference, Government Documents Processing –
Half-time
Leah McManus, Access, Documents Stacks Maintenance – Half-time
Pam Trivette, Materials Processing, Government Documents Processing – Full-time
Amy Weiss, Materials Processing, Principal Cataloger & Supervisor of Government
Documents Processing – Part-time
--Virginia Branch, Appalachian State University
* * * * * *
UNC Charlotte has a new Government Publications Reference Librarian. Lois Stickell joined the Reference Department in July.
* * * * * *
Chapel Hill is beginning to weed and reorganize their maps collection, including U.S. government depository maps. In the past, they have willingly accepted all discarded U. S. maps in North Carolina, but we can no longer continue this practice. If in the future, you have depository maps to discard, please notify me through the normal channels, i.e., Linda Lloyd via NCDOCS. DO NOT send any maps to the Maps Collection here unless we ask you to. We are simply overloaded with gifts and discards and are hard pressed to work through them.
--Ridley Kessler, UNC,
Chapel Hill, Regional Librarian
NCLA Documents Section Executive Board
Chair Frank Molinek
Davidson
College
704-892-2154
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect Paula Hinton
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
Secretary/Treasurer Karen O’Keefe
State Library of North Carolina
919-733-3683
kokeefe@library.dcr.state.nc.us
Past Chair Mary Horton
Wake Forest
University
336-758-5829
Docket Editor Marilyn Schuster
UNC Charlotte
704-687-3983
NC Libraries Board Representative
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
Regional Librarian Ridley Kessler
UNC Chapel Hill
919-962-1151
State Clearinghouse Coordinator
Jan
Reagan
State Library of North Carolina
919-733-3683
jreagan@library.dcr.state.nc.us
I just don’t understand why you haven’t called. So far, I haven’t heard from anyone about doing a column on federal documents or about doing the “production” work for The Docket. I know we are all stretched just about as thin as we can be, but please give some thought to helping with The Docket. As I mentioned in the last issue, I would like someone to do a standard column on federal documents or websites – sort of like the “Notable State Documents” column that Karen O’Keefe is writing for The Docket. Her column for this issue is full of useful information about state publications. Since I’m not involved in the processing of documents, either federal or state, I find information about recently released items to be particularly useful.
In addition, I am still looking for someone to do the “production” work on The Docket. After more than 10 years of laying out The Docket, Pat Langelier would like to pass this opportunity along to someone else. This will be Pat’s last issue and we thank her for her hard work and dedication. It takes about 3-4 hours of effort twice a year – a minor commitment for a terrific payback for documents librarians all over North Carolina. It’s also a way to keep your e-publishing skills sharpened and it doesn’t hurt your CV to show a line or two about your contributions to the library profession.
I’m open to making some changes in The Docket. Someone with more web expertise than I have could do an electronic version in web page software and then distribute itin paper copy or it could be created in a word processing program and distributed as a pdf. Please let me know if you would be interested in either of these opportunities.
The Documents Section program that is a part of the Biennial Conference will be superb. Plan now to attend!
--Marilyn Schuster, UNC Charlotte, Editor, The Docket
Volume 28 Number 2 Fall 2001
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 Karen O’Keefe, State Library of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, 919-733-3683; kokeefe@library.dcr.state.nc.us.