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