Items of Interest

Selected North Carolina state agencies are being required by House Bill 168, Section 26A.(a) to:

"Each of the State agencies listed in subsection (b) of this section shall review its printing and publication requirements and schedules and develop a plan to reduce the cost of printing, publishing, and distributing agency information and materials including documents, reports, and other publications by using computer technology and the Internet or by other computer-related means. Each agency shall submit a written report to the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly by April 1, 2000.

Section 26A.(b) This section applies to the Office of the Governor, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, the Department of Administration, the Office of the State Auditor, the Board of Elections, the Department of Insurance, the Office of the Secretary of State, the Office of the Treasurer, the Office of Administrative Hearings, the Office of the State Controller, the Department of Cultural Resources, The General Assembly, the Office of State Personnel, the Department of Revenue and the Rules Review Commission."

Those agency plans will be reviewed by the Fiscal Research staff of the General Assembly. Since this kind of research is often done prior to drafting legislation, it would seem appropriate for us to have input into these plans or discussions with legislators about issues relating to preservation and access to state government material.

The second item of interest involves the North Carolina State Library Commission which has recently 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. It is expected that the committee will consist of 15 members, most of whom will be librarians from all types of libraries.

There will be an opportunity for documents librarians to react and be involved. Some questions need to be considered. If agencies place information on the Internet and do not archive it, what effect will those actions have on future research? What are the negative effects of placing state agency information on the Internet rather than publishing it in paper? How could agencies publish on the Internet and still preserve an archival record? What if a limited number were published in paper and available through Interlibrary Loan? How many paper copies are needed to accomplish this? Do all publications of the agencies listed in Section 26A(b) need to be archived? Could librarians help these agencies identify a core list of publications which need to be archived? Would libraries be willing to partner with agencies and provide disk space for archiving? How will this information be cataloged to enable library users to know that it exists? Have other states experienced state agency publications migrating to the Internet? If yes, how have they solved the problems of providing public access?

Now is a great time to begin looking for creative solutions. Change will happen. What types of changes will be least negative? Here is our opportunity to educate and influence change at the state level. Would you be willing to contribute to the plan?

The Documents Section will be sponsoring a session at the NCLA Biennial Conference entitled "Government Statistics on the Web: Federal, International, State." Three speakers will focus on major statistical sites, focusing on areas such as demographics, health, education, business, and agriculture. Mary Ellen Spencer, Public Documents Coordinator at NCSU will present the Federal portion of the program, while Catherine Shreve, International & State Documents Librarian at Duke, will cover International sites. Mary Horton will present state information, based on material gathered by Alex Hess, Librarian at the Institute of Government. Unfortunately, Alex can't be with us to present his information in person due to a scheduling conflict. The session is scheduled for Wednesday, 22 September 1999, 3:30-4:45 pm. A brief business meeting will follow.

Mary Horton, Wake Forest University, Documents Section Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect

I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the summer and get ready for fall. I have a feeling that most of you feel the same way.

It will soon be time for the Biennial Conference in Winston-Salem, "Imagine the Future." The Conference runs from September 21-September 24 at the Benton Convention Center. Don't forget that the Documents Section program is on Wednesday, September 22, 3:30-4:45 p.m.

As always, I encourage you to let me know what you would like to see in The Docket. I also encourage you to submit information about people - staff changes, awards, etc. And I join in the congratulations going to Ann Miller, on her election to the position of Chairperson-Elect of GODORT.

June 24-July 2, 1999

New Orleans, as usual, was a wonderful place to have a convention even if it was in the middle of the summer. The people were friendly, the food good, and the meetings did not last long!! This year I spent a good deal of time at Reference meetings and only attended a few GODORT Meetings. However, here is some of the major news from my handouts.

The GODORT Legislation Committee endorsed several resolutions in principle. The first was the Committee on Legislation Draft Resolution in Support of H. R. 1858. The Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999-

"Resolved, That the American Library Association support H. R. 1858, the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999, and encourage its members to ask their legislators to co-sponsor and support H. R. 1858."

The second resolution was entitled, Draft Resolution on Public Access to EPA Risk Management Plan and Community Right-To-Know Information-

"Resolved, The American Library Association is strongly opposed to any restriction on public use of unclassified government information; and be it further Resolved, That the American Library Association urge the reaffirmation of Congress's original intent in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 to make information, including the off-site consequence analysis information, publicly available; and therefore be it further Resolved, That the American Library Association oppose any attempt to restrict public access to EPA off-site consequence analysis data by exempting this information from Freedom of Information Act requests."

There was also an appreciation for Carol Henderson upon her retirement as Head of the Washington Office of ALA.

Other items of interest:

GODORT will not have a conference hotel in San Antonio. The Membership Committee recommended they pick the Menger Hotel as their first choice on the ALA Housing Application.

The Government Information Technology (GITCO) group announced that the University of Iowa will host the CD-ROM documentation project. GITCO also reported that they have constructed a web page template for libraries that don't have a Government Documents web page yet.

The Publications Committee announced that the December 1997 and March 1998 issue of DTTP will not be produced and their editorial submissions will be distributed in future issues.

Congratulations to Ann Miller upon her election to Chairperson-Elect of GODORT!!

Ridley Kessler, UNC Chapel Hill, Regional/Documents Librarian

There may be no such thing as a "free lunch," but international organizations have mounted numerous "free" databases and datasets on the Internet. Anyone searching for information on labor, agriculture, education, health, or general social indicators can find a considerable amount of information on the websites of international organizations.

Is one of your patrons researching international labor issues? Try the International Labour Organization's (ILO) collection of 9 free and 4 "soon to be" searchable databases, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/190bibl/dblist.htm. These include a publications catalog, a four-language dictionary of labor and social terms, and several sets from the LABORDOC database, including ILODOC, which indexes books, reports and journal articles published since 1919. Additionally, one database includes international labour standards as well as ILO Conventions and Recommendations; "NATLEX-ILIS" contains national laws on labour, social security and related human rights for 180 countries. "NATLEX-Standards" includes full-text of national labour standards. The searching instructions and scope notes for the databases are helpful and clear.

One section in the excellent web site of the World Health Organization (WHO) is "WHOSIS" (WHO Statistical Information System) at http://www.who.int/whosis/. Data on all facets of world health is included: diseases, immunization, mortality, epidemiology, AIDS/HIV, environment, health, international travel, and health personnel. Most of this data is available in time series and country-specific breakdowns are included. The entire site is searchable.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations offers FAOSTAT at http://apps.fao.org/. This collection includes over 1 million time-series records covering 210 countries and territories with statistics on production, trade, food balance sheets, food aid shipments, fertilizer and pesticides, land use and irrigation, forest and fishery products, population, and agricultural machinery. You can search All Databases or individual databases in agriculture, nutrition, fisheries, forestry, and food quality control. The databases are quite easy to search using the drop-down menus provided.

International education statistics are available through the Unesco Statistical Database, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (Unesco notes that access to data on science, culture, and communication will be available in the future.). The searchable education database http://unescostat.unesco.org/database/DBframe.htm is divided into these sections: national systems, institutions, teaching staff, educational attainment, enrollment, public expenditure and illiteracy. There are numerous variables within each section. Data is available from 1970 to the present and you can search either by Region (several countries, one year) or by Country (one country, several years). The database is updated regularly. Some of the information is published in the Unesco Statistical Yearbook. Unesco has another searchable education database, World Education Indicators, http://unescostat.unesco.org/indicator/Indframe.htm. The indicators include access to schooling, participation in education, internal efficiency, pupil-teacher ratio, public expenditure on education, and illiteracy. The Technical Specifications section provides a conceptual framework for education indicators as well as technical specifications for individual indicators.

The United Nations Statistics Division provides the text of the latest edition of its Social Indicators at http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/social/main.htm. Current as of April 1999, the indicators include population, child-bearing, youth and elderly populations, education, human settlements, literacy, water supply and sanitation, income and economic activity, housing, unemployment, and health. When you click on an indicator, you get a listing of four or five variables, broken down by country.

Mike Van Fossen, UNC Chapel Hill, Documents Section Representative on the editorial board of North Carolina Libraries

George Taylor Library Supervisor

DeLois Cue Documents Librarian

Portia Dawson Library Assistant

Natalia Tuchina Library Assistant

We are a totally new staff (Portia has 10 months experience, DeLois has 6 months, Natalia has 4 months, and I have 2 months!). We are excited about the new changes and opportunities (I haven't done documents in 5 years!).

George Taylor, Library Supervisor, Periodicals and Government Documents, Forsyth County Public Library

[Ed. note - This article was submitted in the spring but missed our deadline, so these folks have a bit more experience by now.]

A good site to bookmark for use in finding state publications on the web is http://www.state.nc.us/agency/. This is the State of North Carolina's list of state agencies that are known to have information available via the Internet. However, we're not a paperless society yet. There have been many good publications recently produced the old-fashioned way.

Career seekers may be interested in the Department of Public Instruction's Make a Difference in a State That's Making a Difference: Teach in North Carolina, or School Social Work in North Carolina: A Guide to Practice and Policy.

The Cooperative Extension Service never lets us down in producing useful publications. The following are all worth a look: Mildew Prevention in the Home, Producing Tree Fruit For Home Use, Personal Wellness for Top Performance, Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases in North Carolina, and Caring for Your Lawn and the Environment.

The Department of Health and Human Services has produced some useful data on important topics with the following titles: Pfiesteria Facts-1999: A Summary of Current Information About Pfiesteria Piscicida, and Childhood Asthma in North Carolina.

Of relevance to recent news events is work by The Center for the Prevention of School Violence, an inter-institutional service center of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system. They produce Centerlink: Newsletter, Centerlink: Research Brief, and Centerlink: Research Bulletin. These publications provide current information about Center activities and school violence prevention. While the paper versions of these serials have recently been cataloged, they are also available on-line at http://www.ncsu.edu/cpsv/index.html.

Another inter-institutional program of the University of North Carolina System to watch is the Small Business and Technology Development Center. They have recently produced several industry studies on software, automotive parts, travel and tourism, management consulting, security, construction, and restaurants in North Carolina.

Information on these and other titles can be found in the Checklist of Official North Carolina State Publications. To obtain a paper copy of the Checklist, contact me or view it online at http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/tss/deposito.htm. Beginning with January 2000 (vol. 21, No. 1) the Checklist will be available only on the State Library's web page.

Kim Seder, State Documents Cataloger

The Documents Section spring workshop was held May 21st at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh, on the campus of North Carolina State University. Almost forty attendees were introduced to patents, trademarks, PubMed, the National Technical Information Service, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Information Bridge. The speakers were Jean Porter from North Carolina State University, Sandra Lovely from the State Library of North Carolina, and Clarissa Fisher from Western Carolina University.

Jean Porter began the morning by clarifying the role of the NC State library in providing patent reference service. NC State has been a patent depository since 1977, and has a complete collection dating from 1790. While the librarians can help with an initial search to find an invention's classification and potential patentability, patrons should be referred to a patent attorney to aid in completing the application. Other North Carolina libraries, including those Federal depositories which do not receive extensive patent materials, may refer their patrons to NC State. Ms. Porter requested that depository libraries send her a list of patent materials received from the Government Printing Office, with their format and time coverage. She will compile a list for referrals.

There were four types of intellectual property protection discussed. Copyright extends to literary, musical, dramatic, choreographed, graphic, or sculptural works, and motion pictures and sound recordings. Copyright gives the holder the exclusive right to reproduce, display, perform, or prepare derivative works. Trademarks, which were discussed later in the morning, are used to distinguish a product or service, identify commercial origin, or certify quality or origin. Trade secrets apply to a formula, pattern, process or device, and are also legally protected. Patents convey to inventors the exclusive rights to their discoveries for a limited amount of time.

Most of the 1500-2000 patents issued every Tuesday are utility patents for processes, machines, or manufactured goods. There are also patents for design of the appearance of an article, such as pasta shapes, and for plants. Utility patents are good for 20 years from the date of application, and are not renewable. Patents are announced in the Official Gazette.

To be patentable, a discovery must be new, not obvious, useful, and fully disclosed. Patent examiners are experts in their fields who have been given patent training. Often they are looking for that creative spark which distinguishes an invention.

There are several ways to search for patents online. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office offers bibliographic and full-text (with images) databases through their website at http://www.uspto.gov/. IBM also hosts a database through the Intellectual Property Network at http://www.patents.ibm.com. This database includes patents from Japan, Europe, and the World Intellectual Property Organization as well as from the United States. The NC State University (or NCSU) Libraries subscribe to the Automated Patent System and have all the CASSIS-Patents and CASSIS-Trademarks CDs.

In the second session of the morning, Jean Porter demonstrated what a trademark is and how to search for both pending and registered marks. There are federal, state, and common law trademarks. Federal and state trademarks offer protection only within their jurisdictions. In each state, the Secretary of State registers trademarks. For North Carolina, the web page is located at http://www.state.nc.us/secstate/trademrk/trade.htm.

Trademarks are designated in print by the symbol ( for a common law trademark, or ( for a federally registered trademark. Unlike patents, trademarks may be renewed. The USPTO Trademark Database is located at http://www.uspto.gov/tmdb/index.html.

After a lunch break, Clarissa Fisher addressed PubMed, Grateful Med, Medline, and genetics on the Web. Before coming to Western Carolina University, Ms. Fisher worked for 12 years in an academic health science library. At the workshop, she led an exploration of the wealth of medical information available on the Web.

The National Library of Medicine's site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ is the home for many medical databases, including Medline. This comprehensive medical database may be searched for free via PubMed, which links to full text where available, and via Internet Grateful Med, which also searched related databases. In addition, the NLM offers to the public Medline PLUS for consumer health information, and topical databases such as AIDS/HIV, CancerNet, History of Medicine, ToxNet, and Visible Human Images. Articles can be requested through interlibrary loan by a member institution using Docline, or ordered through Loansome Doc. There is a useful chart comparing and describing these databases at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/databases.html.

For genetics, Ms. Fisher demonstrated the Online Menedelian Inheritance in Man (OMIN) database available through the National Center for Biotechnology Information at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. The user can search a disease like diabetes and retrieve a report detailing its features, genetic mapping, models, and clinical management. By clicking on the "Medline" button at the bottom of the page, one can also retrieve related articles from that database.

Sandra Lovely conducted the final session of the day, on the NTIS website and the DOE Information Bridge. The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) publishes research reports done under government contracts or grants. The bibliographic database of these reports is available by subscription only, through NTIS or a variety of vendors. These commercial services are listed at http://www.ntis.gov/comserv.htm.

The NTIS database covers from 1964 to the present. It is bibliographic only; to obtain the reports cited, the user must order them from NTIS for a minimal fee. The price is determined by looking up the price code under "Availability" then calling NTIS for the current price. Alternatively, NC State's DH Hill Library holds many of these technical reports. NTIS also offers its OrderNow( service online for purchasing current products highlighted on its web pages.

It was perhaps a fitting reminder of our vulnerability in relying on the Web that the DOE Information Bridge was down on the afternoon of the workshop. Fortunately Ms. Lovely was prepared with handouts to demonstrate this new free service from the Department of Energy.

The DOE Information Bridge http://www.doe.gov/bridge/home.html provides citations and full-text of DOE research and development reports from 1996 to the present. These reports cover topics in physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, and renewable energy. Earlier reports can be ordered from NTIS. Ms. Lovely showed the attendees how to conduct an Easy Search or Advanced Search, to search within documents, and how to download documents.

The workshop concluded with a question and answer session. The next Documents Section workshop will be held at the NCLA Biennial Conference on September 22. The topic will be statistical information on the Web from federal, state and international agencies.

Catherine Shreve, Duke University, Secretary/Treasurer

A good place to start is the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, http://travel.state.gov. These are the folks that issue passports and visas, help out if you find yourself in a Turkish jail, and assist with shipping back the remains of deceased Americans. From their rather simple page you can get passport and visa information, check out the latest travel warning and announcements, and print off Consular Information Sheets for most countries. These information sheets summarize information on crime, travel, medical facilities, and local prohibitions for each country. Each sheet also has a section which discusses Y2K status. Suffice it to say, there are a few places you don't want to be New Year's Eve.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site, http://www.cdc.gov/travel, will make your arm ache in anticipation of the vaccinations awaiting you. Disease information and prophylaxis is provided by region, and current disease outbreaks are announced. There is also information for physicians who might not regularly immunize patients traveling to Gabon. If you are cruising as part of your getaway, you can also find the latest summary of Sanitation Inspections of International Cruise Ships score for your Love Boat.

The U.S. Customs Service travel page, http://www.customs.gov/travel/travel.htm, provides information on legally getting stuff into and out of the country. Lists of restricted/prohibited merchandise, steps for mailing goods back into the U.S., allowable amounts of currency, and procedures for bringing pets into the country are all available. The Traveler Alerts area has late breaking news. This currently includes a Beanie Babies alert. Did you know "In August, TY authorized the U.S. Customs Service to allow the importation of up to 12 'Beanie Babies' per traveler, although no more than three of any model are permitted within this allowance". Hope this doesn't impact jail overcrowding.

Let's say you are out for a stroll in Berlin and come upon a crowd of violent skin heads burning an American flag. In the ensuing scuffle you are injured (you did, however, save the flag) and require hospitalization. What options do you have for paying those medical bills? The Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/intdir, has a directory of 27 countries which provide compensation for foreign victims of violent crime. Procedures for application for aid, time limits, and covered expenses are listed.

This is but a small sampling of government sites which can aid the international traveler. And let's face it, without information on the latest Beanie Babies alert, you could find yourself up against the wall as you pass through customs. Ciao

Frank Molinek, Head of Documents, Davidson College Library