Solar Technology Review from National Laboratory

Many see energy technology as an important component of the future world economy. In the US, much of the public sector work on energy technology research is driven by the Department of Energy through the national laboratories, which employee over 30,000 scientists and engineers.

Many of these labs regularly issue useful reports for students interested in energy research or policy. One example is the 2008 Solar Technologies Market Report (PDF), issued by the National Renewable Energy Lab. The report is a great one-stop resource for information on this topic. From the executive summary:

The focus of this report is the U.S. solar electricity market, including photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies. The report is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of global and U.S. installation trends. Chapter 2 presents production and shipment data, material and supply chain issues, and solar industry employment trends. Chapter 3 presents cost, price, and performance trends. Chapter 4 discusses policy and market drivers such as recently passed federal legislation, state and local policies, and developments in project financing. Chapter 5 provides data on private investment trends and near-term market forecasts.

Other recent NREL publications can be found here; a full list of all national laboratories and research centers can be found on the Department of Energy's website, here.

One More Health Care Bill Analysis

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in conjunction with the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, has again issued an analysis of the health care bill, this time focusing on the proposal that passed the Senate, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The official CBO blog has an overview of the analysis here; the full analysis is available here (PDF). From the overview:

CBO and JCT now estimate that, on balance, the direct (mandatory) spending and revenue effects of enacting H.R. 3590 as passed by the Senate would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $118 billion over the 2010–2019 period. (Direct spending—as distinguished from discretionary spending—is spending that stems from legislation other than appropriation acts.) In our earlier estimate, the budgetary impact was a net reduction in deficits of $132 billion.

Mexican Border Violence

Drug-related border issues between the United States and Mexico have long been documented. There has been a recent uptick in violence across the border in Mexico in recent months, and it's increasing concerns that the violence could spill into the US. The Congressional Research Service recently looked into the issue, issuing a report that can be found here (PDF).

In an examination of data that could provide insight into whether there has been a significant spillover in drug trafficking-related violence from Mexico into the United States, CRS analyzed violent crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report program. The data, however, do not allow analysts to determine what proportion of the violent crime rate is related to drug trafficking or, even more specifically, what proportion of drug trafficking-related violent crimes can be attributed to spillover violence. In conclusion, because the trends in the overall violent crime rate may not be indicative of trends in drug trafficking-related violent crimes, CRS is unable to draw definitive claims about trends in drug trafficking-related violence spilling over from Mexico into the United States.

2009-2010 Congressional Directory

The Government Printing Office has just added the 2009-2010 Congressional Directory (111th Congress) to its websites, available on FDSys and GPO Access .

The Congressional Directory is one of those little books that every lobbyist and Hill activist keeps handy. It's the official directory for the U.S. Congress, made available in the first session of every Congress. It provides short bios of every elected official, office contact information for both DC and district offices, committee assignments, and key staff listings. For example, here is the listing for Fairfax's own Rep. Gerry Connolly:

ELEVENTH DISTRICT

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Democrat, of Fairfax, VA; born in Boston, MA, March 30, 1950; education: graduated B.A., Maryknoll College; M.A., public administration, Harvard University, 1979; professional: member, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, 1995-2003, chairman, 2003-07; religion: Roman Catholic; married: Cathy; children: Caitlin; committees: Budget; Foreign Affairs; Oversight and Government Reform; elected to the 111th Congress on November 4, 2008.

Office Listings
http://www.geraldconnolly.house.gov

327 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.
(202) 225-1492 FAX: 225-3071
Chief of Staff.--James Walkinshaw.
Legislative Director.--Dominic Bonaiuto.
Communications Director.--George Burke.

4115 Annandale Road, Annandale, VA 22003
...............(703) 256-3071
District Director.--Sharon Stark.

4308 Ridgewood Center Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22192
...............(703) 670-4989
Prince William Director.--Colin Davenport.

Counties: Fairfax (part), Prince William (part). Cities: Alexandria, Annandale, Burke, Centreville, Clifton, Fairfax, Fairfax Station, Herndon, Lorton, Manassas, Oakton, Occoquan, Springfield, Vienna, and Woodbridge. Population (2000), 643,509.

ZIP Codes: 20069-70, 20109-10, 20112, 20119-22, 20124, 20136-37, 20155-56, 20168-69, 20171, 20181-82, 22003, 22009, 22015, 22027, 22030-33, 22035, 22038-39, 22044, 22060, 22079, 22081-82, 22102, 22116, 22118-21, 22124-25, 22150-53, 22156, 22158-61, 22180-83, 22185, 22191-95, 22199, 22308-09, 22312

It also includes extensive Executive and Judicial branch contact information, as well as contacts for media, embassies, state governors, and DC city government.

In addition to find the Directory on FDsys and GPO Access, you can purchase it from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore. It also will be distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program in hardcover format (meaning Mason Libraries will get a copy). The classification info will be: Y 4.P 93/1:1/111; if you need it but aren't sure where to find it, ask a librarian.

The Global Automotive Industry in the Recession

Much has been made of the decline of Detroit's "Big 3" car companies. However, the current global recession has also hurt the automotive industry in several other advanced economies as well. The OECD recently published a report looking at these challenges, found here (PDF). From the report's abstract:

This paper considers the role of the automobile industry in the current cycle. It shows that the industry is economically important and its cycle is intertwined with business cycles. After casting some light on the sources of the collapse in car sales at the start of the crisis, the policy measures, in particular car scrapping programmes, put in place to support the automobile industry are discussed. The paper also derives short and medium term projections of car sales. While a rebound in car sales is likely in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom, car sales in Germany have been pushed significantly above trend and may weaken going forward. Over the medium term, in mature markets such as Europe and North America, trend sales are likely to remain stagnant. By contrast, rapid increases are foreseen in China and to a lesser extent in India.

The report is a useful resource for students studying the consequences of the current international recession, or simply how economic cycles generally harm important industries.

Health Care Reform Update

The big news yesterday was the daylong summit between President Obama and several members of both major parties from the House and Senate, including party leadership from both houses. While it's best to leave discussion of the summit's political and legislative consequences to strategists and pundits, it is worth taking a quick look at some of the more recent analyses of this important issue.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has created a good introductory report providing an overview of some of the salient health care reform issues here (PDF); it is six months old but still very relevant. CRS doesn't make their reports public, but many organizations collect these reports and make them available. Students can use Open CRS as a gateway to search for more reports from the CRS on health care reform.

After reading through the above report, another indispensable resource is the Kaiser Family Foundation's page on reform proposals. It allows the user to make easy side-by-side comparisons of two or more proposals, including the House bill, the Senate bill, the White House proposal, and many of the previous proposals.

Lastly, students looking for more in-depth analysis and information can browse the Congressional Budget Office's regularly updated catalog of health care reform-related reports.

Critiquing Macroeconomic Policy

Macroeconomic policy tools are those that allow the world's governments and central bankers to manage national economies. These include monetary policy - which means controlling a nation's money supply through interest rate adjustments, for example - and fiscal policy, which includes tax and expenditure changes like stimulus packages.

The recent financial crisis has many economists re-thinking the conventional wisdom on many of these topics. A good, concise, and highly readable example of these critiques is this policy note (PDF) recently released by the International Monetary Fund. The report reads:

It was tempting for macroeconomists and policymakers alike to take much of the credit for the steady decrease in cyclical fluctuations from the early 1980s on and to conclude that we knew how to conduct macroeconomic policy. We did not resist temptation. The crisis clearly forces us to question our earlier assessment.

This is what this paper tries to do. It proceeds in three steps. The first reviews what we thought we knew. The second identifies where we were wrong. The third, and the most tentative of the three, takes a first pass at the contours of a new macroeconomic policy framework.

It's a good resource for students interested in these issues.

School Lunch Policies and Nutrition

There's been an ongoing focus of childhood obesity in the U.S., and school lunches can play a role in improving it. A recent report by the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service studied the effects that school lunch policies can have on food nutrition value, dividing schools into categories based on fat content of meals. The report found:

The fat content of school lunches was statistically correlated with many school policies and characteristics in the spring of 2005. Some policies and practices, such as whether french fries are regularly served, can directly affect the nutritional content of USDA lunches. Other policies, such as a school’s allowance of “competitive” foods or foods that bypass nutritional standards, can indirectly affect the content of USDA lunches by offering choices that appeal to students’ taste preferences.

The entire report can be read here.

Economic Report of the President

One of the most interesting documents produced by the Executive Branch every year is the Economic Report of the President, which comes out up to ten days after submission of the budget (which we talked about here and here).

The report is essentially an annual overview of economic activity and policy from the previous year, as well as a statement of political principles and priorities from the administration. A more specific list of some of the things included, provided by the Government Printing Office, includes:

• Current and foreseeable trends and annual numerical goals concerning topics such as employment, production, real income and Federal budget outlays.
• Employment objectives for significant groups of the labor force.
• Annual numeric goals.
• A program for carrying out program objectives.

The 2010 report was just released yesterday by the Obama Administration, and can be read or downloaded in a variety of formats here. The report provides a wealth of information and data about the nation's economic activity, and is useful for students trying to develop an understanding of the state of the economy and the nature of the economic downturn.

Previous reports, for every year beginning in 1947, are available via the St. Louis Federal Reserve website.

FY 2011 Budget Proposal: A Guided Tour

Few things receive as much attention - or have such a broad impact on the nation - as the annual federal budgeting process. With yesterday's budget release, noted here, the annual process begins anew.

It's a complex process with significant moving parts, of which the President's budget proposal is the first step, so here are a few resources for students trying to make sense of it.

• The Congressional Research Service has produced a must-read introductory report on the budget process, available here in PDF.
• In the Executive Branch, the Office of Management and Budget is the lead office on developing the budget proposal.
  
• The President proposes the budget, but Congress must approve or modify the President's request. The key committees are the House and Senate budget committees, which create the initial budget resolution to serve as a budgeting blueprint; and the House and Senate appropriations committees, which actually appropriate funding.
  
• Congress doesn't approve the President's budget as one document. Instead, it divides spending by subject into twelve different appropriations bills, which can be passed individually or combined into omnibus bills.
• The Library of Congress keeps track of each spending bill. This link shows spending bills from last year (FY 2010). The library will update its site when the current (FY 2011) appropriations bills are devised and move forward.

Finally, there are several places to find detailed information about the budget proposal.

• The Office of Management and Budget provides an overview and summaries of the budget requests for each department here.
• Individual departments and agencies provide much more detailed budget information. For example, see Commerce; Energy; Veterans Affairs; State; as well as individual agencies like NASA; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; the Small Business Administration; and many others.
• Finally, a good resource for budget analysis is the Congressional Budget Office.
  

Predident's Budget of the U.S. Government , FY 2011

is now available from the U.S. GPO: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/home.action. The online PDF versions of the FY 2011 budget are digitally signed and certified in order to assure users of the authenticity of the documents.

Financial Crisis: Exit and Reform

The financial crisis has hit economies around the world and prompted both short-term questions about how best to alleviate the worst consequences responsibly and long-term questions about reforming the global financial system.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international body of 30 developed countries, recently took a comprehensive look at the current crisis and existing financial institutions and offered a menu of strategy recommendations to help global economic policy managers extricate their economies from the crisis. The foreword to this report (PDF) reads:

Two questions, then, are at the core of this report: How and when can governments safely wind down their emergency measures? And how can we sensibly reform financial markets? The purpose is to draw together and demonstrate the interconnections among a wide range of issues, and in doing so to contribute to global efforts to address these challenges.

The report divides its recommendations into both reforming financial incentives and phasing out emergency measures. The report provides a good resource for students wishing to obtain a deeper understanding the current system of national and international finance.

A Century of Growth

With the arrival of 2010 and the end of the decade, many individuals have spent time looking back at trends over the past ten years, identifying the decade's "bests" and "worsts," or simply pondering how the world has changed since 2000. In the same spirit of looking backward, here is an excellent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research that examines technology and economic growth in four of the world's major economies: France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The authors take a slightly longer view than the previous decade, instead looking back over the Twentieth century.

The report specifically deals with productivity of labor and total input. Productivity gains are a good measure of technological progress: economically, technology helps to increase output generated from a given level of input.

The authors find:

The past 120 years have been characterized by: (i) rapid economic growth and large productivity gains in all four countries; (ii) a long decline of productivity in the United Kingdom relative to the United States, and to a lesser extent also to France and Japan, a relative decline that was interrupted by the second world war (WW2); (iii) the remarkable catching-up to the United States by France and Japan after WW2, that stopped in the case of Japan during the 1990s.

Much, but not all, of these changes are due to the use of information and communication technology (ICT). The report is an excellent resource for learning about how economies change over time.

Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

While the nation grapples with wars overseas and health care reform at home, climate change legislation is steadily making its way through Congress. The House of Representatives already passed a climate package; the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works passed their own legislation, dubbed the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

The legislation would create a cap and trade program targeted at greenhouse gas emissions, push forward carbon capture and storage research, and appropriate funds for a variety of climate and energy-related work at EPA, the Department of Energy, and other agencies. The Congressional Budget Office just completed a cost estimate of the bill to determine budget and deficit impacts. The estimate, worth reading in its entirety here, finds the bill would:

• Increase federal revenues by about $854 billion; and
• Increase direct spending by about $833 billion.

In total, those changes would reduce budget deficits (or increase future surpluses) by about $21 billion over the 2010-2019 period. (All estimated effects would be on-budget.) In years after 2019, direct spending would be less than the net revenues attributable to the legislation in each of the 10-year periods following 2019. Therefore, CBO estimates that enacting S. 1733 would not increase the deficit in any of the four 10-year periods following 2019.

Has the Stimulus Package Worked?

Has the stimulus package worked? It's a question that many inside and outside of government have been asking for a long time. It will likely be some time before anyone is able to say with minimal uncertainty. That said, a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has attempted to provide an answer, at least in terms of job creation. There is still significant uncertainty, however.

The CBO writes in its report (PDF available here):

Recipients report that about 640,000 jobs were created or retained with ARRA funding through September 2009. Such reports, however, do not provide a comprehensive estimate of the law’s impact on employment in the United States. That impact may be higher or lower than the reported number for several reasons (in addition to any issues about the quality of the data in the reports).

Another resource on the stimulus package is this excellent overview (PDF) of fiscal stimulus policy by the Congressional Research Service.

Health Care Bills & Premiums

It's not easy to keep up with all the analyses of the various health care proposals in Congress, but here is an interesting report (PDF) that addresses the impact of the current Senate bill on premiums. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates different impacts for different insurance purchasers:

The effects of the proposal on premiums would differ across insurance markets (see Table 1). The largest effects would be seen in the nongroup market, which would grow in size under the proposal but would still account for only 17 percent of the overall insurance market in 2016. The effects on premiums would be much smaller in the small group and large group markets, which would make up 13 percent and 70 percent of the total insurance market, respectively.

CBO estimates that higher impacts would happen for non-group purchasers than for employer-based group insurance purchasers, who could see a small increase or decrease in premiums. The full report is worth checking out.

Jobs and Growth

With the recession dragging on for many individuals, and the unemployment rate hovering around 10%, there is talk of new legislation to further stimulate job creation. This begs the question, how effective is policy in counteracting the business cycle and creating positive employment outcomes?

Much work has been done on the subject of employment policy and the workforce. Here's a partial reading list for those who are interested. The President's chief economic adviser, Christina Romer, co-authored one paper on the subject in the '90s that gives a good overview of federal responses to recessions; the Government Accountability Office has done extensive work reviewing the Workforce Investment Act; the National Renewable Energy Lab has looked at the economic and employment effects of renewable energy on a state-by-state basis; and the CBO has performed some macroeconomic analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known as the stimulus bill.

Fall Depository Library Conference Meeting, 2009

Now, you can read all about the Fall Depository Meeting whether you attend it or not. The full descriptions of the presentations are available here.

One of the most interesting sessions was "Demystifying Digital Depository: What it is and What it could do for the future of the FDLP." The concept of a digital depository system is that each depository library stores its selected digital documents on its local server in order to ensure access and long-term preservation. This practice would provide additional protection against any financial risk that no single system such as GPO FDsys can provide alone. View this site for the further discussion including the methods of storing documents locally.

Housing Market Report

A major driver of the current financial crisis is the burst housing bubble; many have asked the question, why did the housing market collapse?

The Atlanta Fed Reserve attempts to answer this question in a new study, "Decomposing the Foreclosure Crisis: House Price Depreciation versus Bad Underwriting." In this study, the authors build a model employing exhaustive housing and mortgage data from the past two decades, and then focus on the housing market experience in Massachusetts to try to gain some insight into root causes. The authors come to an interesting conclusion:

We argue that relaxed underwriting standards did severely aggravate the crisis by creating a class of homeowners who were particularly vulnerable to the decline in prices. But, as we show in our counterfactual analysis, that emergence alone, in the absence of a price collapse, would not have resulted in the substantial foreclosure boom that was experienced.

Chesapeake Bay Bill Committee Report

The environmental status and health of the Chesapeake Bay has long been a source of concern for many in our region. There is currently a bill in Congress that attempts to address these issues, by directing OMB and EPA to undertake budgeting and planning for restoration and management.

The bill was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources over the summer; the House Committee report (PDF) on the bill has just been added to GPO's online catalog. Follow the link to learn more about the bill's provisions, background, and legislative history to date.

Filibusters and Cloture

Senator Joe Lieberman (CT) has been in the news lately for his stance on health care reform and whether or not he'll vote for cloture or filibuster any proposals. So...what do these terms all mean?

For an answer, look to this report (PDF) from the Congressional Research Service on cloture and the filibuster. It provides excellent, readable background on what these procedural tactics are and the effects they can have on the legislative process. It was published in 2003, but still very relevant today.

House Hearing Report on Combating Gangs

In light of the recent major drug raids across North America, here you can find a related report from the Government Accountability Office to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Titled "Combating Gangs: Better Coordination and Performance Measurement Would Help Clarify Roles of Federal Agencies and Strengthen Assessment of Efforts," the report addresses the roles of various federal departments and law enforcement agencies in combating gang crime, including coordination, performance measurement, and funding.

The report ultimately recommends that the Department of Justice:

...reexamine roles of headquarters anti-gang entities, establish performance measures for antigang efforts, review [US District Attorney] gang-related case data, and, along with [the Department of Homeland Security], develop a common definition for “gang.”

The report also states that the Homeland Security Department agrees with these recommendations.

Oklahoma State Library Named the Best in the Nation

GPO named the Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries as the 2009 Federal Depository Library of the Year. See the story more at http://www.gpo.gov/pdfs/news-media/press/09news42.pdf

Federal Register in XML format

Federal Register is now available in XML format, which makes them easier to use. The register is easily accessible from FDsys (Federal Digital System)from 1994 on.

President Obama's Health Care Reform Address

to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9 is available (text & Video) on GPO Federal Digital System (FDsys), a one-stop site to authentic, published Government information.

->Link to President's Address
->Link to Video

Swine Flue again.

I am forwarding some flu guidances that our Education Liaison Librarian sent out since that influenza is currently more active:

* New CDC H1N1 Guidance for Colleges, Universities, and Institutions
of Higher Education <http://digbig.com/5bafcc>

* Updated Guidance for Businesses and Employers for the Fall Flu
Season <http://digbig.com/5bafcd>

* Updated Federal Guidelines for 2009 H1N1 Influenza in Schools Offer
Many Options <http://digbig.com/5bafce>

* Influenza A(H1N1) and Pandemic Preparedness Under the Rule of
International Law <http://digbig.com/5bafcf>

* Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines -
Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
(ACIP), 2009 <http://digbig.com/5bafcg>

World Bank Climate Data Portal

provides quick climate and climate related data for policy makers and development participants. The Web site is at http://beta.worldbank.org/climatechange/ and includes a data visualization tool.

Site Maps Stimulus Spending

Do you want to know: how much funding is being distributed to each state, how much funding is being provided to each state by each federal department, how the funding is flowing to individual contractors, and how many jobs are being created in the locations? See the new mapping feature of Recovery.gov.

Asksam: Obama Speech ebook

A free searchable collection of Barack Obama speeches from 2002-present is available from Asksam. Please check out:
+ State of the Nation-Speech to Congress on 02/24/2009
+ First 100 Days-Address to Nation on 04/29/2009
+ Cairo Speech-Cairo, Egypt Address on 06/04/2009.

2008 Notable Government Documents

from May issue of Library Journal. Included are Atlas of Global Development, Black American People (1870-1989), U.S. Marines in Iraq, Civics and Citizenship Toolkit, the Little Acorn, and The World Cruise of the Great Fleet. All of them are available through GMU. Please check out our catalog.

Latin American Government Documents Archive

The Latin American Network Information Center, part of the University of Texas at Austin has been archiving Latin American government publications and websites since 2005 through the Archive-It web archiving service. The collection includes Latin American Government publications in print or Printed out the early websites. It preserves the publications and official government websites. Please enjoy the collection.

National Government Statistics Collection

National Government Statistics Collection, part of the Indiana University Bloomington Libraties's Archive it documents project, provides a comprehensive collection of web sites of statistical agencies of 150 countries including Africa, Central Eurasis, East Asia, Latin America, Russia, East Europe, and more. It includes data, reports, statistical yearbooks, methodological guides, and other information.

DATA.gov

Please visit DATA.gov. This is "to increase public access to machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government" You can search the database by category and agency(source: govdoc-l).

OpenJurist.org

is an open access database to US Supreme Court and Federal Applellate opinion. It includes the Federal Reporter-US Court of Appeals and US States Reports-US supreme Court Cases. Please see whether this is a good fit for your online research guide: http://openjurist.org (source; govdoc-l).

Swine Flu Flashback

Take a look at this infoguide about Swine Flu that a librarian at BGSU created: The Swine Flu Scare of 1976 at http://libguides.bgsu.edu/SwineFlu This is a bibliography of U.S. government publications about the event accompanied by a brief article summarizing events.

National Security Archive

This Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States. Please check it out at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

AskSam: search Economic Stimulus Bill

You can search the full text transcripts of more than 200 speeches by President Obama from 2002-present: http://www.asksam.com/ebooks/obama-speeches/

Also you can search the economic stimulus bill: http://www.asksam.com/ebooks/stimulus

FDsys Public Beta Released

GPO's Future Digital System (FDsys) is now available as a public beta. The information on GPO Access is in the process of being migrated to FDsys and the process will be complete in mid-2009. Please try this system and send your feedback to GPO to improve the capabilities of FDsys.

"Show Us the Data"

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) of Open the Government.org recently launched a new website, "Show Us the Data" to allow the public to decide what government information not available on the Internet that should be. CRS reports, Bailout Funds, and Department of Justice Patriot Act Usage are currently most requested documents in order. Do not miss this chance to have your opinions heard. Also paralle to this project is transparency.gov and recovery.gov that intended to insure transparency of stimulus funding...

DOT joined Science.gov

The Science.gov gateway now includes the DOT National Transportation Library (NTL) Integrated Search and more than 30 DOT websites including TRIS online, NTK Digital Repsotioy, and other Transportation Websites. So now you can find science information from 14 government agencies!

Inaugural Address posted.

President Obama's Inaugural address is posted at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/read_the_inaugural_address/ and the video will be added soon in case you missed it.

Data for voting in the UN General Assembly

If you want to check out the original voting records for the UN General Assembly including those not passed, this site would be very useful: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/ev42/UNVoting.htm

2008 Presidential Election

"USA.gov now offers a new page on the presidential election. You’ll find information about President-elect Barack Obama, inauguration day (January 20, 2009), and the 2008 election. It also includes biographies of President- and Vice President-Elect Obama and Biden, and their wives." (source: ResourceShelf)

Fall FDLP Conference, 2008

I just got back from the Federal Depository Library Conference, Oct. 20-22. As usual, there were a lot of programs mixed with GPO activities, council discussion sessions about the future of the FDLP, and presentations where documents librarians shared what they were doing to make government information more accessible. The meeting agenda and hand outs are already up athttp://www.fdlp.gov/repository/fall-dlc-meeting-arlington-va/2.html. So please take a look at them. I will put a summary of this meeting and some highlights on the TripNotes soon. Stay tuned.

Persistent URLS by THOMAS

The Library of Congress THOMAS Legislative website has introduced Legislative Handles which is a new persistent URL service for creating links to legislative documents. See more: http;//thomas.loc.gov/home/handles/help.html. (Source: govdoc-l)

Datalab from NCES

NCES (National Center for Education statistics) announced a new web site called, Datalab, that enables people to efficiently look at education statistics.
Please visit the Website: http://nces.ed.gov/datalab/ for more details.

Global Legal Monitor

was redesigned. Please take a look at http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?home This is an online publication from the Law Library of Congress covering legal news and development worldwide. Can be searched through its search interface.

Welcome to the fall 2008!

The Mason Libraries are ready to assist you with your studies and research. One of our librarians' projects this summer was to create the new InfoGuides which replace the existing subject home page. I have created the infoguides on U.S. Government Publications, State and Local Documents, Maps, and International Organizations and Publications. Please check them out!!

New Search Engine for HSDL Blogs

Search across more than 30 homeland security blogs and bloggers.


http://www.hsdl.org/?homefront:blogsearch

Google Health!

See the article, "Google Gets Into Health" at http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/05/19/google-online-health-tech-ebiz_cx_wt_0519google.html

The doctor is in at Google.

The search king announced Monday that consumers can now upload their medical records to Google Health, its closely-watched health information site.
(source: Resourceshelf)

UN's Human Development Report Database

has been launched: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics. You will get helpful information about the Human Development Index (HDI) and other indices from this site and also get on-going debates and discussions on human development statistics. Category: International studies/international statistics. (Source: Resourceshelf).

GOVDOC NEW ARRIVALS-March, 2008.

Some of highlighted federal documents arrivals to our collection this month include:

*Air Alamnac, 2008 (D 213.7:2008)
*After the Strom (EP 1.104: ST 7/2/2006)
*An Historical ATLAS of ISLAM (G 1786. S1H6 2002)
*National Atlas.gov (I 19.120: C 76/4)
*Natural-Color Image Mosaics of Afganistan: Digital Databases and Maps (I *19.121:245/DISC 1-3)
*SPI (State Personal Income, 1929-2006)
*U.S. Library Data Archive (Y3.L 61:15/L 62)

All are in CD or DVD format. They would be interest to many faculty and students.

Converting PDF tables into Excel files

See the full instruction on this posted by McGill University. This is very helpful for providing reference assistance with government statistical information.

109th Congress, U.S. Statutes at Large

1st Session (2005),Volume 119 is now available online from the U.S. Government Printing
Office at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/statutes/index.html

GPO Virtual Reference Service

called as GIO (Government Information Online) is now available online: http://govtinfo.org. This is a free online information service supported by nearly twenty public, state and academic libraries throughout the United States. Check it out..

Super Tuesday Election Result

Are you wondering about Super Tuesday Election Result? See this site for the direct links to sources:
http://www.resourceshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/suptue.html

Online Tutorial: Congressional Research

University of California-Berkeley (UCB) just developed a nice electronic tutorial on doing congressional research. Please explore this site: http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/wikis/congresearch/ and click on the "write to us" link on the site's homepage to leave any questions and comments because this is still a work in progress. (Source: govdoc-l).

GREEN BOOK: U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants

If you are looking for online version of the U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID]U.S. Overseas Loans and Greens, Obligations and Loan Authorizations, this is known as "The Greenbook." See at http://qesdb.usaid.gov/gbk/ It contains "a historical data of U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world by reporting all loans and grants authorized by the U.S. Government for each fiscal year." (source: govdoc-l).

Digital Preservation Program Adds New Partners...

To Preserve State Government Digital Information. "Twenty-one states, working in four multistate demonstration projects, are today joining the Library of Congress’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) in an initiative to catalyze collaborative efforts to preserve important state government information in digital form." See the whole article at http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-004.html

Mobile Web: Thomas and USA.gov

U.S. legislative information goes MOBILE with Thomas Mobile while U.S. Government Tall free Directory goes with USA.gov Mobile. Both have a search tool from your web phone and mobile device. (Source: Resourceshelf)

2008 Presidential Primary and Caucus Dates

Stateline@org offers a listing of 2008 primaries and caucus dates: http://archive.stateline.org/flash-data/Primary/2008_presidential_primaries.pdf

Election 2008 Site

is up and running through the U. of Michigan. Please see at http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/elec2008.html
.

NEW DATABASE: Union Report: Online Public Disclosure Room

at http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/olms/rrlo/lmrda.htm. From this database, you can view and print reports filed by unions, union officers, employees, and labor relations consultants for the year 2000 and after.

Statistics: Global Education Digest 2007

Comparing education statistics across the world at http://www.uis.unesco.org/template/pdf/ged/2007/EN_web2.pdf.

Word Digital Library

"UNESCO and the US Library of Congress will join forces to build a World Digital Library, following the signing of an agreement by Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, and the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 17 October, 2007." See more details at http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/index.html

NOAA's On-Line Chart Viewer

The NOAA website offers up-to-date charts you can view on the Internet: http://ocsdata.ncd.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer
(source:govdoc-l).

A New Blog called GOV Gab

USA.gov has recently launched GOV GAB blog. Please check it out at http://www.govgab.gov

Global Legal Monitor (GLM) by Law Library of Congress

GLM is an E-publication of the Law Library of Congress for information selected from the Global Legal Information Network(GLIN). It includes lectures, conferences, symposia, and exhibits on legal topics sponsored by the Law Library of Congress. Coverage: International.

Health Statistics: CDC Wonder

"CDC WONDER allows Web users to form interactive queries and create reports, charts, and maps of the results…Available subjects include mortality (deaths) and natality (births), cancer incidence, HIV and AIDS, behavioral risk factors, diabetes, and census data. A summary of data sets or collections helps users understand the nature of each data set." (http://wonder.cdc.gov/) (Source:Resourseshelf)

Printed Monthly Catalog (MoCat)

"GPO will no longer publish the paper versions of the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (MoCat), its serials supplement, or the Congressional Serial Set Catalog. These products are replaced by the web-based Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) which is available at: http://catalog.gpo.gov" (Source:fdlp-l).

Two Declassified CIA Historical Documents Collections

are now available online.
1)Family Jewels consists of almost 700 pages of responses from CIA employees to a 1973 directive from Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesinger asking them to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency's charter
2) CAESAR-POLO-ESAU Papers consists of 147 documents and 11,000 pages of in-depth analysis and research from 1953 to 1973. This will help studies on Sino-Soviet Relations.

Public Papers of the Presidents of the U.S.: George W. Bush Book II

is now available on GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers/index.html.

New Database: Library of Unified Information Sources (LOUIS)

LOUIS make it easy to search from a collection of over 300,000 documents from seven sets of federal documents dating back to 2001:http://www.louisdb.org/

Sources Currently in LOUIS Database:
Seven sets of federal documents:
++ Congressional Reports
++ Congressional Record
++ Congressional Hearings
++ Federal Register
++ Presidential Documents
++ GAO Reports
++ Congressional Bills & Resolutions

Other Sunlight Resources
+ Congresspedia
+ OpenCongress.org

Source: Sunlight Foundation
See Also: GovTrack.us
An essential source for tracking legislation through the U.S. Congress.(Source-ResourseShelf)

New Digital Publications from UM-Law

The UM-Law Library has just released the following titles in the Historical Publications of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Visit the project at http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/index.asp
1. The Benefits of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Elementary and
Secondary Education: Briefing Report. July 28, 2006.
2. Campus Anti-Semitism. Briefing Report. November 18, 2005.
3. Desegregation in Public School Districts in Florida: 18 Public
School Districts have Unitary Status; 16 Districts Remain Under Court
Jurisdiction. 2007
4. The Economic Stagnation of the Black Middle Class: Briefing
Report. July 15, 2005.
5. Findings and Recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights Regarding Campus Anti-Semitism. April 3, 2006.
6. Funding Federal Civil Rights Enforcement: The President's 2006
Request. September 2005.
7. The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005:
Briefing Report. January 20, 2006.
8. The Reauthorization of the Temporary Provisions of the Voting
Rights Act: An Examination of the Act's Section 5 Preclearance
Provision. Briefing Report, April 2006. (Source: govdoc-l)

Library New Collection--more CensusCDs from Geolytics, Inc.

The following new acquired CD-Roms have already been popular items to use in Fenwick Library. Please check them out.
**Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB)- Access to US Census Data from 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 in their census year tract boundaries. Also access data for all four decades normalized to 2000 Census Tract boundaries so that one can compare data for various years within the same bounday definition.
**Zip+4 CD (Standard)- gives geocoding of zip+4 to census block with demographic variables.
**Zip+4 with 2006 Estimates and 2011 Projections- additional of 60+ demographic variables and 2011 estimates to Zip+4 CD.

More Government Documents Databases are

available through the GMU Libraries' Database Wizard: USA.gov, Science.gov, Geodata.gov, NTIS/GPO DARTS. Please check them out!!

New Database: 2008 Presidental Election Donor Demographics

"This is the latest edition to Open Secrets (Center for Responsive Politics) collection of 2008 Presidential Election campaign finance info resources."

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/donordems.asp?cycle=2008
(Resourceshelf)

New Database: Digital Collection of World War II Publications

GPO and Southern Methodist University (SMU) Central University Libraries offer a digital collection of more than 3000 U.S. Government Publications distributed during the course of the World War II. This historical World War II publications will be permanently available to the public at http://worldwar2.smu.edu (Resourceshelf)

ERIC Microfiche Digitization Project

All of the old (1966-1992) microfiche are digitized and available through the web site: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true. This is great news. (govdoc-l)

UNESCO: Collection of Copyright Laws

Are you interested in copyright laws in other countries? This site endeavours to provide access to national copyright and related rights legislation of UNESCO Member States. Please see at http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=14076&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

NEW--Global Legal Information Network

Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) by Law Library of Congress
"is a public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations." See the site at http://www.glin.gov/search.action (Source: ResourceShelf)

NEW--Web Harvest of the 109th Congress (2006)

"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) conducted a harvest (i.e., capture) of House and Senate public web sites as they existed prior to December 11 2006. This harvest was intended to document Congressional presence on the World Wide Web during the closing weeks of the 109th Congress (2006)."

Please explore this site at http://www.webharvest.gov/collections/congress109th/ for a public copy of House and Senate documents retainted in the holdings of NARA. (Source: ResourceShelf)

New Statistics

2006 Canada Census is just released at http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census/

Training Session on the CGP (Catalog of the U.S. Government Publications)

Government Printing Office (GPO) just released its first web-based training seeion on the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, which is online catalog for government publications from 1976 to the present. See the demo session at http://www.opal-online.org/archiveGPO.htm.
(source: govdoc-l)

Google to open up Federal Web Sites.

Google is trying to disseminate government information....
"Google is making strides on an initiative to make information stored on public government Web sites more accessible to people looking for it--"
"Three federal organizations recently agreed to structure their sites to make them accessible for nearly all Internet searches, the officials said." See full-text at: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0207/022107p1.htm
Title: Google moves ahead with plan to open up federal Web sites
By Daniel Pulliam
February 21, 2007
(Source: govdoc-l)

Update on Public Papers of the Presidents of the U.S.

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush Book I
- January 1 to June 30, 2003 now available on GPO Access at:http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers/index.html

New Database: WISQARS

WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) is an interactive database system that provides customized reports of injury-related data. See also: Injury Topics and fact sheets for data related to this topic. (Source: Resourceshelf)

Major Change in Trade Data

1) Effective with Dec. 2006 trade data, USA Trade Online will include statistics on containerized shipments (such as vessel value and vessel shipping weight data for items shipped in van-type containers) with the port data.
2) Next month, March 2007, the trade data will be released using a revised Hormonized System (H.S.) coding system. This code changes will affect data bases such as USA TradeOnline, ITC and UN. It will also affect the SITC codes. See more details at http://home.stat-usa.gov/statnews.

(Source: govdoc-l)

Fall FDLP Meeting--

Postcast files from the Fall Federal Depositoy Library Program (FDLP) Conference Meeting is now available at http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/proceedings/06fall/ podcasts.html

ALA GODORT launched own wiki

Welcome to GODORT Wiki! : http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Main_Page!

Budget of the United States Government, FY 08

is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/index.html.

New Guide on International Trade

The Buffalo University offers a wonderful guide on International Trade. Please check it out at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/busdoc/intl_trade.html

Information on or about NGOs

Several useful links for Non-Profit Organizations:
Non-governmental Organization Research Guide via Duke University
Directory of Development Organizations
Global Policy Forum (NGOs)
InterAction
The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
The NGO Cafe
NGO Global Network
NGO Watch
United Nation DPI-NGO
International Working Paper Series
(Source: Resourceshelf)

British Library and Department of Energy to collaborate

on Gloabl Science Gateway. See details at
http://www.bl.uk/news/2007/pressrelease20070125.html.

State of Union Address on January 23

is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html and the Democratic response at http://speaker.gov/newsroom/multimedia?id=0011.

FirstGov.gov Update--Web Chat Now Available

FirstGov.gov, the U.S. Government's official web portal, now offers Web Chat, a live online service to help you answer government-related questions. This service will be available Monday through Friday from 12:00 noon until 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. Click on Live Help-Web Chat from this page:http://answers.usa.gov/cgi-bin/gsa_ict.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_sid=KTOOiSBh.

2006 Edition of the Unified Agenda

is Now Online via GPO Access: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/ua/index.html

Google Patent Search

Google lunches Google Patents, full-text US Patent Searching from 1776-present: http://www.google.com/patents. But, the database does NOT include Pre-Granted Publication Applications that are published before a U.S. Patent is awarded. This pre-granted is available via the USPTO. Please take a look.

EPA Closes Its Libraries

This has been a top news for the documents library community this year. "The EPA has begun closing its nationwide network of scientifc librareis. Several libraries have alaready been dismantled, with their contents either destroryed or shipped to repositories where they are uncataloged and inaccessible. Members of Congress have asked the EPA to cease and desist dismantling these libraries" (govdoc-l).
Please call or write EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson at 202-564-4700 and urge him to immediately halt this action until Congress approves the EPA budget and materials are readily available online. See NY times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/opinion/08burger.html?_r=1

"Foreign Relations of the United States" Collection

is available online through UW-Madison Digital Collection: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FRUS. There are still more volumns to process and digitize, but it is good enough to those who want to access these valuable resources. Please check it out.