Newsletter of the Documents Section of the North Carolina Library Association THE DOCKET Spring 2000 Volume 27 Number 1

Don’t forget to look for The Docket online. The Documents Section website is at
http://metalab.unc.edu/reference/docs/ncladocs/pub.html. It may be a couple weeks before the Spring 2000 issue is available at the site. Thanks to Mike Van Fossen for maintaining the Documents Section page. Included in this edition of The Docket is a survey. The Documents Section Executive Board is asking for your input about whether to continue publishing The Docket in paper or simply distribute it electronically. You are our customers. Please let us know what you would prefer.

Marilyn Schuster, UNC Charlotte, Editor

NCLA Documents Section Workshop, September 22, 1999

The Documents Section met on September 22, 1999, during NCLA’s Biennial Conference in Winston-Salem, for the program "Government Statistics on the Web: Federal, International, and State." Three speakers presented material: Mary Ellen Spencer presented the federal information, Catherine Shreve presented the international information, and Mary Horton presented the state information. Approximately 65 people attended.

State Government Statistics on the Web

Mary Horton highlighted a number of sites listed on Alex Hess’ Statistical Information and Directories for North Carolina State & Local Government http://ncinfo.iog.unc.edu/library/guide/oldnorth.htm page. Alex is the librarian at the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill; he was kind enough to let us use his page for state and local statistical information even though he was unable to be with us due to a scheduling conflict.

The page is arranged by topic: Profiles, General, Agriculture, Crime/Corrections, Economics, Education, Elections, Employment, Government, Health, History/Development, Judicial and Law Enforcement Divisions, Land Area, Legislative Representation, Maps, Organizations, Population, and Revenue/Taxation. Most of the links are to North Carolina governmental sites; however, there are also links to US government sites, such as the Census Bureau site and the Bureau of Labor statistics site. In addition, there are links to Government Information Sharing Project at the University of Oregon and the University of Michigan’s Statistical Resources on the Web. If you are looking for state and local government statistics or directory information, this is the place to start!

International Statistics on the Web

Catherine Shreve of Duke University presented strategies and several selected sites for locating international data on the Web. The talk focused on the data published by intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations. These IGOs take a lot of the work out of finding comparative data by compiling the available data from individual countries, and putting it in a consistent format.

With IGOs, it is useful to explore their structure and determine which subagency might cover the topic you’re researching. One strategy is to go straight to the relevant subagency’s website and look for the links to "data," "statistics," or "online publications."

As always with the Web, flexible and creative exploration yields the best results. You will also be alerted to good online data sites by monitoring listservs for your discipline, and the Scout Report [http:// Scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/sr/current/index.html]. The Scout Report can be searched with "data set" as a resource type.

Catherine demonstrated several of her favorite international data sites. The United Nations Statistics Division [http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/] is a rich source for social indicators such as demographics, health, and education. It also presents selected tables from The World’s Women publication. From the site map, you can choose "References, Sources, and Links" to find additional sites and national publications.

Yale University’s Numeric Data for UN Information [http://www.library.yale.edu/un/un2d.htm] leads to other major compilations for the serious data seeker. Despite its name, the site draws on many sources, including the World Bank, for statistics on economies, sustainable development, and social trends.

Refworld, from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [http://www.unhcr.ch/refworld/], serves the growing need for information on refugees and the associated issues of human rights and migration. To Go directly to the statistics, click on Reference Material, then scroll down to Populations of Concern to UNHCR (Statistics). Each year’s report includes a section on Main Trends and a linked List of Tables. You can also retrieve fact sheets on individual countries through the following path: Country Information/ UNHCR Public Information Section Country Profiles/ select country from map or text list. The Fact sheet is usually at the end of the report.

The primary online resource for European statistics is the European Union’s Statistical Office, Eurostat [http://www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/eurostat/ eurostat.html]. Eurostat collects data from the national statistical institutes of each member country, and harmonizes it for comparability. Although some of the data is available only for purchase, there is plenty of good material for free on the Website. Most of the indicators are economic, relating to the EU’s monetary union. Under Online Indicators, you can get Euro-Indicators which include national accounts updated daily, and Facts Through Figures, updated monthly.

The Press Releases section gives the latest statistics on employment, prices, and GDP. Many of the EU’s publications use country codes that may not be obvious to Americans. To translate these codes, see Catherine’s guide at [http://docs.lib.duke.edu/govdocs/igo/guides/euabbrev.html].

The final two sites are not from IGOs. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains links to the statistical agencies of foreign governments and IGOs at [http://www.bls.gov/oreother.htm]. For business and economic data, Jeanie M. Welch’s VIBES [http://libweb.uncc.edu/ref-bus/vibehome.htm] is quite comprehensive.

Catherine concluded by pointing out that these few sites are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other organizations, such as the OECD, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, which offer some free data online. The best search strategy is to start with the questions, "Who would collect these statistics?" and "What keywords or standard terms describe the indicators I want (remembering to allow for international variations in spelling)?" The online handout for this session, with links to the sites described, is located at [http://docs.lib.duke.edu/govdocs/igo/guides/intstats.html].

Federal Government Statistics on the Web

Mary Ellen Spencer from North Carolina State University presented a brief program focusing on how to find Federal government statistics on the World Wide Web. Because the Federal government produces so many statistical publications and series, Mary Ellen chose to survey a number of sites and to evaluate their usefulness for librarians. The resulting program identified five "megasites" that should help librarians to locate all kinds of Federal government data.

The program began with a brief discussion of how librarians search for statistics: by subject, by author or agency, by reaching for familiar publications or series, by using search tools and by using guides or finding tools created by other librarians.

The one web site that makes use of all of these various search strategies is FEDSTATS: One Stop Shopping for Federal Statistics. [http://www.fedstats.gov] FEDSTATS, maintained by the Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, features multiple access points (subject, agency, etc.), browse features, a search engine, easy access to familiar titles, value added links and contact information for follow up questions. The site is organized by agency (author) and by program (subject) for each browsing. The Agency list not only links visitors to agency home pages, it offers links to Key Statistics. These links provide quick subject access to full-content data and publications that are often difficult to locate. This Key Statistics feature is especially useful for agency sites that are not searchable. The Program list offers broad subject access to all kinds of statistics. These subject areas provide annotated lists of links that cut across agencies. The Search feature offers title, keyword and full-text searching of site contents. The Fast Facts section constitutes a ready reference shelf with access to electronic versions of The Statistical Abstract of the United States, The State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, and more.

In closing, Mary Ellen provided an overview of four other sites, each of which boasted at least one notable feature. Statistical Resources on the Web from The University of Michigan, Documents
Center, http:// www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/stats.html Begins with 24 broad subject areas that link to annotated lists of web sites. Many of these areas are then further subdivided (e.g., the broad category Sociology takes you to a page that then lists sites for Adoption, Aging, Child Abuse, etc.). Includes non-government sites. Best feature: comprehensive Statistics Webliography from The Louisiana State University Libraries, http://www.lib.lsu.edu/soc/stats.html Not as comprehensive as other sites on this list, but notable for listing the web locations for familiar publications by name (e.g., Digest of Education Statistics, Statistical Abstract of the United States, etc.). Mixes links to statistical sites, publications and lengthy bibliographies, some of which are annotated. Best feature: bibliographies for AgriBusiness and AgriEconomics, Economics and Statistics, and Marketing.

Statistical Sources from Mansfield University, http://www.mnsfld.edu/depts/lib/govstats.html Notable for its lengthy (and sometimes evaluative) annotations, this site mixes print and web resources for statistics. While the browse topics are rather broad, this site does a good job at teasing out useful pages at sites such as the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Best feature: inclusion of print resources, annotations.

INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections from The University of California, Riverside, http://infomine.ucr.edu Well-developed site that uses Library of Congress Subject Headings to index databases, e-journals, Internet guides, textbooks, conference proceedings and more. Includes over 15,000 sites. Uses a sophisticated search engine to access nine subject-based databases. Can search multiple databases. Good help screens. Best feature: searching.

Medical & Health Information for the Common Man, and oh yeah, some darn good basic science and biology.

I’m going to use the next 500 words or so to sing the praises of the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) website http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hinfo.html). What started out a few years back as a one-year pilot project to provide free, public access to the MEDLINE database via the web has evolved into one of best sites on the web. The site not only has content, but recent changes to the search interface have made it easy to use, and the creation of MEDLINEplus now provides health information directed to the consumer. We have been so pleased with this service that over a year ago we canceled our subscription to MEDLINE via SilverPlatter. Why pay for what you can get for free?

First things first, the MEDLINE database is much more than just medicine. Sure, it provides the world’s best coverage of clinical medicine with titles such as Journal of Emergency Medicine, Surgical Endoscopy, and Pediatric Pulmonology. However, it also provides outstanding coverage of areas such as general zoology, psychology, nutrition, genetics, cell biology, molecular biology, bacteriology, chemistry and biochemistry. With titles including Current Biology, Nature, Scientific American, Cell, and Child Development, it’s not just doctor stuff. You do need to remember it’s not the place to go for botany (plants and the like), and it doesn’t cover wildlife or marine biology or other "field work" areas of biology. Now the numbers: MEDLINE covers 1966 to the present, containing 11+ million citations. It currently indexes over 4,000 journal titles in 30 languages. About 90% of the articles are in English, and over 75% have abstracts. We’re talking big database. I prefer to search MEDLINE using the new PubMed interface. The old interface (which will cease to exist in March) was clunky and about as intuitive as a 1970’s DOS manual. The new interface has a simple query box for word and phrase searching and you can use Boolean operators and truncation (*). Drop down screens for limiting, searching indexes, viewing your search history, and manipulating the clipboard (you use this to collect selected citations from one or more searches for later printing or downloading) are available. Results from a search are displayed in summary format, with a number of other display options available. To get a record with an abstract, just click on the title. One of the neat things available is the Related Articles function. When you select this from a relevant article, the computer goes out and identifies similar articles using a "powerful word-weighted algorithm." In my experience this function is nothing short of amazing. For those of us who spent hours using the old MeSH and Permuted books to develop a "precise" search strategy it’s a bit disheartening to watch a 17-year-old kid click a button and walk away with great results. This is truly an end-user friendly interface. PubMed also provides links to publisher sites for titles which are available electronically, though most of these require a subscription to access the full-text.

Now what about Great-Aunt Belva who has come down with a case of the gout and has come to you for information. A search of MEDLINE shows the term gout occurs in 6190 records, but MEDLINE is a research database, and most articles assume a fair amount of background. Realizing that consumers were flocking to the site, NLM created a section specializing in consumer health information, MEDLINEplus. MEDLINEplus "is a selective list of authoritative health information sources from NIH and other organizations." It provides alphabetical access to a large number of diseases and conditions. For each topic covered there are links to a variety of sites that provide information geared towards the consumer. For gout there are links to a fact sheet published by the Arthritis Foundation, a page titled "Gout and What to do About It" from the American Academy of Family Physicians as well as many others. Belva is going to be the most knowledgeable granny in the retirement community. Okay, I’m at nearly 700 words so I will give it a rest. But only if you will give the NLM site a spin. If you like it you can approach your director and present your great idea of canceling the MEDLINE subscription and replacing it with a link to NLM. Oh, and by the way, have you seen the National Agriculture Library’s public access AGRICOLA....

Frank Molinek, Davidson College, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Documents Section

Ridley Testifies

On Wednesday, February 2nd, I had the privilege of testifying before the House Appropriations’ Sub-committee on the Legislative Branch. The testimony was on behalf of the five major Library Associations (ALA, ARL, SLA, MLA, and AALL) for the GPO Salaries and Expenses Appropriations. This is the portion of the GPO Appropriations dealing directly with the Federal Depository Library Program. The amount came to 34.4 million dollars. I was invited because Congressman Charles Taylor, from the Asheville area, is the Committee Chairman. As always, it is an interesting process and one that is very intimidating. There were only about three Congressmen there when I had my turn. They are seldom all there and tend to drift in and out of the room. The hearing room itself is very small and there is one large table in it. They sit on one side and the witnesses sit on the other side. They are close enough to reach out and touch and that is very disconcerting!!

However, it all went well and they were all very gracious. In fact, they asked no questions at all! I don’t know whether that is good or bad but I suspect it is not very good. I was struck very much this time by their reactions. People from the Library of Congress and many of their sub-parts testified for their funds and I listened to them for about 4 hours. I found that the reaction of the Congressmen for these groups was a good deal of concern about their needs. The Chairman spoke very highly of James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, and the work they were doing. At one point Mr. Taylor told the Committee what a good job they were doing at LC with the digitization of the Russian National Archives project!! However, there was precious little interest in the Depository Library Program.

Having given this a great deal of thought, I have come to the conclusion that this is primarily because the money is for the Government Printing Office and there is no love lost between Congress and the GPO. Rightly or wrongly, Congress sees the GPO as a highly inefficient body highly resistant to change. I believe that we suffer because of it. In the future, if I ever get the chance to do this again, I will concentrate on how this small part of the budget goes directly to Congressional District libraries in goods and services to voters and taxpayers.

As many of you know, I have worked for a number of years in GODORT to emphasize the Depository Program and feel we must always strive to protect that program, no matter what agency should be put in charge of it. This is the reason for my work and my point of view in this area. Keep your fingers crossed that as much of that money is approved as possible.

Ridley Kessler, UNC Chapel Hill, Regional/Documents Librarian

Resolution of the North Carolina Library Association

The following resolution was introduced at NCLA’s Open Session on Sept. 24, 1999, and passed.

Whereas the North Carolina General Assembly has enacted a bill entitled "Study Use of Internet for Agency Publications" (Session Law 1999-237, House Bill 168, at Part XXVI-A); and Whereas the Act directs each state agency so named to 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 by using computer technology and the Internet; and

Whereas the Act further directs each agency to review the statutory and regulatory requirements of the agency with regard to publishing and distributing information to the public and make recommendations on any statutory revisions needed to publish and distribute agency information over the Internet or by other computer-related means; and

Whereas each agency shall submit a written report to the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly by April 1, 2000; and Whereas the Act does not provide for permanent archiving and retention of documents in electronic format; and

Whereas, such essential publications as the General Statutes, session laws, House and Senate Journals, North Carolina Manual, Directory of State and County Officials of North Carolina, and historical and art-related publications of the North Carolina Division of Archives and History and the North Carolina Museum of Art, among others, should be published in paper format for ease of use and for historical research purposes; and

Whereas, state agencies probably would find it impracticable to mount non-current publications on their Web sites, thus making it difficult for citizens to gain access to historical information; and

Whereas the Act does not provide for indexing and distribution of state agency publications in compliance with N.C.G.S. 125-11.5 through 125-11.13; and

Whereas North Carolina trails far behind the rest of the nation in ownership of home computers and Internet access (See "N.C. trails far behind in use of computers," Morning Star; Wilmington, N.C.; Jul 17, 1999);

Now, therefore be it resolved that the North Carolina Library Association recommends that the General Assembly require the agencies in question to submit their reports to the North Carolina State Depository System Advisory Board for comment before implementation; and

Be it resolved that the agencies be encouraged to include in their report mechanisms to permanently archive state government information in electronic formats and

Be it resolved that the members of the North Carolina Library Association contact their legislators to inform them of the ramifications of the Act for the residents of the State.

Notable Internationals

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/support/lib/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, ILOLEX includes international labour standards as well as ILO Conventions and Recommendations; NATLEX contains national laws on labour, social security and related human rights for 180 countries. The searching instructions and scope notes for the databases are helpful and clear.

One section on 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. With some data as current as October 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

POLL: What Do You Think?

One of the issues which comes up from time to time is whether we should distribute The Docket in electronic form only. There would be some monetary savings, though it isn’t a large amount. For members of the Documents Section, The Docket would be distributed directly to your email address. For members whose access to email is more difficult or nonexistent, we would continue to distribute The Docket to you in paper. One of the advantages in receiving it electronically is that the online version has hotlinks to the web sites which are included in the paper version. In actuality, everyone has access to the electronic version of The Docket now. If we were to make this change, each issue would be distributed directly to the email addresses of those folks who are members of the Documents Section. The Documents Section Executive Board is interested in what you think. We would like for you to let us know whether:

______ You would prefer to receive The Docket electronically.

______ You would prefer to continue to receive The Docket in paper.

You can return this survey to Marilyn Schuster by mail:

Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 or Email: mbschust@email.uncc.edu.

NCLA Documents Section Executive Board, 2000

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 704-547-3983, mbschust@email.uncc.edu

Mike Van Fossen, NC Libraries Board Representative, UNC Chapel Hill 919-962-1151, mike_vanfossen@unc.edu

Ridley Kessler, Regional Librarian,UNC Chapel Hill 919-962-1151 kessler@refstaff.lib.unc.edu

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.

Editor: Marilyn Schuster, UNC-Charlotte
Production: Pat Langelier, Institute of Government, UNC-CH

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; 704/547-3983; fax 704/547-2232; email: mbschust@email.uncc.edu

Address other mail to Catherine Shreve, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0199, 919-660-5850 catherine.shreve@duke.edu

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