Nancy Kolenbrander, our Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect has announced that the Documents Section's spring workshop will be held May 15, 1998 at McKimmon Center in Raleigh. The theme will be North Carolina informational sources. She is tentatively planning four sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, with a lunch catered in. So far she has confirmed with Alex Hess from the Institute of Government, who will be addressing county and city data sources, and Harrison Decker from the State Data Center who will be talking about NC Link's new web site. If you have areas of statistical data that you would like to see covered by the speakers, send email to Nancy at kolenbran@wcu.edu, and she will try to have that area covered by one of the speakers.
The NCLA Documents
Section home page has been moved. Anyone who goes to the NCLA page and
clicks on the Docs Section will be sent to the new site. I'm going to send an
announcement to the NC Docs list also. If anyone has corrections or additions
to the information there, they should contact me at vanfosen.davis@mhs.unc.edu.
I always welcome any suggestions for the page!
--Michael Van Fossen, State/International Documents Librarian, UNC, Chapel
Hill
The past several months have seen a number of significant achievements from the NCLA Documents Section!
During the Biennial Conference in November we presented “Internet Access to Public Documents.” Mary Horton of Wake Forest University presented “Finding Government Information on the Web for Public and Smaller Academic Libraries.” Nancy Kolenbrander of Western Carolina University and Linda Reida of Tuscola High School, Waynesville, presented “Federal Web Sites for School Librarians.” The session was one of the best attended in recent memory. However, we are not resting on our laurels. The Documents Section Executive Board met in December to begin planning for workshops this coming year.
Our spring session will be on state and local government information. The focus will be on material available on the web, state depositories and their activities, and statistical materials for localities. In the fall, we'll be looking at CD-ROMs and electronic materials from government. How are we dealing with these products? If you are interested in contributing or helping out, contact Nancy Kolenbrander at Western Carolina University.
The section has been active in publishing as well. Government information was the theme of the Fall 1997 North Carolina Libraries. If you haven't read it, take a look! A number of our members contributed to an exciting and informative issue. Mike Van Fossen of UNC-Chapel Hill acted as guest editor. He also serves as the Documents Section representative to North Carolina Libraries.
Mike has also been serving as our web administrator. Check out the NCLA Documents Section home page. Look for it to expand and remember to check there for workshop, publications and other useful information.
The Executive Board has decided to take the first steps to move The Docket from a print publication to an electronic one. The Executive Board discussed this move at our last meeting Dec. 12, 1997. We would like to take advantage of the timeliness, ability to expand, and cost saving that publishing on the web can provide. Document organizations in other state associations are also moving in this direction. We will change slowly to provide all our membership with the opportunity of receiving The Docket in the most effective format.
This past Thursday I attended a retreat of the NCLA Executive Board. Our goal was to set the agenda for the next biennium. Major goals we identified were support for continuing education and programming; enhancing communication among members; the preservation and extension of intellectual freedom; and increasing NCLA membership. I'll be working with the Documents Section Executive Board to determine how we can best work to achieve these goals within the section.
Finally, feel free to mail, email or call me on issues of interest and
concern. I feel that listening to membership is one of the most important
duties of a section chair. So, let me know!
--Ann Miller, Duke University, Chair, Documents Section
As Ann Miller, Chair of the Documents Section, tells you in her column, we are planning to go electronic with The Docket. Hopefully, within a few days of your receiving this, you will also be able to find a copy at the Documents Section home page. The format will likely be somewhat different, and I hope you'll be patient as we learn all the ins and outs of putting The Docket on the Web. Let us know if you like what we're trying to do.
Please let us know what you want to see in The Docket. I'd love to see more "people" information - new staff, new assignments, new facilities - short newsy types of information. Please feel free to send me that kind of information.
Our spring workshop will be May 15, 1998. Nancy Kolenbrander is lining up
good speakers with information we need to have. Be sure to make this workshop a
priority.
--Marilyn Schuster, Editor
...makes you wonder what I've been reading, doesn't it! W-e-l-l-l ...
...name changes might be a place to start. The Dept. of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources and the Dept. of Human Resources rearranged themselves last fall. Most of the health functions went back to DHR. The two departments are now Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS). This has given us catalogers a few heart palpitations in cataloging, but we're all better now.
Speaking of the new DENR, the N.C. State Museum of Natural Sciences has published an "Educator's Guide to Museum Services," which provides details on the several outreach programs they offer as well as in-house services, and Vol. 4 of the continuing series of "Endangered, Threatened, and Rare Fauna of North Carolina: Fishes."
On a business note (there were several), the N.C. Recycling Business Assistance Center, through the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, has put out a "Survey of the Plastics Industry in North Carolina" that gives a good overview of that industry in the state and lots of contacts.
The Dept. of Public Instruction has published several works recently that talk about student performance in the state. These include "1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP Grade 8 Science" and "1996-97 Report of Student Performance, North Carolina Open-ended Assessment, Grades 5 and 8." They also put out a parent's handbook dealing with school improvement teams and a "Handbook for Public Participation in Education." New teachers may get a leg up with "Orientation: Effective Beginnings for Novice Teachers" and "Toolkit for Mentoring: Effective Beginnings for Novice Teachers." There's a small pamphlet of interest called "Web Resources for North Carolina Educators." Here at the end of the paragraph is their "Social Studies Character/Citizenship Education Connection: Teaching Responsibility in the High School."
"Community Oriented Policing: What It Is, Why It Works, How to Get Started" is a handbook for communities put out by the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, UNC-CH with the Governor's Crime Commission.
And the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service strikes again ... and again. Among their continuing stream of pamphlets and brochures are two larger manuals, "Discovering Family and Consumer Science" and "Discovering Healthy Lifestyles", both activity books aimed at young people and their teachers. Then there's "Home*A*Syst" and "Farm*A*Syst," portfolios of pamphlets dealing with water quality issues for the homeowners and farmers.
Water quality management has had a good season with basinwide water quality management plans being issued for the Hiwassee River, the Little Tennessee, the Savannah River, the Watauga, the White Oak, the Chowan and the Pasquotank River watersheds in North Carolina. The Pasquotank River volume covers many of the small systems around Albemarle Sound. Other systems already have plans published or soon will have. They all come from the N.C. Division of Water Quality in DENR.
The Attorney General's Office in DoJ has published "Child Sexual Abuse Guidelines: Recommendations for Professionals." Sounds kind of scary, doesn't it? It is scary.
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission editorial staff for the magazine "Wildlife in North Carolina" has assembled six volumes of illustrated natural history essays from the magazine. These are "Nature's Ways." This may be the most pleasant reading, truly for a winter evening by a fire.
What else? Let's see, thoroughfare plans, environmental impact studies, land use plans, farming and gardening pamphlets, state park maps, reports to and from the General Assembly ... well, you get the idea, again.
On and on it goes! What is 'worth' noting? Scan a "Checklist" and you'll see what I've failed to mention that is of particular interest to your patrons.
And don't forget to check out the State Library web site.
Publications are distributed directly by the publishing agencies to libraries
and citizens. The N.C. State Publications Clearinghouse of the State Library
sends documents to depositories all over the state. If you want to learn more
about current works, ask me for a bimonthly "Checklist".
--Wess Wessling, State Documents Cataloger, State Library, Raleigh
As usual New Orleans is a great place to hold a meeting, any kind of meeting. However, the problem with having meetings in great places is that it's no fun to be stuck in a boring convention center when the sun is shining and there are lots of interesting things you could be doing.
Well, it was a busy Midwinter and a lot of work was accomplished. As a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Organization I was unable to attend many of the GODORT meetings because of very pressing committee deadlines. At one point I spent eight hours locked in my hotel room trying to finish a draft of "Pro/Con" issues concerning the ASCLA/ILERT/GODORT merger. During this time I went through three laptop computers before I was finished!! More about the merger later.
It was a mild legislative agenda for a GODORT Midwinter. Only two legislative actions were taken and they were resolutions related to the continuation of the Area Handbook series and on the Congressional Research Service Publications. Both of these resolutions were approved in principle by the GODORT Legislation Committee and approved by the ALA Government Information Subcommittee. The resolves for both read as follows:
Resolution Related to Continuation of the Area Handbook Series: "Be it Resolved, that the American Library Association affirm the intellectual value of the Area Handbook series and urge the Joint Committee on the Library, the Librarian of Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, and the Secretary of State to secure funding for its research, publication, and dissemination."
Resolution on Congressional Research Service Publications: "Be it Resolved, that the American Library Association urge that the Joint Committee on the Library, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and the House Oversight Committee take immediate action to assure that non-confidential Congressional Research Service reports and information products are distributed to Federal Depository Libraries and are made available in a timely manner to the general public on the Internet."
There was also a joint meeting with the InterAgency Work Group (IAWG) on the Reform of Title 44 and the ALA Government Information Subcommittee. This meeting was devoted to questions and answers by Kennie Gill, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and Eric Peterson, Staff Director, Joint Committee on Printing. They were reporting on the progress of the draft bill on Title 44 (see Inter-Association Working Group on Government Information Policy) that will be introduced sometime this year. The summary of this meeting from the report of the GODORT Legislation Committee says, "Peterson indicated that '90-95%' of the IAWG draft is consistent with what will finally be introduced. Gill indicated a commitment to the holding of hearings before voting on a bill.
It was felt that the two champions for reform of Title 44 on the Senate side would no longer be involved with the issue after 1998, thus the best chance of substantial and positive reform will take place this year.
The major 'roadblocks' to passage of the legislation were discussed - the publishing of Executive Branch documents and negotiations between the White House and interested labor organizations."
Other interesting items from Midwinter include the name of the GODORT/MAGERT Hotel for the 1998 ALA annual conference. It is the St. James Suites, 950 24th St., NW. Single and double room rates are $125/night. The number to call is (800) 852-8512.
Much discussion was held on the problems with the publishing of the Documents to the People (DTTP). It is hoped that this publication is now on track and back issues will be arriving in the near future.
Discussion began on a dues increase for GODORT since its expenditures are larger than its revenues.
There will be several programs/preconference programs at annual this year. The International Documents Task Force is sponsoring a preconference on June 25th on "International Organization Information for the 21st Century." The registration fee will be $50.00. Also, the Rare and Endangered Government Documents Committee is sponsoring a program entitled "Preserving Our Nation's Heritage, How Do We Protect Our Government Publications?"
The GODORT Ad Hoc Committee on Organization held yet another open discussion
on the ASCLA/ILERT/GODORT merger. There will be another hour's discussion at
the annual business meeting this Summer. The committee has also finished a
Pro/Con document that is now up on the GODORT homepage. At the same site
you will also find a report of a meeting held in October between members of all
three organizations to discuss probable organization scenarios if the merger
passes plus all other related documents. At the business meeting it was decided
that a special ballot will go out to GODORT members between July 15-30, 1998.
In the meantime watch for discussions on GOVDOC-L. If you are a GODORT member,
please spend some time reading and thinking about this issue which is obviously
very important to the future way this organization will develop.
--Ridley Kessler, Regional/Documents Librarian, UNC, Chapel Hill
I tend to take a philosophical view of things. My life has been spent learning to ask good questions of myself in my search for meaning. I like things that add beauty to life, portray human experience and emotion, and teach us something about ourselves through the experience of others. Is it any wonder that I have a degree in the humanities? I couldn't help but feel a little cold and lone while browsing through the wealth of information that our government publishes on the Internet. The United States Federal Government is well known as the largest statistics producing entity in the world. One rarely hears of governmental endeavors in the areas of the arts and humanities, unless it is in reference to lack of funding and other support. Where is the art? Where is the beauty? Where is the philosophy and literature? Does our government have no interest in promoting these aspects of citizenship? Does everything have to be statutory, regulatory, or statistical? No, gentle readers, there is a small pocket of government resources pertaining in some way, shape, or form to those things that enrich our lives, namely the humanities. While not all of the humanities (here defined as language, literature, philosophy, history, and the arts) are covered in governmental sites, there are some resources that humanities scholars and enthusiasts might find useful. Come with me and see where government and the humanities meet.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) defines itself on its homepage as "...a federal agency that supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities." The site describes opportunities for NEH funding, as well as current and past films, exhibits, and books funding through the NEH. The "Around the Country" section provides state-by-state access to NEH projects throughout the country so that you can see what NEH is doing in your hometown. Of particular interest are the online projects, a list of Web sites connecting to Internet resources in history, literature, language, classics, and music. For those of you who are movie buffs, check out the NEH funded " "Exploring Amistad" to get some first-hand accounts of the early nineteenth century slave revolt that is the historical basis for Steven Spielberg's recent movie release.
Comparable to the NEH, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) covers much of the information for the fine arts segment of the humanities. There are three main components of this site: 1)arts.community, an online periodical containing news and features about the arts, as well as a gallery of works by American visual artists; 2) information on NEA funding; and 3) an online Arts Resource Center providing access to an online catalog of NEA publications, online publications, and state, international, and service organization contact information.
The National Gallery of Art Web site is a real gem for resources in the visual and decorative arts. The "Collection" section of this site features a "Tour of the Week," as well as tours of portions of the Gallery collection by medium and school. Each tour starts with an overview and then links to online images (full-screen versions available) with accompanying information about the period, artist, and work including a bibliography, provenance, and location of the work in the Gallery. The "Exhibitions" section provides information about current, upcoming exhibitions, and links to virtual tours of other exhibitions. Other interesting sections cover additional resources available from the National Gallery, and information on programs and events sponsored by the Gallery.
The Smithsonian Institution site provides access to the many and varied resources housed in the museums, galleries, and centers comprising the Institution. (Did you know that the National Zoo was a branch of the Smithsonian?) This parent site organizes links to each of the member organizations, which are apparently individually responsible for the information that they make available on the Web. Many of them have very detailed sites that include well-developed and presented virtual tours, collection descriptions, and contact information. The "Resources and Tours" section of this site opens up another treasure trove of online resources and virtual tours. There is a fair amount of information from the domain of the sciences at this site, but history, art, folklife, culture, and areas of cultural study are by no means under-represented.
The last stop on this whirlwind tour of humanities sources from the government is the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). NARA, as you can imagine, houses a wealth of information pertaining to U.S. history. What might surprise you is the breadth of coverage in NARA's collections. Not only are there primary documents in NARA's collection, but also posters, photographs, and other objects. Selected images of all of these materials are available from the NARA Web site, providing some added interest for scholars in fields besides history. See the "Online Exhibit Hall" for samples of some of these "goodies." NARA also maintains a "Digital Classroom" section with a wealth and variety of resources for educators. NARA's "Research Room" provides access to holdings information, as well as guides to using its services, facilities, and collections.
With a little digging and some creative thinking, humanities folks can tap
into governmental resources to pursue their research and personal interests.
The few sites mentioned above are really just the tip of the iceberg. Let your
mind and mouse wander and see what else you can find. Remember to enjoy your
search, as enjoyment can only enhance the quality of the process.
--William Spivey, Electronics Documents Librarian, Public Documents & Maps,
Perkins Library, Duke University
In some quarters, China is looked upon merely as a billion potential consumers of various American products. The World Bank recently published a seven-volume series, "China 2020," which focuses on the world's fastest growing economy. The reports examine recent history, where China is today and make conjectures on the direction it should take into the 21st century.
These attractive publications average 100 pages and include tables, charts, glossaries, graphs, and bibliographies. Boxes and sidebars explain unfamiliar concepts. Quite often statistics are given at the province or municipal level. Some reports describe several possible solutions to a problem, then provide projections on the outcome of each solution.
These descriptions of the volumes are based on the publisher's blurb.
"China 2020: Development Challenges in the New Century" $30. ISBN 0-8213-4042-5. This introductory volume gives an overview of the country's strengths and weaknesses as well as obstacles and available options.
"Clear Water, Blue Skies" China's Environment in the New Center" $20. ISBN 0-8213-4044-1. Explores the impact of economic growth on the environment.
"At China's Table: Food Security Options" $20. ISBN 0-8213-4046-8. How to avoid national chronic food scarcity is the topic of this report.
"Financing Health Care: Issues and Options for China" $20. ISBN 0-8213-4048-4. This volume assesses the state of health care in China and discusses issues relating to financial access to health care, efficiency, and total cost.
"Sharing Rising Incomes: Disparities in China." $20. ISBN 0-8213-4075-1. Topics included in this volume include disparities in income relating to education, occupation, gender as well as the impact of land distribution on incomes and welfare.
"Old Age Security: Pension Reform in China." $20. ISBN 0-8213-4077-8. The current pension system in China has two problems: the pension burden placed on state-owned enterprises and the long-term problem of a rapidly aging population.
"China Engaged: Integration with the Global Economy." $20. ISBN 0-8213-4079-4. Since China is projected to become the world's second-largest trading nation by 2020, this report discusses how and why.
The entire seven volume set can be purchased for $120; a savings of $30.
ISBN 0-8213-4081-6. The World Bank, P.
O. Box 7242-8619. Philadelphia, PA 19170-8619. FAX 703-661-1501. Click on
"Publications."
--Michael Van Fossen, State/International Documents Librarian, UNC, Chapel
Hill
At the business meeting of the NCLA Documents Section, which followed our program at the Biennial Conference, Nancy Kolenbrander of Western Carolina University was elected our new Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. Ann Miller also formally became our Chair for the next year. Jack McGeachy continues as our Secretary/Treasurer. Look elsewhere in this issue for a full list of Executive Board members.
The Documents Section met on October 8, 1997, during the NCLA's biennial conference in Raleigh, to hear a presentation on "Internet Access to Public Documents." Three speakers discussed a number of web sites that will prove helpful to users of government document resources. The meeting had the largest audience of any section meeting remembered by the officers presiding; the numbers were hard to count in the darkened room, but were estimated to be between 125 and 140 persons.
Mary Horton, the government documents librarian at Wake Forest University, gave the first presentation of the afternoon. She talked about "Finding Government Information on the Web" using this outline of sources.
Great American Web Site is compiled by a non-governmental research firm dedicated to providing access to Uncle Sam's voluminous sources of information. It's administered by the General Service Administration, is user-friendly, and full of great links. A great resource for answers to frequently asked questions about patents, taxes, government sales, etc.
Virtual Tour of the U.S. Government offers links to the "White House and branches of the US Government. Additional links lead to Hot Government Topics, House and Senate Web Sites, the Judicial Branch, Government Information Resources, Library of Congress Exhibits, White House Press Releases, Gallop Polls, Historical Documents, Politics and Political News groups."
Wings is maintained by the US Postal Service, and has links to hundreds of Government agencies and services. It's user friendly and comprehensive.
Official Federal Government Web Sites is a Library of Congress Internet resource page with hundreds of links to federal government web sites.
Federal Web Locator "is a service provided by the Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy and is intended to be the one stop shopping point for federal government information on the World Wide Web. This list is maintained to bring the cyber citizen to the federal government's doorstep."
FedWorld is a site containing more than 10,000 data files produced by the government. Popular files include Federal Job Announcements. FedWorld also has a search engine that will scan its subject lists that describe a number of U.S. Government websites.
FinanceNet is the "one-stop-shop" for the sale of public assets and surplus government property. As one of the National Performance Review initiatives FinanceNet aims to "link participants in a global outreach effort to improve the way governments manage the public's resources."
Federal Bulletin Board is the site used by the White House, Executive Branch and Independent Agencies to distribute electronic files to the public. Files of special interest include Supreme Court opinions and Senate Vote analysis.
Monthly Catalog is a searchable catalog of all US Government publications since 1976. It will include more publications than are available in your local depository library.
Publications Reference File PRF [now Claitor's GPO Sales Product Catalog] is a catalog of titles published and sold by the U.S. Government Printing Office. The PRF contains information on about 15,000 in-stock and 15,000 out-of-print GPO titles.
GPO's Pathway Services offers a list of browse topics similar to GPO's printed Subject bibliographies. You can Browse Electronic Titles. It provides direct access to individual publications located on servers at official Federal agency World Wide Web sites.
GPO's Pathway Indexer searches over 1350 official U.S. Federal agency and military Internet sites. The GovBot site at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, indexes over 300,000 Web pages from U.S. government and military Internet sites.
GPO home page is the top level web page for GPO.
FDLP home page is the home of a number of resources needed to administer a federal documents depository collection.
U.S. Historic Documents from the University of Kansas archives nearly 500 full-text documents relating to American experience.
Avalon Project from Yale Law School "will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government."
Brief Guide to Citing Government Publications from the Uncle Sam site at the University of Memphis.
Electronic Citation Style Manuals has links to eight sources of information relating citation norms for electronic sources. Its home is the library at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Core Documents of U.S. Democracy is a core group of current and historical Government publications being made available for free, permanent, public access via the GPO Access service.
Documents in the News identifies issues about government making news headlines and web sources with additional information.
Frequently Used Sources is a long list of links frequently visited by librarians at the University of North Texas.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the top level web page for the central bank of the United States.
USPTO Patent Database is a contract site where copies of recent U.S. patents can be searched. The database here has patents from January 1976 to the present.
Copyright Office has forms and publications relating to the copyright process.
EDGAR is the site to locate electronic copies of financial reports submitted by publicly held U.S. companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
U.S. Business Advisor "development effort was led by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and National Performance Review (NPR) which used their resources to enlist the support and participation of ...government agencies...The U.S. Business Advisor was built using input and ideas from the business community..."
The State Department's Coordinator of Business Affairs "ensures that appropriate U.S. business interests are taken into account in the foreign policy process. It coordinates State Department advocacy on behalf of American businesses and offers them problem-solving assistance in opening markets, leveling playing fields, and resolving trade and investment disputes."
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is a new system to classify businesses. It is replacing the SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) Code.
State Department the home page for the State Department.
DOSFAN is an official U.S. government source for reports and documents of the State Department. It is run as "a partnership of United States Department of State, UIC Library, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Federal Depository Library Program."
U.S. Foreign Policy is a section of the document resources indexed by the University of Michigan Documents Center.
GPO Access offers indexing of the major publications of Congress. The site includes more than 70 databases and is expanding as more and more government authors bring their electronic titles to GPO for distribution.
Thomas also contains indexing of legislative information on the Internet, and is easier to use than GPO Access. It began as an initiative of the Contract with America, and is a service of the Library of Congress.
U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library "is provided to you courtesy of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives as part of the Counsel's mission to make the law (particularly the U.S. Code) available to the public." It provides "free public access to the basic documents of U.S. law, (and) ... provide(s) access to the other law resources of the Internet."
Federal Court Decisions lists multiple sources of federal court decisions and rules via the Internet.
Supreme Court Decisions are included back to 1893 among the FindLaw resources. It's a big site with lots of legal research possibilities.
U.S. House of Representatives Home Page and U.S. Senate Home Page are the official Internet portals to these two bodies. They offer directory information, and links to committee home pages.
FindLaw offers access to laws, both case and statutory, legal news, a law crawler, a bookstore and a jobs center.
LawCrawler from the same Findlaw resource allows Boolean searches of legal material.
Georgetown University Legal Explorer is a major entry point to electronic legal material.
Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy is another mega site of electronic legal resources.
Tying It All Together is a page from the House of Representatives web server that describes the legislative process. Included here are also narrative pages titled "The Legislative Process" and "How Our Laws Are Made"
School House Rock's I'm Just A Bill is a light-hearted, lyrical approach to the legislative process.
CDC is the home page for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports is a publication of the CDC. The site including an index of the MMWR "from 1993 through the present is now available (although still being updated)."
CDC Wonder "is a general-purpose public health information and communications system developed by CDC. It provides a single point of access to a variety of CDC reports, guidelines, and even numeric public health data."
National Library of Medicine an agency home page. Free Medline "On June 26, 1997, NLM announced that its MEDLINE database of more than 9 million references to articles published in the 3800 biomedical journals may be accessed free of charge on the World Wide Web. Two Web-based products, Internet Grateful Med and PubMed provide this access."
Healthfinder "is a gateway consumer health and human services information web site from the United States government."
FedStats "More than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this site to provide easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by agencies for public use."
Statistical Resources is another rich page of links from the University of Michigan's Documents Center.
Historical Census Data has historical, social, economic, and demographic census data from 1790-1860. Data can be selected by year, state, and variable. "Data on this server are available for browsing and examination, but cannot be downloaded."
Census Bureau the top level page of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It includes a search feature, and an alphabetical list of subjects.
Statistical Abstract "As the National Data Book it contains a collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States. Selected international data are also included. The Abstract is also your Guide to Sources of other data from the Census Bureau, other Federal agencies, and private organizations."
Government Information Sharing Project is a site at Oregon State University where CD-ROM products of the depository library program have been put up on a web site. The data are from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the National Center for Education Statistics.
Census CD-ROMs at the University of California is another large site where depository CD-ROM products are mounted.
County and City Data Books (1988, 1994) are available from the University of Virginia Library's Social Sciences Data Center.
National Center for Health Statistics "monitoring the nation's health."
National Center for Educational Statistics maintains an electronic catalog and on-line library. You can "find information about reports and data products that NCES has released. In most cases you may also browse the content of the report or download files that you can work with on your own computer."
Bureau of Labor Statistics the first place to look for labor statistics.
Bureau of Justice Statistics another agency's home page.
Justice Information Center has data provided by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
Uniform Crime Reports is among the FBI publications found on this page. Other titles found here are the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, and Hate Crime Statistics.
INS--Statistics and Public Information Whether you are coming or going, useful information will be found here.
Handbook of International Economic Statistics is available from the CIA at this site. Other interesting titles from the CIA are available from the <...publications/pubs/html>page.
Statistics in Latin America--LANIC from the University of Texas, Austin - Latin American Network Information Center has links to a number of resources for Latin American information.
Eurostat offers statistics from the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
General Services Administration is the housekeeping agency for the federal government. "We provide expertly managed space, supplies, services, and solutions, at the best value, to enable Federal employees to accomplish their missions."
General Accounting Office "is the investigative arm of Congress. Charged with examining matters relating to the receipt and disbursement of public funds, GAO performs audits and evaluations of Government programs and activities.
GAO Reports and Testimony is a page with lists of GAO reports and congressional testimony from 1988 to the present. Material from 1995 forward may be searched by an index.
America's Job Bank "is a state operated program which provides labor exchange service to employers and job seekers through a network of 1800 offices throughout the United States ... (Its) computerized network links state Employment Service offices to provide job seekers with the largest pool of active job opportunities available anywhere."
Forms from the Feds is a page from the University of Memphis' regional depository library which "contains downloadable government electronic forms. Over the years, we have had requests for many of these, but they have never been available to depository libraries. This list is not comprehensive, but comprises those forms most asked for by the public."
North Carolina Information Server is "the World Wide Web server for the state of North Carolina." Included here are lists of "all the state agencies known to have information available via the Internet."
North Carolina General Assembly can be used to search for bill information from 1996-98.
North Carolina Institute of Government "This site provides access to the resources of the Institute of Government, the largest and most diversified of the university-based governmental training and research organizations in the United States. NCINFO was developed in partnership with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the North Carolina League of Municipalities. From here, you can connect to many local, state, and federal government information resources."
North Carolina State Library. "web resources focus on services the library is uniquely able to provide to support the state's libraries, our state government agencies, the business community, genealogists and the blind and physically handicapped.
North Carolina Courts is the site for judicial information for the state. It's run by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
North Carolina Supreme Court site includes opinions, dockets, and calendars of cases. The catalog of the Supreme Court Library has recently gone on-line.
North Carolina Court of Appeals has opinions from that court.
Office of State Personnel. maintains a web page with publications and policies relating to state employment. Also here are links to the state's Jobs Vacancy Listings of positions within state government.
North Carolina's Job Bank is run by the Employment Security Commission. "This self-directed system contains a listing of current job openings provided primarily by employers located in North Carolina."
Foreign Governments on the Web is a page "maintained by the GODORT International Documents Task Force and Northwestern University Library." It has an alphabetical list of countries and official web sites therein.
Sites for Individual Countries is a portion of the Yahoo search site with links to web sites organized by country name.
Country Studies/Area Handbooks "a continuing series of books (on individual countries) prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army." A deadline to have 60 countries on the web by June 1996 has long past, and only a link to Ethiopia is found.
CIA World Fact Book The 1996 edition of the publication is here.
Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments has lists of these country officials that carry different dates, some are older than others.
The Embassy Page is run by GlobeScope Internet Services which is described as "the Internet Presence Provider of Choice for Embassies, Consulates and UN Missions." It has links to sites in more than 100 countries.
Embassies and Consulates is another Yahoo page with links to embassies and consulates.
Electronic Embassy has "information on all of the Foreign Embassies of Washington D. C."
Foreign Consular Offices in the United States has the 1996 edition of this State Department publication.
International Governmental Organizations is a page with links to International organizations maintained by the GODORT International Documents Task Force and Northwestern University Library.
International Agencies and Information on the Web is another comprehensive set of links maintained by the University of Michigan's Documents Center.
United Nations the top level page for this organization.
Wake Forest is the home of the author of the web page with the sites described above. That documents department web page has these links: About Us, Federal Info, State & Local, International, Congressional Compass, Marcive Web Docs, Docs Librarianship. [These have changed since Mary did her presentation in Oct. 1997, and I updated them to what they are now. ed.]
Duke also has links to Congressional Compass and to Marcive's web site. The top level page has jumps to Federal Information, State & Local Info, International Info, Maps and Spatial Info, Electronic Resources, Resources for Duke Classes, Reference Services, Department Info.
UNC-Chapel Hill offers these choices from the department's top level page: Local, State, Federal, United Nations/International Governmental Organizations, Foreign Governments, Davis Library Documents Section, Government Information by Subject, Searching for Government Information, Major Databases, Of Professional Interest to Documents Librarians, Managing Electronic Documents, Search Engines.
NC State has a link to the GPO Access databases, and a description of the collections found at NC State. The patent and technical reports collections are State's drawing cards. [The reporter wishes to add a plug for his Senate Bibliographies Project.]
University of Michigan is an award-winning site. It has been referenced in the resources reported above. Kudos to Grace York.
Two speakers presented a discussion of web sites of interest to high school teachers and students. The presentation by Linda Reida, Media Coordinator, Tuscola High School, Waynesville; and Nancy Kolenbrander, Documents Unit Head, Western Carolina University, has been published in North Carolina Libraries (55:3, Fall 1997, p. 120-123). In the interest of space, only the URLs of the sites comprising the North Carolina Libraries article are given here. For the presenters' discussion of the sites, please refer to that article.
Environmental Protection Agency
USGS, Biological Resources Division
Ann Miller, newly installed Documents Section Chair, asked the audience a series of questions in hopes of starting a dialogue. How do you use the web? How do you find useful sites? What tricks have you learned? Where is good, new governmental information available electronically? How often are web sites used in reference? What are your favorite sites? Do you know tips to get yourself through the hierarchy of pages at big web sites?
Statistics that formerly appeared in printed government reports are now on the web, but are not always easy to find. Government sites often assume users are familiar with the agency's organization chart. There is a great deal of fluidity in the government's web sites; a great number of changes take place on them. There is little stability in this new environment.
Mike Van Fossen noted that there is lots of information from international organizations on the web. The United Nations site includes texts of resolutions back to 1973, and has texts of speeches and general debates, along with conference documents. Embassy sites may have texts of speeches by their representatives. The United Nations' CyberSchoolbus is an excellent resource for school kids and Model UN students. The European Union, NATO, and the World Bank all have statistics available, and more is being added to their sites. Unfortunately the search engines at a lot of sites are not very impressive.
Ann underscored the University of Michigan's Documents Center web site as an
excellent place for leads to further web sites. She mentioned also GODORT's
handout exchange as another resource.
--Jack McGeachy, NCSU, Secretary/Treasurer, Documents Section
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Chair Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect Secretary/Treasurer Past Chair |
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Docket Editor NC Libraries Board Representative Regional Librarian State Documents Clearinghouse |
Volume 25 Number 1
Spring 1998
Editor: Marilyn Schuster
Production: Pat Langelier
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;
704/547-3983; fax 704/547-2232; email: mbschust@email.uncc.edu.
Address other mail to Jack McGeachy, NCSU Libraries, Box 7111, 2601
Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC 27695-7111; 919/515-3280 or 4221; fax
919/515-7098; email: Jack_McGeachy@ncsu.edu.