Reserved for general report if submitted.
Sally Lawler held a poster session on Think Globally, Act Locally: Depository Promotion to Other Libraries and the Community. In a nutshell, librarians are professionally trained NOT to be advocates, yet document librarians often know just the resources that grassroots and other community-based organizations need to contextualize local issues and to shape public policy. With renewed outreach efforts, the GODORT Speakers Bureau can level the playing field for our neighbors, whether they be non-depository reference librarians or local community advocates. Creating Web page tutorials around social issues can provide outlets for creativity as well as promote electronic government documents.
Lawler offered an example of a tutorial that integrates racial and ethnic diversity in a Web page, Transportation as a Civil Rights Issue. Lawler challenged colleagues to become involved in their communities and to author one-stop shopping centers for community concerns.
To become involved in the Speakers Bureau, please contact Sally Lawler, Coordinator, Research Support Center, Purdy/Kresge Library, Wayne State University, 5265 Cass Ave., Detroit, MI 48202; E-Mail: ad5748@wayne.edu; telephone: (313) 577-1603; fax: (313) 577-4172.
If you are interested in creating a personalized union list of depository selections from your library and any others, you can do so by utilizing the Documents Data Miner at
http://kronos.niar.twsu.edu/govdocs/GdocFrames.asp and GPO's Item Lister at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/itemlist.html.
The Documents Data Miner allows you to export your home selections and not selected Depository Item List to Microsoft Excel. Once you have the information from the List of Classes via the Data Miner, you can use GPO's Item Lister to obtain selections (using choice no. 4, selections and non-selections in a single column) from another depository or depositories of interest to you. The Excel wizard takes you through several steps to create your Excel documents. A database can then be produced by linking to your Excel files.
I originally created a union list of the three depositories in the 11th Congressional District using the Item Lister and the List of Classes from the Federal Bulletin Board, but I find the Data Miner easier to use. I created this list to use in the Zero-Based Item Selection process and found it to be extremely useful when deciding what to select and/or drop. Since I was not that familiar with Access, it took me several hours to do the first list. Hopefully, the instructions I have compiled will make it easier to create your own union list. I will be happy to provide handouts and answer questions of any librarian who would like to produce his or her own list.
Please contact me by e-mail at jschneid@schoolcraft.cc.mi.us or by telephone at (734) 462-4400, extension 5323.
Source: Janet Schneider, Bradner Library, Schoolcraft College, 18600 Haggerty Road, Livonia, MI 48152-2696
As government documents librarians, we all know that we're sitting on a goldmine of information, AND we know we are supposed to be out there promoting them! But with everything else we have to do, who has time left over for promotion activities?
Well, I have a few ideas that might help! I categorize them as one-time activities or ongoing procedures that can become part of your normal workflow. The one-time activities take very little time. For example:
Adding annotations for each title on your New Government Documents list is another good idea for promoting these new documents, although while I did that for about 18 months, the time investment on my part was far too high. Plus, writing annotations is not something you can usually delegate to students!
So I developed the following method for creating New Government Documents lists at NMU. I want to emphasize that the point of such a list is to promote the tangible documents that you have received in your own library. As a value-added feature, I then decided to check for an online full-text version of the same document. And finally, after the typed list was complete, with URLs included, I also turned the list itself into a web page and hotlinked the URLs.
In the beginning I was trying to do all of this alone, but again, I realized that my time investment was too high. I did not want to let go of the idea, however, because it was turning out to be our single, most effective promotion technique. As a result, I delegated and/or trained various staff to handle almost each part of the procedure! There are eight steps:
Source: Kelly Eastwood, Government Information Librarian, Assistant Professor, Olson Library, Northern Michigan University,
Marquette, MI 49855; e-mail: keastwoo@nmu.edu; telephone: (906) 227-2112; URL:
http://www.nmu.edu/www-edgar/ais/govdocs.htm
An ongoing procedure that can still be termed "low maintenance" is the New Government Documents lists that you can create. We're all familiar with typed lists of documents, books, etc.; we've all done them, if not now, then sometime in the past. And a simple typed list of SuDoc numbers and titles can still be useful in certain situations. For example, until we began subscribing to Marcive's Shipping List Service (SLS) last spring, a simple typed list that came out once a month provided the only access to many documents that had not yet been cataloged.
By the time the entire process has been completed, most of it has been delegated to various staff members and students who have incorporated their small part of the process into their regular workflow. Remarkably, the time investment on my end has been reduced to approximately 30 minutes per month: I choose the hot docs, I group the cards into broad topic areas, and I double-check the final product. In this way, a very effective promotion tool has been created without any one person doing the majority of the work. And as I've mentioned, it has brought excellent results! Take a look for yourself at http://www.nmu.edu/www-edgar/ais/govdocs2.htm.
-- check under immediate agency
-- check under document title or SuDoc number
¨ Can be delegated to students or staff
The Government Documents Roundtable of Michigan has been active on several fronts this year. Individual members and the organization wrote letters in support of S2298, 105th Congress, the Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998. S288 was intended to reform Title 44 of the US Code but did not make it out of the Senate.
The issue of restrictions of access to electronic information, including GPO Access, unexpectedly became a problem in some libraries, of all types, across Michigan. Ann Marie Sanders, Debbi Schaubman, and Amy Salo volunteered to work on a policy statement for the Executive Board to send to members, libraries, and public officials. As a result of a swift and strong statement from the Michigan Council of Federal Depository Libraries, new service guidelines issued by the FDLP in September, new Internet use guidelines issued by the FDLP in January, and the ALA statement "Libraries: An American Value", adopted in February, the work of the committee was put on hold.
The Speakers Bureau, headed by Sally Lawler, continued to respond to requests. GODORT of Michigan co-sponsored the biennial general meeting of the Michigan Council of Federal Depository Libraries on February 17-18 in Lansing, along with the Western Michigan Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, and will co-sponsor a program with the Michigan Association of Law Libraries in May. The Awards Committee was still looking for a third member to work along with Deborah Jakubiec, Chair, and Victoria Morris. Sherry Mosley, of Florida International University, was appointed to a 3-year term as the Thurston Award liaison to GODORT of ALA by President Kathy Tezla of Emory University.
I have repeatedly sought information about how to submit our annual payment to the national organization; but there is no procedure at this time. GODORT of ALA Membership Committee Chair, Bill Suddith, is working to regularize the relationships of state-level government documents roundtables and other interest groups nationwide. GODORT of ALA may be working toward strengthening activities related to state and local government information. This is something GODORT of Michigan might want to examine in upcoming programs and initiatives.
The Anniversary Committee of Michaelina Brown, Chair, Debbi Schaubman, and Grace York worked long and hard to plan the luncheon we enjoyed before this business meeting today. We all thank them. Richard Vettese headed up work on nominations this year, and is also due our appreciation.
The Executive Board has been supportive in all ways and a joy to work with. Janet Schneider, Director-at-Large, Debbie Gallagher, Treasurer, Sharon Bradley, Secretary, completed their work reliably and accurately. Larry Hall, Past-President, continued to support our efforts, and good wishes are due him on his retirement this past Tuesday. Margo Zieske, President-Elect/Program Chair, and the Program Committee worked to bring the best to our meetings, starting with the first program in September. It is heartening to see the cooperation of the Program Committee with other organizations and committees. And the Editor of Red Tape, Jon Harrison, continued to produce a publication which is praised and valued nationwide, and is eminently useful to each of us in our libraries.
I will always treasure the privilege of serving as President of the Government Documents Roundtable of Michigan. When I came to Michigan to work twenty years ago, little did I dream that our local GODORT would remain one of the strongest in the country for more than twenty years. Many dedicated members have made it so. I have no doubt GODORT of Michigan will remain strong in the future as individuals and organizations continue to value the effective use of information compiled and issued by all levels of government.
Respectfully submitted April 22, 1999,
Paula Kaczmarek
GODORT of Michigan President 1998-99
The Michigan Council of Federal Depository Libraries will meet Friday, June 25 at 10:00 a.m. in the Great Lakes Room at the Library of Michigan.
The Council will be discussing revision of the state plan disposal guidelines to accomodate the replacement of tangible government documents with online editions. The Council will also be making decisions on a possible acceptance of unlimited disposal lists in either the E, H, or Y classifications in November of 1999.
For more information or to indicate that you wish to attend, please contact any member of Council or e-mail govdoc@libofmich.lib.mi.us
Source: Ann Marie Sanders, GOVDOC-M, June 11, 1999.
, lest we outgrow the room.
While looking for information for Red Tape, I discovered the following web site:
Saundra W. Williams and Staff Win Godort of Michigan Paul W. Thurston Award,
http://www.lib.memphis.edu/gpo/thurston.htm
In celebration of Godort of Michigan's twentieth anniversary, Paula Kaczmarek compiled a series of historical lists which are now available on the Godort of Michigan Home Page at http://www.lib.msu.edu/harris23/migodort/migodort.htm. The lists include:
One list has disappeared - Treasurers. If anyone has a paper copy of this list which was posted at the anniversary meeting, please send it to the Red Tape Editor so he can add it to the web page.
.
Jon Harrison
This page has been visited
times since June 1, 1996.
